Snow Day

Hello everyone!
Here in Virginia it is a snowy slushy mess and I got (most) of the day off of work! It is easy to take a bad weather day and turn it into a lazy and glutton filled day of non-productivity. All I want to do is eat and watch movies. Even my coworkers were talking about that exact phenomena that when the weather is yucky outside, we someone how want to match that with our insides by eating junk and not moving around.

I want to come up with some fun tricks to at least stay somewhat healthy on these at home days of fun!

---

Each picture shown is one of my favorite exercises! They target all the areas I love to build muscle in and they help me feel better about myself by building a strong, lean, and sexy body.

Backwards push-ups are a great way to target the muscles under your arms where a lot of women will complain about "flab"

You can do these walking lunges without weights to get around the house. Or better yet, do these while putting away dishes or clutter to give you the benefit that gym weights would!

Please remember, I am NOT a trainer, these are just exercise I like and want to share! Go at your own pace and remember to stop if anything is painful or if it doesn't feel right. I like to push my self to feel a good burn so I am sore tomorrow, but not everyone can, or will want, to start there. If you are new to exercising, you may want to start with fewer reps – try 5-10 to test each exercise out =)

A great way to stay on track when the kitchen and couch are calling out your name is to get active! This can be hard when trapped inside, but there are TONS of amazing blogs, apps, and website to help you get moving even just in your living room. If you find that it is really hard to commit to a 40, 30, or even 20-minute workout without the gym, my suggestion is to start slow and build up over the day.

You can do squats without the jump at the end, but the jump is a great way to kick up calorie burning by adding some cardio. Squats and leg raises are great for quadricep, calf, glute, and ankle strengthening

When working around the house try kicking up the intensity. You can pick up the pace and work double time as you vacuum, sweep, scrub, Clorox, and Swiffer. This may result in you having to do this twice, but hey, getting moving is what this post is all about!

Do both of these exercises (above and below) with a bent knee or a straight leg. This primarily works the glutes but remember to keep your abs engaged!

Workouts help you burn more calories during the next few hours. Muscle building also helps burn more calories all the time – even while you sleep! Today I have no article to support this but I hope to have some future exercise posts where I explore more about calorie burning, muscle mass, and the effect of exercise on the body, mind, and mood! For now that is just great motivation! If anyone is like me, I try to find any excuse to burn some extra calories through out the day!

For more of a challenge: don't let your feet touch the ground, just let them hover and inch or two between each rep. For less of a challenge: bend your knees so your calves are parallel to the floor when you raise up

For the couch potato: do 10-20 reps of any strength training exercise during each commercial.

If you are a Netflix fanatic, try doing 20 reps before each new episode starts plus an additional 20 reps during the show.

Add in some cardio with jumping jacks, running in place, jumping rope, but kicks, and jumping from side-to-side an front-to-back (as you can see jumping is the best way to get your heart rate up at home!). As you do this, be careful not to hurt your knees or back.

We used to do releves (or calf raises) in Ballet class and I have always loved this exercise! Stand next to a wall or chair to keep balance and raise up onto the balls of your feet, try to keep your weight centered in the middle of your foot so your ankles don't roll!

As you perform more sedentary tasks (such as putting dishes away, laundry, brushing your teeth, microwaving, making coffee, dusting, etc…) you can use walking lunges, squats, calf raises, and leg lifts (be creative!) to kick up your calorie burn and build muscle daily.

This is another glute workout! I do this one as show and then another set with my ankles raised and knees on the ground. I also do a set without my ankles touching so it looks like a clam opening up

If you have any favorite exercises feel free to share. As always, if you have any thoughts, comments, feelings, or questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Well that's all for today! I am off to do a few of these on my own and make a nice healthy dinner starting with a big salad!