How to Exercise at Home When You Have Very Little Space

Whenever you see someone demonstrating a home workout online, they seem to have an enormous empty room dedicated entirely to exercise. There’s a perfectly positioned yoga mat, a rack of matching weights and somehow not a coffee table, laundry basket or pile of stuff waiting to be put away anywhere in sight.

My house does not work like that, and I suspect plenty of yours don’t either.

Exercising at home can be incredibly convenient, but only if the exercise actually fits into the home you have. If your available workout space is approximately the size of a bath towel between the sofa and the television, a routine involving enormous lunges, running backwards and forwards or storing a treadmill isn’t particularly helpful.

Fortunately, you really don’t need a home gym to become more active. There are plenty of exercises you can do in a small space, and many require no equipment at all. Even if you’re working with a corner of the bedroom or enough space to stand beside your bed, you can still put together a useful workout.

How much space do you actually need to exercise at home?

Probably less than you think.

A useful starting point is whether you have enough room to stand comfortably and move your arms without hitting anything. If you can also take a step forwards, backwards and to either side, you’ve already got enough room for quite a few exercises.

Floor exercises obviously require a little more space. If you want to use an exercise mat, you’ll need somewhere long enough to lie down, but you don’t necessarily need to keep that area permanently clear. Moving the coffee table for twenty minutes is considerably cheaper than building an extension for your imaginary home gym.

If floor space is really limited, you can simply concentrate on standing or seated exercises instead.

That’s something I think gets forgotten in home workout advice. There isn’t one compulsory collection of exercises you need to perform. If something requires space you don’t have, choose something else.

The best exercises for a small space

When space is limited, I prefer exercises where you essentially stay in one spot. You can still work different areas of your body without needing to travel around the room.

Marching on the spot is probably the simplest example. Start gently and gradually increase the pace or lift your knees a little higher if that feels comfortable. You can use it as a warm-up, do it between strength exercises or simply march while watching television.

Squats are another useful option because they need very little room. If you’re a beginner or don’t feel confident squatting without support, use a sturdy chair and practise sitting down and standing back up instead.

Wall push-ups are particularly good for small homes because your wall is essentially your equipment. Stand facing the wall, place your hands against it and bend your elbows to bring your body towards the wall before pushing away again. As you become stronger, you can adjust your position to make the movement more challenging.

You could also include heel raises, standing knee lifts, side leg raises, standing hamstring curls and gentle upper-body movements. None of those require you to race from one side of the room to the other.

If you’re looking for a complete routine rather than individual exercise ideas, my easy exercise routine for beginners uses several of these movements and can easily be adapted to a small space.

A simple small-space workout without equipment

If you want something you can actually follow rather than a huge list of possibilities, try a simple circuit like this.

Start with one or two minutes of marching on the spot, then do around 5–10 sit-to-stands or squats, followed by 5–10 wall push-ups. You could then do 8 side leg raises on each side, 10 heel raises and finish with another minute or two of marching.

Rest whenever you need to.

If one round is enough, that’s your workout.

As it becomes easier, you could repeat the circuit or gradually increase the repetitions. There’s no need to make it ridiculously complicated.

This is particularly useful if you’re trying to build an exercise habit because you don’t have to spend ten minutes setting everything up before you begin. Move a chair if necessary, put some music on and get started.

What if you can’t jump because you live in a flat?

This is a very real problem that a surprising number of home workouts completely ignore.

If you live above someone else, jumping around your living room at 7am may not be the best way to maintain neighbourly relations.

Thankfully, you don’t have to jump to have a worthwhile workout.

Low-impact exercises keep at least one foot in contact with the floor and can be much more suitable when noise, joints, fitness or personal preference make jumping unappealing.

Instead of jumping jacks, for example, you can do step jacks by stepping one foot out to the side while raising your arms and then returning to the middle before changing sides.

Instead of running on the spot, march.

Instead of jump squats, do ordinary squats or sit-to-stands.

You can still increase the intensity by moving more quickly, using larger arm movements or increasing the duration without repeatedly launching yourself into the air.

Low impact doesn’t mean no impact on your fitness.

Exercising in a bedroom

Sometimes the bedroom is the only bit of privacy you have, particularly if you share your home with other people.

You don’t need enough floor space for an enormous workout. Standing beside the bed can be enough for marching, squats, heel raises, knee lifts and upper-body exercises.

