A properly balanced diet and exercise is imperative to a healthy body. Most people seeking a healthy lifestyle adjust well to dietary changes as they seek to reach their goal. The exercise side, however, always proves to be daunting as work, school, or regular spouse or parental duties compete for time. Lack of time for exercise is still the number one reason for a poor or non existing exercise program. Cut off driving time, membership dues, and expensive designer energy drinks by working out at home.
Adopting proper workout strategies, regardless of whether you’re training at home or at the gym, will still produce the results you seek, even without barbells or dumbbells.
All you need is weight. Yes weight, use yours. You do have body weight right?! Olympic gymnasts train strictly with their body weight. You too can use yours. The best part is the more weight you lose, the less weight you have to lift! With a few simple moves and some space you can exercise at home. Here’s how:
Squats
Squats work the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteus all at the same time.
Place feet shoulder-width apart, back straight. Bend knees and lower your rear as if you were sitting down in a chair, keeping knees over your ankles. Check with a mirror by your side.
Make sure knees do not extend further than toes as you lower your rear. You can practice with a chair to master movement. Sit all the way down in the chair and stand back up. Then lower rear very close to seat before standing back up. Then, graduate to doing squats without chair.
Variations: lunges (Take a big step forward, keeping your spine straight. Bend front knee to approximately 90 degrees. Keep weight on back toes and drop back knee up to two inches from floor. This variation works major muscles on lower body and improves balance. Difficulty level: high).
The dance lunge (the lunge stepping back and out to each side, with each lunge as if dancing. Difficulty level: high).
The duck walk (stand facing a hallway, then turn to left slightly. Squat down completely with fists clenched and held up high like a boxer. Now move left foot in front of right, without standing up too high, pivoting on the ball of right foot. Land left foot forward, heel first. Repeat with right foot. Slight bounce does not matter. There you have it, the duck walk. Difficulty level: wow!).
Push ups
Push-ups strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core muscles. Lie face down, hands shoulder width apart, or more. Feet a few inches apart with toes on the floor. Head and body steady, push with palms upward from floor until your arms are almost fully extended. Pause, lower body to about two inches close to the ground.
Variations: knee push up (lower difficulty level with this one. Do push ups with knees on the floor. Difficulty level: easy).
The diamond push up (clench both thumbs and index finger tips to form a diamond shape on the floor. Difficulty level: high).
Knuckle push-up (use first two knuckles instead of palm. Difficulty level: intense). One arm push up (regular push up with one palm. Feet need to be placed wider apart. Difficulty level: wow! mama).
Elevated push up (normal push up with feet elevated on a chair or coffee table. Difficulty level: very high).
The Jack knife push up (like the elevated push up, but move upper body closer to chair so you resemble a jack knife. Difficulty level: extreme).
The upside down push up (like the elevated, but feet are elevated so high entire body is almost up side down. You might need to support feet on a wall or door. Difficulty level: you kidding me?!!!).
The crocodile walk (from the push up position raise upper body slightly from floor. Move one arm forward about one foot above head, while alternating knee is pulled forward close to stationary palm. Repeat with other limbs to resemble a crocodile. Difficulty level: no way!!).
Dips
Dips work triceps, deltoid, abdominal, and pectoral muscles. Set a chair or bed behind you and place your palms on its edge. From seating position extend legs out in front, straighten arms lifting rear from seat. Keep back straight, move forward so back is away from seat and slowly lower yourself until your upper arms are almost parallel to the floor. Pause, slowly return to the starting position and repeat.
To reduce difficulty keep feet flat on floor closer to your support (bed or bench) and bend knees going down.
Then the abdominals. There are many ab workouts without weights. In fact, ab workouts without weights are more effective in building firmer abdominals. The abdominal muscles do not need to bulk up. That is what weights do, build muscles. Therefore, with body weight the ab muscles grow leaner and more defined as fat is burned off to leave you with more definition, or at least flat abs. Some of these workouts are: crunches, sit up, seated leg tuck, bent knee raises, and lying leg raises.