Fitness in Your Condo Without Equipment

• When shadow boxing try to ensure that your body is properly aligned, especially keeping the spine straight, in order to prevent injury.
• Squats, if done properly, can make your thighs strong, shapely and slender. But you must keep your back straight and focus on placing your weight on your buttocks and heels to prevent knee pain.

We all know that exercise is important to keep ourselves healthy, but traffic and work obligations might make our exercise routine more complicated due to time restriction. Many people therefore invest in home-used exercise equipment, costing from tens to hundreds of thousands baht. But they still struggle to figure out where to put the equipment, how to operate these machines with complex settings, and people quite often are unaware of many safety issues, particularly for weight lifting equipment that can easily cause injuries if not used correctly.

In fact, exercising is not that complicated as it can be carried out without any equipment and requires only a small space. With the right exercise, one can not only improve heart condition and burn excess calories, but can also strengthen muscles for a more beautiful figure.

Jumping jacks

To do a basic jumping jack, simultaneously jump with your legs apart while raising your arms up over your head. Then reverse the movement and repeat. While doing this, try to tighten your arm muscles and flex the abdominal muscles to tighten up the upper arms and the abdomen at the same time. Continue the exercises for at least 10-15 minutes, which can be divided into five minutes per round. This simple exercise can help you burn excess calories and is, with the same duration, like running in moderate speed.

Shadow boxing

Exercising by shadow boxing, just like the boxers do, is another excellent way of burning calories. To make it more effective you can include Muay Thai kicks and knee strikes. Key is to ensure that your body is properly aligned, especially keeping the spine straight. To do this, you may need to lean forward slightly. You can divide this into three rounds of three minutes each, with a 1-minute break between rounds.

Chest push-up for a strong upper body

Push-ups with your hands at chest level and with your knees off the ground is a standard exercise for men or anyone who has fairly good upper body strength. For women and for beginners, you can also do this exercise with your knees on the ground. Start this exercise by placing your hands shoulder-width apart on the ground, tighten your muscles, align your body in a straight line from your head to your toes. Then lower your body straight down without arching or bending your back. From there, push up with both arms simultaneously, all the while keeping your body in a straight line without hunching or rounding your shoulders. Repeat this in three sets of 10.

Tricep dips to tone and tighten the back of your arms

Prepare a stable chair, bed, or other stable surface. Sit on the edge of the chair or bed with your back straight. Place your hands on the surface at both sides of you. Put your feet flat on the floor with your knees bent at right angles, look straight ahead and slide your body slightly forward with your torso near but just off the chair. Straighten and tighten your arms, lift your butt off and gradually lower yourself nearly to the ground until your arms are at right angles. Try to keep your back straight and your elbows pulled in and aligned with your shoulders, being careful not to let your elbows flail outward. From there, push yourself back up to your original position. Repeat 10 times per set for a total of three sets.

Squats for beautiful, slender legs

Many of you are well-acquainted with an exercise known as squats. If done properly, this exercise is guaranteed to produce strong, shapely and slender thighs. Stand on your feet shoulder-width apart, toes pointed out slightly. From there, lower your body to a sitting position by pushing your butt back while at the same time curling your trunk slightly forward. Try to keep your back straight and focus on placing your weight onto your buttocks and heels. This will keep weight off your knees and thus prevent knee pain. You can do anything from a shallow squat at an obtuse angle to a deeper squat at a right angle. Repeat 15-20 times per set for a total of three sets.

Plank for a strong back and abdominal area

Start by lying down flat facing the floor. Extend your body out completely straight. Place your forearms and elbows on the ground about shoulder-distance apart. From there, slowly raise your body off the floor while keeping your elbows directly underneath your shoulders. Now tighten your body and squeeze the glutes. Your body should form a perfectly straight line from the crown of your head to your heels and level with your neck and head. Do not raise your head, and be careful not to raise your hips or arch your back and stomach. Key is to tighten and hold in your abdominal muscles. Hold this position for 30-60 seconds.

If, in one day, you can do the two calorie-burning exercises and the four strengthening exercises above, this will increase the strength of almost every muscle in your body. Those exercises, along with sufficient warm up and cool down before and after you exercise, should take no more than one hour. You will also have the added benefits of saving time from traveling to the park or gym and saving money on gym membership fees. You can also use YouTube to practice yoga, do some Zumba dancing or progress on to some more advanced bodyweight exercises. With just these few exercises above, you will be well on your way to good health and all the benefits that come with it.

MEET

THE AUTHOR

ASST.PROF. BENJAPOL BENJAPLAKORN, PH.D. Health and Exercise Specialist