Everyone has time to exercise! You know that amount of time sitting in front of the TV, on that couch, eating that extra slice of pizza or cup of ice cream? That's the time you should be exercising! Don't have any equipment? You don't need any; all you need is your body and determination to get rid of that lazy mind! Can't afford a gym membership? You don't need one; you can exercise anywhere and anytime!
Below are five simple exercises that you can do in the comfort of your own home. The routine below combines upper body and lower body movements to keep the heart rate up helping you burn more calories! You can even do it while watching TV!
1. Burpees - A compound exercise utilizing most muscles of the body to build lean muscle while raising the heart rate making it a great warm-up exercise . They work the trapezius, lower back, triceps, pectorals, deltoids, hamstrings (when done with heels on the ground), gluteals, quadriceps, calves, and abdominal muscles. Put on a 3 minute song and aim for 20 burpees in that 3 minutes.
2. Squats - Stand feet hip width apart; lower yourself down keeping your knees in alignment with your ankles not passing the toes; release and stand upright squeezing the gluteal muscles. This is a lower body exercise that strengthens the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals. Start off with 3 sets of 20 repetitions. You can make this harder by keeping the movement continuous (without pausing at the top).
3. Lunges - Stand feet hip width apart; take a big step forward with one leg; bend the back leg as you lower your body towards the ground; push off the back leg to the starting position and repeat with the other leg. This exercise works the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, calves, and hip flexors. You can do walking lunges across/around the room or try 3 sets of 20 stationary lunges on each leg.
4. Plank - The best exercise for the tranverse abdominus, the innermost layer of the abdominals that serves as the core muscles to hold our organs together. Hold this pose for at least 30 seconds without letting your belly droop and you will feel the burn! Try aiming for more than one minute or if you want to make it more challenging, try taking one leg or one arm off the ground. The key to this pose is to keep the wrists directly underneath the shoulders, hips lowered so that the body is in a straight line from head to toe, and the core tight.
5. Push-Ups - A great upper body exercise that strengthens the back, chest, triceps, biceps, forearm, and abdominals. Start in a plank position keeping your wrist directly below the shoulders; bend at the elbows to lower yourself down while keeping your body in a straight line; push yourself up to the starting position. You can vary the intensity by changing the position of the hands. The closer the hands are towards the middle, the harder it is. If it's too hard to perform on your toes, try them on your knees. Aim for 3 sets of 20; once you're really good, try the one hundred pushups challenge!
No equipment needed; no excuses wanted!
Have fun sweating!
[images courtesy of: oxygenmag; fitsugar; eastbaytrainer; dailyscubadiving; willpowerfit]
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