The edge of the bed might seem tempting for exercises such as tricep dips, but I’d be cautious about using furniture in ways it wasn’t designed for. Beds can move and mattresses aren’t stable surfaces. A solid wall or genuinely sturdy chair is much more predictable.

If you’ve got enough room to lay an exercise mat beside the bed, that opens up more possibilities such as bridges and some core exercises.

But don’t feel that floor work is essential. You can do an entire workout standing up.

Exercising in your living room

The living room is probably where many of us have the most usable space, even if it doesn’t look remotely like the beautiful home gyms on Pinterest.

You may need to move a coffee table or footstool temporarily, but you don’t need to dismantle the entire room.

I actually think the living room has one huge advantage: the television.

If boredom is one of the reasons you struggle to exercise, walking or marching on the spot while watching something can make the time go much faster. You can also do strength exercises during adverts or between episodes.

There’s no rule saying exercise requires motivational music and somebody shouting at you to “feel the burn”.

If watching a crime documentary while marching around your sofa means you actually do it, I’m all for it.

What exercise equipment is good for a small home?

This is where I’d resist the temptation to buy equipment immediately.

I’ve definitely had moments when buying an exercise gadget felt suspiciously similar to actually exercising. You research it, order it, get very excited when it arrives and then discover three months later that you’ve created an expensive place to hang clothes.

Start exercising first and work out what would genuinely improve your routine.

If you do want equipment, resistance bands are one of the easiest things to store. They take up very little room and can be used for a variety of strength exercises.

A pair of dumbbells can also be useful without requiring much storage space. If you become more serious about strength training, adjustable weights may take up less room than collecting lots of individual dumbbells.

An exercise mat is handy if you do floor exercises, and you can roll it up afterwards.

But none of those is essential when you’re starting.

Your own body weight, a wall and a sturdy chair give you plenty of options.

What about mini steppers and walking pads?

These can be useful in small homes, but I wouldn’t automatically describe either as “space-saving” simply because they’re smaller than a treadmill.

A walking pad still needs somewhere to go when you’re not using it, and you need enough clear space around it to use it safely. They’re often shown sliding effortlessly under a sofa, which is wonderful if your sofa happens to have exactly the right clearance underneath it.

Mini steppers take up less room, but they aren’t suitable for everyone, particularly if balance is an issue.

Before buying either, I’d actually measure where you intend to use and store it.

It’s very easy to look at the dimensions online and think something seems tiny until there’s a large rectangular object living permanently behind your living-room door.

Can you exercise at home without equipment?

Absolutely.

In fact, if you’re a beginner, I’d start without equipment unless there’s something you specifically want.

You can use bodyweight exercises for strength, march or step for cardiovascular activity and use a chair or wall for support.

Once those exercises start feeling easy, you can make them harder by increasing repetitions, slowing movements down, changing the exercise variation or adding resistance.

Equipment is a way of progressing or adding variety.

It isn’t the thing that makes exercise count.

What if you’re overweight and don’t have much space?

You may find that certain small-space workouts aren’t particularly suitable if you’re exercising in a larger body.

For example, a routine that expects you to repeatedly get down onto the floor and back up again might be uncomfortable. Deep lunges may not work with your range of movement, and jumping exercises can feel unpleasant or put more stress through your joints.

None of that means home exercise isn’t for you.

Choose movements that work with your body and the space you have. A sturdy chair can be incredibly useful for balance and for sit-to-stands, while wall push-ups give you an upper-body exercise without needing to get onto the floor.

I’ve written a much more comprehensive guide to exercise for overweight and obese beginners, including adaptations and ways to get started if your fitness is low.

What if standing exercise is difficult?

You can exercise in a chair too.

A sturdy, stable chair without wheels is generally the most practical option. Sitting towards the front of the chair, you can try alternating knee lifts, raising your heels and toes, moving your arms, shoulder rolls and gentle upper-body movements.

Chair-based exercise can be particularly useful if your mobility, balance or fitness makes standing for longer periods difficult.

I don’t like describing seated exercise as an “easy option” because that suggests everyone should ultimately graduate from it. For some people, seated exercise is simply the form of exercise that works best for their body.

The important thing is finding appropriate ways to move rather than comparing your workout with somebody else’s.

