20 Minute No Excuses Full Body Bodyweight Workout

Mark Carrington | August 7, 2015 | Workouts | No Comments

20 Minute No Excuses Full Body Bodyweight Workout

Excuses don’t tone bodies. Effort does. You can make a difference to your body shape and tone. Who needs a gym when there is the living room floor? No equipment required – just a little working space and 20 minutes a day. Jump onto that piece of space and grab this full body bodyweight workout.

As you progress add in extra repetitions and lengthen the time of the holds. You will improve your balance, flexibility and strength – all in the comfort of your home. No Excuses – excuses don’t burn calories.

This routine includes the warm up and cool down.

Work twice through the following 10 exercises

Mountain Climbers
Reverse Crunches
Squats
Push Ups
Plank
Glute Bridges
Lunges
Forearm Downward Dog
Windmill
Jumping Jacks

Mountain Climbers

30 seconds up to 1 minute

This is a heart warm up routine that warms up and works all your muscles. Start in a plank position (i.e., hands on floor, feet on floor and back straight). Holding your hands in place bring one knee forward toward your chest. Take it back and bring the other knee forward. It will feel as if you are climbing a wall. Keep alternating like this for 30 seconds and work your way up to a minute as you get stronger.

Reverse Crunches

15 to 20 repetitions

Lie on your back on the floor. You can put your hands behind your ears or leave them under your bottom for support. Extend your legs straight above you. Roll your hips upwards and raise your bottom off the floor, rolling your knees toward your chest. This is the reverse crunch. The movement is surprisingly small but has a great payoff. The key part is not to swing your legs as you’re doing this. You want your core muscles, not your momentum, to do the work.

Squats

20 repetitions

This position is a position that will tighten the buttocks and leg muscles. We all know this position – this is how we sit in a chair or get up from a chair. Nothing hard – just stand upright legs apart, width of the shoulders and lower yourself into the buttocks and thighs as low as you can go. A short hold, then come back up straight again.

Push Ups

10 to 15 repetitions

Simple but challenging, you know the drill here. The basic exercise for the ages – ask any soldier. This position does not need much explaining. Lay face down and straighten arms gently remembering to keep knees off the ground and then hold. Lower slowly back until nearly touching the ground and push up again to straight arms position. If you are struggling – leave the knees on the ground and work the upper body as a start.

Plank

30 seconds up to 1 minute

Stay on the floor for this one. Get into the plank position (i.e., hands on floor, feet on floor and back straight) keeping your body in a straight line behind you as you hold yourself up on straight arms. keep your breathing steady as you hold. Start at 30 seconds and work your way up to holding for a minute. You can make this a little easier or add some variety by lowering your elbows to the floor and resting on your forearms.

Glute Bridges

10 to 15 repetitions

Lie on your back. Bring your feet toward your bottom and bend your knees. Keep your arms by your sides. Lift your bottom off the floor and raise your hips towards the sky, using your core muscles to do the work. Aim to get a straight line from your knees to your chest. Slowly lower your body but don’t come all the way back down to the ground again before going back up — say an inch above the floor. This way you keep the contraction the entire time.

Lunges

10 to 15 repetitions on one leg before switching legs

Stand upright, feet together, and take a moderate step forward with your right leg, lowering your hips toward the floor by bending both knees to 90-degrees. The back knee should point toward but not touch the ground, and your front knee should be directly over the ankle. Push yourself back to the starting position. Do one cycle with one leg first and then switch to move forward with the other leg.

Forearm Downward Facing Dog

30 seconds up to 1 minute

Start on your hands and knees. Place your forearms on the floor with your elbows narrow and your shoulders pulled back and in. Walk your feet behind you and raise your body up so your body forms a “v” with your arms and feet on the ground but everything else in the air. (This is the forearm downward dog position). Hold for 30 seconds and work up to 1 minute as you get stronger.

The Windmill (sometime called Windshield Wipers)

10 to 15 repetitions

Lie on your back. Spread your arms straight out to the sides on the floor. Lift your legs straight in the air. Use your core muscles to lower your legs to the left, stopping before you reach the ground, and then use your core muscles to pull your legs back up the middle and then over to the right, stopping before you reach the ground. Your stomach muscles should remain engaged throughout the entire movement. You may find this a little easier by keeping your knees bent the first few times you try this

Jumping Jacks

30 seconds to 1 minute

Start standing upright with feet together. Moving arms and legs at the same time, jump your legs and arms out to the sides and back again in to your body. You want to get your your arms outstretched above your shoulders. A good way is to touch hands together above your head and touch the sides at the bottom of the jump. We used to call these star jumps because you end up with 5 points that form a star. Keep doing this in and out jumping movement for 30 seconds to 1 minute.