Exercises for the NON gym junkies!

If you are sick of the gym and the gym folk, you don’t have much to work with at home and want to get outdoors or even incorporate some resistance into your walk route here are some great ways to do it! Tip #1 Make use of the surrounds Tip #2 Make it challenging Tip #3 Break it up throughout your walk Tip #4 Feel the burn (Metabolism – burning energy)

Tree sit

If you have had your resistance session or ever worked with an exercise professional you no doubt have become acquainted with the isometric wall hold. This is where you sit against a wall, as if you are on a chair, knees at 90 degree angle and simply hold. Why not get outdoors and use a tree? Try to hold for 30-60 seconds increasing by 5 seconds each session. Repeat 3 times.

Park bench Squats  

All you need is a park bench to do your squats. Start in a standing upright position and slowly lower to sit on the bench.  Before sitting, push through the heels and return to a standing position. Make sure you have your feet hip width apart and the weight of your body going through your heels. If you want to step this up in the challenge stakes, try performing on a single leg. Aim to keep your hips level at all times and lower to tap the seat before returning to a standing position.

Bench Push ups – easy, moderate and hard

To get an upper body work out, targeting the shoulders, chest and arms use the bench as a tool to do your push ups. The higher the platform for your hands are the easier the push ups, so for beginners use the tallest part of the back rest, moderate use the seat and for a really challenging exercise pop your feet up on the seat and hands on the ground and perform 3 sets of  8-12 repetitions.

Plank 

Yep I said plank. Everyone knows the tummy blitzing plank exercise. This exercise is a great one and you can vary it for different strengths. The most common plank is on your toes and elbows. Ensure that you are bracing your deep core muscles by drawing your belly button in and turning pelvic floor on. Your body should be in a straight line from your feet to your head, if you feel it through your back drop to a less intense level. An easier version is dropping the exact same posture onto your knees. To really challenge yourself pop one foot on top of the other to recruit the oblique muscles, or take one arm up for a similar effect.

Side plank

The side plank is the evil twin of the above plank. This position is on one elbow and forearm and one foot. This exercise will target your obliques. Dropping to the knees will make this more manageable or alternatively lifting the top leg will make it harder!

Step/jump ups

Use the bench as a step for a strength or higher intensity cardio workout. Step one foot on the seat of the bench push through your heel and step up so both feet are on the bench and lead with the same foot heading back down. You can either do this based on time or repeat 8-12 times. Make it a bit harder by driving the 2^nd leg up into a knee drive using your abdominals or if safe perform jumps onto the seat. There are plenty of ways to get a great whole body workout in the surrounds of a park or outdoor area like your backyard. If resistance training is not your friend incorporate it along your walk and break it up to make it easier mentally. Ultimately we want to work our way up to doing 3 sets of 60secs/15 repetitions of each exercise. In order to see results you need to push your muscles past their comfort zone (within reason) so a feedback loop is created and the desired result is obtained - hello metabolism!