Think you need a fancy gym membership to get in shape? Think again! There are a number of exercise options that can be done at home that can get you off the couch and lead you to a leaner, healthier and sexy you.

Even though exercising at home is convenient, it can have drawbacks such as lack of motivating oneself, lack of options and equipment or no instructor. Still there are many benefits of exercising at home such as:

• Affordability, its free there is no cost to join and there is no monthly fee to pay. Hallelujah!!!
• Convenience, you can workout anytime; you don't have to worry about opening and closing times. You can wake up by 02h00 am and do your push ups it's up to you and time is on your side.
• You can listen to your favorite house or hip-hop music while exercising, it's your choice. You can even use your dance moves to spice up your workout.
• You can use workout videos or DVDs with friends or family members. I prefer to do it alone with my big mirror in front of me.

 Most of women are more concerned about two areas in their bodies which are abdomen area and pelvic area.

Nonetheless, besides exercising, there are two factors that directly influence the size and shape of your body. I'm talking about cardio and nutrition. Stomach exercises will tighten your muscles making your stomach look flatter, but if you want to lose weight and let the muscles show; you'll have to pay attention to both factors. Hope that makes sense.

Before starting with any exercise or diet regime please visit the doctor to ensure that your body will be able to cope with the strenuous exercise and change in diet. You need to have a bottle of water next to you because your body will need it and you need your towel and your mat ready. Now let's begin with our workout program. You must always do some stretching to warm up before starting any exercise routine to prevent injury. Here are some simple exercises you can do to start with:

Cardiovascular exercises

1. Walking

Walking is the simplest and easiest form of cardiovascular exercise. Start slowly, and then gradually walk longer and faster.

2. Jogging

This is a step forward from walking. It is harder and puts more impact and stress on the body.

3. Stair climbing

If you have a staircase in your home, you can get a nice workout by simply climbing the stairs. To start, stand at the bottom of the stairs and walk in place for about one minute to get your leg muscles warmed up. Next, step up onto the first stair, and then back down. Repeat this move on the first stair ten times. Walk in place for fifteen seconds. Next, walk up the first two stairs, and then back down, then walk up one stair and back down. Repeat ten times.

4. Cycling

Riding a bike is a brilliant form of cardio but you must follow the rules of the road and wear a helmet.

5. Swimming

Swimming involves all the main muscles of the body. The only setback is that you must know how to swim.

Try doing the following while swimming? If you know how to dance, you can put on your music and dance for about 20-30 minutes. This is a good cardiovascular workout. You can also include push-ups, sit-ups and jumping rope into your daily home exercise routine.

Stomach exercises

The plank

1. Lie on the floor on your stomach.
2. Put yourself in a push-up-like position with your body resting on your toes and elbows. Keep your whole body straight like a plank.
3. Keep the position for a minute or 30 seconds if that's too much. Repeat 3 times.

Curl

1. Just lie on your back with both hands behind your head and raise your upper body.

2. Repeat this move for 15-20 times

For more stomach exercises, click here.

Pelvic exercises

The pelvic region involves the hips and the lower stomach. This area of the body has a tendency to gain more fat than other areas. When you are trying to lose this fat, you are actually going to lose it in your whole body.

Building muscle in your pelvic area can be done by doing lower abs exercise. To do these, lie on your back with your legs straight and your hands placed under your tailbone to take pressure off your back. Lift your legs off the floor about 4 inches. This is your starting point. Lift them up in the air until the bottoms of your feet are parallel to the ceiling and lower them back to the starting point. For more info on pelvic exercise, click here. 

It's not easy to start an exercise program. The problem is even worse when being overweight or having some physical problems. Going to the gym seeing active and in-shape energetic exercisers is usually more discouraging than motivating. The home workouts are easy for most people to start with.

For video demonstrations, click here.  

For office exercise, click here.  

If your home workouts are not working for you, then you can visit your nearest gym. Check the following sites.

• Virgin active
• Zone fitness
• Planet fitness
• Renaissancebsi  

Links:

• Essortment
• Buzzle.com
• Weightlossforall
• Fitstep
• Workoutbox
• Helium
• Ezinearticles
• CBN
• ILOVEINDIA.com

Last Updated: 06 September 2011

by Zanele Matshotyana