The Best Exercises to Build Muscle at Home

Building muscle without any equipment may sound like crazy.

Honestly, we can’t build a bodybuilder type physic at home. But we can put on a good amount of lean muscle mass by doing only bodyweight workout.

In this article, we’ll be getting a proper workout plan to build muscle at home, and it also includes the specific bodyweight exercises you’ll perform for 8 weeks to gain lean mass.

I attached the 8-week home workout plan PDF below, so don’t forget to grab that.

How to Build Muscle at Home: Workout Plan

Best part?

In this at-home workout plan, we’ll perform workouts for five days and two days rest in a week, and you no need any special equipment for doing these exercises.

8 Weeks Bodyweight Home Workout Routine:

Days	Workout Split
Monday	Upperbody Workout
Tuesday	Lowerbody Workout
Wednesday	Abs Workout
Thusday	Rest
Friday	Upperbody Workout
Saturday	Lowerbody Workout
Sunday	Rest

Upper Body At-Home Workout

The upper-body home workout plan is specifically designed to target every upper body muscle, providing an intense workout session without any equipment.

Aim to do 3-rounds or more of 12 repetitions of each exercise and 1 minute of rest between rounds. There is no rest in between the exercise. 

Here is the seven effective moves you perform on your upper-body home workout routine: 

1. Wide Grip Push-Ups

1. Start with a push-up position.
2. Place your right leg’s toe on your left leg’s heel.
3. Keeping your hands about six inches wider than the shoulders, slowly push up and contract your chest.

Why: Wide grip push-up is a killer workout to target the chest muscle. This workout mostly targets the middle and upper chest. However, it also activates the front deltoid and triceps muscle.

2. Stretch Walk

1. Start with a pushup position, then walk backwards with your hands.
2. When your hip up (as much as you can), walk back to forward until you are gone forward than your head (or you can maintain a parallel position with your head).
3. Repeat your desired reps. 

Why: While you are doing stretch walk exercise, you’ll feel an insane amount of tension on your shoulders, upper back and arms muscle. Although, it engages your core and hip muscles as well.

3. Shoulder Push-Ups

1. Start with a pushup position, then go backwards, and your hip should be up.
2. Keeping your legs straight and head down towards the floor (“V” shape body position).
3. Push up slowly by using your shoulders. Repeat.

Why: Shoulder push-up is an intense shoulder workout, and that is a tough one. But by practising it week by week, it’s become easier for you. In the beginning, you can place your knees on the floor to make this exercise beginner-friendly.

4. Close Grip/Diamond Push-Ups

1. Start with a push-up position, keeping your hands closer than shoulder-width (or you can make your hands diamond shape).
2. Contracting the triceps muscle, perform the desired repetition.

Why: Close grip or diamond push-up exercise mainly focuses on the long head of the triceps muscle. It is an excellent and effective workout to hit and grow the triceps muscle. 

5. Hindu Push-Ups

Why: Hindu Push-up is an excellent bodyweight compound exercise that mostly targets the chest, shoulders, arms, and back muscles. It engages our hip and calf muscle and also helps to improve our spine flexibility. 

6. Bodyweight Triceps Extension

1. With box: This time, you need a knee height box or bench.
2. Start with an incline push-up position with the bench and keep your feet together on the floor.
3. Bend your elbow and move forward your head closer to the box’s wall.
4. Push back to the starting position. Repeat.

1. Without box: Start with a push-up position with your hands slightly narrow than shoulder-width and feet together.
2. Place your hands forward in front of your shoulders.
3. Bend your elbows and lower your body until the forearms and elbows are touching the ground.
4. Press into the ground with the triceps to push back to the starting position. Repeat.

Why: Bodyweight Triceps Extension is a killer exercise that specifically targets and grow the triceps muscle. If you feel this exercise difficult, you can place your knees on the floor to make it beginner-friendly.

