Do you train at home? Are you getting sick of your regular routine? I understand. After a while, doing basic squats, lunges, planks and push ups will no longer challenge your body enough to elicit further growth. So you need more advanced variations of these exercises that you can continue to do at home. Who needs a gym when there’s the living room floor? Bodyweight exercises are a simple, effective way to improve strength and flexibility if you don’t have access to any equipment other than a stability ball, table and chairs. You can cover every part of your body from head to toe and get stronger with body resistance alone.

For a beginner, developing the co-ordination required to perform a properly executed prisoner squat (hands behind the neck) can be quite challenging. But through daily repetition your mind will become more efficient at sending the appropriate messages to the working muscles and eventually it is no longer a challenge. The next logical step would be to place a weighted dumbbell under your chin for added resistance, but what if you don’t have one? If that is the case, I recommend trying the Bulgarian Split Squat. It is a one-legged squat where your back leg provides the balance necessary to work the front leg only. In the video below, I am using a bench, but you can improvise. A chair seat, a sofa arm or the edge of a coffee table will do just fine as long as you have something sturdy to rest your back leg on. This exercise is a lot harder than it looks. Start with 2 sets of 10 repetitions per leg and add more volume as you go along. If you are doing it right, your thighs, glutes and hamstrings will be burning.

If you weigh a lot, the chances are that you can bench press a lot of weight because your excess mass can provide the force to move the weight. It is simple physics. On the other hand, the push up is a true indicator of relative upper body strength and endurance. I know guys who can bench press 200 lbs, but they can’t perform one proper push up. They don’t have the strength and endurance in their core and stabilizer muscles to support and balance their bodyweight. For arguments sake, let’s assume that you can perform 15 picture-perfect push ups. It is not elite, but it is pretty good. Once you can perform 15 repetitions, you need something more challenging to force further muscle growth. That is where the plyometric push up comes in. It is a variation used by athletes to become more explosive for their chosen sport. At the beginning, your upper body will quickly become fatigued. As soon as you notice your form starting to slip, stop. I would start with 2 sets of 8 repetitions and progress from there.

When I first started training, crunches were the primary exercise performed to build up the abdominal wall. Today we know better. Flexing the trunk of your spine over and over again puts a tremendous amount of stress on your discs. Over the last several years, back experts like Dr. Stuart McGill have been recommending exercises that hold the spine in a neutral position while still placing enough resistance on the working muscles to force growth. This can be achieved with plank variations (front and side). If you haven’t done planks before, they can be quite challenging. At first, most people find that they can’t hold these positions for more than 30 seconds. Through daily repetition, you will get to the point where you can hold them for as long as 2 minutes and they no longer present a challenge. You need to create more instability. The exercise video below is called ‘stir the pot’. All that is required is a stability ball and some flat ground. Perform this  exercise as directed in the video for a minimum of 30 seconds and your abs will be screaming.