The other week I was contacted by the OC Register about participating in a column they were writing throughout the year about workout moves you could do at home. They were talking to a few different trainers in the area and getting each of them to demo about 8-10 exercises. (My first move will be featured on the 25th…AHHHHHHH!)

You could use equipment. It just had to be something that could easily be stored.

I was super pumped to participate and instantly started writing out a list of things I could do. I debated about a kettlebell or sandbag.

But decided against using any equipment except for something someone would easily have lying around the house.

I’ve become extremely interested in finding and creating great and challenging home workout moves you can do with limited space and no equipment and I wanted to highlight some of those moves.

And when the reporter asked me why I picked the moves I did when there are so many crazy cool new pieces of equipment out there that could be stored easily at home….

I said, “Because you don’t NEED any of those!”

Equipment can be fun. It can keep you interested and add variety to a routine that is getting stale.

But it isn’t NECESSARY.

Equipment doesn’t mean you are going to get a more challenging workout. Heck sometimes it even means getting away from truly functional moves that will truly have the most benefit.

Equipment is a TOY. It isn’t necessary even though people have become convinced that they can only get in a great workout if they have the latest and greatest TOY.

Basically, I explained to him that I wanted to make a point that you don’t really need ANYTHING to get in a great workout at home! That there are a ton of tweaks you can make to traditional moves to make them more challenging and keep your workout interesting.

Yea I love equipment, but sometimes it just takes us away from what is important. Sometimes it distracts us from focusing on what will actually help us achieve our goals.

Sometimes equipment just complicates moves unnecessarily.

Sometimes we would get more out of a workout if we just KEPT IT SIMPLE and stuck to basic moves and movements!

Pull, push, squat and hinge. Those four basic movements are all you need.

Push Ups, pull ups (or rows), squats and lunges. These are examples of each of the four movements above.

Those four moves work your entire body. And those four moves can be made challenging without any equipment. There are also a ton of variations you can do without anything fancy so you never get bored.

Push ups can be done on an incline. Or you can do them on a decline to advance them. You can do handstand push ups. Or set up some books and do a shuffle push up over them. You can also do a push up to side plank or a fly to push up on a towel. (For more push up variations, here are some ideas. You can do all of these at home even the push up to dip.)

There is always the spiderman push up too….

All these moves are simple. None of them require anything you don’t have at home. And all just are slight variations on the traditional push up.

We aren’t reinventing the wheel here.

We are just tweaking it slightly to make it harder or easier. We are adjusting it to focus on slightly different parts of our body.

Same goes for the pull ups or rows, squats and lunges.

Especially the lunges.

People think of lunges and they think forward and backward lunges….maybe they even include side lunges. But what about curtsy lunges? What about lunges in EVERY DIRECTION? You can do angled lunges. Rotational lunges…You can literally lunge in every direction to hit different aspects of your leg.

You can lunge in EVERY direction!

And on top of that you can add a towel to one foot to increase the intensity of the lunges. Or you can even do a balance lunge with your foot up on a couch/chair/table to make the basic split squat even more difficult.

You can do lunges where the weight is on the leg moving out. Or you can do a lunge where the leg working is more static. For example: On a side lunge, you can either step out into the lunge and sink into the leg that has stepped out OR you can sink into the standing leg and then just reach the other leg out straight to tap the toe out to the side.

Both work the leg in very different ways!

But you don’t need any fancy equipment to make the moves hard or even add variety! You can work your legs from every angle just by doing a LUNGE.

Keep it simple stupid.

Don’t worry about the latest and greatest equipment. Stick with the basics and you will get results!

What are your favorite variations of the push up, pull ups (or rows), squats and lunges? Do you find that you get caught up always looking for the next new piece of equipment? Do you even skip workouts at home because you don’t have “equipment?”

P.S. Who likes working out with a friend or a spouse? Interested in some great partner moves? Check back tomorrow!!!