Best Exercises Using Your Own Body Weight

Not all workouts need to be at the gym, although gym rats might disagree with us for saying that.   Some of the best exercises for your body are also the simplest ones. Using your own body weight can save you the trip to the gym, or help you get your workout in wherever you might find yourself.  Try these exercises using your own body weight to help create better balance, and more toned muscles through resistance and repetition. 

The ‘Superman’ Workout: Lie face down on the floor with your arms straight and extended directly over your head.  Your legs should be kept straight and together.  In this position you will lift your arms, chest and legs up toward the ceiling at the same time, your body will form a gentle curve, like a flying superman.   This move will strengthen your lower back to create a balance between the front and back muscles, boost metabolism, and tone muscles.

The Pelvic Tilt: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. You can place a towel under small of your back, and tighten your abs. Press the small of your back into the floor, making the towel stay in place. Hold the pose for 6 seconds and release. This isometric exercise works all three muscles in the midsection to improve joint stability and mobility as well as overall muscular strength.

Alternating Arm and Leg Raises: Lie on your back with your arms and legs straight. Now put your left heel on top of your right toes, and raise your right arm straight up toward the ceiling. Tighten your abs, and hold the position.  Then lift your left foot a few inches above your right foot, and hold again. Keeping your lower and middle back on the floor, reach toward your left foot with your right arm by rotating and flexing your trunk, and hold.  Now alternate! A bit of coordination is necessary for this exercise, your body will definitely feel the burn.  This exercise works your internal and external oblique muscles, the rectus abdominis, the transverse abdominis and hip flexors. 

Planks: It doesn’t get much easier than the plank, and even though it is one of the most beneficial exercises for our core, many people don't put their best effort into it.  Get into pushup position, bend your elbows and rest your forearms on the floor.  Now all you need to do is keep a straight back, and hold the position as long as you can.  Making simple tweaks to a basic plank will create more tension throughout your entire core.

Try these exercises

Engage Your Abs. Before each move in our workout, first engage your abdominals by tightening them -- without holding your breath -- as if preparing to take a punch. You'll activate the core muscles surrounding your spine and tone your entire abdominal area. Engaged abs also help prevent injury when lifting. If you have a medical condition, be sure to check with your doctor before this or any new fitness program.

Leg Swings. Stand on your right leg and raise the left leg 3-6 inches off the floor. With arms at your sides, swing your left leg forward and backward, touching the floor for balance, while keeping your torso erect. Now, repeat the moves, but don't allow your foot to touch the ground. And finally, swing your left foot to the left side, holding your right arm out. Switch legs and repeat.

One-legged Clock With Arms. Balance on one leg, torso straight, head up, and hands on the hips. Visualize a clock and point your arm straight overhead to 12, then to the side (3), and then circle low and around to 9 o'clock without losing your balance. Increase the challenge by having a partner call out the different times to you. Switch to the opposite arm and leg and repeat.

Lunge With Reach. Stand with feet together, arms straight out to the side at shoulder height. Now, lift one foot up, pause momentarily, and lunge forward. Your hips should drop down until your front thigh is parallel to the floor. Maintain a flat back and hold your arms straight in front of you. Push off with your front leg to return to starting position. Repeat on the other side.

Single-Leg Dead Lift. Balance on your left foot, engage the abs, and bend forward at the hips while reaching toward the ground with your right hand. Hold on to a 5- to 10-pound weight and raise your right leg behind you for counterbalance. Tighten the buttocks as you return to the starting position. Keep your knee relaxed and back flat throughout the movement. Switch legs.

Best Way to Burn Calories without Realizing it

Exercise improves everything about your overall health. It effects how well you sleep, burn fat, your overall mood, energy levels and of course how fast and how many calories you burn. Generally, a fitness routine should promote a balance of both health benefits and healthy weight loss and maintenance.  This comes from incorporating both cardio and strength exercises into your routine. For anyone who has set a fitness goal for themselves well knows, putting in the time to burn the calories and target the right muscle groups to reach those goals can be taxing.  Not only physically, but mentally.  And most are much quicker to quit because of mental limitations during a workout, or sometimes boredom, than actually physical limitations of the body.  This is where the saying, ‘mind over matter’ really comes into play.  The question is how can you trick yourself into burning more calories without feeling like you are?

