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.

With the wide range of muscle training recipes out there, it’s sometimes hard to choose the right training program. And especially these days, with the economic recession, we all want to get the best value for the dollar spent. Body weight training should be considered as a viable alternative to working out at a gym.

Body weight training is free, no need for fancy equipment, exercise bikes, steppers or ab rotators. No matter how cheap the gym subscription is, it’s better to have the same advantages for free. Just think of what you can do with that money, or how much you would be saving in, let’s say, a whole year.

Body weight training can be done in the comfort of your home. No need to drive to the gym, spend time in traffic and be tied to their working hours. Feel like exercising at midnight? Go for it! Want to do a few pushups on the lunch break? Your only concern should be to make sure you have locked the door, or you will look awkward if someone walks in on you.

Experts say that body weight training develops a natural body shape. With weight lifting at a gym, there is always the risk of building muscles unevenly. Unless carefully supervised by a trainer, you risk ending up with, let’s say, an oversized chest, huge biceps and skinny legs, or viceversa.

Last, but not least, with body weight training done in the comfort of your home you can work at your own pace. Lots of people feel ashamed to go to a gym, because of what others might think of their poor performance. It could be embarrassing showing your oversized belly or that the guy next to you can push 90 kilos and he is just about half your size.

So you don’t want to spend the extra money and time that it takes to go to the gym, but you still want to get in shape right? Having to workout and exercise at home might be your solution, but would it be worth your time?

Increasing your level of physical fitness is the goal of exercising and working out. Working out should not be considered or felt as a chore, as it should be interesting and fun all at the same time. One of the reasons why people begin to fail their home workout routine is because working out became an activity that seemed more as a boring and dreaded burden. You should want to look forward to your home workouts instead of dreading it.

Then there are people who keep up with their routines, but never change it up. By doing the same exercises over and over again all the time without any adjusting, your level of fitness will peak out and new gains will cease to a halt. Although at the same time, a lot of people are so busy with their lives that they barely have time to think about changing up their routine. Or the opposite that they get comfortable with their routine that they don’t want to change it. But in the end, they end up losing interest because of doing the same home workout routine over and over again.

Though hiring a personal trainer might not be for everyone, it does have its benefits and quirks. Some people resent having to stick to the same routine all the time and having to check in with their trainer at the gym. It’s mostly because of their busy lives get in the way, and can’t always meet up with their trainers on time.