There are fewer equipment free lower back exercises suitable for home (the superman isn’t bad,) but if you buy some exercise bands, you can tie them to some object near the floor, like the legs of a dresser, and do back extensions while holding the exercise bands. The bands are generally significantly cheaper than weights, and have the added benefit that you can adjust the resistance simply by standing further away or gripping a smaller portion of the band.
If you get the exercise bands, they’re also helpful for leg exercises. You can stand on them and grip them to add resistance to squats, and use them for leg adduction exercises (loop a band around a stable like a dresser leg, and put your ankle through the band while standing. Use your inner thigh muscles to pull the ankle with the band to your other foot. Switch legs after a set.) and abduction (while lying on your side, loop the band around your ankles. Lift one ankle away from the other, extending the band. Switch legs after a set.)
The downside of putting together exercise routines with barbells with a limited number of weights is that they don’t offer you as much room for progression as the exercise becomes trivial. A lot of pure bodyweight exercises can be performed in increasingly difficult variations though, and exercise bands, as previously mentioned, are better able to adjust levels of resistance.
One thing you might try is looking for a place in your area which might offer you tools to improvise an effective workout. Playgrounds which aren’t constantly occupied by kids are good for this. Not only does it give you the equipment necessary to carry out exercises, the act of relocating yourself to a specific place where you do your exercises helps improve motivation. When you’re in your room, you may have access to a bunch of exercise equipment, and be able to do plenty of bodyweight exercises, but you also associate your room with everything else you do there, all of which may distract you or tempt you to procrastinate. The advantage of a place like a gym is not just that it has equipment that you can use, but that it’s a Workout Place, and if you go there, you’re probably going to work out, because you expect yourself to, everyone else there expects you to, and your mind isn’t occupied by the other things you could be doing there. If you can’t or don’t want to spring for a gym membership, try turning some other location into a Workout Place.
It may also help to keep a journal, where you record the exercises and number of reps (and weight if applicable) you did. Do not skip a day and then fill in the next page the next time you do a workout, it’s there to be a physical reminder of when you work out and when you don’t, and missed workouts should be obtrusive when you inspect it. If you know that you will be continually reminded both of your effort when you do exercise, and your lack of it when you don’t, it can help you stick with the program.
Some exercises you can do with barbells.
Bicep curls.
Front and side deltoid lifts (holding the weights, keep your arms straight and raise your arms in front of you or to your sides respectively.)
Chest fly and reverse fly.
Add pushups, and pullups if you can do them, and together these exercises will target all your major upper body muscles.
Plenty of good abdominal exercises can be done without equipment, like the bicycle, crunches and variations like the vertical leg crunch or long arm or reverse crunches, and the abdominal plank.
There are fewer equipment free lower back exercises suitable for home (the superman isn’t bad,) but if you buy some exercise bands, you can tie them to some object near the floor, like the legs of a dresser, and do back extensions while holding the exercise bands. The bands are generally significantly cheaper than weights, and have the added benefit that you can adjust the resistance simply by standing further away or gripping a smaller portion of the band.
If you get the exercise bands, they’re also helpful for leg exercises. You can stand on them and grip them to add resistance to squats, and use them for leg adduction exercises (loop a band around a stable like a dresser leg, and put your ankle through the band while standing. Use your inner thigh muscles to pull the ankle with the band to your other foot. Switch legs after a set.) and abduction (while lying on your side, loop the band around your ankles. Lift one ankle away from the other, extending the band. Switch legs after a set.)
You can also use the barbells to assist lunges.
The downside of putting together exercise routines with barbells with a limited number of weights is that they don’t offer you as much room for progression as the exercise becomes trivial. A lot of pure bodyweight exercises can be performed in increasingly difficult variations though, and exercise bands, as previously mentioned, are better able to adjust levels of resistance.
One thing you might try is looking for a place in your area which might offer you tools to improvise an effective workout. Playgrounds which aren’t constantly occupied by kids are good for this. Not only does it give you the equipment necessary to carry out exercises, the act of relocating yourself to a specific place where you do your exercises helps improve motivation. When you’re in your room, you may have access to a bunch of exercise equipment, and be able to do plenty of bodyweight exercises, but you also associate your room with everything else you do there, all of which may distract you or tempt you to procrastinate. The advantage of a place like a gym is not just that it has equipment that you can use, but that it’s a Workout Place, and if you go there, you’re probably going to work out, because you expect yourself to, everyone else there expects you to, and your mind isn’t occupied by the other things you could be doing there. If you can’t or don’t want to spring for a gym membership, try turning some other location into a Workout Place.
It may also help to keep a journal, where you record the exercises and number of reps (and weight if applicable) you did. Do not skip a day and then fill in the next page the next time you do a workout, it’s there to be a physical reminder of when you work out and when you don’t, and missed workouts should be obtrusive when you inspect it. If you know that you will be continually reminded both of your effort when you do exercise, and your lack of it when you don’t, it can help you stick with the program.