Here are some tips on making your workout work for you.  That is, burning the most amount of calories without the mental fatigue that comes from watching the calorie counter on the treadmill. Doing something that captures, or stimulates your mind, can help you burn calories without even realizing it. 

Here are some of our best suggestions:

·       Make a workout playlist: Music is a mind’s escape, but it can also bring your workout to new heights.  Listening to music can help you zone out during a run, or track your pace, or help you to focus on something other than the burn in your thighs.  Fast music can help to mentally pump you up to perform more intense workouts.  Similarly a lower tempo playlist can help you get through stretching or flexibility work outs that might have your thoughts racing otherwise.

·       Take advantage of a beach vacation: a lot of people take a break from their work out during vacations to maximize rest and relaxation.  Instead of taking a break use a beach vacation to take advantage of the change of weather and the beach.  Running on the sand boosts your calorie burn rate because it makes your body have to work twice as hard to get over it. You expend at least 150% more energy and burn more calories running on sand than on hard surfaces—and it actually makes you faster.

·       Take a hike:  The physical exertion it takes to hike a mountain trail is much more than you think.  Trekking through the different types of terrain and changes in elevation is an intense, calorie burning workout for your body.  But don’t worry, the exploration and adventure of a hiking trail will definitely keep your mind from realizing what is really happening. Changing up your routine, and getting outdoors and keep working out fun and challenging for you.

Exercise Tips for Beginners

1.     Stretching matters

If you are new to a workout routine, you might not realize the benefits of flexibility training or stretching. The mentality is, ‘why am I wasting my time stretching when I can be sweating?’  The reality is that stretching is still a workout.  Over time, due to both age and inactivity, muscles, joints and tendons in our body shorten.  Stretching lengthens these tissues and allows to body to achieve a better range of motion.  Better range of motions mean your body is capable of more advanced physical trials.

2.     Even experts should warm up

All it take is 5 minutes to increase your body temperature and warm up your muscles.  Studies have shown that this quick heart rate and temperature increases, decreases your risk of injury. Exercising too hard and too soon, before your body is ready, increases the likelihood of injury which can have you sitting the bench, so to speak, for much longer than the warm-up would have been.  To clarify, warming up is not the same as stretching, so don’t confuse the two.

3.     The cooldown matters too

Just as a warm up is crucial in preventing injury and prepping your body for the impending strain of exercise, a proper cooldown period is also important.  You want to gradually bring your body back to a slower heart rate and a normal breathing pattern.  This means if you are running, slowing down to a trot or walk until you even out these physical outputs.  Give yourself at least a few minutes to get your body back to normal.

4.     Try to create a routine you can stick to

Creating an exercise regimen you can reliably stick to is only going to benefit you in the long run.  You don’t need to worry about putting long hours in the gym, or going for 10 mile runs.  The best thing you can do for yourself is commit to 30 minutes a day.  Building the habit of consistent workouts throughout the week instills good habits, and you are more likely to stick to exercising over a longer amount of time.

5.     Don’t over do it

This cannot be stressed enough. As someone new to working out, it can be easy to try to rush results by choosing workouts that are out of your physical scope. Putting in 3 hours on the first day back to working out after 10 years is definitely not the answer.  You are setting yourself up for failure.  Over doing it can lead to injuries, soreness that lasts for a week and stops you from working out, and overall can be a huge setback for people trying to change their lifestyle. 

Top Workout DON’Ts

1.     Don't stick to the same exercises: It can be easy to fall into routine, and just be proud of yourself that you are hitting the gym in the first place.  Unfortunately, sticking to the same exercises isn’t helping you.  Doing JUST cardio, or JUST weight training will work against you in the long run.  Although a necessary part of a weekly workout routine, too much cardio can take away from losing the weight you set out to.  Doing long sessions of cardio, like long-distance runs or hours on the elliptical can break down lean muscle. This is bad since lean muscle mass increases the metabolism and allows your body to burn more calories. Running long miles our body becomes more focused on storing energy as fat to fuel you on the long miles.  Instead, you should be alternating cardio with weight training to build lean muscle.  Strength training like lifting weights, or resistance exercises like push-ups and squats help tone up your body and promote fat loss.