7. Angels and Devils

1. Lay on the flat surface in a face-down position.
2. Begin with contracting your glutes and lift your arms and legs off from the ground and mid-area on the floor.
3. From there, Perform an arc motion with your arms while at the same time flipping your hands to a palms-up position as they move closer to your glutes.
4. Perform slowly and make sure you’re contracting your back muscles on every rep. 

Why: Angels and Devils is a great exercise to target the back muscles and improve your shoulders’ mobility. This exercise also engages your core, glutes, and hamstring muscles as well.

Note: Keep in mind when you feel the push-ups are tough for you, you can place your knees on the floor (specifically for women). So, keep doing the exercises, and you’ll increase the endurance and strength week by week.

Lower Body At-Home Workout

Here, we’ll follow the same routine as the upper-body workout routine. Three rounds or more of 12 repetitions of each exercise and 1 minute of rest in between rounds. There is no rest in between the exercise.

Here is the seven exercises we’ll perform at the lower-body home workout days:

1. Wide Jump Squats

1. Stand with your feet together and hands at your side.
2. Begin with a little jump and make your feet wider than your shoulder width while lowering your hip until your squats parallel to the ground.
3. Jump back to the starting position. Repeat.

Why: As we all know regular squats exercise is mainly target our squats muscle but when we add a wide jump into it, it becomes more effective and also targets the hamstring and glutes as well.

2. Back Lunges

1. Stand with your feet together and hands at your sides.
2. Bending your right knee and lunge backwards. Stopping when your right thigh parallels to the ground. And make sure your knee is toe to maintain an in-line position.
3. Push back with your right leg to the starting position, repeat your desired reps, and then switch to the other leg.

Why: Lunges is one of the effective exercises when it comes to training our lower body muscles. This exercise targets our squats, hamstring, and glutes muscles.

3. Single-Leg Bridge

1. Start with lying down on the floor, one leg on the floor, the other straight up in the air, and hands at your sides.
2. Keeping your left leg up on the air, push with your right-leg heel and up your hip. Hold a second at the top and feel the tension at the glut.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat with desired reps. Then move to the other side.

Why: Single-leg bridge is killer glutes exercise that helps to grow the hip muscle and enhance the strength and flexibility of our mid-area.

4. 1 & 1/2 Bottomed Out Squat

1. Stand with your shoulder width feet position and hands at your sides.
2. Bend your knees forward and lower your hips backwards until your thighs go parallel to the ground.
3. Move back to half-squat position, again lower your hip and come back straight with your feet to complete a full squat exercise.

Why: 1 1/2 Bottomed Out Squat is one of the most intensive squat exercises you can do. This exercise can be tough for beginners, but it is a great exercise to build some strength and muscle on your thighs.

5. Split Lunges

It would help if you had good body balance before performing jumping/split lunges. How to? Start with a lunge position and alternating the legs while jumping.

This move pump-up our squats, hamstring, and hips muscles. While performing, make sure your knees should be parallel to your toes to avoid future injuries. Jumping lunges is one of the most effective and my favourite bodyweight moves.

6. Alternating Cross-Over Step Ups

1. This time you need a knee height box or bench (but you can use any height box).
2. Stand behind the box. Step up one foot on top of the box and then come on up.
3. Then take that same foot down on the floor.
4. Alternate with the other foot and perform your desired repetition.

Why: Alternating cross-over step up is an excellent exercise to build and tone your inner and outer thighs, quads, hamstrings, and glutes. This exercise also raises heart rate and boosts metabolism. In addition, you can hold some weights with your hands to create more tension on the working muscles.

7. Diagonal Calf Raises

1. Start with a plank position with your hands and keep your hip slightly up to make a “V” shape position.
2. Move a little forward by pressing your toes on the floor and squeeze the calves at the top.
3. Move back to the starting position and go a little more backward and stretch the calves at the bottom. Repeat.

Why: Diagonal Calf Raises is an impressive exercise to target the calf muscles. Make sure you’re contracting the calf muscles while performing the exercise (it’s important!).

