I’ve experimented with many different at home workout plans in my time. I’ve found the one I’m about to show you to be one of the easiest to understand and follow. It is the one I currently use for my own fitness routine. In particular, I listed my personal dumbbell only workout in the sample workout section.
Make sure to consult your doctor if you have any health conditions before beginning an exercise program.
[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
The Push Pull Legs Split
Warm Up and Cool Down
Push Day
Pull Day
Leg Day
Keep reading to learn about the at home workout plan you can start incorporating in your routine.
The Push Pull Legs Split
The Push Pull Legs routine is simple, but makes for a great at home workout plan that works well for both beginners and seasoned fitness gurus alike.
Push days are aimed at hitting the chest, shoulders (especially the front and side deltoids), and triceps.
Pull days focus on hitting the lats, traps, rhomboids, rear deltoids, and biceps.
Leg days focus on hitting the entirety of the leg muscles, which consist of the quads, hamstrings, glutes, adductors, abductors, and calves.
Generally, you can hit core every day. Some people may save core for a rest day.
The routine follows this simple formula: the first day of the routine you will do push day, the second day is pull day, the third day is leg day, and the fourth day is rest day. After completing this sequence, start over again from day 1 (push day).
You may notice that you won’t have a consistent designated day for rest day. One way around this is if you decide you want a specific day to be your rest day (Saturday for example), then you would begin the sequence on Sunday. Sunday would be push day, Monday would be pull day, and Tuesday would be leg day. Now if you want to keep Saturday as your rest day, go right back to push day on Wednesday. Basically, do push, pull, legs twice in a row before rest day.
Here is an example of both:
(Standard Push Pull Leg Routine)
-Monday: Push Day
-Tuesday: Pull Day
-Wednesday: Leg Day
-Thursday: Rest Day
-Friday: Push Day
-Saturday: Pull Day
-Sunday: Leg Day
-Monday: Rest Day
(etc)
(Consistent Push Pull Leg Routine)
-Monday: Push Day
-Tuesday: Pull Day
-Wednesday: Leg Day
-Thursday: Push Day
-Friday: Pull Day
-Saturday: Leg Day
-Sunday: Rest Day
-Monday: Push Day
(etc)
There is no workout plan that works for everybody. The purpose of this guide is to help you create an at home workout plan that works for you. You may have to experiment to find what exercises you like, which ones work for you, and the difficulty level of course.
There will be an at home workout plan for body weight only as well as with a pair of dumbbells. For the body weight only workouts, it is recommended you have a pullup bar if possible. If not, you can create makeshift weights by filling a backpack with things so that you have something to work out with. Hitting the back with zero equipment will have very limited results.
I will provide a list of each exercise type and your goal will be to select at least 3-5 of those exercises that ideally hit every muscle group for the day you’re on. You will do each exercise for 3-5 sets for 8-15 reps. The difficulty of the exercise and your fitness level will determine how many sets and reps you should do. If you’re a beginner, you can do less sets with higher reps. Basically, you want an exercise that you can easily do 15 times in a row. As you get stronger, you can begin to make the exercise more difficult by adding weight or modifying the exercise (in the case of body weight).
Warm Up and Cool Down
The warm up and cool down are an important part of any workout. You need to warm up and cool down to reduce risk of injury and get your body ready for exercise so that you perform better for your workout.
For both warming up and cooling down, you want to do so for about 5 to 10 minutes before beginning your workout. [1]
Here is a list of warm up exercises you can do. Don’t limit yourself to just one. Try to incorporate several. You don’t have to do every single one in the list to get a good warm up. You can cater the warm up exercises to your current fitness level. For example, you don’t have to do push ups as a warm up if you struggle to do push ups right now.
[Warm Up Exercises]
-Arm Circles
-Overhead Reaches
-Arm Swings
-Neck Circles
-Front Leg Swings
-Backward Leg Swings
-Side Leg Swings
-Walking
-Jogging
-Running
-High Knees
-Jumping Jacks
-Jump Rope
-Pushups
-Burpees
-Body Weight Lunges
-Body Weight Squats
-Pullups
-Light Weight Lifting (My Personal Favorite)
[Cool Down Exercises]
-Walking
-Light Swimming
-Stretching Routine
Push Day
For Push Day, your focus is on hitting the Chest, Front and Side Delts, and Triceps. If you have a bench, that will be a great help for some of the dumbbell exercises, but if you don’t have a bench, many of the exercises can be done lying on the floor. This is actually how I did my dumbbell chest exercises when I first made my at home workout plan.
[Body Weight Exercises]
-Knee Pushup (Chest, Triceps)
-Incline Pushup (Chest, Triceps)
-Pushup (Chest, Triceps)
-Decline Pushup (Chest, Triceps, Shoulders)
-Wide Grip Pushup (Chest, Triceps)
-Diamond Pushup (Chest, Tricep Emphasis)
-Pike Pushup (Chest, Triceps, Shoulder Emphasis)
-Shoulder Taps (Shoulders)
-Bear Crawls (Shoulders)
-Handstand Kick Ups (Shoulders)
-Handstand Holds (Shoulders)
-Handstand Pushups (Shoulders, Triceps)
-Dips Leaning Forward (Chest Emphasis, Triceps)
-Bodyweight Tricep Extensions (Triceps)
-Dips with Body Upright (Chest, Triceps Emphasis)
[Dumbbell Exercises]
-Dumbbell Press (Chest) (Incline or Decline to emphasize upper or lower chest)
-Dumbbell Flyes (Chest) (Incline or Decline to emphasize upper or lower chest)
-Overhead Dumbbell Press (Front Deltoids)
-Front Lateral Raises (Front Deltoids)
-Upright Rows (Side Deltoids)
-Lateral Raises (Side Deltoids)
-Tricep Kickbacks (Triceps)
-Skull Crushers (Triceps)
-French Press (Triceps)
[Sample Bodyweight Push Day]
-Push Ups, 3 Sets, 15reps, 12reps, 10reps
-Wide Grip Push Ups, 3 Sets, 15reps, 12reps, 10reps
-Pike Push Ups, 3 Sets, 12reps, 10reps, 8reps
-Shoulder Taps, 3 Sets, 12taps per side, 10taps per side, 8taps per side
-Tricep Extensions, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
Rest for 1 minute between exercises.
