Make your goals realistic. If you’ve never run a mile, don’t make your goal to run two miles a day during your first week of exercise. Create a schedule. You want to have set days for your workouts. You should gradually increase the duration and difficulty of your workouts.
Choose the type of cardio you enjoy. Some types of cardio include: walking, swimming, running, and jumping rope. Do your cardio for at least twenty minutes at a time for maximum benefit. Add in intervals to your workout. For example, sprint as fast as you can for one minute, then walk for two minutes, then sprint again for one minute, and walking again for two. Gradually add more repetitions to your routine. When doing intervals, using cardio machines like treadmills, stair climbers, ellipticals, rowing machines, and stationary bikes can be helpful because you can keep your speeds consistent.
You don’t need a gym to strength train. Start with bodyweight exercises. [6] X Research source These include: sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, planks, burpees, and lunges. Gradually add in weights. [7] X Research source Exercises with dumbbells, like curls or tricep extensions, can especially help to target your arms and reduce arm fat.
Alternate days between cardio and strength training. Switch up your cardio. Maybe go for a long bike ride one day and a run the next time you do cardio. In your strength training, spend one day a week focusing on your core, one day on your upper body, and one day on your lower body.
In a class, a teacher will most likely push you harder than you’d push yourself. Also, you’ll have the accountability of your classmates. If you pay for classes in bulk ahead of time, you’ll be more likely to stick to going on a regular basis.
Do housework and yard work. Scrubbing, dusting, raking, weeding and mowing are all great ways to burn calories. Plus, you’ll check off some of your chores. Go out of your way to walk more. Park 15 minutes away from your office building or at the farthest end of a store’s parking lot. Pay for your gas inside, and walk inside a restaurant instead of using a drive-thru. Always take the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator. Though these are small adjustments, the calories you burn add up.
You can walk anywhere: around your office, in your neighborhood, or at a park. Plan your route ahead of your walk, so you know how far you are going to go. Walk as long as you can, as many days of the week as you can. Thirty minutes a day is an excellent supplement to your exercise routine.
If you bike to work, you’ll not only improve your fitness, you’ll also save money on gas and help the environment by reducing your emissions.
If you get the urge to move, don’t suppress it. Move your fingers, sway back and forth, changing your seating position, play with nearby items. Don’t sit while you think or wait. Stand up and pace around.
Simply sit on your stability ball instead of a desk chair. If you don’t like the idea of a stability ball, consider a standing desk, instead.
If you don’t have a dog, think about dog walking for a friend or putting out an advertisement to be a dog walker as a side job. Agreeing to walk someone else’s pet will hold you accountable to your exercise plans.
Plus, seeing it on your wrist will be a reminder to get moving.
Some good active stretches you can try are arm circles, leg swings, chest pumps, arm rows, and knee bends. Do 20 walking lunges around your room or outside on the pavement. [15] X Research source This dynamic stretch with warm up your legs. Stand upright, and grab one of your feet behind you with a bend at the knee. Pull it as close to your body as your can while still keeping your balance. Then, switch sides. This will stretch out your quad muscles.
Walk for four minutes, and then run vigorously for one minute. Repeat this sequence three more times. Then, after your last minute run, walk for five more minutes to cool down. Make sure on the walk portions of your intervals, you are walking briskly.
Lay on your back on a comfortable foam pad or towel. Place your feet flat on the floor, and bend your knees slightly. If you’re doing crunches, raise your body up halfway to your knees and then back down to the ground. Go all the way to your knees if you want to do sit-ups. You can either do your 50 crunches or sit-ups all at once, or split them up into two sets of 25 with a break in-between.
You can do these all at once or in two sets of 10 with a break in between.
The plank position looks like the top of a push-up before you bend your arms. You want to body to be straight, like a board. You can modify the plank by resting on your forearms instead of your hands.