2.     Don't Forget Your Technique: It’s easy to focus on getting the work done, especially if exercises are too easy or too hard.  But poor technique can quickly lead to injuries or not targeting the right muscles.  Doing things the wrong way is setting yourself up for failure.  For this reason, I is a good idea to have a plan before you hit the gym.  If you are unsure of an exercise, look it up or ask someone to make sure you are doing it the right way.  Pay attention when you work out, adjust equipment properly, and take the time to figure out what you are doing.

3.     Don't Forget to Warm Up: All it take is 5 minutes to increase your body temperature and warm up your muscles.  Studies have shown that this quick heart rate and temperature increases, decreases your risk of injury. Exercising too hard and too soon, before your body is ready, increases the likelihood of injury which can have you sitting the bench, so to speak, for much longer than the warm-up would have been. 
 
4.     Don't Underestimate the Benefits of Sleep: When you aren’t sleeping you are compensating by getting a caffeinated drink, or an extra meal to keep you going.  Additionally, when you are tired, you are less likely to work out, and more likely to give in to carb loaded food cravings.  Lack of sleep spikes levels of the hormone cortisol, our fight or flight hormone, and tells our body we need to conserve energy.  Conserving energy in our body translates to the body holding onto fat rather than burning it.

5.     Don't Just Work Out on the Weekends: Many people make excuses as to why they can’t incorporate exercise into their daily regimen. The truth is, we can all find 30 minutes somewhere in our day.  Although working out only on the weekends is better than nothing, it definitely pales compared to spreading it out throughout the week.  Working out on the weekend can be a struggle as you aren’t building habits, and might be more inclined to skip the exercise for something more fun. Hey, it’s your weekend, right? Injuries are also more likely for weekend warriors, who tend to overdo it on the weekend to make up for the rest of the week.

Top Workouts You Probably Aren’t Doing

Using a suspension trainer, these are some of the best and most simple exercises to add to your workout routine. It relies on your own body weight and can make you stronger in every way. These exercises were originally designed for people in the Navy, but has since become one of the most popular new exercise systems for the average individual. Here are the top exercises:

Pistol Progression Squat. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart. Place your palms in the handle so they are facing each other and stand back so your arms are extended but you’re not leaning back against the straps. Place your left foot 5 inches in front of you and lift your left heel. Displace your weight in your right foot, sit your hips back and squat down towards the ground. Keeping your back flat, squeeze your glutes and return to standing.

Alternating Side Lunge. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart. Place your palms in the handle so they are facing each other and stand back so your arms are extended but you’re not leaning back against the straps. While hinging your hips back, step laterally with your left foot until your left knee reaches 90 degrees. Keeping your back flat, squeeze your glutes and return to standing.

Straight-Legged Hip Hinge. Place your body underneath the anchor point of your strap. Place your palms on top of the handles so they are each facing down. Apply light pressure on the handles to engage the core. Hinge your hips forward, squeeze your glutes and extend your left foot directly behind you until your leg is almost parallel to the ground. You should feel a nice stretch in your hamstring. Return to starting position.

Chest Press. Start with your body facing away from the anchor point. Place your palms facing down in the handles. Extend your arms in front of you to shoulder height. Engage your core and squeeze your glutes to maintain a plank position. With control, bend your elbows until they reach 90 degrees. Return to starting position.

Biceps Curl. Start with your feet shoulder-width apart. Place your palms in the handle so they are facing upwards and stand back so your arms are extended. Curl your handles towards the crown of your head and keep your elbows pointed forward. While engaging your core and squeezing your glutes, extend your arms. Squeezing your biceps, curl your handles towards the crown of your head, back to starting position.