Get Fit without Ever Leaving Home
The turkey, the pies, and the champagne toasts have all come and gone and now it's time for New Year's resolutions to be made. Among the top resolutions in 2015? According to Nielsen, which studies consumers' habits around the world, 37 percent of those polled said they wanted to stay fit and healthy while 32 percent said they wanted to lose weight. One of the biggest factors in both equations? Exercise.
But if the gym or barre studio just isn't your thing, there's good news: you don't have to step foot outside your home to get a great workout. In fact, 37 percent of people ages 18 to 34 workout at home, which means you can, too. “I am a huge proponent of [working out] at home because it saves time and money,” says Dempsey Marks, a certified fitness trainer and yoga trainer. “You're automatically eliminating the need for a gym membership and travel time to and from the gym. Plus, exercising at home ensures that you have privacy and you will never have to wait for equipment or machines to be open. You can workout any time of day, any day of the year. It leaves little room for excuses not to get your workout in!” Here are the best ways to get your sweat on and reap the amazing benefits of exercise all from the comfort of your home.
USE WHAT YOU HAVE. Not everyone has a complete set of dumbbells, a pull-up bar, a Bosu bar, or exercise slides at home. No worry, says Mark Lay, a personal trainer at Anatomy at 1220 in Miami Beach, Florida. “Your home can easily be transformed into your personal gym with a couple of simple items. For example, a couple dish towels can can be used as sliders for core and stability work.” While things like stools and stairs “ can be transformed into platforms for lateral or frontal mobility work such as step ups or even used as bases for elevated dips and push-ups,” he says. Even basic things like soup cans can be used in lieu of hand weights depending on how heavy of weights you need.
INVEST IN SOME STAPLES. Sure, a dish towel and paper plates and canned soup cans in lieu of exercise sliders and dumbbells will work, but it's also a good idea to invest in some staple exercise gear. “Some of my favorite tools for working out at home are a jump rope, a yoga mat (for yoga, core work, stretching, and floor exercises), resistance bands, tubbing, a Bosu ball, a stability ball, and leg weights,” says Amie Hoff, president of Hoff Fitness and co-founder of FitKit, which providesall of these ideas in one simple, complete package so you don't have to shop around.
USE YOUR BODY. One of the most effective ways to sculpt your physique is by utilizing your own body weight, which is why moves like push-ups are one of the best exercises to tone and strengthen your entire upper body. Beachbody, one of the leading companies behind at-home fitness programs, boasts hundreds of workouts such as PiYo and INSANITY MAX:30, among dozens more, which solely utilize your body weight to help you slim down and tone up. Te advantage is not only never having to leave your home to get the body of your dreams, but it also allows you to exercise anywhere at any time because you're not relying on any equipment.
CONSIDER A WORKOUT PROGRAM. These days you can find a workout program to do at home just about everywhere. Search “at-home workout” on Pintrest and hundreds will pop up. Scan the exercise aisle at Target or Walmart and you'll find dozens of options of workout DVDs from celebrity trainers such as Jillian Michaels, whose Shred series is one of the most popular at-home workout programs available. And Beachbody (see above) - the company behind insanely popular workouts like P90X, 21 Day Fix, Body Beast, and more – boasts not only highly-effective DVD workouts but also allows you to live-stream its workouts via Beachbody On Demand directly to your phone, tablet, computer, and more so you can workout anywhere, anytime. Written by Blake Miller. YHL