The No Excuses Workout

I know we are all busy with work, kids, family, friends…..fill in whatever else. We have plenty of valid excuses for not exercising, No time, can’t afford a gym membership, don’t have any equipment, travelling, etc… Well hopefully this will help some of us out. I have put together my “No Excuses Workout” for all of us to enjoy! You can do this workout any time of day and almost anywhere. No fancy equipment is needed to do these exercises. You can customize it to be a 5min workout or do extra rounds to make it longer if you have the time. This workout is fat burning and toning. You can do this in your living room, back yard or hotel room.

Even if you only have a few minutes a day to workout, you can have results if you are consistent.  It is important not to skip to many workouts. So this is a great way to keep moving forward in you fitness goals without loosing momentum and falling far behind. It is important to keep good nutrition in mind. If you are not eating properly that will also set you back.

I suggest you do this workout before you get in the shower each morning. Just make it part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth. You will start to see results if you are consistent and you will feel great and energized for your day!

You can do this workout every day but always rest at least 1 day each week.

Always warm up before working out. A warm up should consist of lower impact moves that warm up your entire body, it can include lighter versions of the exercises to follow.  I like to do 3-5 minutes of  marching in place (moving arms as well as legs), shoulder rolls forwards and backwards, jumping jacks, shallow  squats, jump rope, etc. Remember you don’t want to exhaust yourself in the warm up, just prepare your muscles and to prevent injury. Always include a cool down and some gentle stretching after your workout.

The Workout:

Set your timer for 5 minutes ( or 10 or 15) and complete as many rounds as possible

10 push ups

15 squats

10 knee hug crunches

Repeat the circuit until the timer goes off. Don’t stop until the time is up, keep moving.  Don’t rest between exercises, keep moving as fast as you can while maintaining proper form and alignment at all times. You can modify each exercise according to  your fitness level, for example ; squats can be done shallow and slower for beginners, and deeper/faster for intermediate and  advanced or maybe even change to a jump squat for more of a callenge . Push ups can be done on your knees if needed but try to do at least one full push up or as many as you can, this will increase your strength and ability to do more over time. If you can not do a knee hug crunch start out with regular crunches and work in knee hug crunches over time as you build up strength.

These are pretty basic exercise but I want to go over some of the details for proper form and body alignment. It is most important that we do the exercises correctly, we don’t want to waste any of our time and effort and most importantly we don’t want any injuries, its just not worth it.

Squat: Stand with feet a little wider that hip distance apart, Hinge at the hips sitting back, bend knees, back strait, do not round your back, shoulders down and back, knees over ankles and never shoot out past your toes, chest lifted and head inline with spine, return to standing pushing through your heels and squeezing glutes.

Push up: Your body should be in a strait line. Your wrist should be positioned slightly wider than shoulder width apart, in line with middle of your chest. Hands strait, not twisted at all. Your ears should be in line with your shoulders. Keep your gaze slightly out in front of you (you don’t want to look down towards  your  torso or straining your neck upwards) Keep your back flat, keep your hips and torso level and your core engaged. Do not drop your low back or hike up your hips. lower and push up in a controlled movement going through the full range of motion

Knee Hug Crunch: Lie flat on your back with arms stretched out at sides, flex at the hips and bend knees to raise the legs and torso off of the floor, bring the arms up to hug the knees, pause at the mid pint and then return back to  the start position.To make it harder try  to keep you feet from touching the ground, to make it easier let feet touch ground between reps.

Here is what each exersice is working:

Squat: glutes (butt),  legs, hips, thighs, abs, lower back:  BOOTY LIFTING, THIGH TONNING!

Push up: arms, shoulders, chest, core/abs, upper back:  RIPPED ABS AND TONNED ARMS!

Knee hug cruch: abs: SIX PACK ABS AHEAD!

HAVE FUN!  XOXO