Get Up and Get Fit

Too many people think that in order to get fit and toned that they have to follow the latest fitness craze or buy the latest and most expensive total body machine that they can afford. For a lot of people getting fit and working out is a huge expense, in their minds. The truth is that to get fit and shed pounds is not expensive at all unless you want to take on an added expense to your budget, this is a stall technique, an excuse to not take action right now. If you must acquire equipment, or find room in your budget for some unknown expense then there is no need to take action right now.

The fact is that by using isometrics or simply by creatively using your own body weight as resistance you can get fit, toned, and never need more except for growing bored with ones workout there is absolutely no reason why basic aerobic, and calisthenic exercises cannot help you to at the very least make a good start to your fitness routine. Also starting with just what you already have, your body and your desire to improve your body and health, means that you can get started anytime, you can workout wherever and whenever you want, so there is no reason for breaks in your fitness routine due to travel or long hours at work.

I am by no means saying that fitness machines and weight lifting and training are bad for building your body. If you are aiming your sights at massive, muscular humps, muscles ripped, cut, and beautiful as a living Adonis, there is no other way to get there from where you are now, except to pump iron, and a lot of it! For those of us who are not competing in the Mr. or Mrs. Universe Bodybuilding contest any time soon, toned and defined muscle would be more than enough to make us happy. If we could pull the old six pack out of the cooler we've been keeping it in after high school, we would be ecstatic. If you're over 35 and your abs are visible and defined and cut, your age doesn't even enter into your factoring when you go out and buy an itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie little bikini (maybe we're not outgrowing our swimwear, didn't bikinis twenty years ago, seem to be a bit less itsy bitsy?) Women tend to store fat the abdominal areas, the hips, buttocks, and thighs. These are known as the "problem areas" or "trouble areas" for women. After your metabolism slows somewhere around your mid thirties, the fat deposits can build much like snowdrifts in these areas. The fat in the trouble areas also seems to be resistant and reluctant to allow itself to be removed. So these areas must have your concentrated power of will brought to bear on them if they have been allowed to build up fat deposits.

Throwing the weight around

Many people subscribe to the idea that machines are superior to using free weights because your form and body positioning is taken care of for you. With weight machines you don't start to drop the weaker end of a barbell because of muscle fatigue, so the big advantage to using fitness machines is that they work your body uniformly and automatically correct flaws in your form. In fact many trainers and fitness experts say that while machines are nice, and easy to use, nothing compares to using good old fashioned free weights. However when people start checking out gyms, people want to go to a gym that offers the best and most cutting edge fitness machines. In the gym most trainers, this is what they train most people on, because that is what they want not necessarily what it best. The true muscle pumpers, and athletes use free weights in addition to using machines which are calibrated to give them the best results in the shortest amount of time.

However most people who are not athletes, especially the 30 plus crowd, are not looking to loose their neck into a mass of muscles, nor is their fitness goal to be ripped, cut, and massive. Most adults in America and many other developed parts of the world are not happy with their physiques. Even if all of us were to jump on the get fit and healthy bandwagon, not everyone wants to look like Arnold Swarzenegger or even like the Williams Sisters, who are top competitive athletes who compete and win when they are in their prime. Most people just want to slim down, maybe a little, and maybe a lot.

It doesn't take the newest Nordic Trac or Ab Rocker to slim down, build lean muscle, and prolong your longevity. In fact it doesn't take much more than a set of dumbbells (adjustable weight are best)between 5 and 10 pounds for women and 10-20 pounds for men, a set of ankle weights, and a plastic jump rope to get and keep fit. Not that these things do not help you to pack on massive muscles if used properly and often. The same rule applies with or without weight the more repetitions of any exercise you do, and the more repetitions of that exercise in each set the more calories you burn and the more muscle you will build. You can use isometric resistance (using your muscles to both push and resist to mimic weight resistance.

There are also a number of "total body" fitness kits with rubber hosing and handles which attach and detach from the D rings with spring loaded carabiners which fasten them to the belts at a plastic loop which can be found at each end of each resistance hose. Most body building and fitness training sites refer to them as either fitness or Pilates bands. Fitness bands add resistance to your workouts, though they work primarily by wrapping them around something or standing on them while you use the band, this limits the possible applications for working your legs. If you are creative however you can actually get both a good upper and lower body workout using fitness bands.

What it does take to get in shape'

Even if you do live in a primitive cave without electricity, like a neanderthal, as long as you have some contact with the outside world, you have heard;

Exercise is good for you. Among the benefits of exercise and maintaining a low body weight are:

1. Increased longevity- Study after study has concluded time and again that people who exercise and take better care of their body, have the potential to live longer than most people who choose not to exercise and stay fit.

