A lot of the mental endurance and physical stamina soldiers exhibit as they carry out their missions boils down to their intensive training involving a careful selection of rigorous workouts specifically designed to task and toughen all the muscle groups in the body, from the ones for raw manpower to those that maintain surefooted stability.
If you want to enjoy similar fitness levels, you would do well to incorporate some army-style exercises in your home workouts. This article discusses about 11 of them.
These military at home workouts aren’t just designed to give you brute strength. They also challenge your mental endurance, that is, your ability to push yourself to keep going through prolonged periods of discomfort and inconvenience.
As you get better at these military workout programs, you will soon notice that you can handle much more than before without giving into fatigue. Your pain threshold will also increase as your body comes to accept pain and discomfort as a natural part of the road to victory.
Come along as I introduce you to the 11 army home workouts that give force men an edge over the average population or use the table of contents to skip straight to your fave workout.
1. Stretching
Stretching is by far the easiest home workout and what is more, it’s usually the one (along with cardio) that serves as a warmup for any other army workout routine.
Stretching, or pandiculation, as exercise scientists call it, is highly recommended for its role in easing tension in the muscles especially after long periods of sedentary rest. It also facilitates increased blood flow to sleepy limbs prepping them up for action—combat or otherwise.
It is for those reasons and more that exercise experts like Michelle Ditto advise that you stretch your body even before you leave your bed.
One stretch that she recommends and that I love so much is the good morning stretch.
You lay flat on your bed such that you extend your arms overhead with your legs also stretched out straight. Inhale through your nose as you shrug your shoulders up, expand through your rib cage, and tense up all the way through your fingertips and toe tips. Then exhale through your mouth and fully relax every part of your body.
You know the fun part? You can start stretching in whatever position you are in right now, whether you are laying in bed or are standing upright. So, yeah, stretch as you are reading this page.
2. Cardio Exercises
Cardio exercises are a vital component of any military at home workout for beginners. After you have stretched long enough to get your once idle body into the tune of motion, cardio can come in as a next-level warm-up for your military workout at home.
Rather than simply straightening up bones and ligaments to prime them for agile movement, cardio exercises aim to fire up your heart rate and pump up your respiratory. This allows much more oxygen to reach the fuel-demanding muscles that are often called upon for more intensive activities.
After a well-executed cardio session, all of your body should have kicked into high gear to tackle the kind of rigorous regimens that is only normal in military training programs.
So how do you get started with cardio? You could run or cycle or swim. If those options aren’t feasible, you could try any of the following and see what works for you.
- Skip rope. That’s right. Skipping rope might seem like a solemn exclusive for kindergarten kids and primary school pupils, but that could not be further from the truth. There’s nothing childish about it if even soldiers train with it.
- Dancing. Start harnessing the moving power of your favorite music to execute those energetic movements that shake your body into action mode.
- Jump on the trampoline. It feels good and will also help you set those calories on fire!
- Take the stairs. Ever felt your heart racing and your breath pounding furiously after going up a long flight of stairs? Then it’s working! Don’t worry. You will get used to it. The next time you need to climb to the next floor of your apartment or office, skip the elevator and take the stairs instead
- And more
3. Jogging
Jogging could very well be a great option for you if you have a big enough yard or can find a suitable park.
Jogging is a highly valued part of any military workout program at home especially for its emphasis on increasing stamina and building endurance. This energy-intensive exercise can be done as part of a cardio warm-up or can be treated as its own full-rigor workout.
Leveling up your jogging exercises to match the level of military-style workouts involves much more than just increasing your mileage.
To experience what soldiers go through in their running sessions, you will have to bear considerable luggage on your back, no matter the weather conditions, while you jog.
If you are a student, it could be as simple as stuffing your backpack with your school books and running with that extra weight on your back. Or you could try sandbags instead, really, anything that forces you to push your body under a heavy load.
The intent is to cover a reasonable distance in the shortest possible time with added load to your normal body weight.
Your military workout plan at home could begin with short sessions of say a few kilometers (with no load) without any pause. As you get comfortable with that, you can start increasing the distances and progressively shorten the time spent. Then introduce weights on your back while running, starting small at first and then making gradual increases.
Just pick a day you would like to get started, maybe the coming weekend, place your jogging shoes by your bed and commit about five minutes for a start, then gradually increase the duration and the intensity.
4. Squats
Squats are a form of military-grade workouts that aim to strengthen the hip muscles and firm up the stabilizing muscles of your body as well.
