Exercise anywhere, anytime is the message of Fitcorp Asia. Exercise does not
need to be complicated, nor does it require expensive equipment. You have
all the tools to effective get fit and lose fat with you right now, as you are
reading this article.

With the right instructions and the right amount of motivation the following
exercises are fun, effective and guaranteed to get you in better shape in no
time. The following series of exercises will target the entire body, and
designed to maximise heart rate, boost your metabolism, get you strong,
lean and fighting fit!

Choose your desired location to exercise whether it be your home, the office,
the gym, the park, the Laundromat, at school, by the pool, at the beach, at
the airport! The options are endless! I’ve even seen people exercise at the
car park of a local shopping centre!

Exercising at home is often the last place you think about when it comes to
losing weight, staying fit and just generally maintaining an active lifestyle. In
reality, the home has to be one of the most effective and convenient
locations to exercise. Gone are the days of the Jane Fonda workout videos.
The leotards and leg warmers have vanished and all that hair!

When preparing to work out, the same safety principles apply to your
exercise. Warm up and stretch before engaging in any higher intensity
strength exercises. Warming up will increase your body temperature,
activate your muscles, increase blood circulation to the working areas and
divert from your internal organs, and gradually increase the range of motion
of your joints.

Without a treadmill, bike or elliptical there are many ways to warm up
sufficiently. We will go through a couple of options in this issue.

Now we can make this so simple. 15-20 minutes is all it takes to start
building your solid foundation of strength.

Mountain Climbers

Start on your hands and knees, with your arms parallel to the ground. Raise
your bottom in the air, taking your knees off the ground and bring one knee
into your chest and place on the ground. With a little spring from your feet
push your bottom in the air and swap feet positions, land softly and repeat.

Once comfortable with this movement, continuously switch forwards and
backwards, forwards and backwards.

Shoulder Matrix

This series of arm circles will burn like never before, strengthening your
rotator cuff and shoulder muscles. Stand up straight, arm out to the side,
slightly forward. With palms facing down, thumbs straight and strong, make
20 small forward circles, 20 small backward circles. Now thumbs up, make
20 small forward circles, 20 small backward circles. Change to thumbs down
and make 20 small forward circles, 20 small backward circles. With the left
arm, 20 big arm circles forward and 20 backward. Repeat with the right arm.

Squat Press onto Toes

Place elbows and closed fists together, feet shoulder width apart and toes
pointing slightly outwards. Pretend to squat down to sit on a chair, shifting
your body weight towards your bottom, keep your body weight through your
heels, drive upwards simultaneously raising your hands above your head.
Repeat.

3 Point Modified Push up

Get on all fours, with arms straight. Take one leg off the floor, and extend
contracting your glutes. Keep your abs strong, slowly bend your elbows, and
descend towards the floor, aiming to place your chin between your finger
nails. Push up strong, keep elbows soft.

Lunge and Row

Kneel on one knee, making sure your front knee stays behind your toes
through the entire movement. Slowly descend, never allowing your knee to
touch the floor, keep body weight through your front heel, drive up, while at
the same time pulling your arms backwards and squeezing your shoulder
blades together, hold and repeat. After 15 repetitions, switch legs and repeat
a further 15 times.

Body Weight Tricep Dips

Sit on the floor with knees at 90 degrees, arms placed behind your bottom
and fingers pointing towards your heels. Keep your body weight over your
wrists, bend your elbows and slowly descend, push up strong without locking
your elbows. Keep your elbows soft at all times.

Reverse Lunge Rotation

Standing up straight, feet together, and arms straight in front of you with
fingers interlocked. Take one step behind you with your left leg and perform
a lunge, swing both arms (maintain a position parallel to the ground) around
to the same side as your front leg, return to the starting position and repeat
with the right leg.

Straight Arm Push Ups

Place all fours on the ground, with a neutral spine, core tight. Keep your
elbows locked straight and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Hold the
contraction, and push your upper back in the air, separating your shoulder
blades. Repeat both phases of the movement 10-15 times each.

Alternate Superwoman’s

Lying face down on the floor, extend both legs out and both arms in front of
you. Raise your right arm and left leg at the same while also lifting your head
to the same level of both limbs. Hold and return to the start position and
repeat on the opposite side. Repeat both side 10 times each.

V Crunch

Lie on your back with arms and legs extended. Lift both arms and legs while
performing a crunch movement till your toes and fingers meet at the top
above you. Hold and contract your abs, returning to the start position.

That’s it! You are ready to go. The above exercises offer such an abundance
of variety to keep your body stimulated and guessing for months.

Your greatest asset to working out alone and without equipment is
motivation and confidence in your ability to perform the exercises safely and
effectively.

The key to any exercise program, regardless of goals, objectives and
equipment is ICV – Intensity, Consistency and Variety. The combination of
these three parameters alone will determine your successes.

Intensity – refers to how much effort you put into your training. The best
way to monitor your exercise intensity is my measuring your heart rate. Take
2 fingers and place them on the side of your neck. Count the number of
‘pulses’ in 15 seconds a multiply by 4. This will give your beats per minute or
BPM.

Consistency – refers to your frequency of exercise. You should be making
exercise a part of your ‘daily’ life. Yes that’s right, daily! Whether it is going
to the gym, playing tennis, golf, trekking or yoga – whatever it may be.

Variety – this is essential. Constantly varying the stimulus of exercise
ensures your body constantly changes, adapts and progresses. I like to sue
the analogy of reading a book. If you read the same book over and over
again, you are not going to learn anything new, are you?

Try these at home and get moving towards your best body ever!

Fitcorp Asia is also the only organisation in Thailand to offer Online Fitness
Training. At a fraction of the cost of one-on-one personal training, OFT allows
anyone with internet access can now have access to personalized exercise
programming and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We will discuss
this in more details in future articles or log onto www.fitcorpasia.com to learn
more on how Fitcorp Asia is innovating the personal fitness industry.