The minute we hear the word “exercise”, we picture trade mill, cardio, weights, and so on. But there are many things that we can do at home to burn excess fat and tone our body. I hardly go to the gym, but I exercise regularly at home. After my daughter was born, I could barely get time to spend 1 hour at our community gym, so I started to follow Classical Stretch by Miranda Esmonde White. And I found them very useful. As the name says, it is not an intense workout. Classical Stretch focuses on core muscles, and by stretching, it lengthens our muscles. This stretching and lengthening help in toning.  I wasn’t doing these exercises because I wanted to shed the excess body fat post-pregnancy. But my main goal behind following a regular exercising routine was to maintain flexibility. I didn’t gain a lot in both. my pregnancies, so I was back in shape within a few months. I have been doing a few exercises from the classical stretch workout for many years. Now a few more have added to the list.

 

In this post, I will share a five of my favorite exercises that I do at home. I am explaining the term and benefits here. Please check youtube videos for the proper way of performing these exercises.

 

• Bicycle crunches: This is one of the best ab exercise. This exercise is excellent for building core strength and toning your thighs.It enhances strength and endurance and defines your waistline. The bicycle crunch is an excellent exercise for beginners and experts in the fitness field. The level of difficulty can be modified or intensified based on the way you position your body or the rate you perform the exercise. You should pay attention to your breathing. Holding your breath throughout the entire exercise will cause unnecessary stress to your body, lead to dizziness, passing out, or dangerous elevation of blood pressure. You should deeply inhale when you are in the neutral position and then fully exhale once you rotate your upper body from side to side during the exercise.

 

• Lunges: We often kneel to tie our shoes. That’s what we call a lunge. A lunge is a single-leg bodyweight exercise that works your hips, glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core and the hard-to-reach muscles of your inner thighs. Lunges aren’t only good for giving you a tighter butt, but can also strengthen your muscles, increase balance and mobility, and a lot more. They train all 3 of your glute muscles, which are necessary to walk right. Another great thing about lunges is that they help to increase the overall health of your spine

 

• Squats: The most obvious benefit of squats is building leg muscles – quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. So, each time you sit down and stand up, you’re doing a version of the exercise. Squat exercises are great for a total lower body workout. They effectively work most of the major muscle groups of the butt, hips, and thighs. Squats are also a versatile exercise. You use so much more than your legs. When performing a squat correctly, you also activate your abs, glutes, and hip flexors. To add a little bit of cardio to it, you can do squat jump – small hop towards the ceiling and landing back on your feet. It is one of the favorite exercises for girls.

 

• Planks: The plank is an isometric core strength exercise that involves maintaining a position similar to a push-up for the maximum possible time.  It is one form of bodyweight exercise that will never go out of fashion. By holding yourself in the position for a planking exercise, you’ll notice that your biceps, neck, and shoulder muscles are also being engaged. Your arms are supporting your body, so the arms muscles are getting strong. When you start to do planks, you may not be able to hold the correct position for very long. Keep practicing, and you’ll find it becomes easier to do.

If resting on your forearms is uncomfortable, do the plank from a push-up position, with your arms fully extended. If you have back pain or other back issues, either do the plank on your knees or stand straight and lean against a counter, so your body is at a 45° angle. Plank with an alternating knee to elbow is one variation that I do.

 

• Side bends: The exercise can be performed standing or seated, although while standing, more of the stabilizing postural muscles are involved. Side bends, meanwhile, are another core-strengthening exercise that primarily focuses on the obliques at the sides of the abdomen.

 

There are a few days when I am not in mood to do these above exercises. I do some Yoga stretches. This includes Cobra Pose (my favorite) , Triangle Pose, Worrior Pose, Cat/Cow Pose, Bridge Pose, Seated Forward Bend, Side Oblique Stretch, Downward-Facing Dog (my second favorite), Cobbler’s Pose, Seated-wide Angle Straddle (I love it). Please check 10 basic yoga poses for beginners to know about above mentioned yoga stretches.

 

Along with exercises, proper eating habits, consuming seasonal fruits, and drinking plenty of water is also necessary in maintaining a toned body.

These are a few of my favorite exercises and yoga stretches that I do at home on regular basis. One very important thing that I would like to say here is its good that you want to stay fit and loose extra pounds but you should also learn to respect your body. If you want to loose weight due to body shaming then please first take that negativity out of you. And second is we should understand that it will not happen over night. 

 

 

Disclaimer: I am not a fitness trainer or a yoga expert. I have been doing these  exercises for quite some time now and have seen good results. If you have any health related issues or have any questions then please consult your doctor before starting.

 

Further reading:

https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/lose-weight/1716/bicycle-crunches

https://www.healthline.com/health/14-plank-variations-your-core-will-thank-you-for-later#1