What strength exercises can you do at home with no equipment?

A living room is a perfectly respectable gym. It has a floor, a chair, a staircase, a wall and, if you are lucky, a sofa to collapse on afterwards. That is enough to do proper strength work for a long time.

What follows is not a programme. It is a short list of moves to choose from, with an easier and a harder version of each, so you can put together whatever suits the day.

Six moves that cover the basics

Squat

Stand with feet roughly hip-width apart, sit your hips back and down as if lowering onto a chair, then stand up.

• Easier: squat down to an actual chair and stand up from it.
• Harder: slow the lowering to a count of three, pause at the bottom, or try a split squat with one foot forward. Our guide on how to squat covers stance and depth.

Lunge

Step one foot forward or back and lower until both knees are bent, then return.

• Easier: hold a wall or a door frame for balance; keep the step short.
• Harder: reverse lunges with a pause at the bottom, or walking lunges down the hallway.

Push-up

Hands under shoulders, body in a straight line, lower your chest towards the support and press back up.

• Easier: hands on a wall, then a kitchen counter, then a sturdy table, then knees on the floor.
• Harder: full push-ups, then slow ones, then feet raised on a step. See our push-up guide for the details.

Glute bridge

Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Press through your heels and lift your hips until your body makes a line from knees to shoulders, then lower.

• Easier: smaller range, hold briefly at the top.
• Harder: one leg at a time, or feet raised on the sofa.

Step-up

Step onto a bottom stair or a very sturdy chair, stand up tall, step down.

• Easier: the lowest stair, with a hand on the banister.
• Harder: a higher step, a slow step down, or no hands.

Make sure anything you step on is stable and will not slide.

Plank

Forearms on the floor, body straight from head to heels, hold.

• Easier: knees down, or hands on a table at an incline.
• Harder: longer holds, lifting one foot, or side planks.

Putting it together

Pick three or four of these. Do each for a set of repetitions you can manage with good control, rest, and go round again two or three times. That is a session. Some days it takes fifteen minutes; some days it takes eight, and that still counts.

A few loose principles:

• Stop a couple of reps before you have to. Good form beats an extra wobbly repetition.
• Make it harder by changing the move, not only by doing more of it. Slower, paused or one-legged versions add plenty of challenge without needing weights.
• Mix up pushing, squatting, hinging and holding across a week.
• Leave it wanting more. Ending a session feeling capable makes the next one more likely.

Adding small props

You do not need equipment, but if you get curious later, a resistance band or a single kettlebell opens up pulling movements, which are the hardest thing to do with only bodyweight. Until then, a backpack filled with books makes a perfectly good weight for squats.