Fitness at Home

By Bruce Cohn
Boston Globe, May 2003
 
So you know that you should be exercising. You just don’t have the time, money or inclination to join a gym and go there. Despite the hype pumped out by your local gym, chances are you can get as good or better a workout in your home – without signing any contracts, without getting in your car and without expensive equipment.

Ironically, your old gym class standbys, like pushups, sit-ups and squats, are more functional than working on machines. This means they enhance movements you perform in your daily life and help you avoid injury. Each requires you to raise and lower weight while controlling unnecessary movement throughout the rest of your body.

Better still, you can do them in a space as small as 4 feet by 4 feet with little or no equipment. You don’t have to pay expensive gym fees to do these exercises and you can even watch television as you do them. They can be modified to meet your needs, no matter what kind of shape you’re in.

The exercises are simple, and you probably will remember most of them from high school. Begin warming up for 5 to10 minutes by gently swinging your legs to the front, back and side. Swing your arms to make large circles to the front and back. Feel the movement coming from the hips and shoulders. Now march in place and lift your knees to your waist while you vigorously pump your arms.

At this point you should be ready to perform a squat. Stand with your feet hip or shoulder width apart and rest your hands on your hips. Your feet are pointed straight ahead or slightly toed out with your weight slightly back on your heels. Draw your belly button in (imagine it pressing up against your spine) and move your hips back as you slowly begin to bend your knees. Think of sitting down into a chair directly behind you. (You can even place a hard chair behind you.)

Lower your body as far as you can without leaning your upper body forward more than a few inches. Your goal is to get down low enough so that your thighs are parallel to the floor while keeping your weight back on your heels and not allowing your knees to travel out in front of your toes. Your flexibility and build will affect how far down you can go, but you will improve with practice.

Once you have reached your end point (you may feel your upper body fold forward over your thighs), straighten your legs and stand back up. Exhale as you raise your body and be careful not to lock your knees at the end of the movement. Perform 12 to 15 repetitions of this movement and try lowering your body over three seconds and raising it in two.

Congratulations: You have just worked every major muscle group in your lower body.

There are two exercises you can use to work the muscles in the front and back of your upper body. Start with the pushup. A traditional military pushup is done from a prone position with your body weight supported on your hands and toes. Place your hands to the outside of your shoulders with fingers facing your head. Your feet are together or up to 12 inches apart. When viewed from the side, your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles.

Begin by bending your elbows and lowering your entire body as a single unit towards the floor. Continue lowering until your upper arms are parallel to the ground. Complete the movement by raising your entire body in a straight line and return to the starting position. Your arms should be straight without locking your elbows while your entire body stays in a rigid line.

There are plenty of ways to modify pushups and still reap the benefits. Start by leaning into a wall from a standing position and perform wall pushups. From there progress to an incline position on your knees with your hands on a low table to do your pushups. Then try placing your hands on the floor slightly forward of your shoulders and rest your lower body weight above your kneecaps. All of these variations strengthen and tone the muscles of your chest, shoulders and back of your arms.

After you’ve finished a set of 10 to 12 pushups, move on to bent-over rows. Place one hand on a chair in front of you and bend over at the waist maintaining a flat back by drawing in your abdomen. Hold a 5 pound dumbbell or a filled plastic half-gallon milk container (it will weigh 4 pounds) in the other arm which is extended towards the floor. Raise the weight by pulling your shoulder blade up to the ceiling as you bend the elbow and lift the weight alongside your chest wall. Slowly lower the weight back towards the floor. Do 10 to 12 repetitions with each arm.

Finish your workout with some core training exercises. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet hip-width apart and heels about 12 inches from your buttocks. Place your hands alongside your ears or cross them to your opposite shoulder and tilt your chin towards your chest. Draw your stomach muscles in and exhale as you curl your head, neck and shoulder blades off the floor. Hold for a one count, inhale and slowly lower. Repeat for 15 to 20 repetitions.

Now turn over onto your stomach with your legs straight and arms alongside your body. Draw your stomach in and raise your head, neck and chest off the floor as you lift your straightened legs. Hold for a one count, inhale and slowly lower. Repeat for 15 to 20 repetitions.

These five exercises constitute a total body workout. Begin with one or two sets two to three times a week. Throw in three or four brisk walks around your neighborhood (twenty to thirty minutes, on your "off days") and you’re on your way to a complete fitness routine. And who knows? You might even have the energy to tackle those little projects you discover need doing while you’re spending more time at home.

Bruce Cohn is the Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Middlesex School in Concord. He runs FIT-TO-GO Total Sports Conditioning and is a nationally certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Bruce can be reached at 781-316-0061 or brucegym@rcn.com.