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Wellness Wednesday: Beat The Heat With Indoor Exercises
It’s hard to stay motivated during the summer. The sun has a way of defeating our better natures; a few minutes under its merciless rays can sap the willpower from even the strongest of us. If you’re used to exercising outdoors, these next few months - where even a light hike can be too taxing to bear - can be a real struggle. Don’t despair: there ARE very effective and simple ways to stay in shape and get healthy without leaving the house! For this week’s Wellness Wednesday blog, we’re presenting a few ideas on exercises you can do at home that require little to no equipment or cost!
Before we go any further, we want to stress one crucial point: good form is everything. Make sure you properly stretch and understand how to execute an exercise before doing it. There are plenty of videos online that can guide you step by step through any exercise you want to do at home. Don’t skip this step! A wrongly executed exercise can put unnecessary and potentially debilitating strain on your muscles. Don’t hurt yourself while trying to get healthy. And don’t forget to consult your healthcare provider before starting an exercise routine for the first time.
Yoga
All you need is access to YouTube to have a great yoga experience in your own home. There are tons of free yoga instructional videos online, many of them geared toward newcomers to the practice. There are also apps and DVDs/Blu rays you can order that offer specific training courses. While having a yoga mat on hand is advisable, soft carpeting can work just as well—especially if you lay a towel down for extra support.
There are different types of yoga, some that are more intensive and physically demanding than others. If you’re interested in integrating yoga into your daily wellness routines, consider trying out a few different forms to see which style works best for you. Yoga can provide an array of health benefits that includes:
- Improved physical strength, balance, and flexibility
- Decreased pain and mobility improvement for people with lower back pain
- Improved arthritis symptoms
- Reduction of stress and body-wide inflammation
- Increased state of relaxation that can help you sleep better
5BX
If you’re looking for an exercise regimen that requires no special equipment or instructional videos, 5BX may be what you’re looking for. Known as the Five Basic Exercises, this was an exercise plan developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1961. Despite its vintage 5BX is an evergreen workout routine because the exercises are simple, can be performed in almost any indoor environment, and offer you some leeway to build up their intensity over time.
What are the five basic exercises? They are:
- Stretching
- Sit-ups
- Push-ups
- Back extensions
- Running in place
Jump Rope
Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective, even if it’s something you used to do on the playground. Jumping rope is a very effective cardio exercise that can build bone density, warm-up your muscles for other exercises, improve coordination and agility, strengthen your sense of balance, and burn fat. Keep in mind, though, that you should NOT jump rope on carpet, grass, concrete, or asphalt: these surfaces can negatively impact your bones or run the risk of twisting your ankle or knee. There’s an easy fix to make any surface in your home safe for a jump rope session: set down a piece of plywood or an impact mat to exercise on top of (and if you have wooden floors to begin with, you don’t have to set anything down at all).
Weight Training
You don’t need dumbbells to lift weights. If you’re looking to put on some muscle while you’re hiding from the summer heat, but don’t feel like investing in a home gym, you can turn everyday objects into effective do-it-yourself weights. For starters, there are muscle building exercises you can do that don’t require any equipment: push-ups, squats, planks, burpees, and lunges.
When you need something to lift, take a look at your pantry and supply closet for any of the following:
- Canned goods
- Filled water bottles
- Textbooks
- Laundry detergent bottles
- Paint cans
- Cinder blocks
- Suitcases
- Bags of produce
Anything that’s got some heft to it and that’s also safe to handle by yourself could be easily repurposed to do deadlifts, bicep curls, chest presses, and so on. Much like yoga, there are a lot of videos on YouTube and articles that go into great detail on weight training at home.