If you're like many people who have transitioned their workouts into their living room, basement, or garage, you might find it difficult to target the same muscles that you once had when you had access to all those machines at the gym.
But the full body routine we show you below is designed to maximize strength and power by targeting muscle groups that your workouts at home might be neglecting. Many of the exercises will reproduce the same movement patterns as the workouts you do in the gym with minimal or no equipment.
It is important to strengthen not only the large muscle groups (quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs, and biceps), but also the smaller stabilizer muscles that surround them and their associated joints.
Full-body routine to do at home
Squat with resistance band
- Take one end of the resistance band and stand on it with your feet shoulder-width apart, securing the band just below the midsole of each foot.
- Pass the resistance band over your head and support it behind your neck at the upper back. Keep your elbows at your sides and grip the band directly in front so your arms are positioned 90 degrees from the ground.
- Hold this position as you bend your knees, push back with your hips, and lower yourself to the ground. Maintain a strong grip on the band to keep your torso upright while engaging your core.
- Drive with your heels to return to the starting position.
Dumbbells are a great addition to bodyweight squats, but they don't distribute the load on your back and shoulders like resistance bands do. The anterior variation mimics a back squat by resting the load on the upper trapezius (upper back), while also activating the core, lats (mid-back), and posterior delts (shoulders), which regular squats (even front squats) don't.
Maintain an elevated grip (arms angled 90 degrees or more) as you complete each rep. This helps keep all the muscles mentioned above activated and increases your grip strength as you are doing an isometric grip with your arms.
Y-press squat
- Stand on one end of a light resistance band with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Make sure to plant your feet on top of the band.
- Extend both arms diagonally overhead until they are in a Y shape. Keep your arms in this position for the duration of the exercise and try not to bend your elbows.
- Squat by bending your knees, pushing back with your hips, and lowering yourself toward the ground. Push your chest out slightly to keep the band over your head.
- Drive with your heels back to where you started.
If overhead squats are a mainstay of your gym workouts, this exercise is a perfect change to your sweat sessions at home. The use of resistance bands increases the muscular endurance of the stabilizing muscles of the shoulders, hips, and core as they support the overhead position through multiple repetitions. It also requires a lot of stabilization in the thoracic spine (mid-back) and ankles.
Stiff-legged dumbbell deadlift
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Grab a pair of dumbbells upright and in front of your thighs.
- Keep your arms fully extended and close to your body during training.
- Slightly bend your knees and hold them steady as you do each rep.
- Facing forward, keep your core engaged and bend over with your waist as you lower the dumbbells toward your feet.
- Lower the dumbbells until you feel slight tension in your hamstrings.
- Drive your body weight through your heels to get back up.
Without the weight machines and bars in the gym, the hamstrings can be an uncomfortable muscle group to target effectively. But the stiff-legged dumbbell deadlift mimics the action of the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back during a standard Romanian deadlift, only with no barbell.
By strengthening these muscles in the posterior chain, you will improve your posture and performance for other weight lifting exercises.
Resistance Band Triceps Extension
- Tie one side of the band to something fixed, like a bar or railing. You can also secure one end of a longer band under your back foot.
- With your back turned, hold the resistance band with an overhand grip on both sides of your head.
- Take a step forward until you feel a slight resistance between the band and the railing. The elbows should be placed at a 45 degree angle with both fists slightly behind the head at the beginning of each repetition.
- One foot should be slightly bent and in front of the other. This is the initial position.
- Maintaining a straight posture and locking your elbows at the sides of your head, extend your arms above your head and in front of your body.
- Gently fold them back to the starting position and repeat.
Although the basic tricep dip is one of the most popular exercises for isolating and strengthening the triceps, it also puts enormous pressure on the shoulder and wrist joints.
By using a resistance band to do overhead extensions, you can isolate your triceps without adding additional stress to your shoulders. Additionally, when you perform the exercise in the split position, you also activate the upper trapezius, lats, and core as secondary muscle groups.
Static stride with bands
- Taking one end of the resistance band, stand with your front leg. Keep your foot planted, straight, and in line with your knee throughout your workout.
- Taking the other end of the band, place it over your head until it rests on your upper back. Keep a firm grip on the band with both hands just above the waist.
