Michele Maroldo

You need to exercise and work out but you just don’t have the time to leave the house and drive to a gym to get in a thirty minute work out.  Why not stay home and exercise?  There are plenty of things you can do at home to get in a good work out in a short amount of time.

If money is not an issue and you have available space in your home you can invest in a universal type of exercise equipment.  Examples of these would be a Bowflex, Soloflex, or similar type apparatus in which you can train your entire body with one machine.  Another option is to purchase a set of dumbbells at a local department store and use them to target each muscle group.  And last but not least, you can always substitute dumbbells by using cans of food or by filling up empty milk gallon containers with water or sand.  Use these as you would dumbbells and you can effectively train each muscle group.  Furniture also comes in handy as an apparatus.  Use a chair or a bench, even a bed as place to lean or lay on while using dumbbells or a dumbbell substitute.

For cardiovascular training, you can run in place, do jumping jacks, or go for a walk outside.  You can also purchase an aerobic video or DVD that you can do at home.  Again, if money is not an issue and you have available space, consider purchasing a stationary bicycle or treadmill.  These provide an excellent way to get your aerobic exercise done.

To get the maximum benefits, a good exercise program should include both muscle building and fat burning.  That means doing some muscle building exercises and at least twenty minutes of cardiovascular exercise.  If you have limited time, you do not have to do both on the same day.  For example, you can do your strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and do your cardiovascular training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays OR Sundays.  Whether you are strength training or cardiovascular training it should only take thirty minutes of your time.

It is important to remember to stretch before, during, and after exercise.  These need not be complicated movements but just enough to keep your muscles flexible.  Keep your exercise program simple and uncomplicated and you will be more apt to stick with it.

And don’t forget that housecleaning, gardening, mowing the lawn, and many more household chores all burn calories.  The trick is to keep moving and move at a good pace.  As soon as you raise your heart rate, you are burning fat!  So get started today, get moving, get exercising and in no time you will look and feel great.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under weight loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.