Home Workout Routines

A11 women (and men!) need to exercise, no matter what shape or size, young or old – and that includes you.

Where do you begin? What specific type of exercise will benefit your body – what are your capabilities and limita­tions? Is it enough to assume you are comparatively fit because you walk up a few stairs or stretch and bend a little as you go about your household chores? And is it true that you can achieve that long-desired perfect body shape from toning up different areas like thighs and buttocks?

First of all we must look at the importance of exercise in relation to our health. This surely is the primary reason for keeping fit. Women are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as arthritis, osteoporosis (brittle-bone disease) and heart attacks in their middle years if they have been leading a sedentary life, sitting slumped in front of the television, losing muscle tone and even bone mass.

For health insurance reasons you owe it to yourself to take care of your one and only body – your working machine. It is after all one of the few areas in our lives over which we have control.

By the age of 50, around 44 per cent of women are overweight, compared with around 21 per cent of 20-24 year-olds. Are you a health risk?

Before we take a look at the right fitness plan for you let’s look at the physical benefits of regular exercise:
1. The biggest muscle in your body is your heart. Getting the circulation going ensures you are helping to efficiently pump gallons of blood around your body.
2. Bone-strengthening exercises like running, aerobics, skiing, swimming, brisk walking and dancing all help to maintain bone mass. Osteo­porosis is a painful disease and causes broken bones and humped backs in 1 in 4 women.

How many of us like our bodies, are confident with the body shape we possess? We assess and evaluate a person on an initial first impression – this includes their whole body image. If you are trying desperately to cover up your body, this will reflect not only in the way you dress but how you move. So how can exercise help?

1. Too often we only look at our faces in a mirror. Exercising in front of a mirror encour­ages us to take a real look at our bodies and get to know and control them better.
2. The sheer pleasure of enjoying the fun of exercise is reflected in our mental well-being.
3.Confidence increases. The way you move, sit and stand will show you have a greater body awareness and pride. Your body language will speak volumes about your happy state.
4.Inhibition decreases. When you are not in harmony with your body, you learn to be less tactile, less physical – learning to ‘reach out’ as a form of communication becomes second nature when you are used to exercising. •
5.As the body tension is eased out by working out the body, muscles relax and a good sleep induced.

Want to get into shape fast? Then body weight cardio workout routines might be just the thing for what your body needs. To be more specific, the method I would like to discuss is the use of high impact circuit style training. With circuits, you do a certain amount of exercises (usually 3-4 at least) with no rest in between each exercise until the set is complete. This method is an excellent way of getting into shape such as increasing your heart health, burning fat, and also building lean muscle. It also saves you time and money because of the fact that you’re able to workout at home without the use of any workout equipment.

You should choose exercises that incorporate large muscle groups that would be used at any given time. For example, you could choose squats over leg lifts, planks over crunches, and other large compound movements that work large muscle groups as whole instead of doing isolation exercises that only workout single muscle groups. The reason why it’s more beneficial is because the more muscle groups you use, the more calories and muscle energy you will expend. The more energy you expend, the more energy you’ll gain back which could result in more muscle mass and muscle definition.

Another key to home cardio workouts is keeping your rest periods between each exercise or set to a minimum. By doing so, you’ll add more intensity to your workouts as more oxygen will be needed by your body as the lengthening of your rest period will be shortened. One of the best ways to go about doing this is rest only after your circuit is complete as the workout will be more challenging to you and your body. Another great thing about keeping your rest periods to a minimum is that you’ll finish your workouts faster and your body’s metabolism would also increase so your body can burn more fat. Last but not least, circuits will also help you build lean mean muscle, which is something traditional home cardio workouts just don’t offer up.

As you start to notice your fitness levels increase, challenge yourself by progressing to more challenging body weight exercises. Of course, if you’re just starting out, you should always begin with exercises that are easy to do. Taking everything in a slow but steady gradual pace is key to your fitness. As you progress, moving on to more difficult exercises will result in greater challenges for your body. By keeping the ability to keep challenging your body, you will avoid hitting the oh so dreaded plateau or fitness peak so to speak.