Better Balance + Flow

We’re all pretty familiar with home workouts after this past year of being confined to our homes. Don’t worry though if you haven’t got round to buying a load of equipment to work out at home, you’ll be surprised at how many household items you have lying around that you can make good use of.

You can use almost anything that weighs a little to replace a dumbbell, as long as it fits in your hands, so feel free to get creative. We’ve drawn up a list of the common items we have around our homes to give you some ideas and to get your imagination flowing.

• Head to the closet and grab some tea towels or some thick, slippery socks to use as sliders. Place the towels (or pop on your socks) to intensify your mountain climbers, knee tucks and pikes.

• Soup cans or bottles are a great dumbbell replacement for bicep curls, arm raises or overhead tricep extensions, just make sure that each can or bottle is the same weight!

• Stairs are great for some cardio, so get walking or running up and down. If you don’t have any stairs nearby then use your doorstep or a sturdy crate for step ups.

• Everyone’s favourite burpees can be improved by adding an extra push and jumping up to reach up to tap the top of your door frame

• Use your wall for wall walks – start facing the wall with your feet up against the wall, engage your core and walk your hands up until your face is against the wall. 

• If you’re feeling a little nostalgic for school gym classes, you can also squat against the wall for some classic wall squats and challenge yourself to how long you can hold it. Set a goal time and you can build this up each day to slowly reach it!

• Use your sofa for glute bridges, rest your feet on the sofa, lie back on the floor, squeeze your glutes and raise your pelvis. Hold. Repeat. You can also use your sofa (or a sturdy chair) for tricep dips

• A bottle of detergent can double up as a kettlebell. Hold the bottle out in front of you as your squat or lunge to add to the burn and intensify your workout. 

• If you’ve got laundry piling up, you can use your laundry basket as a heavy weight and use it to deadlift.

Let us know which household items you’ve been using in the comments below!