In other words, squats help you gain the muscle power to stand up against much load without losing your balance or swaying to either side in the process.
As such, they need a lot of practice with incremental load increases to get used to. However, you will come away with a much stronger core, tougher lower body muscles, and better posture. Thinking of getting started? Follow the steps below:
- Stand straight with the distance between your feet corresponding to your shoulder width
- Start bending on your knees till your hips are slightly behind your knees as if sitting on an invisible chair
- Keep your eyes straight ahead and your back straight. Keep your stomach muscles engaged
- Slowly rise to a standing position
- Repeat all steps
5. Push-ups
An army favorite for both punishments and strength training, pushups are a compound exercise that requires you to push yourself up with (primarily) your hands from a prone position supported on all fours.
This army-style home workout works your abdominal muscles, the triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders.
To be effective, the exercise requires you to keep your entire body rigid and forbids dipping in the middle or arching your back.
Push-ups (or press-ups as they are called in some regions) have been shown to increase heart rates, respiratory rates, and metabolic rates. This ultimately translates to making you more agile, leaner, and at a lesser risk of getting cardiovascular diseases, according to a 2019 study. As such, even seniors should consider adding push-ups to their military-grade workouts.
Go ahead and try let’s say 10 pushups following the steps below:
- Find a comfortable area of the floor that is perfectly even and free of grit
- Get down on all fours supporting your upper body with your hands spaced shoulder width apart
- Extend your legs so they form a straight line with your back and support your feet on your toes
- Whilst keeping your back straight (neither arched nor sagging in the middle), lower your body to the floor till your elbows are at 90°
- Raise your body fully stretching your hands and then alternate lowering and raising movements
6. Sit-ups
One of the most simple and effective army-at-home workouts, sit-ups require you to first lie on your back with bent knees, hands behind your neck, and anchor your feet. The mission is to pull your torso back up against gravity using your core muscles as shown in the video above by CrossFit.
By flexing all these muscles in tandem, you build their strength and increase muscle mass. Sit-ups also increase the flexibility of your hips and spine. The result is that you gain better stability, avoid back pain and injuries from stiffness in your torso, and gain more resistance to fatigue.
Here’s how to execute your standard sit-up:
- First, lay on your back with your knees bent
- Put your fingertips behind your ears (not behind your head!) making sure that your elbow is bent and pointing out
- Lift your back of the floor bringing your torso as close to your thighs as possible
- Lower your torso down to the floor and repeat all over
7. Burpees
If you’ve ever felt that your conventional push-up wasn’t body-racking enough and then decided to maybe add a jump squat, then congrats, you’ve just unlocked a burpee!!
The addition of the leap in the air means that a burpee allows you to exercise your lower and upper body muscles in ways that cannot be accomplished with a push-up or a jump squat alone.
That’s why burpees are often used in high intensity interval training (HIIT) regiments. These commando training regiments task whole muscle groups across your entire body at once, burn fat and fire up your heart rate—cardio fitness—and improve your posture and balance amongst other benefits.
Burpees come in many types but whichever one you choose, both your cardiovascular fitness and your strength will be tested.
You will know which one is being put to the test depending on your bodily reaction to the workout. Panting heavily after a round of burpees means your cardio health is the test subject while feeling sore would imply a test of strength.
Feel like trying out your burpees now? Get started with the following steps:
- Begin by standing erect with your feet shoulder width apart
- Bend your knees bringing your butt down and plant your hands palm down on the floor in front of your feet. This is the squat position
- Kick your legs back making sure your body is straight from shoulder to heels
- Lower your chest to the floor until your elbows are at 90°. Keep your body straight
- Raise your body up like in a push-up while maintaining a straight body
- Jump your legs forward and ensure your feet land flat on the floor
- Then jump up to get your arms as close to the ceiling as possible. Land in the original standing position and restart the process all over
8. Planks
Achieving military-level fitness requires that you maintain a strong core that enables you to execute swift and highly coordinated movements efficiently. For that, add planks to your military home gym workouts.
It involves assuming the plank position where you support your body facedown with your palms (high plank) or forearm (low planks) and toes as if you wanted to do a push-up.
It sounds easy but the hard part is in holding that position and executing various challenges like moving an arm or lifting a leg without getting destabilized.
