When the weather's not so great or you're stuck at home waiting around on a delivery, indoor exercise workouts can keep you feeling great. You can do everything you need to sculpt your body and lose weight without ever going to the gym or having to step foot outside.
Total Body Exercise Workouts for Indoors
One of the best ways to burn fat is to break up your weights exercise with some cardio. Take it a step further alternating exercises between your lower and upper body. Here are a few exercises that work your whole body (or at least large portions of your body) at once:
- Jumping rope
- Squats, with or without weights
- Lunges, with or without weights
- Push-ups
- Pull-ups
Free Weights
With a set of dumbbells or a bench, bar, and some plates, you can perform a full body workout. Work each major muscle group at least two times per week, leaving 24 to 48 hours between workouts in order for your muscles to heal. Weight workouts can increase muscular strength and endurance, and help increase metabolism by building muscle mass.
Isolated Exercises
You can use free weights to target nearly any body part you'd like to shape up. In addition to those, you can also pick up an ab wheel, pull-up bar, or even a resistance band or two.
- Ab wheel: This one will work your whole upper body, concentrating on the abs. You can get ab wheels at sporting good stores, Target, or Wal-Mart.
- Pull-up bars: You can find these anywhere you can get sporting goods. Normally, they're mounted in the doorway. These work your upper body, including lats.
- Resistance bands: These can be used in the place of free weights for many movements. The bands are light and portable. Some workout DVDs require resistance bands.
Cardiovascular Exercise
If you have a treadmill or an elliptical machine in your home, this one's a no-brainer. If you don't have room or you can't afford one right now, that's not a problem. There are other ways to get your heart rate up.
Mini-trampolines
You may think trampolines are for kids until you step on one and try to hop for even half an hour. If you're not used to jumping for your heart's health, you're in for a great workout. While it's more convenient to prop the trampoline against the wall without taking it apart and folding it up, you can certainly save space by breaking it down and tossing it into your closet. For more information, visit Starbounding. You can purchase trampolines at the link listed above or from the following retailers:
Calisthenics
Remember the P.E. classes you took in school? Chances are, before you played dodge ball, kickball, or basketball, you had to do a warm-up, complete with jumping jacks, jogging in place, and more. You can do that at home, too. Do a longer, more intense version for a true workout instead of just a warm-up.
Workout DVDs
You can get amazing results from workout DVDs. In some ways, they're the perfect exercise workouts for indoors. They make you feel like you're working out with someone, so the workout isn't as boring as it could be. You can buy full body workout videos, aerobic dance workouts, step aerobics DVDs, and aerobic kickboxing videos. Also, All you need is the willpower, a DVD player, a television, and enough space to do the moves. You will also need any additional workout equipment the DVDs require, of course. Here are some DVDs sure to get your heart pumping:
Jump Ropes
Jump ropes are best used outdoors, but if you have tall enough ceilings and an empty space, you can use them at home. Mix up your jumps-jump slowly to warm up, increase the tempo, hop on one leg and then the other, and so on. As long as that heart rate's up, you're doing great! Jumping rope provides a good workout for your entire body because, if done correctly, you're incorporating most of your muscles.
Fitness Video Games
When Nintendo released the Wii, they created the perfect at-home fitness system. Realizing the unique opportunity, they soon released Wii Fit, a fun video game that incorporates a balance board and guided exercises. The game assesses your fitness level, tracks your progress, and keeps you motivated. Now, other gaming systems have also come out with motion controllers, including PlayStation 3 and the XBox 360 Kinect. Many video game manufacturers have creative fitness games that work with the motion controllers, such as the Fit in Six game for the PlayStation 3, and YourShape Fitness Evolved for the XBox 360 Kinect.
A Final Word: Working Out Indoors
Don't think you have to go outside to get a great workout. There are so many exercise workouts for indoors that you can perform right in your own home. You don't even have to spend a fortune on equipment.
