I've gotten into a nice routine of working out at the gym 4-5 times/week. That being said, I feel like I can be doing more from home, at night, just before I go to bed. Though I'm currently limited by the standard push-ups and sit-ups in my arsenal.

Can you recommend any good exercises that I can do from a yoga mat on my floor? Abs-stuff, especially?

I used to be a push-up guy until my elbows and wrists got messed up from bboying/wushu... now I just plank for as long as I can, and then hold for 20 seconds more. Just set up your laptop in front of you on the floor and turn on youtube.com

5x is pretty impressive! I'm happy if i make it to the gym 4 times a week.

I don't have any tips for bedtime, I'm super lazy when it comes to that. But if you want a six pack, you should probably focus more on your diet. If you go to the gym 5x a week you probably do enough exercise on your abs for now.

I don't care much for abs, but I face the opposite problem with my diet, I should eat 2x as much to achieve my workout goals, and I've found it very, very hard to exercise that much control over my diet.

Josh, I'm not personally big into bodyweight exercises, but "You Are Your Own Gym" is a nicely laid out set of bodyweight exercise progressions that is quite popular in fitness circles: amazon.com

Josh, I would love to get a sense of your overall goals and current workout programming as well. Hearing more details would let me be much more helpful :)

My goal is to lose weight and get more toned - not necessarily get bulky or build muscle.

M, W, F I've been working with a trainer doing a variety of (full-body) weight exercises. I also come in and do [fat burning] cardio 2x/week (inclined jog, stair master), and once on the weekend to do a beach workout (chest, bicep, etc.)

Josh,

Let's start off with the basics:

1. The idea of tone, as most understand it, is simply about having relatively low body fat and being *somewhat* muscular. Muscular != "bulky", but make no mistake, the popular conception of "toned" involves a minimum level of muscle on the body.

2. For most men, you need to be 10-12% body fat to be considered "toned." But it's entirely possible to have very little muscle at these BF levels and completely miss the mark. This applies to both men and women.

3. Most people should not look to cardio to burn fat. It's generally an inefficient approach. Instead, look toward setting up the right nutrition plan. Cliff notes here: lower overall calories, keep protein high.

4. Train all muscle groups.

Some clarifying notes:

Cardio is great for overall health and conditioning. But it is not a good idea to associate it with fat loss in general. Overemphasizing it can lead to an actual lowering of the metabolism and loss of lean tissue, which you do not want.

You can absolutely get to your desired level of leanness without an ounce of cardio, believe it or not.

What sort of full body workouts is your trainer having you do?

Brian's right, cardio is great for your health, but does a lot less fat burning than you think. More high-impact exericses, will be the ones that build muscle and trim excess fat. Eating right also plays a big part - if you want to build lean muscle, there's a certain amount of good calories you need to intake, with certain levels of protein etc.

It's also important not to eat before bed. Your body needs to shut down at bedtime, and firing up your metabolism in its rested state isn't good for you.

Collin - can you provide any citations for that last claim?

Brian - This is something I learned in my fitness & nutrition class last year, and i can't remember the name of the textbook (if I can find it, I'll be sure to post), but here's a quick link outlining the reasons why - livestrong.com

Although I stated "don't eat before bed", really it should be "don't eat too much before bed."

I think a very light snack can be ok, nothing that works your digestive system too hard though. It's common sense really, everything else in your body is shutting down when you go to bed, so why fire up your equally sleepy digestive system?

Collin, I posted about this question on Fitocracy, which resulted in an interesting discussion: fitocracy.com

I think the nutrition and fitness advice in this branch has been great so I won't offer any ideas on what exercises/things to eat.

But I will say that it was important for me to not try to do too much when I first started working out and trying to eat right. I found I built much more sustainable habits by slowly layering things in over the course of a year rather than going from 0-60 all at once. This also gives you a chance to see what really works for you and what doesn't.

The Greatist just tweeted a link to "50 Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere": greatist.com