Don't have time
to go to the gym? The busy lives of women just became easier with these 7
best at home exercises for women. Who says you need all the fancy
equipment in the gym?
What you do
need is the foundation behind weight loss and muscle building so you
will begin to see inches falling off in record speeds. There is a right
and wrong way to exercise. You can spend hours doing the wrong form of
exercise and never see a difference in your body.
Cardio Vs. Cardio
Ever see a heavyset marathon runner? Here's why. Our body is a master
at adapting. Our body will regulate to almost any condition we throw
ourselves into. If we do steady state cardio, such as the treadmill at
the same speed, elliptical at the same level, walking, or even jogging,
without changing any factor; our body will adapt and our heart rate will
regulate. Start sprinting or running up stairs and BAMM! Bye bye
adaptation and fat. When we change the state our body is experiencing,
our body will not be able to adapt to the constant change.
Aerobic Vs. Anaerobic
Aerobic exercise is what most people refer to as ‘cardio'. This type
of exercise is done at a low to moderate pace where your heart rate is
approximately 50-70 percent of your maximum heart rate. At this pace,
and with reasonable conditioning, you should be able to supply the
muscles with sufficient oxygen to keep them contracting and performing
for some time. Aerobic means with oxygen.
Anaerobic exercise, in contrast, is done at an intensity in which
your muscle requirements for oxygen succeed the amount you can supply.
Anaerobic meaning without oxygen. You will be forced to stop this type
of exercise sooner because your muscles will cease to function. At this
intensity, your heart rate will be at 90-100 percent of your maximal
heart rate.
Here is why anaerobic exercise is much better for weight loss: When
we are using the aerobic system, the body will regulate itself, creating
enough energy to carry out the exercise. With anaerobic exercise, you
will create a huge deficit of oxygen that will stimulate the body to
continue to use energy to replace this deficit for hours after your
workout. Our body uses macronutrients for energy and if we are eating
just enough to cover the amount of energy needed to supply the body in
normal conditions, anything above this will cause our body to look for
energy elsewhere; fat tissue.
Foundation of Weight Loss
The key to weight loss is calories out > calories in. This does
not mean you need to go on a low calorie diet. Our body needs nutrients
in forms of protein, fats and if we are exercising, carbohydrates. Our
body uses carbohydrates for energy. There isn't a place to store excess
carbohydrates in the body. All extra carbs that are not used for energy
will be stored in fat cells. Too bad our body wouldn't just get rid of
them instead.
If you are very active, you need carbohydrates for energy and recovery.
The key is using carbohydrates for those two purposes and those two
alone; exercise and recovery. Now that you know the basics of exercise
and nutrition, let's look at how using the right exercises will help to
create the body of your dreams, give you energy long into your later
years of life, and will create a positive self image.
Foundation of Muscle Building
Muscle can do one of two things:
1. Grow larger and/or stronger
2. Shrink and/or get weaker
The only way to create muscle tissue is by breaking down the muscle
tissue and rebuilding stronger and bigger cells. The most effective way
of doing this is through resistance training.
With proper training your muscles grow stronger and larger. Benefits of muscle include:
- performing daily activities more easily,
- burning more calories daily,
- building stronger bones, preventing osteoporosis,
- improves your flexibility, stability and balance,
- improves strength and posture
- improves body composition
- reduces loss of muscle mass due to inactivity.
Muscle Balance
Earlier I stated that there is a right and wrong way to exercise. One
key aspect of a workout program is the focus of creating balance
throughout every muscle. Each muscle has an opposing muscle, the
antagonist. Let's use squats and lunges as examples. Here, the
quadriceps is the agonist (dominant muscle being used), while the hip
flexors are the antagonist (opposing muscle) and hamstrings become the
synergist (stabilizer or helper) muscles. When you are performing more
quadriceps dominant exercises as opposed to hamstrings or hip dominant
exercises, your pelvis will tilt, causing pain in the lower back, and
knees that are prone to injuries.
We can fix this by adding hip and hamstring dominant exercises to
balance out all muscle groups. As a rule, you should never do more
quadricep dominant exercises than hip movements. Always keep the volume
balance between each muscle.
Large Muscle Groups
Any exercise plan needs to involve large muscle groups, focusing on
working the antagonist in the same amount as stated earlier. Knowing the
proper exercises can ensure you will also target the smaller muscle
groups, creating harmony throughout the entire body by incorporating
stability muscles as well. And in doing so, you will also cut the amount
of time needed in the gym by leaving out certain body parts that were
already targeted in other exercises.
You also need to be aware of the muscles being worked with each
exercise to ensure you keep balance throughout all muscles. A simple
chest press targets your pectoalis major, but also uses pec minor,
deltoids, trapezius muscles, and your rotator cuff for example.
Importance of the Core
The core encompasses more than two dozen abdominal muscles, lower
back muscles, and hip muscles that stabilize your spine to keep your
torso upright. Your core allows you to bend forward, back, side to side,
and rotate. Your core plays a major role in movement. Working your core
(stability muscle) is crucial to optimal performance.
7 Best At Home Exercises For Women
By now you understand the importance of exercise. You don't need
fancy equipment for you to benefit from exercise. Here are just 7 at
home exercises, especially for women, that will not only better your
appearance, they will better your health.
Chin-up/Pull-up-These exercises target your lats but
also hit your tere major (stabilizer muscle) and biceps (more so with
chin-ups). Your core and middle back are also involved in assisting in
the movement or acting as stabilizers.
Pushup-This exercise targets your pectoralis major
but also involves your front deltoids and triceps. As for stability
muscles, your rotator, traps, serratus anterior, and abdominals all
assist with this movement.
Inverted Shoulder Press-The shoulder press targets
your front deltoids, middle deltoids, and the triceps. They also
activate your upper traps, rotator cuff, and serratus anterior which act
as stabilizer muscles.
Squat-These exercises target your quadriceps, but
also activate your core, and every muscle in your legs including your
glutes, hamstrings, and calves. This exercise burns a ton of calories
and is a must-have home exercise for women.
Stability Ball or Towel Leg Curl-This exercise is
great for targeting your hamstrings and glutes, and also activates your
lower back muscles and core. Because the glutes are the largest muscle
in the body, any exercise involving your glutes will burn a lot of
calories.
Single-Leg Toe Hops off Bench or Chair-This exercise
targets your calves, but also incorporates your quads, hamstrings,
glutes and gets your heart rate up to the fat-burning zone.
Side-plank-This exercise improves the strength in
your back and will help with performance. Planks target the entire core,
making this exercise a must-do for health and appearance sake.
Your At Home Workout
The workouts are split into different combos with 3-4 exercises in
each combo. Each exercise is preformed 3 times before moving onto the
next combo. Do the different exercises back to back, then repeat for a
total of three sets. You must always warm up for 10 minutes and cool
down for 10 minutes.
After you are able to do these workouts in 45 minutes or less, add
20-30 minutes of cardio following your workout on three of the five
days. Two days of cardio should be HIIT and the other day should be
steady cardio for endurance training. Stretching is also vital following
the workouts.
Use these 7 at home exercises for women for 6-8 weeks to improve strength, build muscle and burn fat.
Source