Also isn't it a good idea if you want to increase the number of years of your life, that you take steps to ensure that those are healthy years? You don't want to become a burden on your family, or to need assistance as your body breaks down and you are reduced to being able to do less and less for yourself. You would rather enjoy healthy active years or self sufficiency to the rigors of a life without health, mobility, or self sufficiency right?

2. Better self image and self confidence. This one is self explanatory

3. Reduced risk of certain cancers and of heart disease.

4. More muscle mass in your later years so that you can remain strong and independent, not having to rely on others to do things for you because you lack the strength or mobility to take care of yourself.

5. An improved sex life

There are numerous other reasons for getting or staying fit and strong. Millions upon millions of people resolve every New Year that they are going to start working out, that they are going to get fit, or they are going to join a gym. It doesn't take the latest machine, or fitness craze workout, an insanely spartan diet, or any equipment at all to lose weight, get toned and firm, and feel great. What it does take to get your body into shape is commitment to make changes in your life, your exercise and fitness levels, and your body. It also takes exercise. Not just a game a week during the company softball season kind of exercise. Your body needs real exercise. The kind that makes you sweat, the kind that builds muscles, the kind of exercise that burns away fat. The following are some simple exercises that can get you up off of the couch and on the road to better health without spending a dime! These are all exercises that require little or no equipment, that you can do in your living room or bedroom, some you can even do while you are doing something else like washing the dishes, folding laundry, watering your lawn, watching television, or while talking on the phone.

No equipment exercises

Lower body

Squats- Squats are a good old fashioned exercise that are easy to do and which you can do while your hands are busy elsewhere, like while you're folding the laundry. To do squats you stand with your feet firmly planted, about shoulder distance apart, bend your knees (you can bend them a little like when you're just beginning, or when you're washing dishes and the cabinet under the sink prevents you from bending your knees very much. Or you can bend your knees deeply all the way down until you are squatting with your buttocks on your heels.) Squat down, using a steady slow motion, working the muscles in a steady and deliberate movement and pace. You can hold the squatting position for a beat or two to really get the most out of each squat. Then straighten your legs and stand up straight again.

You can do whatever you want with your hands while doing squats as it is all in the leg and glute muscle groups. You can fold your laundry, open your mail, use free weights to involve your upper body, or just move your arms in isometric exercises paced with your squats. For those who do not have great balance and who want to do the deeper squats for the maximum muscle usage, you can do wall squats, leaning your back against a wall and then doing your squats. You could also use a chair back to rest your hands on and to grip for balance.

Side squats/skier squats- Instead of standing in one place and squatting, start with both feet together standing up straight. Step to the side (you can start to either side) in a wide stance with your feet apart, squat as you move your weight from the transfer foot to the anchoring foot (the one you stepped out with) and pushing yourself up into a standing position while you bring your other foot over to join the foot that you stepped out on. Then do the reverse. The motion is much like that of a cross-training roller blader or a cross country skier. In the mid pose you are squatting with your body balanced squarely between your feet, with your hands out and pumping forward and back with the motion of your body. Your pose is like that of a skier with his poles tucked under their arms and their body in an aerodynamic "tuck" position. Again you can squat more deeply or more shallowly as is your preference and strength level.

Bounce/Frog squats- like the second name of this exercise "frog" squats, you will position your body into the squatting position of a frog on a lilly-pad. Your hands can be balancing your weight by being placed on the floor slightly in front of your legs, or by holding the back of a chair. Bounce up and down without leaving the squatting frog stance. When you are better skilled with this exercise you can actually bounce your self up so your feet come of the floor. Still do not leave the frog position.

Crossovers- Standing up straight step to the side, then step with your free leg in the same direction crossing your legs with the free leg swinging behind the first one. Step in the same direction again to uncross your legs. This will leave you standing with your feet about shoulder with apart. Add a squat in the middle of the cross for more intense muscle building. You can even add a waist high kick at the end of each crossover step. When you bring your legs shoulder width apart, bring the following leg straight out, holding it out at a 90 degree angle from the hip. Lift the leg for at least two beats steadily with no jerking or alteration of your pacing. Then bring the leg down to its original position again taking two beats. Once you are standing with your legs uncrossed at the completion of the exercise, reverse direction and do the same exercise on the other side. This exercise is great for when you are watching TV or listening to music. It is a simple step, it can be done double time for a cardio exercise, or slowly for a low impact aerobic exercise.

