Fitness at Home

   

A home workout is free and perfect if you’d rather stay indoors, if you’re short on time or if the weather’s putting you off. You can use familiar objects around the house, such as the stairs, chairs, food cans and water bottles to exercise with.

How? 

• Dancing – it’s an aerobic activity that improves your balance and your

co–ordination. It’s suitable for people of all ages, shapes and sizes. It is a really fun way of burning energy – it can be in a class with friends,in front of the TV or dancing to the radio. All you need is a good tune!

• Cleaning your house is a great opportunity to sneak in some exercise:vacuuming more briskly, scrubbing the bathtub faster and using plenty of elbow grease when cleaning the windows or mopping the floor; itmeans you’ll work up a sweat and is a great way to get some moderate exercise into your day.

• While watching TV, maximise your time by ironing, dusting or cleaning.It sounds simple, but it keeps you moving! If you have a hula hoop why not use it whilst watching the TV?

• And when watching TV, get up and move about during the commercial breaks. Tidy up, bring in the laundry, empty the dishwasher, or dry the dishes and put them away.

• Clean the car by hand rather than taking it to the car wash.

• Put on a fitness DVD, or if you have a video games console at home,use it for an exercise session (such as yoga, Pilates, dancing or aerobics) – just plug in and work out!

• For a free, easy, ‘at–home’ workout, see the BMF exercises on the next page.

Top Tip ! If you have a smartphone, free apps such as ‘Endomondo’ are a great way to track your training and record your times. You can track walks, jogs and cycles – and even share routes and compare performances.Apps are generally very simple to use, and can be a great motivating tool to keep your training progressing.

Did you know?

Mopping the floor for 30 minutes can burn around 112 calories!3