- Take a big step back without your foot on the band until you are in a lunge. Keep your torso upright and bend both knees to lower yourself to the ground. Allow yourself enough room so that your front knee doesn't go past your toes.
- As you get closer to the ground, shift the weight of your body through the heel of your front foot to get back up.
Performing this unilateral (one-legged) movement with a resistance band requires more stability and coordination, as you will need to engage your core to fight the pull of the band. You will also have a slightly varying amount of resistance throughout the exercise due to the stretching and contraction of the band.
That's especially beneficial for beginners or anyone looking to build muscle by putting more emphasis on the major muscle groups. You're training your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves to push a greater load from a deeper position. Running a good depth not only targets these muscles better, it also works the abductor and adductor muscles significantly.
Rear row with resistance band
- Take a resistance band and tie it around a stationary object like a post or railing. Place a box or a pair of dumbbells against your surface. This allows your feet to rest approximately one foot from where the band is attached, providing enough room to fully extend your legs on the mat while feeling sufficient resistance between your body and the railing.
- Sit on the floor, keeping your legs straight, your torso upright, and your shoulders forward.
- Holding the band in a neutral grip with both hands, bring it towards you to the sides of your body.
- Squeeze both shoulder blades together before slowly releasing them. Extend your arms back to the starting position.
It is very sensitive to effectively target the rhomboids (between the shoulder blades), the rear delts (part of the shoulders), and the lats (mid-back) along with minimal equipment. But the resistance band on the back row perfectly mimics the seated rowing machine in your gym.
It is important that all of these muscles repeatedly work together against strong resistance as they are responsible for maintaining good upper body posture and preventing the shoulders from pulling or hunching forward.
Hamstring curl with bands
- Place a mat on the ground approximately two feet away from a post or railing.
- Take a resistance band and tie one end to this object.
- Tie the other end of the band around both ankles (or just above).
- Lie face down on the mat in a prone position.
- Shift forward until you feel some resistance between your feet and the railing.
- Keep your upper body slightly elevated by resting on your elbows. Your legs should be fully extended before starting each rep. This is the initial position.
- As you start, bend both knees and bend both legs towards your butt simultaneously.
- Pause for a second, then slowly extend your legs back to the starting position.
It can be quite difficult to focus on the back chain of muscles, especially the hamstrings, during home workouts. But this exercise can replace the hamstring curl machine at your gym with just a resistance band.
And like the machine, there is an equal emphasis on eccentric (extension) and concentric (contraction) phases. Additionally, you can add it to the stiff leg deadlift to increase hamstring gains.
Dumbbell Chest Fly
- Lie down on a mat. Make sure your back is flat against the surface and place your heels close to your body. This will help protect your lower back during training. Holding each dumbbell, keep your arms fully extended above your chest with a neutral grip. Both palms must face each other. Without bending your elbows, lower your arms to the sides in a lateral direction. Lower the dumbbells until they are in line with your chest, 90 degrees and parallel to the ground.
- Push with your chest to perform the reverse movement and return to the starting position.
If your chest workouts at home have primarily consisted of bench presses and / or push-ups, you'll want to add the chest fly to target not only your pectoralis major, but stabilizers like the delts, biceps, and triceps as well.
Unlike regular pushing movements, chest flight can also open the chest muscles, improve range of motion, reduce tension and upper back pain.
YTW
- Lie down on a mat facing the ground.
- Start by placing your arms in a Y position raising them diagonally over your head. Both palms must face each other.
- Perform slow reps of raising your arms and bouncing up and down for 10 seconds in this position, without letting your arms touch the ground.
- Transition to a T-position with your palms facing in front of your body.
- Bounce up and down again for 10 seconds.
- Lastly, switch to the W position keeping your arms at a 90 degree angle above your head.
- Bounce 10 seconds before ending the set.
One of the culprits for poor posture is an overactive upper trapezius and an underactive lower trapezius. A weak lower trapezius can also lead to shoulder pain and irritation. This can limit your performance when doing strength exercises that require the shoulder joint to aid movement (almost all upper-body exercises).
YTWs target these muscles to maintain a strong upper body and are a great way to end a workout (or warm up for one).
