It doesn’t always have to be the gym: you can just as easily do various muscle building exercises at home. This also works without any equipment as long as you know the importance of good shoes. Your workout at home doesn’t have to take longer than 30 minutes per day – and can therefore be integrated particularly well into everyday life.
Muscle building at home: a 30-minute programme
With the right exercises, training to build muscle at home works just as well as in the gym. In an interview with “Spiegel Online”, American fitness trainer Mark Lauren advises you to put together a 30-minute program with about five different exercises for your home. Depending on your fitness level, you should plan two to three runs per exercise with ten to 15 repetitions each.
You should pause one to two minutes between each exercise. In order for your body to regenerate sufficiently, you should take a day break between training sessions.
Push-ups as an effective whole body workout
The push-ups are a classic for building muscle at home. Almost every muscle in the body is strengthened, according to fitness trainer Lauren. In addition, you train your sense of balance, coordination and mobility.
When doing push-ups, you should make sure that your hands are parallel and shoulder-wide on the floor and that your back is straight. Take care not to tense your neck too much, but to look straight ahead. If you are still untrained and do not have so much strength, you can support your hands on a chest of drawers at hip height or press them against the wall, advises Lauren.
Squats for taut legs
You can also train your leg muscles in different ways at home. Normal knee bends are an easy option here. If you tend to have knee problems, you should rather choose the following exercise: Lie on your side and angle your legs to 90 degrees. Now lift the upper leg by about 20 centimetres and lower it again without putting it down in between. After 15 repetitions, change sides.
Sit-ups and crunches for the abdominal muscles
Sit-ups or so-called crunches are ideal for building up the abdominal muscles at home. The exercises are very similar, but according to the magazine “Fit for Fun” crunches are the gentler option because the upper body is not lifted as high as in sit-ups: lie on your back and angle your legs. Put your hands behind your head and look up. Now lift the upper back and shoulder blades off the floor with the strength of your abdominal muscles and lower both again. Avoid having your back fully reclined, but keep the tension up. The lower part of the back, on the other hand, should touch the ground all the time.
Training tips for a crunchy bottom
To strengthen your bottom, you can use the following exercise from the women’s magazine “Brigitte”: Lie on the floor in a prone position and angle your lower legs so that they point vertically into the air. Angle your feet so that your heels touch while your toes point outwards. The knees should be spread out as far as possible during this exercise. The arms are angled at shoulder level. Face and palms point to the floor.
Now release your thighs powerfully and slowly from the floor and lower them again to just above the floor. Repeat the execution ten times until you pause for a minute. Perform a total of three to four sets of ten repetitions.
Strong arms: make dumbbells yourself
If you want to use equipment to build muscle at home, you don’t have to buy it expensive. For example, you can easily make dumbbells yourself by filling two empty plastic bottles of the same size with bird sand. The amount of sand you put in determines the weight of the dumbbells. Do not start with weights that are too heavy. One to two kilos are sufficient for the beginning to support various exercises.
The magazine “Womens Health” gives the tip: “The rule of thumb applies to the right training weight, if you do not manage more than eight to twelve repetitions, you have found the optimal dumbbell”. In case of doubt, however, always use slightly lighter weights first and increase your weight slowly so as not to overload yourself when building muscle at home.
For a classic biceps curl, i.e. the arm bend with dumbbells, first stand upright. The feet should be at a hip-wide distance from each other. Move your shoulders backwards and grip the dumbbells in the underhand grip. As you exhale, both arms are now led simultaneously up to the shoulders and then down again. Make sure that you only move your forearms if possible and that your elbows remain in the same position.
