The Best Strength Training Exercises for Students - No Gym Required

You and I both know that, as students, entrepreneurs, and people that just like to challenge ourselves, we don’t have tons of time on our hands to kill at the gym. Now, please don't think I'm throwing shade at the gym. This is coming from someone that goes to the gym regularly, and enjoys it. Here’s the thing though. Because of the recent closures of pretty much all of our gyms, a lot of us had to make a choice. Either we forget the fitness side of our health, or we suck it up and figure out how to hit that workout with what we have at our disposal. What’s great, is that, as the weather warms up, we can start going outside and utilizing nature in our fitness endeavors. Even as gyms start to reopen, sometimes it's simply more convenient to just hit a quick workout at home, or in the dorms. Let’s take a look at some of the best strength training exercises that don’t require a gym or any special equipment. 

   

First off, let’s start with the most basic exercise. The humble push-up. This exercise has been around forever. . . for a good reason. It literally only requires you. You could do this in your bedroom, or the middle of the woods. That’s the beauty of this exercise. Let’s be honest though, the real reason you care about strength training is because you want to build some muscle. Push-ups are incredible for this. They target many of the large muscle groups, including your biceps, triceps, delts, pecs, and abs. Hammer curls can’t do all that! There are multiple different variations of the push-up. You could do incline push-ups, wide push-ups, and as your muscles develop, and you get stronger, you can transition into diamond push-ups, and even the infamous one arm push-up. The most important thing to remember, is that good form is always essential, no matter what exercise you're doing. Proper form helps prevent injury to your muscles and joints. 

Alright, after your arms are on fire, lets hit some lower-body muscle groups. The squat is a great dynamic movement that activates your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves. It burns calories, and it helps strengthen your joints and legs. Overall, it’s just a great compound movement. I’d recommend going until the moment you start to lose proper form. If it’s your first time doing squats, you’re definitely gonna feel some delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) from this one. As long as you aren’t feeling acute pain, this is simply an indicator that your muscles were not used to that level of activity before. That’s a good thing though, because it means that your muscles are getting stronger. . . due to stress and hard work (see a trend here?). Now, if you start to find that your basic squat is getting too easy, grab a backpack, throw a couple books or water bottles in it, and hold it out in front of you. You could also get some resistance bands to add difficulty. The extra weight will help with increasing both the load and stress on your muscles - promoting growth.

Finally, no workout would be complete without throwing in some pull-ups. Simple? Yep. Effective? Absolutely. This classic exercise combines both tenacity and strength. At first, a lot of people find that they can’t do more than a few. However, with practice and dedication, you will begin to see progress - both in your physique, as well as your overall core strength. Start out with just a few. Even if you can do more, stop. Growth doesn’t happen instantly. Every time you work out, add a couple more reps. Gradual progress is key. I would recommend just starting with a doorway pull-up bar. However, as you get more confident, you may want to be more creative with how you do them. What if a tree limb could be a "pull-up bar"? Or a swing set? A lot of public parks are incorporating calisthenic equipment into their layout. Really, just be creative. Once you feel comfortable with all of these exercises, throw them all together. Here’s my recommendation for a good full-body workout:

• 4 sets of 20 push-ups (total of 80)
• 3 sets of 25 squats (total of 75)
• 5 sets of 5 pull-ups (total of 25)
• 2 sets of 20 sit-ups (total of 40)
• 2-3 mile run

I recommend the run at the end for two reasons. First, running has amazing benefits. Check out this post for more on this:

https://www.thegenzstudent.com/2020/05/is-running-ultimate-exercise-for.html

Also, the run, after the strength training, is going to ensure that you have enough energy to do the essence of the workout, which is going to require a decent amount of energy if you're just starting your fitness journey. The run also helps strengthen your endurance.

Keep track of your progress, stay motivated, and keep growing!