Pas de bouree- Meaning step, step, change. For descriptive purpose think of this as a step, ball, change, as you need to step in the half beat, on the ball of your foot. This exercise can be performed to the side as a stutter-step movement, to the front with or without a low kick, or in the style of a latin merengue step, placing the foot behind the first. The motion will vary depending on whether you are stepping to the front, sides, or back but how it is done is to You will begin by standing straight with your feet about shoulder distance apart. The first step whether front, back, or to the side, will bring the first leg in toward the other leg which you are balancing.Bring your second foot in half the distance to the first foot. Balance your weight on the ball of your following foot for just a half a beat transferring your weight to the following foot briefly as you reverse the motion of your foot stepping away from the other foot, bringing your foot back into the same place it began.

This exercise of course works your legs and glutes. It is not just that it works them though, doing the step, ball, change in varying direction works different muscles and different parts of your muscles. The side step targets your hips, the glute muscle on the side, the exterior of the thigh, and the oblique abdominal muscles. The front stutter-step works the front of the thighs, the lower and mid abdominal muscles. The Latin dance step to the rear works all of those muscles but focuses on the all of the muscles from the abs down, but works different areas of the same muscles from the other two directions.

Once you have the pas de bouree step down you can add in arm exercises with the leg motion for a full body cardio exercise. It works your legs even more deeply and adds another set of muscles if you do this exercise up on your toes. This will help to give you the diamond shaped calves that you want. For your arms you can do belly dancing "snake arms" alternating with the direction of your leading foot. You can raise your arms up above your head and then transition them down the extend near your hips. On the first step left or right the arms swing from down at the waist, cross in front of your pelvis and then open back out so your hands are held high, arms fully extended, and not crossed. Your final arm position will resemble an umpire signaling for the touchdown in American Football, while your lower body will end with feet wide apart, lead leg bent at the knee, in a sort of lunge position. You can increase or decrease the degree of bend in your knee as you like for more or less strenuous workouts.

Aerobic stepping exercises

Aerobic stepping exercises employ the various muscles of the lower body and any step or pattern that feels comfortable and which causes you to work up a sweat after a few minutes of doing it, is fine. You don't have to emulate or imitate the steps or rhythms of anyone but yourself. Creating new steps is one way to keep your mind as well as your body from growing bored with the same thing over and over. Just ensure that whatever stepping pattern you choose, that it is low impact on your legs, and that it can be done the same way for both sides of the body. You may have more difficulty training one side of your body to the pattern, but that is common. It is important that there is symmetry in any exercises that you do, this helps you to foster a bio-symmetry (both sides of your body fairly closely matched in both strength and muscle definition.) Also the deeper that you lunge or squat throughout the standing exercises the harder you work the leg muscles and the faster you metabolize fat and build muscle. Also doing these standing exercises up on your toes will help you to build those hard diamond shaped calves that you want.

Mountain climbers- You will start this exercise in the position that sprinters take at the starting line before a race. Hands spread at about shoulder length and arms extended to the floor. Keep your back straight and flat with one leg, knee bent, and foot on the floor, under your torso. The other leg will be extended back with just your toes and the ball of the foot on the floor. What you are going to go is push your body up with the leg that is bent beneath your torso, so that both feet are off the floor long enough for you to trade legs. You will end with the opposite leg bent beneath your torso and the formerly bent leg stretched straight out behind you.

Repeat this exercise ten or fifteen times for each leg, do two to four repetitions of this exercise throughout your workout. This is an exercise you will feel throughout your lower back, glutes, and legs. As you progress with the exercise try to switch back and forth continuously for more cardio involvement. As you get stronger do sets of fifty or even one hundred per leg. Still only two to four repetitions of the exercise. Doing Mountain climbers will definitely help strengthen and tone your lower body and even your abs.

Tip for beginners- you can start out by bracing your hands on a sturdy chair, a phone book (wrap it with tape so it stays stable), or the edge of your sofa (the brace along the front under the cushions) until you get strong enough to do them with your hands down on the floor.

Other standing exercises

There are numerous other standing exercises that you can do such as jumping jacks, jumping rope, calf raises, rear kicks, step aerobics, and many more without requiring any equipment or special skills. With a set of resistance bands you can stand on your long band and do curls, both bicep and chest curls, shoulder presses, tricep curls, and several other curling exercises. With your shorter bands you can wrap the middle of the band around your back and do chest presses. This works well whether you are standing or laying on your back. You can add resistance to a boxing or punching routine with your exercise bands. Get a whole body exercise by doing squats as you do your punches or chest curls.

The Abs

The core or midsection of the body is an area that most people want to work on. There is no secret or shortcut to rock hard, "washboard" abdominal muscles. What it takes is work, and lots of it! Most of the exercises that I am about to name are familiar to you. Yoga plank position is a great abdominal workout, sit-ups, push-ups, crunches, leg lifts while lying on your back, and bicycle-ing while lying on your back. If you have any type of apparatus on which you can suspend your body in a vertical position with your legs freely hanging down below you. By lifting your knees, or by lifting your legs straight out in front of you angled straight out from the hip this is a great abdominal workout.

