At-Home Workouts

Exercising at home, for the most part, I have been learning to be creative with my workouts.  As I have written, I mix things up: running, both outside and the treadmill; elliptical; strength training, circuit-style and regimented sets; kickboxing; and soon, a 2-week boot camp.

 

I decided that I would like some cardio at the beginning of my strength training, so I have created a quick warm-up, which I would like to share with you. 

 

Each exercise is 12-15 reps for 3 sets:

Jumping Jacks, High Hands/High Knees, Mountain Climbers

Squats, Lunges, Burpees

 

I am going to switch in different variations, like Scissorjacks and Double Mountain Climbers, plus Jump Squats and Sprawls.

 

So, my warmup will look something like this:

{Set 1/Set 2/Set 3}

 

~Jumping Jacks/Scissorjacks/Jumping Jacks

~High Hands/High Knees

~Mountain Climbers/Double Mountain Climbers/Side to Side Mountain Climbers

~Squats/Jump Squats/Sumo Squats

~Front Lunges, Side Lunges, Reverse Lunges

~Burpees/Sprawls/Reverse Burpees

 

 

If you are just beginning on your fitness journey, or if you don't have much time for a full workout, this can be your workout.  I would also add an ab/core of 3-5 exercises, same 12-15 reps for 3 sets. 

 

Here are some ab/core exercises to try: planks, side plank crunches, one arm-one foot planks, bicycles, X-ups, flutterkicks, Russian twists, plank twists, Pilates 100s, lemon squeezers (aka jackknives), plank to pushup (up-downs). 

 

Also, it is very important to stretch, to get your lymph fluids moving, especially in the morning.  When I wake up, I am now stretching my arms, legs & back as soon as my feet hit the floor getting out of bed.  I also do stretching before and after my workouts. 

 

 If you are a practitioner of yoga, I applaud you!  I know we have several options on DVD and I plan to review them to find one that is very basic, as I feel very tight and not as flexible as I once did when I was a member of my gym.  Perhaps I will find one that is only 15-20 minutes that I can pop in first thing in the morning (and anytime I need the mind-body connection that yoga so adequately provides). 

 

I know how important it is, for me, to find fitness activities I enjoy, that I look forward to, that will keep me coming back several times a week.  I'm figuring mine out and getting good at avoiding a stalemate.  It's not the easiest thing for me, but I know how great I feel when I exercise, how important my health is to me and how fantastic I look when I workout and eat right! 

 

May you stay the course on your journey to vibrant health!