[Sample Dumbbell Push Day]
-Dumbbell Flyes, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
-Incline Dumbbell Press, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
-Standing Overhead Press, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
-Lateral Raises, 3 Sets, 12reps, 12reps, 12reps
-Tricep Kickbacks, 3 Sets, 12reps, 10reps, 8reps
Rest for 1 minute between exercises.
Pull Day
Pull Day will focus on hitting the Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, and Biceps. Again, it will be difficult to hit a lot of these muscles without a little equipment. An at home workout plan for pull day needs at least a pull up bar at a minimum. If you have a pullup bar, you should be able to get a decent pull workout, but you may need to create some makeshift weights if you’re not quite able to get some kind of pullup bar.
[Body Weight Exercises]
-Australian Pull Ups (Lats, Biceps)
-Pull Up Negatives (Lat Emphasis, Biceps)
-Chin Up Negatives (Lats, Bicep Emphasis)
-Pull Ups (Lat Emphasis, Biceps)
-Pull Up/Chin Up Holds (Lats, Biceps)
-Narrow Grip Pull Ups (Lats, Rhomboids, Biceps)
-Chin Ups (Lats, Biceps Emphasis)
-Archer Pull Ups (Lats, Biceps)
-Typewriter Pull Ups (Lats, Biceps)
[Dumbbell Exercises]
-One Arm Rows (Lats)
-Wide Rows (Lats, Rhomboids)
-Bent Over Row (Lats, Rhomboids)
-Dumbbell Face Pulls (Rear Deltoids)
-Reverse Flyes (Rear Deltoids)
-Bicep Curls (Biceps)
-Concentration Curls (Biceps)
-Hammer Curls (Biceps)
[Sample Body Weight Pull Day]
-Pull Ups, 3 Sets, 5reps, 4reps, 3reps
-Chin Ups, 3 Sets, 5reps, 4reps, 3reps
-Pull Up Holds, 3 Sets, 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds
-Chin Up Negatives, 3 Sets, 3reps, 2reps, 1rep as slow as possible
Rest for 1 minute between exercises.
[Sample Dumbbell Pull Day]
-Body Weight Pullups, 3 Sets, As many as you can all 3 sets up to 12reps per set
-Bent Over Rows, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
-Dumbbell Face Pulls, 3 Sets, 12reps, 12reps, 12reps
-Standing Bicep Curls, 2 Sets, 10reps, 6reps
-Concentration Curls, 2 Sets, 12reps, 12reps
Rest for 1 minute between exercises.
Leg Day
Leg Day focuses on your Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves, Abductors, and Adductors. Your at home workout plan should cover everything! Don’t skip Leg Day!
[Body Weight Exercises]
-Squats (Quads)
-Lunges (Quads, Glutes)
-Bulgarian Split Squats (Quads, Glutes)
-Pistol Squats (Quads)
-Glute Bridges (Glutes)
-One Leg Glute Bridges (Glutes)
-Good Mornings (Hamstrings, Lower Back)
-One Leg Deadlift (Hamstrings, Lower Back)
-Nordic Curls (Hamstrings)
-Calf Raises (Calves)
-One Leg Calf Raises (Calves)
-Chair Assisted Hip Adductions (Adductors)
-Chair Assisted Hip Abductions (Abductors)
[Dumbbell Exercises]
-Squats (Quads)
-Lunges (Quads, Glutes)
-Bulgarian Split Squats (Quads, Glutes)
-Hip Thrusts (Glutes)
-One Leg Hip Thrusts (Glutes)
-Romanian Deadlifts (Hamstrings, Lower Back)
-One Leg Romanian Deadlifts (Hamstrings, Lower Back)
-Calf Raises (Calves)
-One Leg Calf Raises (Calves)
-Dumbbell Adductions (Adductors)
-Dumbbell Abductions (Abductors)
[Sample Body Weight Workout]
-Squats, 3 Sets, 15reps, 12reps, 10reps
-Glute Bridges, 3 Sets, 15reps, 12reps, 10reps
-Nordic Curls, 3 Sets, 5reps, 4reps, 3reps
-Calf Raises, 3 Sets, 15reps, 15reps, 15reps
-Chair Assisted Adductions, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
-Chair Assisted Abductions, 3 Sets, 10reps, 8reps, 6reps
Rest for 1 minute between exercises.
[Sample Dumbbell Workout]
-Bulgarian Split Squats, 3 Sets, 12reps, 10reps, 8reps
-Romanian Deadlifts, 3 Sets, 12reps, 12reps, 12reps
-Calf Raises, 3 Sets, 12reps, 12reps, 12reps
-Dumbbell Adductions, 3 Sets, 12reps, 10reps, 8reps
-Dumbbell Abductions, 3 Sets, 12reps, 10reps, 8reps
Rest for 1 minute between exercises.
What Next?
Now that you’re familiar with the Push Pull Leg Split, it’s time to start building an at home workout plan for yourself and then get to training!
