11 Ideas for Using Everyday Household Items to Work Out at Home

You don’t have to have a gym membership or a set of exercise equipment to be able to have a full and effective at-home workout – there are plenty of ways to make use of common items and furniture you likely already have sitting around the house.



These are just some of the things you can use in your workout to take your next sweat session to the next level.

11 Items to Build a Workout in Your Home

The Wall

You can take advantage of any old wall for a surprisingly large range of at-home exercises.

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Try a wall-sit to work both your glutes and quads by simply standing with your back facing the wall, and bending your knees to a 90-degree angle as if you are sitting down on an invisible chair with your back pressed against the wall for stability. Using a wall is also helpful for a variety of stretches for all parts of your body.

The Stairs

Without having to spend a fortune on an exercise machine like a Stairmaster, you can easily reap the same results from just using a staircase – whether this is inside your own house, in your apartment building, or outside somewhere, you can walk or run up and down the stairs to get you heart pumping. This is a great workout for your glutes and a simple form of cardio. It also allows you to customize your workout by alternating walking, running and sprinting up and down a set of stairs.

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A Towel

If you do not have resistance bands, you can easily substitute with a towel; simply hold it between your hands and continue to exercise as you would with resistance bands. You can also use a towel to up your planking game - place a small towel underneath your feet and assume the regular plank position, then slowly slide your feet to the side, spreading your legs apart and back together again in a controlled manner.



You can also use a towel (often a beach towel is most useful) as an impromptu yoga mat if you don’t have one lying around or your flooring is carpeted and difficult to practice yoga and stretches on. If your floor is smooth, you could also use the towels folded up for sliding exercises.

Paper Plates

You can also use paper plates for sliding exercises, which are an easy way to make your workout more difficult. Simply place the paper plates under your feet to make lunges harder or add them to any number of other standard bodyweight exercises to increase the level of control you will need to have when performing them.

Bottles, Cans, or Containers

You don’t need a full set of weights or dumbbells to get in a good muscle workout at home – you can simply pick up anything around the house that you can hold easily and that also has a good weight to it. This could be anything from canned foods or soup cartons to water bottles and cleaning products like jugs of laundry detergent. With these household items, try out some new moves like overhead presses, front raises, or triceps kickbacks.



Using a gallon bottle of water is about equal to 8 pounds, so they can easily be used as a substitute for a dumbbell. The bottles are also easy to grip since they already have handles. Just make sure the bottles are tightly sealed so you do not end up with a huge spill to clean up.

Some people have even used beer bottles – a full bottle of beer can be a great alternative to using weights or in place of lightweight dumbbells. They are also easy to grip and a common household item many people have on hand.

A Broom

While sweeping the house can be a workout in itself, you may not realize you can also use your broom to do a whole bunch of other exercises while you clean, including oblique twists, hip hinges, or simple lunges to work your glutes, hips, core, and quads. People have also found inventive ways to use brooms for resistance exercises, for example.

Chairs

Any chair can be used to work out at home if you have one available that is sturdy and has no wheels. Bringing a simple chair into your usual workout routine can be helpful – you can easily use them to practice perfecting your squats or work on your leg raises. If you have two chairs on hand, you can set them up side by side and practice some triceps dips. There are even workout routines available online and YouTube videos based entirely around using a chair as the center of the workout.

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Countertops

Using your countertops can upgrade your push-ups by practicing elevated push-ups against the counter. This is also an easy exercise to fit into your daily life by squeezing a few countertop push-ups in between kitchen activities like boiling the kettle or pre-heating the oven.

Pillows and Couch Cushions

Any pillow or cushion (couch cushions work well) can be a great – and cheap – alternative to exercise balance tools. You can simply stand on them while performing any number of exercises to add an element of instability to your workout and make your body work a little harder. You can try anything from push-ups to squats using this technique.

A Backpack

Fill up a backpack with heavy objects like books, cans of food, bottles of water, or anything else you have lying around the house to make any household chore or daily activity a little more difficult. Try strapping on a heavy backpack and cleaning up as usual or add a weighted backpack to your normal workout routine to make simple moves like squats, push-ups, or lunges. You can also switch up your technique very easily with this by taking the weighted backpack off of your back and hold it in your hands to use it as a regular weight to perform shoulder presses or curls, or you can use it as a makeshift dumbbell to do some kettlebell swings or other weight exercises.

Books

If you can find any heavy books sitting on shelves in your house, collecting dust, pick it up and use it in place of a (much more expensive) weight plate or medicine ball – you can practice weighted oblique twists, weighted sit-ups, or any other standard bodyweight exercise with a small upgrade!

Whether you decide to use any of these household items in your workouts or not, you can easily get in a decent amount of exercise from the comfort of your own home and without having to invest your money on potentially expensive exercise equipment.

There are plenty of resources available online including easy workout plans for at-home exercise and plenty of YouTube videos to guide you through it.

In addition to this, there are more apps than ever offering workout guides, plans, routines, and even personal trainers, so you can access these from your phone with ease.

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Author Bio:

Mildred Delgado is a talented up-and-coming marketing strategist at Academic Brits. She works closely with a range of organizations to develop fully functioning websites while keeping the organization's brand image in mind.

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