There are many reasons why we might want to exercise indoors without special equipment.
Inclement weather is probably the biggest deterrent for being outside. Many of us live in places that are frequently just too hot or too cold.
Sometimes our neighborhoods aren’t conducive to outdoor activity, or our work hours keep us from being available at reasonable times.
Embarrassment can also be a factor–some of us simply aren’t comfortable working out in front of other people.
Whatever your particular reasons are, you need to know that you can still burn maximum calories while working out inside! Remember that with any workout, indoors or out, your goal is to huff, puff, and sweat!
If you’re new to exercise, start slowly. Add 20-30 minutes of cardio activity to your day. This could be walking or jogging in place, jumping rope, or doing jumping jacks. After a few weeks, add additional time until you are consistently able to do 30 minutes a day. Once this is comfortable, you can increase your time as your schedule allows.
Try to change up your workout periodically. Your body will quickly get used a routine and become less efficient in calorie-burn.
Easy Ways to Exercise Indoors Without Special Equipment:
- One of the easiest ways to exercise indoors without special equipment is to take advantage of FIT TV! This is just one more great reason to be a cable subscriber. Not only will you have a huge variety of workouts available to you at any time, but you can also DVR your favorites.
- Utilize YouTube.com! You can search for every possible workout imaginable and do it in the comfort of your home, while watching your computer screen. Check out this quick example of chair pushups.
- Do you belong to Netflix.com or Blockbusters? They rent gazillions of DVDs that you can do at home. What a great way to get a nice variety in your routine!
- Speaking of exercise DVDs, did you know that most public libraries have a wide variety available for free checkout? What better way to exercise indoors without special equipment?
- If you prefer to start your own collection, it’s tough to beat the prices on Amazon.com.
- Do you have stairs in your home? Walk up and down continuously for 15 minutes and a 150-pound person can burn about 110 calories! It’s also a great workout for your quads, the large upper leg muscles.
- Use a jump rope. You might want to jump on carpet to soften the blow to your knees, but this can be an excellent way to workout at home. Jumping continuously for 15 minutes (150 pound person) burns 171 calories!
- Did you know that you can easily complete walking workouts inside your home? Leslie Sansone is probably the leading guru for walking inside. I was shocked the first time I tried one of her DVDs. As an avid walker, I didn’t expect much in the way of a workout, but was I ever surprised! I was sweating buckets before I finished. Her walking DVDs come in all fitness levels. Use this particular way to exercise indoors without special equipment and burn major calories!
- Go back to the basics. Remember back in the day when we all had to do jumping jacks, toe-touches, side bends, squats, deep knee bends, and burpees in PE classes? These are still great exercises! Jumping jacks and burpees, in particular, can be great cardio exercises. Note: For those of you unfamiliar with burpees, you raise your arms high over your head, bend and touch your toes, kick your feet out to a push up, bring them back to a squat, and stand tall again and raise your arms. Then do it over and over again…
- Dancing is another great way to exercise indoors without special equipment. All you need to do is crank up your favorite tunes and move! It’s probably the most fun when no one is watching! Just move continuously for 15 minutes and a 150 pound person can burn 90 calories!
- Use iTunes and your iPod to download hundreds of fitness-related podcasts!
- There are hundreds of target exercises that can be done at home, for every area of your body. Whether you want to work on sculpting a great butt, killer abs, toned arms, or a sexy back, you can easily find the correct technique online and exercise indoors without special equipment.
- When planning your workout, don’t forget one of the most important aspects of fitness, which is balance. Inexpensive balance balls can be easily inflated and used inside your home. These balls, often called “stability balls” help strengthen your core muscles. Enjoy this 15-minute workout from Sparkpeople.com. You can find many more at YouTube.com.
- While we’re talking about balance, flexibility goes hand in hand…You can practice both Pilates and Yoga in the privacy of your own home. You can catch classes on Fit TV, use DVDs, or watch YouTube. Yoga and weight loss are becoming increasingly popular as a combination that works! There are even special yoga practices for overweight yogis. You can burn 175-500 calories per hour, depending on the type of yoga you practice.
- And finally, no plan to exercise indoors without special equipment would be complete without strength training. It is imperative to build lean muscle as it burns more calories, even at rest, than fat. According to studies by the American Council on Exercise, one pound of lean muscle can burn 35 to 50 calories a day, whereas a pound of fat burns only two to three calories a day! If that’s not incentive enough…consider that fat takes up four times as much space as lean muscle mass!
Strength training does not require lifting gym weights as you can use your body for weight resistance, but purchasing inexpensive dumbbells and stretch bands open up greater possibilities and a wider variety of activities. Household items such as jugs of water, large bags of pet food, or even canned goods can be used as weights. Many target exercises build strength as well as tone and sculpt the body. You can find a large variety of workouts on Fit TV, YouTube.com, and DVDs. Twenty minutes just 2-3 times a week, can vastly improve your metabolism!
NOTE:
Exercise is essential for good health, but if weight loss is your goal, then exercise alone will not achieve the results you are looking for. At the very least, you must educate yourself about how to eat healthy and you must practice portion control. Keeping a food and exercise log has been shown to actually double weight loss as it helps the dieter become a “mindful eater.”
