Here’s a word you don’t hear every day: calisthenics. If you know the word at all, it probably conjures up images of school children doing exercises “back in the day.” But here’s the thing about calisthenics: They’re actually a great way to get a surprisingly robust workout. I’m highlighting several different calisthenics in this article that are especially good for home exercises because they require nothing but yourself and a little willpower—no equipment, no partner or other people required (unless you want to work out with another person).

Whatever Happened to Calisthenics, Anyway?

Calisthenics are exercises that work large muscle groups by using your own bodyweight for resistance purposes. The word “calisthenics” itself comes from combing two ancient Greek words: kallos, meaning beauty, and sthenos, meaning strength. The armies of ancient Greece were known to train soldiers in part with calisthenics. Much of modern gymnastics has its roots in calisthenics. Military organizations all around the world still use various calisthenics for baseline physical fitness evaluations. But then along came weights, spinning, organized sports, and health clubs with treadmills and other advanced equipment, all of which tended to eclipse the very basic exercises of calisthenics. As it turns out, however, they’re still a great way to get a good workout in.While there are plenty of calisthenics that do require equipment such as a chin-up/pull-up bar, parallel bars or rings, and so forth, the focus here is on home exercises that require no equipment.

1. The Classic Push-Up

Doing a push-up properly, without “cheating,” is really no joke. They’re hard! But they’re also great for giving a workout to your chest’s pectoral muscles, your shoulder’s front anterior deltoid muscles, the triceps muscles on the backs of your upper arms, and your abdominal muscles as well. Good form for a push-up means your palms are flat on the floor about shoulder-width apart, and you’re on the balls of your feet (if the classic style is too difficult for you when starting out, you be on your knees instead of the balls of your feet). Keep your body in a straight line as you lower yourself down toward the ground, keeping your elbows tucked in. Let your chest make contact with the floor and then push yourself back up into the starting “plank” position. Start out with sets of five with some rest in-between and slowly work your way up over time to sets of 10 and then 20, the more the merrier!

2. The Classic Sit-Up

Like the push-up, sit-ups when done with correct form are quite difficult. And they’re all about giving your abdominal muscles a serious workout. You lie on the floor on your back with knees bent, then you raise your upper body (everything above your buttocks) off the floor. What about your arms? There are various options. You can lock your hands behind your head, which makes the sit-ups harder. You can fold your arms across your chest, which makes them a little easier, or keep your arms at your side with palms on the floor. The classic sit-up can lead to lower back injury and pain, which is why many prefer the “crunch” variation where your lower back stays on the floor, meaning you curl up just enough to really feel those abdominal muscles contracting.

3. Squats

As you can see in the illustration above, squats are a fantastic way to work your thigh muscles (quadriceps), buttocks (glutes), and your hamstrings. To perform a squat, stand with your feet shoulder width apart, place your hands at your sides.As you squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, you raise your arms up in front of you, then raise back up to the starting position and lower your arms. If this is too hard on your knees, you can perform the exercise against a wall, going as low as you can and holding the position for as long as possible.

4. The Plank

The plank involves getting into the starting position of the classic push-up, but you just hold it. It’s not very exciting as you’re just staring at the floor, but it’s an amazing workout for your abdominal muscles, obliques, and lower back and helps strengthen your entire body. The muscles that get a workout doing planks can wonders for your posture and your lower back health. You can also do a version of this with your elbows on the ground. Whichever way you choose, just focus on good posture and do your best to hold the straight-line position as long as possible.

5. Lying Hip Raises

While this exercise may look easy, numerous trainers consider it an essential part of any training routine. It works out your core musculature, really fires up your buttocks (glutes). Glutes are important to train, especially if you sit for prolonged periods of time. Having weak glutes and sitting at work for hours can cause the pelvis to shift forward, putting a tremendous amount of stress on your low back.To perform this exercise, lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, tighten your abdominals, squeeze your glutes tightly, then lift your hips towards the sky, holding the position for 3-5 seconds, then lower your hips back to the ground.

6. Lying Leg Raises

Lying flat on your back with arms at your sides, you raise your legs up as far as they’ll comfortably go and lower them slowly back down. This can put a good deal of strain on your lower back, so many recommend putting your hands under your buttocks or lower back for extra support. As you’ll quickly discover, this is another good abdominal and hamstring workout.

7. Burpees: The Ultimate Combination Exercise

Once you get comfortable with some of these different calisthenics, you can combine several of them into what many believe is the ultimate exercise—the burpee. As you can see in the illustration, there are 7 steps to one complete burpee from start to finish, going from standing position to squat to back-thrust to push-up, then back to squat, stand, and finish with a jump. Work your way up to multiples sets of five, ten, twenty or more and you’ve got a surprisingly robust routine of home exercises requiring zero equipment that works out all your major muscle groups.

You might think of calisthenics as novice exercises from yesteryear, but give the seven exercises listed here a try and you’ll quickly find out they are no joke. You can seriously fit using these simple home exercises that require no equipment at all besides your own body. Enjoy!

Coronavirus/COVID-19 Update

Because of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, your normal exercise routine isn’t working if it involves going to a gym, health club, boutique, or engaging in group sports. But as you can see in above, we’ve put together a great list of seven different home exercises you can do by yourself without stepping foot outside, although doing them outside might be nice as long as you find a place where you can stick to the social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of the virus.