Health & Fitness Blog

If you’ve been following my fitness blog so far, you’ll know now how you can achieve great improvements in your health without making any great changes in your lifestyle.   Just by making these few simple changes in your diet, you can make a big difference in your level of fitness, and your weight loss !   It’s so easy, yet so effective, that you could call it “dieting without dieting”.

Now, as everyone keeps saying, there are two important elements to keeping healthy diet, which we’ve covered, and exercise.   To keep slim and fit, you also need to exercise.

Well, I’ve shown you “dieting without dieting”.   Now let me show you Exercising without Exercising !

We will look at some tips to exercise at home. OK, imagine this.   You’re standing in your kitchen.   You’re waiting for the coffee pot to boil, or for the microwave to ding.   Or for the toaster to pop.   These things only take 60 seconds, but it seems like you’re standing there for ages, doesn’t it, and it’s boring too.   Right, so just put one hand on the kitchen counter to balance yourself, and squat down.   Yes, just squat down.   Now, if you’ve been sitting and standing all day, you will immediately feel this wonderful stretching feeling in your thighs and calves, ahhhhh, that’s nice.   And, if you think about it, you can also feel a gentle releasing and loosening in your ankles and knees.   Feels good, doesn’t it.   OK, that’s it, now stand up again.   And as you stand up, feel that nice exercise in the muscles of your hips too.

So what have we just done ?   Well, the reason so many old people end up not being able to walk without the support of a walking frame is because they lose the strength and flexibility in their ankles and knees.   But if you do this squat each day, you will keep your ankles and knees toned and supple for life.   And not only that, but also you will keep your calves, thighs, and hips toned and strong.   And that will make your legs look firm and sexy, which is good whether you’re a guy or a gal.

Of course, this is not a substitute for half an hour in the gym on the Stairmaster, but if you just want to be able to walk around comfortably for the rest of your life, this is all you need to do.

And talking of walking, next time you’re walking, pay attention to your feet.    Don’t just clump along on your heels, instead put your heel down and then feel your whole foot roll on the ground, and finish the step by flexing your toes, so that you exercise your whole foot from your heels to your toes.   This is another great flexibility exercise for your ankles, and it’ll also keep your calves toned and firm.   On top of that, walking will seem much easier, you’ll feel lighter, and you’ll look good with these simple tips of exercise.

Do you take the tram to work ?  Or the train maybe, or the bus.   Have you noticed how even a five-minute wait seems to last forever ?   So next time you’re standing there getting frustrated, try this.  Tense the muscles of your stomach.   That’s right.   See if you can isolate, and tense up, your stomach muscles, all the way from the lower muscles below your belly-button all the way up to the muscles below your ribs.   No-one else will know what you’re doing, so see if you can hold that whole area of muscle flat and hard for five seconds.   That’s right – that’s all it needs, five seconds.    When you can do it, then do it again, and again, it gets easier with practise.   Do this waiting for the tram to work, and the tram home, and after a week you’ll begin to notice that your stomach is getting flatter and firmer, because not only are you strengthening the muscles that hold your stomach in, but you’re also massaging away some of the fat that is beginning to accumulate there.   You have to stand and wait anyway, so if you can spend 5 seconds or 10 seconds of that waiting time exercising your stomach, then you might even find yourself building up a little 6-pack there after a while !

See what I mean – exercising without exercising !

That’s a start for this week, to introduce you to this great concept.

Forget the gym, forget setting aside 30 minutes at home each day, just exercise at home without really exercising and you’ll feel good and look good.   And you never know – it might get so easy, and you might feel so toned, and you might starting to look so good, that you might find that you have the energy and the motivation to start going to the gym to get really fit !

So come back soon, and I’ll give you some more of these non-exercises to do.   Without taking any time out to exercise, you can give your whole body a complete workout every day !

See you soon !

Ash.