Other abdominal exercises include:

Belly dancing undulations, hip-circles, figure eights, hip lifts and drops, and virtually any belly dancing moves are great for working your abs.

To undulate you roll your abdominal muscles in either descending order (from the chest to the hips), or in ascending order (from the hips to the chest).

To do hip circles-rotate your hips in a 360 degree circle while holding your chest immobile and bend your knees appropriately to facilitate the hip roll. Make sure that you do complete circles and that you do an equal number to the right as to the left to ensure bi-lateral muscle development (development of the muscles on both sides equally).

There are a number of places that you can find instructional videos for all of the major belly dancing moves from beginners moves to advanced and beyond. Youtube.com has numerous videos and feeds from expertvillage.com, there are videos for sale on both amazon.com and ebay.com for every level of belly dancing and every type of belly dancing. Many of these videos are instructed by the acknowledged best belly dancers inn the world such as Rachel Brice and other performers from the World Dance organization's Belly dance Superstars performing company, who specialize in their form or style of belly dance. There are numerous different styles and types of belly dancing from Egyptian, Arabic, and even Polynesian Hula dancing. You can watch both performance, teaching, and exemplary videos on YouTube.com to choose a style that you like and which fits you. You may even decide to take classes, there are a lot of instructors and studios which teach belly dancing and even cardio belly dancing. If the style of exercise is of interest to you it can be really fun, it can also improve your balance, sense of motion and physicality, and even your perceived sensuality.

Yoga- There are a lot of different styles of yoga. Yoga is a full body style of exercise but there are certain moves and poses, such as the plank position (which is simply the first position of doing push ups), this position you can really feel throughout your abs in a matter of seconds. Yoga can improve your elasticity and flexibility, your sense of inner peace and centered-ness, balance, and strength. There are even cardio yoga, and yoga workouts to target specific parts of the body, like your abs, upper, or lower body. You can find and watch full episodes of Yoga Zone and other yoga workout shows on Hulu.com for free.

Kickboxing is also a great bull body workout that is especially good for your abs. Kickboxing workouts are out there there, such as Tai Bow and other high energy boxing workouts. These types of workouts will work your whole body but you will really see the effectiveness of the workouts in your upper body, also known as your core.

The upper body

The upper body is often harder to work without weights. There are basic exercises for the arms such as push-ups, pull ups, curls, shoulder presses, butterfly curls, and numerous variations on these themes. For the most part you need to use some type of resistance to really target your upper body muscles well but 100 push-ups per day will still slim, trim, and shape your body. Inverted push ups are even better for upper body development. You put your feet up on your sofa or a chair to increase the amount of body weight that you are pressing. Without using weights or resistance bands you will have to do a lot of reps to get your upper body to show it.

You can of course do curls and presses without weights in your hands as well. You could also use your ankle weights for increased resistance. Adding chest curls or shoulder presses to any of the aerobic leg exercises can turn that exercise into a full body workout. For those people that are just starting out on their fitness regimen, it is probably best that you do not use additional weight resistance. You want to get your body used to simple exercise on a regular basis. Especially if you are grossly overweight.

You also do not have to get the entire 30-60 minutes worth of exercise all at one time. If time constraints or the physical strain of keeping your body moving for 30-60 minutes at a stretch prevent you from working out for a solid hour you can take it slowly by doing 10 to 20 minute repetitions of the exercises that you are doing that day. Just make sure that once your heart rate is no longer elevated and you are able to continue, that you do not cop out and decide not to finish. According to both the American Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic Online newsletter, for keeping your body in optimum condition or to burn fat and lose weight you need 30-40 minutes of exercise or physical activity three to five days per week.

If you are over 55 or in poor health and under the care of a physician, make sure that before you begin any fitness regimen that you talk to your doctor and make sure that he monitors your condition and tracks your progress with weight loss as well as your general health. It is a rare thing when a patient consults their doctor and their doctor tells them that they should not exercise, in fact most doctors recommend exercise and physical activity for all of their patients, especially those who are overweight or obese, and those patients who wish to maintain their mobility and independence as late into their lives as possible.

To get or be fit, to look, and feel healthy is the wish of just about every human being on the planet. It doesn't take gimmicks, or tricks, and physical fitness will never ever be found in a pill. As they say no pain no gain, there is absolutely no way to a better body like exercise. If you embark on a fitness regimen and choose to use some of the exercises described here, you will lose weight. All that you have to bring to the enterprise is the commitment to get up, get fit, and get your body moving. Be creative, any exercises that you can think of from jumping jacks to arm circles, jumping rope to hula hooping, get up and get your body out there!