Here's my story...I'm pretty close to my goal weight (within 5 pounds) and have decided that I need to tone up. I want more muscle so that I burn more calories. Problem is, I can't afford a gym membership or to buy equipment and I'm a pretty busy girl. I'm looking for a basic routine that will give me maximum results. I can only set aside about 15 minutes a day (in addition to my 30 minute cardio 3x/week), so I need the most efficient routine possible. Here's what I'm doing so far....
- push-ups (I'm not going to divulge the numbers since they are so pathetic at this point)
- air squats
- calf raises (I do these at work...that's how crunched for time I am)
- I'm not sure what this ones called, but I use my arms to raise my body off of a chair with my legs out in front of me...works the top/back of my arms
Any major body part that I'm missing? I haven't added anything for my abs because the push-ups seem to help that area a little, but I'll add something if you guys have suggestions. I'm just looking for really basic, but efficient exercises to add to or replace my existing routine. Any advice would be much appreciated!
You could add body weight lunges. Jumping squats and jumping lunges, I am learning, are quite challenging.
If you have trouble with pushups, you can do them with your hands elevated - I used stairs and worked myself, one step at a time, down to the floor.
If you can put in a pullup bar in a door frame, you could add chinups or pullups - I have a bar that doesn't need to be installed that works great for me.
Do you have access to any weights? Even if they aren't official weights, adding some weight to your lunges and squats would be good, because over time, they will get easier, and you'll stop getting as much benefit from them.
You could also buy some resistance bands. They're cheap & very versatile.
This home workout is based on bodyweight and works pretty well for what you're looking for; not as efficiently as a weights workout would, but it'll at least get you started.
Paige has a few useful bodyweight routines up under the exercise tab as well, with that and some ingenuity you should be able to roll your own.
There are 8 minute abs that are available on youtube.com, they are super cheesy but I get a good work out from them! I also swear by the biggest loser exercise dvds, especially the yoga one. if you are crunched for time you can choose on the dvd different time increments that usually range from about 15-20 minutes.
Sparkpeople.com has a bunch of short 10-minute workout videos :)
Great ideas guys, thanks so much! I'll be checking them all out...should give me a lot of variety. Thanks again!
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