Far too often we think we need fancy equipment and an expensive gym membership to get fit, lose weight and feel great.  The truth is that exercise has been around since long before your local gym set up for business.  Your home has everything you need to get fit, lose weight and get healthy, without buying a single piece of equipment.

Here are the top 5 exercises you can do at home, or in your yard or local park to get fit , lose weight and feel great without a single piece of equipment.

Push-Ups - Yes, push-ups are challenging, but the are worth the effort.  One of the most effective ‘whole body’ exercises, push-up work more than just your arms.  An excellent muscle development and endurance builder, push-ups work the arms, back and stomach.  Start with modified push-ups, by decreasing the amount of your body weight on your arms by placing your knees on the ground.  Once you are a push up expert you can vary the position of your hand placement to challenge different areas of the arms and shoulders.  Challenge yourself to your maximum number of push-ups without a break and set goals to increase the amount you can do in a set period of time.  Before you know it you will be doing sets of 50 and have the arms, back and abs to show for it.

Sit-Ups - The classic crunch is a powerful exercise, that builds the muscles that helps us move daily.  Your core, or stomach muscles, work with your back muscles to allow you to stand, walk, bend, and lift.  A weak core, or weak stomach muscles is often the root cause of lower back pain and problems in mobility.  The crunch can be done in a number of ways, and no single crunch is wrong.  Spend a little time on your living room carpet working your core, and you will see that your abs will get strong faster than you would think, and your waistline with shrink as well.

Squat - The squat is the single most important lower body exercise.  It develops the muscles of the thigh, butt and lower back.  Squats require no equipment, and are very effective with just your own body weight.  Start out slow by holding onto your counter top or the back of a chair, and slowly bend your knees to a 90 degree angle and stand back up.   Start out slowly and build up to sets of 12 to 15.

Calf Raises - Simply hold the back of a chair or your counter top for support and rise up onto our tippie toes and slowly lower yourself back down.  This exercise develops the muscle of the lower legs, and is important to get a great set of calves.  Want to pump this exercise up?  Try the raises on the stairs, hang your heels over the edge and lower all the way down.

Superman - On your hand and knees, alternate lifting opposite arms and legs (right arm with left leg - then switch to left arm with right leg).  Try to hold your center still while raising the arms and legs.  This exercise works the core, the abs and back.