How to start training at home with almost no equipment

The hard part of training isn't the equipment, it's showing up. Training at home takes away the commute, the membership and the "I'll go tomorrow." You can start this week with a door frame and a few square feet of floor.

What you need

A pull-up bar. Pulling is the hardest thing to train at home without one, and a Doorway Pull-Up Bar (paid link) solves it. Measure your door frame's width and trim before you buy, and test the bar with your feet close to the floor before you trust it with your full weight.
Resistance bands. A Resistance Bands Set (paid link) with several tensions adds load to rows, presses and squats, and a band looped over the bar helps you work up to your first pull-up.
Optional. Mini loop bands (paid link) for warm-ups and glute work, and later an adjustable dumbbell (paid link) for when squats and lunges get easy.

The workout

Three sessions a week on days that aren't back to back, like Monday, Wednesday and Friday, about 30 to 40 minutes each. Do three sets of every exercise and rest one to two minutes between sets. End each set when you have one or two good reps left, not when your form falls apart.

Push-ups: 8 to 15 reps. Too hard: hands on a counter. Too easy: feet up on a chair.
Pull-ups: As many clean reps as you can. Can't do one yet: see below.
Squats: 10 to 20 reps. When that's easy: split squats with your back foot on a couch.
Band rows: 10 to 15 reps. Anchor the band at chest height and pull your elbows back.
Glute bridges: 12 to 20 reps, with a loop band just above your knees.
Plank: 20 to 45 seconds. Squeeze your glutes and keep your hips level.

Your first pull-up

Not being able to do a pull-up yet is normal. Work up to it in this order, and stay on each step until it feels solid:

Hang from the bar with straight arms for as long as you can.
Step up on a chair so your chin is over the bar, then lower yourself as slowly as you can, three to five seconds down.
Loop a band over the bar, put a knee or foot in it, and do full pull-ups with the help. Move to a lighter band over time.
One clean pull-up. Then two. Then sets of a few.

Progression is the whole game

Your body adapts to what you ask of it. If you do the same ten push-ups for six months, you'll look the same in six months. Every week, try to beat last week by a little: one more rep, one more set, a slower lowering, a harder variation or a stronger band.

Write every session down. A note on your phone is enough: the exercise, the reps, the band. When you hit the top of a range on all three sets, say 15 push-ups three times, move to a harder version and start again at the bottom of the range.

Food and sleep

Training is the signal; food and sleep are what you build with. Get some protein at every meal: meat, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, beans. If that's hard on busy days, a scoop of Optimum Nutrition Whey (paid link) in milk or water is a convenient top-up, not a requirement. Go to bed at roughly the same time every night.

If you also want to get leaner, a few rounds with an Adjustable Jump Rope (paid link) on your off days builds conditioning without leaving the house. What you eat will matter more for that than any extra workout.

What to expect

In the first weeks you'll be sore and you'll improve fast, mostly because you're learning the movements. After that, progress gets slower and steadier, which is when writing things down pays off. The mirror is a bad judge from day to day, so take a photo in the same spot and the same light every four weeks and compare those instead.

Effort should burn; it shouldn't hurt. If a movement causes sharp pain, stop doing it. If you have an injury or a health condition, check with a doctor before you start.