Can’t Make It to the Gym? Get Your Heart Pumping with These 5 Quick Exercises!

Summer is just around the corner… Even on those crazy busy days, keep your fitness goals on track with these 5 easy but effective moves that don’t require a gym. Don’t be fooled: you don’t need any fancy equipment, or even a gym membership, to make progress!

1. Step Ups: Find a sturdy chair or bench, and do step ups by placing all of your weight on the ball of your foot as you push up. These compound movements hit your quads and glutes, which are big muscle groups. PRO TIP: You can maximize your workout by working your biggest muscle groups, like the back, by adding a set of weights (try empty beverage containers filled with water) to make it even more intense. Always focus on stabilizing with your inner knee as you go up!

2. Deadlifts: Find something heavy (about the size of a medicine ball) that you can pick up from the top and use it for stiff legged deadlifts. One great hack we’ve heard of was using a gallon milk jug filled with gravel for maximum weight.

3. Jump rope: Jump roping is a high intensity exercise - just 10 minutes of jump rope intervals burns around 125 calories. PRO TIP: Don’t have one? Check out your garage or utilities closet - you might find some nylon rope that will work just as well. Here’s a great video jump rope workout with several different interval options to keep it interesting!

4. YouTube a class: if you can name a favorite type of workout, you can probably find a YouTube class for it! Move some chairs out of the way, drop your yoga mat on the ground, and you’ve got an instant home gym.

5. Make a daily goal: You don’t have to hit every muscle group to call it a workout. Make a goal to improve at a specific functional movement, yoga pose, or strength exercise (ex: push ups, planks, or squats) by practicing in increasing intensity every day. You’ll feel motivated by feeling improvement over time even with just a few minutes of focused practice each day!

Have any other favorite at-home exercises? We want to hear it! Drop us a line at info@cleanfitbox.com - we’d love to hear from you!