Are you one of those people that completely distracted at the gym? Or are you too shy to ask if you can use the dumbbells before someone else? Maybe working out at the gym is not your thing. Don’t despair; there are loads of ways to get your sweat that don’t cost a dime. This article will share with you some tips about home workouts and how you can use your body and things around you to get in a full body workout.
Back to playschool
A great alternative to gym equipment cardio exercise is just going back to the basic. And with basics, we mean the jump rope. This is one of your greatest fitness tools since it will provide you will high intensity cardiovascular exercise. Start to get the feel and speed of your body jumping, as you progress you can even try alternating your legs with each jump or doing trick in mid-air. You might think it’s easy, but you will be surprised. In the beginning try jumping for 3 minutes at time. After each jump session do a set of resistance or strength exercises to prevent putting too much pressure on your knees and shins.
Dance the day away
These days you can find awesome exercise videos online. These can be downloaded at a small cost, or you can even rent a few exercises DVD’s from your nearest video store. Depending on your style of dance you can go for Zumba, Hiphop or just plain Aerobics videos. These exercises can be done right in the middle of your living room and you will rarely need extra equipment or tools. Invest in a basic yoga mat and good exercise shoes and you will be set. If you don’t work well with instruction and you just want to dance in your own unique way, just pump up some music and dance the day away while you are doing some chores at home. You will be surprised at how many calories you can burn when you are spring cleaning the house.
Get the Kettle Boiling
So this can either be for a cup of coffee, or a wonderful strength, cardio and toning exercise. In this case you can turn on the kettle to boil water for your post-workout cup of tea, but first do your Kettlebell workout routine. Kettlebells are a great investment since you can do a full body workout with this equipment without spending too much money. Opt for a medium sized Kettlebell for all the different workouts you will be doing. If you don’t know how it works you can always use Youtube to watch a few videos explaining the exercises. This way you can see if it’s your ‘thing’ before investing in one.
If you don’t want to spend money on Kettlebells what you need some sort of dead weight, you can either fill empty water bottles with water or sand. Use your scale to check if both ‘Waterbells’ weight the same, otherwise you might end up with one arm bigger than the other.
Create an Indoor circuit
You might be at a point in your home workout regime where you are ready for a challenge. Why not build your own Indoor circuit with what you have lying around the house. Choose an area in your home with a lot of space to move around. Choose about five exercise ‘stations’ and do a different exercise at each on. Think in the lines of Push-ups at Yoga mat station, Jump rope at the next, Plank at another station, do jumping jacks, crunches etc. You can design your indoor circuit to suite your specific needs. Do you have an indoor staircase? Even better. Get your heart rate up by running up and down the stairs before each strength station.
Kitchen Squats
Do you ever find yourself standing around in the kitchen waiting for the microwave, stove, oven, dishes etc? Use this time to do some standing squats and lunges. If you are warming something in the microwave for 5 minutes, see how many squats and lunges you can do in that time. The next time you can try and beat your previous record.
These are just a few basic things you can do to help you exercise at home without spending too much money. Some people prefer exercising in the privacy of their own home, and if you can stay motivated and push yourself- exercising at home is very beneficial. It’s about using the time you have to do what you can.
Guest post by contributing author, Linda Michelle.