Weight Training Without The Weights

I am not a trained professional in the exercise field. The following post is based on my own experience and only meant to give you ideas for a home workout routine. Use your common sense when trying out these exercises. If it hurts, don't do it... If it burns, it works! ;-)

Do you want to tone you abs, buns and tights, but you are afraid of hurting yourself with the dumbbells or the machines in the gym? You don't feel like investing money into dumbbells or shell out a gym membership? You can have it all and do weight training without the weights out of the comfort of your home or while you are out and about.

Here are a couple of moves that I sometimes* do. No frills good old body toning.

*I am not as diligent with my weight training as I should be.

Oldies but Goldies: The Push-Up/ Plank/ Side Plank

Push-Up/ Girly Push-Up

Plank (on elbows, on hands, girly, move up and down between hands and elbows)

Side Plank (regular, leg lift, arm scoop)

Great push-up plan to increase number of push-ups is here. I did this plan before, though I never made it to 100, I came a long way. Also, push-ups don't always just have to be up and down... you can slow down, go up or down on two or three or four, you can hover over the ground for a little or you can hold at the top for a while. The possibilities are endless and you are going to feel THE BURN!

When doing planks/ side planks start out with holding position 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds and repeat as often as you can... You can build from the 30 seconds and hold the position longer.

Target the Arm Flab: Chair Dips

Push-ups and planks are great moves for the shoulders, biceps, the back and the abs, but we ladies like to wear those sleeveless tops in the summer and that might calls for extra action for the triceps and so we bring out the chair dips. You can keep your legs straight and balance on your heels or put your feet flat on the ground depending on how strong you are so far. With the chair dips, you can go do similar variations than described with the push-ups above (slow down, hold at the lowest point etc).

Simple Truth: Lunges and squads tone your bun up!

It really doesn't get any simpler than these moves. The only thing that you have to watch in all of them is to make sure that your knee never goes over your toes. So while you do lunges and lunges dips you might want to increase the length of your step to ensure that. When it comes to the squads, visualize yourself sitting down on a chair, stick your butt out and use your arms to balance... How low can you go on this number? ;-)

What goes up, must come down OR You did the contraction, now do the stretches

Come back on Wednesday to get a quick guide to a couple of nice stretches that you can do after your strength workout or any other workout!

So long!