Happy Wednesday! I love the ‘day’ today – national women’s health & fitness day. This won’t be a post to preach about how many times a week you should go to the gym, what to eat to lose weight, or exercises to do to lose your love handles – I want to let you guys in on some tips on how to work out at home when you’re too busy, or the gym membership is too expensive, or you have a spare moment. You don’t need to belong to the fanciest gym or have regimented classes to stay healthy and fit.
I’ve perused all sorts of options and have found a ton of mainstays that are quick, easy, and effective as an at-home workout – these are my favorites:
- Bodyweight Exercises
No equipment needed, bodyweight exercises are perfect for doing at home, and incredibly effective and can be a full body workout. Greatist has an incredible list of 50 bodyweight exercises. They divide the bodyweight exercises into full body, legs, chest & back, shoulders & arms, and core. My favorite way to run through these exercises is to pick 2-3 from each section and run through a set of each, 5 times. Generally takes about a half hour and I feel like I get a full body workout – right in my living room! I would recommend a mat, sometimes I feel better about all the sweat when it’s dripping on a mat and not the carpet!
Women’s Health also has a great body weight workout routine that only takes 15 minutes and is perfect for when you’re in a time pinch. Traveling? Great for the hotel room. Simply do each body weight exercise, and in between sets, do 30 seconds of cardio (jump rope, jacks, high knees). Rest for 30-60 seconds at the end, and repeat 2 more times, to do 3 total.
2. Yoga
Yoga is so low impact and relies on almost no equipment, which makes it the perfect at home exercise. Women’s Health provides two awesome yoga routines: fat burning & heart pumping. Depending on what you are in the mood for on a given day, either are great at-home options. Fat burning uses elements from vinyasa, an active sequence of yoga flows, and burns more than 450 calories/hour. This is a full body workout, and Women’s Health recommends running through each flow about 5 times to maximize efficiency. Heart pumping is a more cardio routine, designed to build heat and keep your heart rate up with a series of demanding standing poses, twists, and inversions – all held for long periods of time. Beyond the physical aspect of this type of yoga, the inhaling and exhaling can improve your cardiovascular health considerably.
3. At Home Workout Videos
I know what you’re thinking – these things are corny. I also thought so until I checked out modern at home workout videos for myself. It’s not legwarmers and step benches, these are hardcore women giving you an intense workout. Greatist compiled a list of what they consider to be the best FREE workout videos from pilates to martial arts.
My current favorite? Piyo – a fusion of pilates and yoga, full body workout. You’ll never sweat more!
Live Cheap, Feel Rich! 
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