You don’t need an hour-long workout

Small-space exercise also works brilliantly when you only have a short amount of time.

You might do ten minutes before work, a short session while dinner is in the oven or a few exercises while you’re waiting for something else.

I used to have quite an all-or-nothing attitude towards exercise. If I didn’t have enough time to do what I’d decided was a “proper” workout, it was easy to decide there wasn’t much point doing anything.

The problem with that approach is that life rarely provides perfect uninterrupted blocks of time on demand.

Ten minutes of movement is still ten minutes more than you would have done sitting down. If you enjoy it and have more time, carry on. If ten minutes is all you’ve got today, that’s fine too.

How can you make a small-space workout harder?

Eventually, the exercises that challenged you at the beginning will start feeling easier.

That’s good. It means you’re progressing.

You don’t necessarily need more room or a completely new workout when that happens. You can increase the challenge within exactly the same space.

For strength exercises, you might gradually add repetitions or resistance. You could move slightly further from the wall for wall push-ups, progress from sit-to-stands towards squats, or introduce resistance bands or dumbbells.

For cardiovascular activity, you might march for longer, increase your pace or add larger arm movements.

Change things gradually and pay attention to how your body responds rather than assuming every workout needs to leave you exhausted.

Don’t forget about exercise outside the house

There’s a slightly obvious solution to having very little room at home too: you don’t have to do all your exercise there.

Walking is free, doesn’t require storage and doesn’t involve rearranging your living room.

If you enjoy cycling, swimming, exercise classes or the gym, you can combine those with shorter home workouts rather than expecting your tiny spare corner to meet every possible fitness need.

Sometimes home exercise is simply the convenient option for the days when you don’t want to go anywhere.

I like that much more than the idea that you need to create the perfect home gym before you can get fit.

Walking for Weight Loss

Gentle Exercise That Really Counts

How do you stay motivated to exercise at home?

Home exercise has one enormous advantage – convenience – but that can also be its downfall.

When you’ve booked an exercise class or driven to the gym, you’ve made a commitment. When your workout involves standing three metres away from the sofa, it’s remarkably easy to decide you’ll do it later.

Having a rough routine can help. Decide which days you’re likely to exercise and what you’re going to do before the time arrives.

You could also leave equipment somewhere visible if that encourages you, although personally I think there’s a fine line between “helpful visual reminder” and “resistance bands becoming part of the living-room decor”.

Most importantly, make the routine realistic enough that you don’t need enormous amounts of motivation to begin.

I’ve written a whole guide about how to stick to exercise when you always give up, which goes into this in much more detail.

A small home doesn’t have to mean less exercise

If you live in a small house or flat, you probably aren’t going to fit a treadmill, rowing machine, squat rack and beautiful dedicated yoga studio into the corner of your bedroom.

Thankfully, you don’t need to.

You can build strength with exercises that barely require you to move from one spot. You can increase your heart rate without jumping around. You can exercise sitting down if standing isn’t suitable, and you can do a surprisingly useful workout with nothing more sophisticated than a wall and a sturdy chair.

More importantly, you can start with the space and fitness you have now rather than waiting until circumstances are perfect.

I think that’s something I’ve learned about exercise generally. There is always a more impressive version you could be doing: a bigger workout, a better-equipped gym, more steps, heavier weights or longer sessions.

But the exercise you actually do is considerably more useful than the perfect workout you’re planning to start one day.

And if the only available workout space in your house is the tiny patch of carpet between your sofa and television?

Start there.

Sources and further reading

For this one, I’d keep the source section simple because most of the article is practical rather than making complex health claims.

• NHS – Exercise — information about physical activity, strength exercises and ways to become more active.
• NHS Better Health – Get active — ideas and guidance for adding more activity to everyday life.
• NHS – Sitting exercises — gentle seated exercises that can be done at home.

A note about exercise: This article contains general information and isn’t individual medical advice. If you have a health condition, injury, significant problems with balance or mobility, or symptoms that make you unsure whether an exercise is suitable, seek advice from an appropriate healthcare professional.

Other articles about exercising at home you may find helpful

If you are looking to get the most out of exercising at home these articles may help you.

• 8 ways to start exercising regularly in just a week
• Tips to help you achieve 10,000 steps a day
• Ways to make your home more conducive to exercise
• Nintendo ring fit review
• Home workout routine without equipment

If you found this helpful please share!