By Janet Luhrs, www.simpleliving.com
Have you ever thought about the insanity of making exercise complicated? Something that should be so, well, simple, can get ridiculous. Take exercise equipment. Except for one friend of mine who actually uses the exercise equipment in her house – everyone else I know uses theirs as dust collectors.
But it’s not even the equipment we buy for our homes that gets complicated – how about all that stuff in the gym? Stairclimbers? What happened to taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator?
So think about it. Your life is probably complicated enough. How about simplifying your exercise routine as a way to start un- complicating your whole life.
Here are some ways you can really simplify your exercise routine – and get the results you want:
Cardio Options
- Who needs those huge cardio stair climbers, treadmills and stationary bikes when you have stairs at your disposal? Whether it is a staircase in your office building or a nearby hill climb or stadium steps, you don’t have to look far for stairs to boost your cardio. Meet up with co- workers at lunchtime for a daily stair workout or with friends on the weekend. Look around you city and you’ll be surprised how many great sets of stairs you can find.
- Plyometrics in your own home. All you need is a 10’ x 10’ space to get your heart rate up and running. This video is jam packed with a wide variety of Plyometric exercises for you. If you’re not the disciplined type, then make a date with your partner or a friend and set a regular time to do these exercises.
- Jumping rope…you remember, from recess? Well, not much has changed and a jump rope is easy to take on trips and pull out as needed. Do it every morning before work. Start with any number you can and keep working up to longer and longer sessions.
Resistance Training
- Resistance bands can cover a huge range of weight training exercises and they fold away in a drawer much easier than that set of iron weight. You can train every major muscle group using resistance bands.
- Get even simpler and do most of the exercises above using a towel!
- A chair is great for push-ups, squats, lat pulls, tricep dips, or ab exercises.
- If you just have one piece of equ9ipment for your workouts, you can limit it to a kettle ball and accomplish a full body resistance workout with it.
Stretching
- No equipment needed for basic, full body stretching and it is a key component of your workout for injury prevention.
- A rope or towel for Active Isolated Stretches will cover the most important stretches you need to stay injury free.
You see, you can keep your workout routine simple and easy and still hit cardio, resistance training, and stretching. Share with us your simple, go-to strategies for your workouts!
Featured photo source: Pixabay.com.
