5 Exercises You Can Do for Free at Home

Not willing to pay that gym membership or don't want to use the wild new machines that are offered nowadays? Not to worry. There are many ways to achieve the same results from the sanctity of your own home without even buying equipment! Here five basic exercises you can do at home for free.

Pushups: Pushups are a great exercise to work out your arms and your chest from your home; they come in many varieties and difficulties including: One-handed pushups, regular pushups, and pushups with elevated feet. At first, start out with three sets of pushups, three days per week, with a day of rest in between. Eventually, you can work your way up to doing pushups every day.

Squats: Squats are a great lower body exercise that actually works out parts of all your major muscle groups, it's especially great because they can be done without any workout equipment. They will help you get the toned look on your butt and thighs and will even increase your metabolism, making them a perfect choice for any home exercise enthusiast. Follow the same progression as pushups for squats.

Running: Sometimes people overlook cardio exercises, but cardio exercises are a great way to build stamina and work off fat. Running is a simple exercise that can be done inside or outside, on a treadmill or even just running in place. It's important to note that mostly your lower body is worked while running, if you're looking for upper body exercises you should lean more towards the pushups mentioned earlier.

Stair Steps: A huge pro to stair exercises is that you're using equipment in the stairs, but it was readily available to you the entire time. Adding the terrain of stairs really helps put a strain on you and increases the amount of calories you will burn off from normal walking. When doing stair steps try not to hold the handrail so that you also increase your coordination and balance while doing the exercise.

Walking: While similar to running, walking is a different league all together. Daily walking is extremely easy to integrate into your other daily chores and is a great way to work off fat and build stamina. Walking is much easier to do from within your own home and can often be overlooked as good exercise. Mayo Clinic recommends walking 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week.

Exercising at home for free was available to you the entire time! All of the above exercises can be done by people from within their own home and are effective at burning fat and helping you to tone your muscles.

Sources:

http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightlifting/a/bestexercises.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/walking/HQ01612