EstimatedEst. Read Time: 4 minutes
NEVER DO HOME WORKOUTS LIKE THIS! | 10 Most Common Mistakes

Doing home workouts can seem like a bad idea to those who fear losing all of their muscle gains by training away from the gym. In this video, I’m going to show you that this is not something to be fearful of as long as you avoid these 10 most common home workout mistakes. In fact, it is possible to build muscle at home with little to no equipment if you get all of these right. So that said, let’s dive in and start making sure you are.

MISTAKE #1: THINKING YOU HAVE NO EQUIPMENT

First, you must not focus so much on the equipment that you don’t have and instead look around at the opportunities you do have. I covered in a recent home workout video how you have countertops, stairs, doorways, hardwood floors and even tables that you can use to get a complete total body workout with nothing but your own bodyweight. Watch that if you feel like you are out of ideas for what to do now that your gym is closed.

MISTAKE #2: ATTEMPTING TO PERFORM ABOVE YOUR ABILITIES

Next, in a rush to overcompensate for the lack of a gym people will attempt to do home workouts and exercises that are simply too difficult for them. What happens here is that they either get hurt or just become discouraged when the results aren’t satisfactory. This is because they would have gotten much more out of doing the exercises that were appropriate for them and that they had done with proper form and intensity.

MISTAKE #3: EXERCISE VARIETY

Third, exercise variety is key when it comes to training at home. This is not because you are trying to create muscle confusion or “shock the muscles”. Instead, this is because the variety of home exercises is what provides the easiest path for overload. Slight changes to the same exercise can provide a totally unique stimulus to the muscles you are trying to train and lead to new muscle gains.

MISTAKE #4: REP COUNTS

Speaking of overload, the fourth mistake relates to how many will program for it in the form of specific rep counts with home and bodyweight workouts. This is a mistake. One size does not fit all when it comes to calisthenics. Instead, train to failure or just shy to ensure that you are neither underserving or over serving your abilities in your workouts.

MISTAKE #5: OVERRELIANCE ON CARDIO / HIIT MOVEMENTS

The fifth biggest home workout mistake is relying too much on cardio or hiit movements instead of strength building exercises. Look, I love burpees, mountain climbers and jumping jacks but they are not going to build muscle. Doing too many of them in your home workout routines will cause you to lose muscle instead of build it. You need to focus the majority of your efforts on exercises that build muscle like pullups, handstand pushups and more.

MISTAKES #6 & 7: FORGETTING TO TRAIN YOUR BACK & RUINING POSTURE

The sixth biggest mistake is forgetting to train your back at home. Not only will this lead to an underwhelming physique but it will create muscle imbalances that lead directly to the seventh mistake and that is bad posture.

MISTAKES #8-10: YOUR ROUTINE SUCKS

Finally, the last three relate to the implementation of your workout routine into a new routine. If you don’t plan to get your workout in at home it is too easy to find yourself being too random and skipping your workout all together. Schedule it into your day and FaceTime a friend if needed to hold yourself accountable. Don’t do it in your living room either if you can avoid it. Too tempting to hit the couch during a rest period and never get off of it.

CONCLUSION

To build muscle at home you have to be willing to avoid the biggest workout mistakes. These are just a few of the things that people tend to do at home when they are doing total body workouts that hinder the muscle gains that they see. If you want to build muscle at home and do it without equipment you have to use a workout that doesn’t make mistakes like these.

If you are looking for a complete home workout program that doesn’t require any equipment at all, be sure to head to athleanx.com and check out the ATHLEAN XERO program. Build solid muscle at home without any equipment in just 6 weeks and see how powerful the right bodyweight training can be.


For more videos on how to build muscle at home and the best home workouts you can do to build bigger muscles, be sure to subscribe to our channel here via the link below and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.

Build Muscle with No Equipment – http://athleanx.com/xero
Subscribe to this channel here – http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

Jeff Cavaliere Headshot

Jeff Cavaliere M.S.P.T, CSCS

Jeff Cavaliere is a Physical Therapist, Strength Coach and creator of the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs and ATHLEAN-Rx Supplements. He has a Masters in Physical Therapy (MSPT) and has worked as Head Physical Therapist for the New York Mets, as well as training many elite professional athletes in Major League Baseball, NFL, MMA and professional wrestling. His programs produce “next level” achievements in muscle size, strength and performance for professional athletes and anyone looking to build a muscular athletic physique.

Read more about Jeff Cavaliere by clicking here

Popular & Trending
stop doing face pulls like this facepull mistake
1
How To Do Face Pulls
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
September 9th, 2019
Face pulls are one of the best corrective exercises to help offset poor posture and shoulder dysfunction.  They help strengthen the chronically weak...
Body Fat Percentage Men
2
Body Fat Percentage Men
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
July 11th, 2023
There are many ways to measure body fat percentage; some wildly expensive and most inaccurate. It's time to give you an alternative method that...
2 reasons your biceps aren't growing and 3 ways to fix it
3
Why Your Biceps Aren’t Growing
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
August 22nd, 2019
Have you ever felt that no matter how much you trained your biceps you’re left saying… “My Biceps STILL Aren’t Growing?” I believe I know...
The Perfect Abs Workout
4
The Perfect Abs Workout
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
July 31st, 2019
We’ll be following my ‘Six Pack Progression’ sequence as we choose each of the beginner and advanced ab exercises for each abdominal movement...
incline bench press avoid mistakes for upper chest
5
How To Incline Bench Press Correctly
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
January 16th, 2024
The Incline Bench Press is one of the best upper chest exercises there is, but there's one major problem preventing us from getting the maximum...
best dumbbell exercises for chest
6
The Best Dumbbell Exercises for Chest
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
November 6th, 2023
Today I’m going to share my favorite chest exercises… but there’s a catch. We can only use dumbbells! I’ll show you what to do whether you...
long head triceps exercises
7
Long Head Tricep Exercises
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
December 19th, 2023
The triceps make up two-thirds of the size of your arm so the bigger your triceps, the bigger your arm muscles. But not all muscle heads of the...
cable chest workout
8
Cable Chest Workout
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
November 2nd, 2023
Today, we're diving deep into the most underrated piece of equipment in your workout arsenal for chest workouts – the cable machine. The constant...
Cable Back Workouts
9
Cable Back Workouts
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
December 12th, 2023
If you want a versatile back workout that hits every angle, challenges muscle recruitment patterns, and provides consistent tension, then you can’t...
cable shoulder exerciees
10
Cable Shoulder Exercises
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS
November 30th, 2023
Unlike barbell or dumbbell shoulder workouts, cables offer consistent tension throughout the exercise, a key factor that can lead to better...
Watch the YouTube version of this article