There’s no need to go to the gym to achieve your exercise goals you can stay in your own home and get a great quality workout. In this article I will discuss the benefits of exercising at home and give you some ideas of what to do and how to do it.
Exercising at home is very convenient there’s no travelling in peak hour traffic and you don’t have to wait for car parking. Forget wearing the latest fashions or putting on make-up to keep up with the gym bunnies, and you don’t have to compete for gym equipment with them too. There are no peak times and you can work out anytime, if you are pushed for time you can do some exercises before you go to bed or when you wake up. Get up 5 minutes earlier, roll out of bed and do some push ups, squats and crunches. That will wake you up in the morning. No matter what you do, the trick is to do your exercises at the same time every day to try and get into a routine. Exercise while watching your favourite regular TV show, for example. Forget expensive gym memberships that you never get the value, buy some light weights and a Swiss ball instead for only a fraction of the cost of training at the gym.
As a beginner you need very little equipment to train at home, often using your own bodyweight or small household items that will provide enough resistance. For exercises such as push ups and lunges your own body weight will mostly likely be sufficient, but for upper body exercises such as shoulder presses and bicep curls, household items such as baked bean cans and water bottles are a good start. Then as you become more advanced I recommend some light dumbbells, resistance bands and a Swiss ball. Most exercises can be completed with these three pieces of equipment. Other great pieces of equipment include boxing bags, skipping ropes, medicine balls, and suspension training bands that you can hook under the top of a sturdy door. Gradually increase your collection of equipment as you progress and then as soon as you know it your friends may want to train at home with you too; which is a great thing as exercise can be a social experience. There’s more accountability to complete the training when you do it with someone else; train with your partner and you can push each other.
Even though you are training in the comfort of your own home, don’t exercise in your dressing gown and fuzzy slippers. Wear some athletic clothing and put on some exercise shoes this will put you in the mood for exercise. Then start your routine. I personally recommend doing a circuit of resistance exercises as this tones the body and burns calories. But you can also put on a fitness DVD or fitness program and participate, or you can play an exercise game on a gaming console. Wii Fit and other console games are hugely popular and provide a moderate level of exercise. Don’t bother with the latest TV ab workout machine gimmick; simple abdominal exercises will achieve the same result. In fact most of the improvements you see on the TV come from the diet and cardio program that comes with the ab machine. Doing four minutes of abs a day is not going to get you a six-pack: sorry.