Abs Workout

In the abs workout, we’ll perform 2-3 sets (depending on your fitness level) of each exercise. There is no rest in between the exercises, and 1-2 minutes of rest between sets.

Note: Here, we’ll perform the exercises one by one, which means we’ll do the first exercise for 2-3 sets then move over to the next exercise.

1. Cat Cow Stretch

1. Get down on your hands and knees. Your hands should be pointing forwards underneath your shoulders and knees underneath your hips.
2. Slowly arch your back, lower your belly towards the floor, and raise your head, chest, and tailbone. Pause there and stretch your core muscles.
3. Then slowly round your back, lowering your head and tailbone down and pulling your belly inwards. Squeeze your abs for 3 seconds. Repeat. 

Why: Cat-Cow Stretch is a great exercise to warm up your core and lower back muscles properly. It also helps to activate our abs which is crucial before doing any main abs moves.

2. Leg Raises

1. Lying on your back, keep your legs straight together, hands at your sides, or you can put your hands under your hips and head on the ground.
2. Tight your core and raise your legs upward at a 60 to 90-degree angle (you can take support of your hands)
3. Contract and squeeze your abs at the top and slowly back to the starting position by lowering your legs. Repeat.

Why: Leg raises exercise is a killer lower abs exercise. In the beginning, if you’re not getting your legs that much higher, it’s OK. However, it will increase your core strength and definition by doing it regularly.

3. Heaven Presses

1. Lie down on your back and your legs straight up towards the sky at 900 angles and your hands at your sides on the floor.
2. By pressing your hands on the floor and using your core, up your hips and legs and your hips should be completely detached from the ground.
3. Contract your abs at the top, then go back to the starting position. Repeat.

Why: Heaven presses exercise mainly targets our lower abdominal muscles, and it’s an impressive one to build strength in our lower abdominal muscles.

4. Butterfly Sit-Ups

1. Lie down o the floor, press the sole of your feet together, slightly bend your knees and open sideways.
2. Lift your upper body by your abs to come upon a sitting position, simultaneously extend your arms towards your toes.
3. Make sure you’re contracting your core muscle while sitting up, back to the starting position. Repeat.

Why: Butterfly Sit-Ups is one of the most effective exercises to target the entire abdominal muscles. As it engages our arms, it becomes an easy exercise to perform.

5. Oblique Crunches

1. Lie down at your left side and legs straight to the ground. Left hand on the floor and right hand behind your head.
2. Taking support of your right hand, up your head towards the waist, and squeeze the obliques at the top.
3. Return to the starting position, repeat your desired reps. Then switch to another side.

Why: The obliques play a very crucial role when it comes to your overall core strength. Oblique crunch is an excellent exercise to train the oblique muscles to get a nice and attractive mid-area.

6. Seated Corkscrew

1. Sit on your hips, lift your legs off from the ground, and support this posture with your hands by placing them on the floor.
2. Keeping your back straight, bend your knees and pull them towards your face while contracting your abdominal area. Repeat desired reps.

Why: Seated Corkscrew is a killer abs exercise, which can be a little tough for many people. However, you can compromise the number of reps to meet your strength. This intense exercise mainly targets our lower-abdominal and oblique muscles.

7. Levitation Crunches

1. Lie on your back, keep your knees bent, toes flat to the ground and your hands behind your head.
2. Lift your head upwards, contract your abs at the top, and hold there for 3 seconds. (make sure you’re intensely squeezing the abdominal muscle at the top.
3. Slowly back to the starting position. Repeat.

Why: Let’s finishes off with this Levitation Crunches exercise. It’s one of the most effective exercises to train the abdominal muscle, specifically when you hold 3-seconds at the top that can be massive intensive for the core muscles.

Conclusion

I hope now you get a proper workout plan to build muscle at home. By following the 8-week bodyweight home workout challenge, you’ll able to put on some lean muscle mass.

The exercises chosen in this workout routine can be tough for a beginner, but by practising them week by week, you will increase your strength and endurance level.

So, are you excited to build muscle at home? Let us know in the comment section below!

Best of luck!