12 DIY Easy Workouts You Can Do At Home With Items Around the House

12 DIY EASY WORKOUTS YOU CAN DO AT HOME

Don’t have a home gym at your house? Don’t stress!

We have a tendency to replace solid reasons for hitting the gym with poor excuses to stay home.

Often overlooked is the reality that gyms are all around us.

With a little ingenuity and open mindedness, you’ll find that you don’t have to change into your workout clothes, struggle to find a parking spot, or pay a monthly membership to break a sweat.

You can create a gym right in the comfort of your own home.

Exercise 1. Make multiple trips to get your laundry.

Folding, bending, lifting. Doing laundry serves as a great warm-up stretch to start off your workout.

(The more trips across the house or up the stairs to distribute clean items, the better!)

I really focus on contracting my abs to protect my back and using my legs to squat and lift the basket.

Exercise 2. Use a wall, door frame, or even a tree trunk in your yard to stretch out your back.

Ever notice how the sport most synonymous with stretching (yoga) requires practically no equipment.

All you need is a mat—or in this case, a comfy patch of carpet or grass.

♥ Doorframe or tree trunk stretch — Grab onto a doorframe or tree trunk as though you are going to give it a hug with your hands.

With legs straight at a 45-degree angle, pull back on the frame or trunk.

Let all the weight go into your hands; this allows your upper trapezoid muscles to get a deep stretch.

♥ Wall stretch — With your back to the wall, take one arms-length step forward.

Extend your arms over your shoulders and begin to look back, gradually walking your hands down the wall.

Push your hips forward to relieve pressure from your low back.

Slowly walk hands back up the wall and return to standing.

Exercise 3. Couches are for sitting (and for squats)

Stand facing away from couch.

Raise one leg so that the top of your foot rests on the edge of couch at a 90-degree angle.

The other leg should be firmly planted on the floor. Squat with standing leg until thigh on standing leg is parallel to the floor.

Knee should be directly in line over the ankle.

Return to standing and repeat routine on opposite leg.

Exercise 4. Use your garden hose as a Battle Rope

Garden hoses might be a heavy nuisance to pull around the yard, but that weight comes in handy for this exercise.

After you’ve uncoiled the hose—but before you’ve started to water the plants—take a minute to see how many Battle Rope repetitions you can do.

♥ First, make sure the hose is taut and the water valve is turned off.

This isn’t Schlitterbahn.

You have to pay extra for that.

♥ Start by gripping the end of the hose, and lifting up to chest height.

Keeping the hose elevated, start to energetically pump the hose up and down—creating a wave-like effect.

The higher the hose comes off the ground, the better the workout.

Challenge yourself to get the very end of the hose up in the air.

Exercise 5. Chair Lifts

That dining room chair might not see it coming, but you have other ideas in mind for its existence.

Facing the front of the chair, feet hip-width distance apart, grab both sides of the seat and raise chair above your head.

The back of the chair should not touch your shoulders.

Bend and extend your arms for a set of 10 “chair lifts.”

Exercise 6. Tricep Dip Kick Out.

I do this one A LOT while I’m in the kitchen making anything.

Begin by placing your back against the countertop and taking one and a half steps forward.

If you are in a chair place your hands on the seat of the chair with your fingers facing you.

Now, dip your bum down till your knees are directly over your ankles and your thighs are parallel to the floor.

It should be a 90 degree angle from your hips, to your knees and ending at your feet.

From here, begin to pulse down an inch and up and alternate lifting your right leg till it is extended straight in front of you.

Foot flexed like you are kicking away from something.

Then place the right foot flat on the ground and alternate to the left.

Every time you pulse down with your arms you extend a leg forward.

We like to do this while we’re waiting for our favorite healthy smoothie recipe to blend. Here’s 2 more one minute workouts you can do while you’re blending!

Exercise 7. High knees with a soccer ball

Throw some fun (and leg-eye coordination) into your workout with this simple drill practiced by both amateur and professional soccer players alike.

Bounce the soccer ball from knee to knee, keeping the ball in the air for as long as possible.

It’s like juggling.

Except, unlike juggling, high knees actually get your body moving.

Exercise 8. Jump rope

And if you don’t have one, pretend you do.

Or pretend that the ground is as hot as asphalt on a summer afternoon in a Texas shopping mall parking lot.

You get the idea.

Exercise 9. Plyometrics with storage boxes

Those boxes stacking up in your garage are meant for more than just taking up space.

Take one (preferably 1–2 ft tall and made of hard plastic) and jump up onto it with both feet.

Jump back down and repeat.

Make sure both feet are landing entirely on top of box to achieve the full workout effect.

Exercise 10. Substitute canned goods (or a heavy laptop bag) for weights

Try a routine of 10 bicep curls, tricep extensions, and overhead lifts on each arm.

Safety precaution: If you choose the laptop bag option, replace your computer with books or magazines.

Exercise 11. Beds are for push-ups and sit-ups

For push-ups, place your hands on the edge of your bed and angle your body at a 45-degree angle with the floor.

Try for 10 and work your way up. For sit-ups, you don’t need a partner to sit on your feet. This isn’t second grade P.E. class.

Simply lay your back on the bedroom floor and tuck your feet underneath the bed frame.

Exercise 12. Savasana

The best part of working out at home? You’re always just a few paces away from your bed—a comfy place to catch your breath and let your body soak in all the endorphins.

Now that’s one thing you won’t find in a gym.

Which exercise do you like the most!? Share with us in the Comments Section. For more ideas for your home and inspiration, head to Modernize.

This post was originally published August 13th 2015 and updated March 23rd 2024.