Everyone has their own personal preference on what type of exercise they want to do, but I wanted to share with you what I try to do every week.
I would love to be able to go the gym every day, but it is really hard to go every day with our schedule right now. Because of that, I have been building up workout stuff that I can do at home. I aim to workout for an hour a day 6 days a week with at least 30-40 minutes of cardio and then using the rest of time doing resistance training. (This can be tricky with the kids sometimes, but I try my best to get a workout in while the baby is napping and while my oldest is at Preschool. Most of the time it works out, but there are those days when it is a challenge.) I try to do resistance training at least twice a week, and on the days that I don't do that, try to spend the whole hour doing cardio. I do try to go to the local YMCA at least twice a week though to mix it up, and they have a great daycare there that I drop the kids off at while I workout. It can be tricky to go sometimes though because of trying to time naps and such, so we go when we can.
I have decided that once I am done working in the morning I will try to do my workouts in the early am because really that is the perfect time to do it with kids.
Here are a few things that I love right now...
-My favorite workout equipment that I have right now is my indoor trainer. I. LOVE. THIS. THING! It is by far the best investment for workout equipment that I have made up to this point. I would love to get a treadmill some day and maybe even an elliptical, but this works for now with our limited space and income. My foot has been hurting lately when I run, so I have been doing this most days. This sits in our basement, so it can get really boring. I try to do anywhere from 20-30 minutes using HIIT (high intensity interval training) and then add some kind of resistance training or more cardio upstairs afterwards. I have gone for an hour before, but like I said, it gets really boring. What I love about this is that you can change your resistance by changing your gears that your bike has. My indoor trainer has another attachment that you can use to increase resistance, but it broke recently so I just use my gears. I get a killer workout every time!
-Greg got me a kettlebell for Christmas, and it probably my second favorite thing. I recently bought Jillian Michael's Kettlebell workout. It is a great strength workout! My kettlebell also came with a set of exercises that I love to do as well.
-I like any workout that is quick but intense, so I really love Cathe Friederich's HiiT DVD. There are 3 workouts on the DVD. Each is about 20-25 minutes in length. All the workouts are super intense, and really get my heart rate going and I burn a ton of calories. If I am short on time, this is one of my favorite go to DVDs because I know I am going to get a killer workout. I would love to get more of Cathe's DVDs because all of her workouts are great, but they are so expensive. Maybe when we have more money I will try to stock up on her DVDs.
-I love my step bench as well. I have one DVD that I use most often with it, but it is a great fitness tool to add a quick cardio burst into your workout.
-I use resistance bands in the EA Sports workout that I talked about in a previous post, and I really have loved using them. I need to get higher quality bands though because I am in constant fear that they are going to snap when I use them. My husband and I tried P90x a few years back, and one did snap on him. One day I will get better ones, but for now they work.
-We have a couple flights of stairs in our apartment, so I like to use those to get a cardio burst in. Depending on my mood I will aim at running up and down them a certain number of times or for a certain time limit. We have neighbors on both sides of us, so I am sure they just love it when I do it. The joys of apartment living!
The one thing that I have learned about having to work out at home is that it takes creativity at times, so I constantly looking for ways to workout using what I have. It is fun to find new ways to get your heart racing. Like stepping up and down on a kitchen chair or doing jump up on a door frame. Or even dancing with the kids.
Not having access to a gym should not be an excuse to not be active because the possibilities really are endless. Be creative and fun with it!
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