If you fancy getting fit and toning up a bit, then you’re not alone and you won’t have to fork out on a fancy gym membership to achieve your goal either. In fact, you won’t even have to leave the comfort of your living room.
Ready for an exercise regime that involves nothing but you and your sofa? Try our sofa workout plan that will help keep healthy while you’re stuck at home. This means you can enjoy a home workout while you’re watching the TV or listening to the radio!
Seriously, you don’t even need any exercise equipment to complete this workout (although a throw cushion might come in handy). Yes, it is actually entirely possible to get a decent workout without ever leaving that indented spot on your couch where you always plop.
Fry Arm Flab:
The padded (yet still sturdy) edge of your couch makes the perfect tool for assisted triceps dips. You can cushion your wrists while challenging your arms with a full range of motion.
How to:
- Sit on the edge of the couch with hands just outside of your hips, fingers forward.
- Lift your body up and walk your feet out until your knees are directly above your heels.
- Bend your elbows about 90 degrees, lowering your hips towards the floor.
- Press body up, extending elbows.
- Try up to 3 sets of 15 reps.
Pump Up Your Pushups:
The height of a couch is ideal for perfecting your pushup form.
How to:
- Try decline pushups (with hands on couch, feet on the floor) to make them a little easier.
- Or add an extra challenge with an incline (feet on couch, hands on the floor).
- Try 3 sets of 10-12 reps, focusing on form.
Carve Your Core:
If you’ve ever been inside a gym, you’ve seen a captain’s chair. It’s the vertical rack with padded arms that allows your legs to hang free. The captain’s chair leg raise is one of the most effective exercises for strengthening the rectus abdominis (the “six-pack muscles”) as well as the obliques, but you can challenge your core just as well on your couch. Here’s how:
How to:
- Sit tall on the couch with your hands behind your head.
- Keeping your spine straight and abs pulled in, hinge back slightly from your hips.
- Bring your knees up towards your chest (without rounding your back), and engage your abdominals to lift and lower your legs.
- Try alternating legs to make it easier and extending your legs for more intensity.
- Try 3 sets of 12-15 controlled reps (avoid swinging your legs).
Better Bridge, Better Booty:
If you’re not already doing glute bridges, you should be! Not only is this exercise great firming your rear, but the bridge also improves core stabilization—key for preventing lower-back pain.
How to:
- You can do it with your feet flat on the floor.
- Grounding your heels on the edge of your couch.
- You’ll increase your range of motion and boost the burn.
- Try 3 sets of 15-20 reps.
Couch Cardio:
Use your sofa to slim down by incorporating it into fat-blasting cardio moves. You can use it to make tough moves like burpees, squat thrusts, and mountain climbers more manageable by performing them on an incline. You’ll still get your heart rate up but alleviate some of the pressure on the wrists and maybe even get through a full set without stopping to catch your breath.
Try timed intervals for your favorite moves:
- Go for 30 seconds at an all out effort, then rest for 15 seconds.
- Or make things more challenging by going for a longer 45- to 60-second work set, followed by a 10- to 15-second recovery.
- Do up to 5 sets of intervals for a serious cardio blaster.
Even Better Than a Bench:
Your couch is just the right size for supporting your upper back and head while you do exercises like chest presses. By only resting your upper body on the couch, you’ll engage more muscles—especially in your core—than you would doing the same moves with your full body on the bench.
How to:
- Grab a pair of dumbbells and get into position, resting only your head and shoulders on the couch.
- Your knees should be bent 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor hip-width apart.
- Bend your elbows 90 degrees so that they’re straight out from your shoulders.
- Extend arms up, bringing weights together above your chest.
- Bend your elbows to return to the starting position.
- Do 3 sets of 10-12 reps.
- Be sure to use a weight heavy enough to challenge your chest by the last few reps of each set.
Prepare for Perfect Planks:
Planks are probably the best all-around abs exercise. They are safe, effective, and efficient—when you use proper form. Performing planks on an incline (hands on the edge of the couch) can help keep your upper body in line and take some pressure off your shoulder joints so you’re more likely to engage your abs.
How to:
- Try a side plank by placing your right elbow near the edge of the couch, directly below your shoulder.
- Walk your legs out and cross your left leg over right.
- The edges of your feet should be pressed into the floor, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your ankles.
- Extend your left arm up to the ceiling, brace your abs in tight, and think of pressing the right side of your torso away from the couch.
- Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side.