Planks are highly recommended for dealing with back pain issues and have proven effective in helping to correct posture issues. Above all, the intense pressure placed on the shoulders and the core muscles make planking one of your best bets for improving balance and coordination when performing athletic movements or maneuvers.
Start improving your balance and posture one plank at a time!
Follow the steps below:
- Get into the push-up position
- Raise your body off the ground using your firearms
- Ensure your body is straight from your head to your feet
- Keep your gaze down and breathe steadily
- Engage your core muscles and hold your position for as long as you can
9. Rope climb
If you disagree with me when I say rope climbing is definitely a military-grade workout, then I don’t know what is.
It’s really one of those workouts that require you to engage all of your body’s muscles—without weights.
For one thing, you will be using your core muscles to generate stability and make up for the rope’s lack of rigidity. For another, climbing a rope is almost like an all-out defiance of gravity, and for that, you will need to muster all the strength in your arms to keep climbing.
Your legs will also need to be working full-time to clamp on the rope and provide a secure foothold. Here is where your hamstrings will be subjected to a full dose of labor.
Rope climbs are also an excellent way to build your abs and grow your biceps—the latter is due to the way rope climbing constantly makes your biceps contract rather than elongate—and acquire a much stronger grip force.
If you’ve never tried the rope climb, watch the above video to get started.
Or follow the steps below:
- Be prepared. Wear functional fitness shoes that have a rugged outsole and durable corners. Also wear protective clothing that covers every part of your body that will be rubbing against the rope to prevent your skin peeling off as you climb.
- Start climbing following the reach, lift, clamp, and stand format. First, from your standing position, reach the rope as high as you can with your hands. You can jump to extend your reach.
- Once you’ve held on to your reach, lift your knees as close as you can to your chests so your feet can be as far up the rope as possible
- Clamp the rope by using one foot to tether the rope on the other foot
- Stand up by straightening your knee and stretching your body straight.
- Repeat the sequence until you reach the top of the rope
10. Pull-ups
Pull-ups, not to be confused with chin ups are among the best strength training workout routines that focus on making your upper body stronger. They are so popular it’s safe to say that no military at home workout regiment is complete without it.
To get started, you have to hang from a pull-up bar with hands facing away from you and your body fully extended. (In a chin up, your hands face towards you).
You then pull your body upward with your hands until your chin comes above the pull-up bar.
If you need a workout routine with special focus on your back and upper body as well as arm and shoulder strength, the pull-up is all you need.
This exercise is also very good at increasing your grip strength as you need a very strong grip to lock on the pull-up bar.
Hence, if you don’t like your present grip force, you can try to increase it with pull-up workouts after ruling out any medical cause.
Wanna give it a try right now? You can watch this video on how to make a pull-up bar yourself if you don’t already have one.
Follow these steps to execute a pull-up:
- The pull-up bar should be high enough to require you to jump to grab it
- Stand below the bar with your feet shoulder width apart.
- Jump up and grip the bar with an overhand grip with your hands shoulder width apart
- Bend your knees and cross your ankles
- Pull yourself up until your chin is level with the bar
11. Lunge
Last but certainly not least in the roster of home workouts that mimic military rigor, the lunge is an excellent exercise for increasing leg strength and thereby improving stability and dexterity.
Performing lunges regularly can help you run better, walk better, and climb the stairs better, et cetera because the process of executing a lunge mimics all those movements—with greater intensity.
The exercise works nearly all the muscle groups throughout your lower body—hips, knees, and ankles—toughening them and helping to lower your risk of injury in those areas.
If that goal resonates with you, then let’s pull some lunges right where you are!
See the steps to follow:
- Stand up straight with your feet spaced apart a little but with neither one in front of the other
- Extend your right leg forward in a big step landing your feet flat on the floor
- Go down straight on both knees until your front knee is at 90° and your back knee is touching the ground
- Push yourself up back to your original standing position with your right leg
- Repeat all over and try alternating with your left leg
Wrapping Up
In this article, I have discussed 11 workout routines that, if consistently followed, can make you as physically fit as a combat-ready force man.
The goal is not to wear yourself down until you faint out of exhaustion, rather it is to help you progressively break through the thresholds of your physical stamina and mental endurance until you unlock your full potential.
Hence, you should not engage in these workouts to the point of injury nor would it be advisable to pick up a workout at a difficulty level that is way beyond your current limit as that would only frustrate you and defeat the purpose of the exercise.
That aside, have fun on your journey to military-level fitness.
