You can develop complete, muscle-building workouts in your home using your own body weight. You can create even more variety for your exercise routine without spending money on a personal trainer or gym membership by using dumbbells, a chin-up bar or resistance bands. In addition to having your own equipment, the key to bodybuilding at home is to use proper technique.
Arms
Use biceps curls, triceps extensions, kickbacks, flyes, chin-ups, chair dips and push-ups to build your arms. Use muscle for uplifts and downlifts. For example, after you lift a weight during a curl, or pull yourself up with a chin-up, don't let the weight or your body drop. Pause for two seconds after the uplift, the slowly lower the weight or yourself down using your muscles. If you don't have dumbbells, you can use heavy objects around the house you can lift and use without dropping, such as plastic milk containers filled with water. Hold them at arms' length out to your side and bring them together in front of you to do flyes. Hold them down at your sides, with your palms facing behind you, then slowly raise your arms up to your shoulders. Two work your triceps, hold a weight between your shoulder blades, behind your back, then lift straight up, turning your palm forward. Kneel on a bench with your left leg and left hand to do triceps kickbacks. Hold a weight in your right hand even with your chest. Move the weight backward by straightening your arm and return to your original position.
Chest
You can work your chest with flyes, chest presses, push-ups, chair dips and chin-ups. Lie on your back and hold weights above your shoulders with your palms facing forward. Push your arms straight up, hold for two seconds, then lower slowly. When doing chair dips, put your arms behind you to work the triceps and back, and in front of you to work biceps and chest.
Back
You can use a variety of standing and kneeling rows, pull-ups, chair dips and rows to build back muscles. For bent-over rows, lean over weights and lift toward you while remaining bent forward. Be careful not to hurt your back by using too much weight. Kneel on a bench as you did for kickbacks, and hold a weight with your arm straight down. Raise the weight to your chest, bending your arm, then lower. For pulls-ups, turn your palms away from you as you grasp the bar. This is a more difficult exercise than chin-ups, done with your palms facing you, because you rely more on your back then biceps and chest.
Legs
Use squats, lunges, deadlifts, calf raises and leg presses to build your leg muscles. For squats, hold weights above your shoulders while you lower and raise yourself. Lower yourself keeping a straight torso and raise yourself using only your legs, hips and buttocks to prevent back injury. Perform box squats starting from a sitting position. Deadlifts have you raise a weight at your feet using both hands. Lower yourself with a straight torso, looking straight ahead, and raise the weight using only your lower body. Use resistance bands or dumbbells for lunges, which have you lower yourself by taking a large stride forward or diagonally to one side while keeping a straight torso, then stepping backward. Use resistance bands to do leg presses, which have your straighten your legs against resistance. Think of sitting on the floor with your back against a wall trying to push a heavy box away from you with your legs.
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