The 5 Elements of Fitness
According to Steele, an effective fitness program has five components, all of which you can do at home:
- A warmup.
- A cardiovascular (aerobic) workout.
- Resistance (strength-building) exercises.
- Flexibility moves.
- A cooldown
A warm-up could be an easy walk outside or on a treadmill, or a slow pace on a stationary bike. For the cardiovascular portion, walk or pedal faster, do step aerobics with a video, or jump rope -- whatever you enjoy that gets your heart rate up.
The resistance portion can be as simple as squats, push-ups and abdominal crunches. Or you could work with small dumbbells, a weight bar, bands or tubing.
Increase your flexibility with floor stretches or yoga poses. And your cooldown should be similar to the warm up, says Steele -- "cardiovascular work at a low level to bring the heart rate down to a resting state."
You can do strength work in same workout as your aerobic work, or split them up. Just be sure to warm up and cool down every time you exercise.
If you're short on time one day, increase the intensity of your workout, says Tony Swain, MS, fitness director of East Bank Club in Chicago. Instead of your usual 45-minute ride on the stationary bike, choose a harder program for 25 minutes and really push yourself. Choose the hilly walk in your neighborhood, or jog instead of walking.
You can step up the pace of your strength workout by doing compound exercises -- those that work more than one muscle group at a time.
Tips for home exercisers
The experts offer some other tips for home exercisers:
- Challenge yourself and avoid boredom. At home, you won't have the variety of equipment and classes that are available at a gym. So surf the Internet and browse fitness magazines to check out new workouts and make sure you're exercising correctly. "Pictures are everything. Use them as a guide for form and technique," Swain says.
- Find an exercise partner. You'll be less likely to find excuses when you've arranged to work out with a friend.
- Schedule your workouts. "Have a plan," says Calabrese. "Look at a planner and write out your exercise appointments one month in advance. If something comes up and you have to change one, reschedule it immediately."
- Use a journal to track your progress and jot down any breakthroughs you may have. When you have a bad day, write that down, too, to help you to find patterns you can break. For example, you may find an egg-white omelet gets you through your morning workout better than a bagel.
- Set goals, like training for a race or losing 20 pounds. "A goals should be something you can't do right now, but you know is within your reach," Calabrese says. Give yourself mini-rewards along the way: a new fitness magazine, those workout tights you've been eyeing, or a new pair of sneakers.
- Perhaps most important, make exercise as integral to your life as sleeping and eating, says Swain. "You have to think of it as a lifestyle change. It doesn't end. Get out of the mind frame that exercise is something you're only going to do for a period of time."
