Post by skai on Nov 5, 2012 2:51:08 GMT -5
*A few things to note before you read this:
-I'm slightly overweight, though at this point I'm not sure by what, as my current bfp (body fat percentage) is 13.0% based on a fitness assessment by fitness professionals at my University
-This is mainly for people who want to lose weight and/or want to gain endurance
One of the largest excuses I've heard from people who aren't active when the topic of exercising comes up is the time factor. Even for myself, time does become an issue when there's just too much happening in your life. But that doesn't mean you can't put exercise in at some point during your day.
Whenever I don't have time to go to the gym, I always do what I call circuits, which is a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout that burns calories and builds endurance and muscle (depending on the exercises involved).
Each circuit evolves around 20 minutes, and they can be done in your room, or in any area that has space for you to lay down and stand up. I do mine right next to my computer, where I can play music and have a timer on the screen for me. Some exercises contain equipment, but for the most part you'll be using your body as the resistance. The goal of a circuit is to do as many rounds as you can of certain exercises in 20 minutes. You do not stop the timer; you can take as long breaks as you can, but all you have is 20 minutes, and only you can make it count.
The goal of a HIIT workout is to keep your heart rate at a high number while training different parts of your body, and only rest for as long as you need to in order to jump back into the workout.
So, I'll go into one of my most basic circuits (actually my first one I tried), and expand from there.
Circuit 1:
One round consists of:
-10 Low squats
-10 Push ups
-5 Pull ups on a pull up bar (ones that fit in your door can be bought at any Target for around 30 dollars)
-If you can't do pull-ups or if you can't get a pull-up bar, do 7 standing bicep curls or hammer curls with whatever weights you're most comfortable with.
-If you don't have weights for curling, then instead of bicep targeting you'd do core instead, and do 10 concentrated elbow to knee crunches.
After you do those three exercises, you repeat them. The idea is to do as many as you can in 20 minutes with as little resting as possible. You'll be surprised at how much you'll sweat in that time.
Another good tip is to track your progress by tallying your round numbers. After each round draw a tally on a piece of paper near you, and depending on if you keep your circuit consistent, you can see how you improve through the days.
Other quick exercises I've done with circuits include:
-Squats with weights
-Calisthenic Mountain Climbers
-Diamond push ups
-V push ups
-Dips
-Jumping jacks
-"Wacky" jacks
These exercises are great for cardio, and they don't work out your muscle groups that much that you would be completely sore the next day, so it shouldn't affect your muscle workout days.
I also do smaller circuits that focus on one muscle type if that day is supposed to be x muscle day, but I can't head to the gym. So for example, if it's core day and I can't make time for the gym, I do a 6 minute circuit that consists of 3 exercises that last 30 seconds each, done 4 times total. For core it is 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers followed by 30 seconds of a High Plank or Low Plank, followed by 30 seconds of Concentrated Crunches. I do more afterwards, but that's my small warm-up phase. It just takes a timer and motivation!
The timer I use can be found here.
If you have any questions, let me know!
-I'm slightly overweight, though at this point I'm not sure by what, as my current bfp (body fat percentage) is 13.0% based on a fitness assessment by fitness professionals at my University
-This is mainly for people who want to lose weight and/or want to gain endurance
One of the largest excuses I've heard from people who aren't active when the topic of exercising comes up is the time factor. Even for myself, time does become an issue when there's just too much happening in your life. But that doesn't mean you can't put exercise in at some point during your day.
Whenever I don't have time to go to the gym, I always do what I call circuits, which is a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout that burns calories and builds endurance and muscle (depending on the exercises involved).
Each circuit evolves around 20 minutes, and they can be done in your room, or in any area that has space for you to lay down and stand up. I do mine right next to my computer, where I can play music and have a timer on the screen for me. Some exercises contain equipment, but for the most part you'll be using your body as the resistance. The goal of a circuit is to do as many rounds as you can of certain exercises in 20 minutes. You do not stop the timer; you can take as long breaks as you can, but all you have is 20 minutes, and only you can make it count.
The goal of a HIIT workout is to keep your heart rate at a high number while training different parts of your body, and only rest for as long as you need to in order to jump back into the workout.
So, I'll go into one of my most basic circuits (actually my first one I tried), and expand from there.
Circuit 1:
One round consists of:
-10 Low squats
-10 Push ups
-5 Pull ups on a pull up bar (ones that fit in your door can be bought at any Target for around 30 dollars)
-If you can't do pull-ups or if you can't get a pull-up bar, do 7 standing bicep curls or hammer curls with whatever weights you're most comfortable with.
-If you don't have weights for curling, then instead of bicep targeting you'd do core instead, and do 10 concentrated elbow to knee crunches.
After you do those three exercises, you repeat them. The idea is to do as many as you can in 20 minutes with as little resting as possible. You'll be surprised at how much you'll sweat in that time.
Another good tip is to track your progress by tallying your round numbers. After each round draw a tally on a piece of paper near you, and depending on if you keep your circuit consistent, you can see how you improve through the days.
Other quick exercises I've done with circuits include:
-Squats with weights
-Calisthenic Mountain Climbers
-Diamond push ups
-V push ups
-Dips
-Jumping jacks
-"Wacky" jacks
These exercises are great for cardio, and they don't work out your muscle groups that much that you would be completely sore the next day, so it shouldn't affect your muscle workout days.
I also do smaller circuits that focus on one muscle type if that day is supposed to be x muscle day, but I can't head to the gym. So for example, if it's core day and I can't make time for the gym, I do a 6 minute circuit that consists of 3 exercises that last 30 seconds each, done 4 times total. For core it is 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers followed by 30 seconds of a High Plank or Low Plank, followed by 30 seconds of Concentrated Crunches. I do more afterwards, but that's my small warm-up phase. It just takes a timer and motivation!
The timer I use can be found here.
If you have any questions, let me know!
