With chilly weather just around the corner, unless you live in a warm climate, it can be difficult to get outside and go for a run, hike, or take part in other regular outdoor workouts.
For many people, joining a gym doesn’t fit into a tight budget, but that doesn’t mean you should forget about exercising until the weather warms.
You don’t even need pricey equipment in order to get an effective workout. Just use what you have at home!
High Intensity Interval Training
Even if you don’t have a lot of time, this 17-minute workout blasts calories through HIT, or high intensity training, delivering the same health benefits that would be derived from hours of traditional exercise.
Each of the six exercises are performed for a full 60 seconds with a 20-second low intensity interval in between. During this time, you’ll just need to keep your body moving by marching in place. There is no equipment required; the workout uses only your body weight.
Start out with 60 seconds of classic cardio with jumping jacks, which burn lots of calories and tones the inside and outside of thighs, lats, quads, and deltoids. Follow each exercise by marching in place for 20 seconds.
The lateral jump is next which helps to build strength within the ankles, hips, and knees as well as targeting the outer and inner thighs, glutes, quads, and calves. The other four exercises include the jumping oblique twist, which helps slim the waist, followed by burpees, pendulum swings, and high knees. All of these exercises can be found on YouTube with demonstrations that are helpful to ensure each is performed correctly.
Smartphone apps
There are practically an endless number of smartphone apps that can help you work out at home and even get into the best shape of your life without ever having to set foot into a gym.
Just a few include:
- You are Your Own Gym. This app features more than 200 video demonstrations and numerous quick workout options, allowing you to create a customized workout for your skill level.
- 500 Bodyweight Challenges. You’ll find videos with exercise demonstrations as well as numerous challenges.
- Yoga-pedia. If you want to learn yoga without the pressure, this app will help you learn the basics with nearly 100 poses featured.
- Boot Camp Challenge. This app includes more than 200 exercises from beginner to advanced routines as well as beat-sync technology, meaning that it matches the tempo of your music to your workout.
No smartphone, no equipment: just you
Of course you don’t need a television, computer, or smartphone to work out at home. There are many different, and fun, ways to exercise from the comfort of your home.
A few options include:
- Dancing. Just turn up your music and dance around. You don’t need to know how to dance, just have fun! It can lift your spirits and give your heart a great workout.
- Stepping. If you have any steps or stairs in your home, use them to perform step exercises that will tone your legs, glutes and burn lots of calories.
- Lifting weights with household objects. Just use whatever you have at home to strengthen your arm muscles such as water jugs or laundry detergent bottles.
- Jogging. Just jog in place to music or while watching television.
- Jumping jacks or jumping rope. You can perform jumping jacks or pretend like you’re jumping rope – an actual rope isn’t necessary, but if you happen to have one all the better.
Exercising doesn’t have to cost a penny and it’s one of the best gifts you can give yourself!
-The Alternative Daily
