Beginner workouts are great for anyone new to exercise, or anyone who has taken more than three months off from vigorous exercise. Starting at the beginner level is necessary to build up a base of fitness that will help you develop muscle and keep your body healthier for when you’re ready to move on to more advanced workouts down the road. Here is a small collection of easy home workouts for beginners that will tone and tighten your body, while greatly improving your fitness. 

Easy Home Workouts 

Whether you’re just beginning or beginning again, the most important thing you can do for your body is build a base of fitness. Being smart about building a strong base means that your body will be less likely to experience a significant amount of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). You’re also much less likely to get injured. 

Easy home workouts don’t need to be long, overly vigorous or even exhausting. The goal of these workouts is to provide you with a series of strong exercises that make sense for your body – from head to toes. 

Each of the following easy home workouts will take between 15 and 30 minutes to complete. Please be sure to do a good warm up before beginning your workouts. A warm up could be a simple walk around the block, or a light and easy jog that gets your heart pumping. A warm up before any at home workout is especially important to make sure the muscles are warm and ready to go! 

What You Can Expect to Feel After Your Easy Home Workouts

People generally feel invigorated after starting a new workout routine, but it’s perfectly normal to experience a few healthy “side effects” of exercise, including:

• Muscle Soreness: Mild muscle soreness is perfectly normal, especially through the thighs, bottom, back of the arms and abdominal region. You can expect this to go away within a couple of days. Very often, the thing that makes exercise-related muscle soreness feel better is more exercise! Don’t let this type of soreness stop you. Of course, if you suspect something more serious has happened, follow up with a medical practitioner.
  
• Fatigue: A good workout can wear you out. It’s important to get a good night of sleep on the days that you’re exercising. Sleep not only helps your body rest, but it also helps your body restore, developing muscle tissue you’re working hard to build.
• Thirst: When you exercise, even if it’s a short while, it’s possible to become mildly dehydrated. You should always drink plenty of water, but on the days that you’re exercising, drink an extra 12 to 16 ounces to replenish any fluids you’ve lost. 

Here Are Easy Home Workouts

Below are the five easy home workouts. Not sure how to do one of the exercises in the workouts? There are definitions for several of the less-obvious exercises that follow the workouts. 

Workout #1: Legs & Core

This workout may look long, but each cycle of this group of leg and core-focused exercises will take you less than five minutes to complete. Keep your eyes on a clock or have a stopwatch ready to count down the seconds throughout this workout. 

1 – 60 seconds of jumping jacks
2 – 30 second wall squat
3 – 30 seconds of lunges, left leg only
4 – 30 seconds of lunges, right leg only
5 – 30 second wall push ups
6 – 30 seconds of calf raises
7 – 30 second straight arm plank
8 – 30 second pulse squat

Repeat this workout a total of three times through, with one minute rest in between. Total time of this workout is 18 minutes.

Workout #2: The Big Muscle Mover

Jump into The Big Muscle Mover Workout to boost your metabolism by toning and tightening the big muscles of your legs and glutes! 

1 – 60 seconds of bodyweight squats
2 – 30 seconds of high knees
3 – 60 seconds of plank to push ups
4 – 30 seconds of lunges, left leg only
5 – 30 seconds of lunges, right leg only
6  – 60 second wall squat
7  – 60 second bridge pose

Cycle through this workout a total of three times, taking a one-minute break in between sets to reset. The total time of this workout is approximately 20 minutes. 

Workout #3: Major Mobility

Give your body the TLC it needs by moving the big and small joints of your body, increasing mobility and function from head to toe. 

1 – 60 seconds of plie squat
2 – 30 second of mountain climber
3 – 60 seconds of wall push ups
4 – 30 seconds of bodyweight squats
5 – 60 second bridge pose
6 – 60 seconds of calf raises
7 – 60 seconds of crunches
8 – 30 second plank

Work through the series of eight in this workout a total of three times, taking one minute of rest after each set. Total time for this easy home workout is 21 minutes.

Workout #4: Short & Sweet

Sometimes the best workouts are the shortest. Move your body through this full body workout to tone and tighten the muscles that boost your metabolism the most. 

1 – 15 shoulder press squats
2 – 10 inchworms
3 – 20 alternating lunges
4 – 30 second forearm plank
5 – 10 half burpees

Make it through this workout a total of four times, taking a one minute break in between to reset. The total time of this workout is approximately 27 minutes. 

Workout #5: Heart & Lungs

Are you ready to raise the bar on your workouts and bring in some serious full body, heart-pumping work? Give this fun, but muscle-building workout a shot. Nothing but smiles after this easy home workout wraps up. 

1 – 20 alternating reverse lunges
2 – 30 bodyweight squats
3 – 45 second straight arm plank
4 – 60 second wall squat
5 – 5 burpees
6 – 10 half burpees

Workout through this series of eight exercises a total of three times, with one minute of rest in between. Total workout time is approximately 27 minutes. 

Exercise Definitions

Wall Squat

Simply find a flat wall, lean up against it and walk your feet out. Allow your back to slide down the wall until your thighs are parallel with the ground. You’re now holding a wall squat.

Wall Push Ups

Stand in front of a flat wall and walk your feet back about two feet. Place your hand in front of you, against the wall, shoulder-width apart and at the height of your chest. Slowly drop into the wall, then push your arms back to straight to do one wall push up.

Pulse Squats

Similar to a traditional bodyweight squat, except you’re holding yourself down in the squat position and pulsing up and down quickly, never standing fully up. These micro squats are called pulse squats. 

High Knees

High knees are the equivalent of running in place. 

Bridge Pose

Simply lie flat on your back with your knees bent. Press your hips as high as possible and hold. This is a bridge pose. 

Plie Squat

Similar to a traditional bodyweight squat, except you’re turning your feet out to a 45 degree angle. As you come down into the squat, allow your knees to track over your toes, strengthening through your inner thighs. 

Inchworms

Start by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart. Keep your feet where they are and reach down to the ground, bending your knees along the way. Walk your hands out to a straight arm plank position, hold for a moment, then walk your hands back your feet, then come back to standing. This is one inchworm. 

Half Burpees

Half burpees are simply the bottom half of a traditional burpee. Start in a straight arm plank position, then jump your knees under your chest landing in a low squat position. From there, place your hands firmly on the ground and kick your legs back to land in a straight arm plank position. This is one half burpees.