No Equipment at Home, No Worries: How to Workout without All the ‘gear’

Instead of a dumbbell

Use a heavy book, laptop, cans, your baby.

Lighter dumbbells (3 lbs – 15 lbs) are typically used in pairs for high-rep upper body exercises, like overhead presses, lateral raises, and triceps extensions, while heavier ones (15 lbs – 30 lbs) are typically used one at a time for lower body exercises like lunges and squats. If you don’t have these on hand though, you can use a heavy book, laptop, or your baby, for the single dumbbell exercises, and you can use canned vegetables for the lighter dumbbell exercises.

Instead of resistance bands

Use a pair of old leggings or tights, a towel.

Most people use resistance bands on their upper body exercises for lateral resistance and working the shoulders. When this is the case, it’s can be great to use a towel, although obviously they don’t stretch much. The best solution for all resistance bands exercises is a pair or old tights or leggings. These you can easily tie together to wrap around you thighs or lower legs for lower body workouts, and you can use them for upper body work easily too.

Instead of sliders

Use paper plates, towels.

Slider disks are great for adding difficulty and complexity to a workout. If you don’t have them on hand, paper plates or towels work great. If you’re using paper plates, simply put them where the sliders would be, and if you’re using towels, fold them up and put them in the same spots.

Instead of a yoga mat

Use a blanket or a towel

Yoga mats provide a soft surface in which to lay or place your hands when doing workouts, and are great for collecting sweat (that you can simply wipe off later). If you don’t have one though, a towel or a blanket will do the same job; just watch out that they don’t slide too much on the ground, and make sure to wash them thoroughly once you’re done working out.