Around the House
1. When you go outside to pick up your morning newspaper, take a brisk 5-minute walk up the street in one direction and back in the other.
2. If you’re housebound caring for a sick child or grandchild, hop on an exercise bike or treadmill while your ailing loved one naps.
3. Try 5 to 10 minutes of jumping jacks. (A 150-pound woman can burn 90 calories in one 10-minute session.)
4. Cooking dinner? Do standing push-ups while you wait for a pot to boil. Stand about an arm’s length from the kitchen counter, and push your arms against the counter. Push in and out to work your arms and shoulders. Read more…
Experts recommend working out 45 minutes to an hour a day (30 minutes for beginners) for weight loss and fitness. But if you’re like most women, you don’t always have a block of 30 to 60 minutes a day to devote exclusively to doing your workouts.
You can still exercise–you just need to sneak in the equivalent in resourceful ways. “The idea is to keep moving,” says fitness expert Ann Grandjean, EdD. “Get a cordless phone or put a long cord on your regular phone, and walk when you talk. Find whatever works for you and just move. Park half a mile from the mall and walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Those little, itty-bitty things add up.”
Every Stolen Moment Adds Up
Lest you think that short bursts of activity have a negligible effect on your fitness program, think again. One study found that women who split their exercise into 10-minute increments were more likely to exercise consistently, and lost more weight after 5 months, than women who exercised for 20 to 40 minutes at a time. Read more…
It seems like every time you turn on the TV these days, there is another commercial for exercise equipment. The latest and greatest treadmill or the second to none all in one machine are advertised on a daily basis. And why not? Consumers love them. We’re always looking for ways to shape up faster and without as much work. And, that’s just what this equipment claims to do. Work out for just 20 minutes a day, three days a week and you’ll have the body of a supermodel in just one month. If only that were true. We wouldn’t have to put ourselves through the pain of the gym everyday.
If you are looking for some quality exercise equipment though, it is available. You just need to do some research and talk to enough qualified people to learn what equipment will be best for your work out routine. A treadmill works for a lot of people who like to work out in the privacy of their own home. And there are a lot of benefits that can be gleaned from running on a treadmill everyday. This type of aerobic exercise is good for your heart and your lungs. Just be sure to keep tabs on your heart rate so you don’t over do it and put your heart in danger. A general rule of thumb for running is that you should be able to talk semi-comfortably while you’re running. If you can talk without any trouble at all, you’re probably not running hard enough or fast enough. If you can’t talk because you’re busy huffing and puffing, you’re probably pushing yourself too hard. Slow down a bit and take it one step at a time. Read more…
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