Don’t wish for a good body, work for it!

Whether you juggle a busy schedule or just not the gym’s biggest fan, there is no excuse in the world not to exercise and be physically active.

We give you here a list of 8 alternative workouts that replace gym machines and get you super fit and in shape in no time.

1- Planks

Planks are a core strength exercise that forces you to maintain your body in a specific position for a specified amount of time (30 or 40 seconds). Planks are known to improve one’s flexibility, posture and above all, it burns way more calories than any other conventional core exercise.

2- Mountain Climbers

This exercise gets all of your body muscles moving for it is an intense full body workout. They are an excellent workout routine for those looking to build an upper body strength in particular. By starting in a plank position, pull one knee up to your chest and then switch to the other knee.

3- Sit Ups

Focused only on building abdominal muscles, sit-ups are another core exercise that is usually done lying on your back on the floor with bent knees and lifting your upper body up and down.

Step by step instructions for abs: Lie flat on your back and place your hands behind your head. Bend your knees and firmly plant your feet on the floor. This is your starting position. (A) With your elbows flared, tighten your abs, and lift your shoulders and upper back off of the floor. Hold at the top for a second and then retract back down to starting position. (B)

4- Lunges

Lunges are known to be a single-leg exercise and there are two types, forward lunges, and backward lunges. If you are looking to strengthen your lower body, then lunges will do the trick. This workout mainly works on hips, glutes, quads, hamstrings, core, and the hard-to-reach muscles of the inner thigh.

5- Jumping Jacks

A cardio workout that helps in burning loads of calories, jumping jacks starts by jumping in a position where your legs are spread wide open while jumping and your hands are over your head more like clapping. This workout is used by trainers to warm up our bodies before getting deep with the hardcore and intense workouts.

6- Leg Raises

Targeting the anterior hip muscle, leg raises are also good for building core muscles. Start by lying on your back then lift both of your legs to a 90 degrees position then bring them back down till they are above the floor and repeat.

7- Squats

Primarily targeting the muscles of the thighs, hips, and buttocks, quadriceps femoris muscle and hamstrings, squats are recognized also as full body workouts that tone your backside, abs and body. Start by standing tall, pushing your hips backward then lowering your body while bending your knees then coming back up.

8- Burpee

Burpee is a four-step exercise that combines more than one workout. Known also as the squat thrust, burpee starts in a standing position which then moves to a squat position then it switches to a plank position and ends with a push-up position. An intense full body workout, burpee burns a huge amount of calories as it involves every single muscle in our bodies.