No Equipment, No Time? How to Get in a Great Workout

You know you are gaining weight, the gym card is right in your wallet. But, who has the time to go to the gym when you have to prepare for your meeting, make the presentation, look after your kids or do homework? The first thing that goes off the ‘daily to-do’ list for most people is the gym visit or at least exercising somewhere, somehow. We all know that going to the gym keeps you fit, keeps your heart going, retains youth, makes you fresher by detoxifying your body, relives stress, and helps make a healthy hunger pattern. But most of us don’t have the time, nor any type of equipment. So here is a list of work outs that affects all your muscles and does not take more than 30 minutes of your time.

Step 1: Prepare

Gather the things you need and gear up. You need a water bottle with room temperature water, exercise mat, stop watch, your yoga pants/shorts or whatever you are comfortable with and most importantly yourself, with a determined and committed mind.

Step 2: Warm Up

You can use a number of exercises to warm up. You can either jog for a couple of minutes in your room or around your house or climb stairs. You can also use a skipping rope and skip for a couple of minutes. You just need to get your body temperature up slightly before you move on to stretching and exercising.

Step 3: Stretching

Stretching is very important before you exercise, because it allows your muscles and tissues to open up. If you do not stretch, you will most likely have post-exercise muscle soreness. Essentially, you need to perform dynamic stretches, stretches that are in motion. For example, stretch out your arms on your sides and slowly rotate them in a circle, first forwards and then backwards. Another example is to kick your feet up to your buttocks, stretching your glutes.

Step 4: Push Ups

Yes, simple pushups. Lie down flat on your belly, place your palms flat and plant your toes on the floor then lift yourself up, putting pressure on your chest. Repeat this step slowly ten times (10 reps)

Step 5: Crunches or Sit Ups (25 reps)

Primarily, sit up and crunches affect the same muscles in the abdomen. Sit ups require a few more muscles in the thighs. For beginners it is better to start with crunches. Sit ups also usually require a partner to hold the feet in place, or an object to hook the feet to.

You lie down flat on your back keeping both palms under the head. Keeping both legs bent at 45 degrees, you push your upper body upwards as in to sit. In crunches you just lift up enough to get shoulders off the ground while for sit ups you lift your shoulders up to your knees or as far as you can. Make sure you are not putting pressure on your knees to lift up to get the best results.

Step 6: Front Plank

Planking is known as one of core strengthening exercises. You lie down on your stomach, keep your forearms on the floor with arms and shoulders at 90 degrees with the forearms and lift yourself. Hold yourself up like this for 45-60 seconds.

Step 7: Rest

This is probably the most favorite steps for all of us couch potatoes. Rest for one minute and have a sip of water.

Step 8: Leg Ups

This is one of the most difficult, yet one of the most affective steps. You lie down flat on your back with your arms to your sides, keeping your legs straight; you lift up your entire lower limb as high as you can and hold for 2 seconds, then lower them down. Repeat this step slowly 7 times.

Step 9: Side Planks

The toughest of all is the side planks. The idea is same as front planks, except now you only have one of your hands to put the weight on. Lie on your side, keeping your body straight, life up your body with support of one arm, keeping the other on its side. Hold this position for 45-60 seconds.

Now, you are done! You can repeat the steps if you want depending upon your target and fitness goal, and you can always alter the reps numbers. Many of these exercises can be enhanced with the use of dumbbells.