Indoor Workouts Keep Your Fitness Regimen in Check This Winter
Just when you thought you had gotten into a regular workout routine, winter comes along and throws you off. But the cold is no excuse to keep you from staying fit this season. Fitness trainer and certified nutritionist, Franci Cohen, shares with us at-home fitness workouts she uses during these cold winter days.
Power Squat “Can-Can”
If you are looking for an inexpensive/free and convenient way to exercise when you simply don’t want to battle the cold weather outside, then try this! “Go into the kitchen and pull out two cans of beans, soup, whatever. Use the cans as weights to perform everything from jumping jacks to burpees,” says Cohen. “The added weight of the cans will add a kick to your indoor routine, and the variety will definitely bring a smile to your face!”
- Grab 2 cans from your kitchen cupboard. 16oz cans of either beans, tomato sauce, or anything else that you have handy will do just fine!
- Stand with feet together holding 1 can in each hand.
- Power down into a squat position, opening your stance so that feet are a bit wider than hip width apart. Try to keep weight shifted toward your rear, and be careful not to hyperextend knees past your toes.
- As you drop down into your power squat, place each can on the floor (one near your left foot and one near your right).
- Jump back up from your squat (without the cans) bringing feet back to starting position, and reaching your hands over head to the ceiling.
- Repeat your power squat, but this time pick up your cans as you jump up from the squat, and reach your hands (cans in hands) over head to the ceiling.
- Repeat the power squat dropping and picking up the cans 30 times.
“This move juxtaposes toning and cardio producing a sculpting and calorie-blasting effect that really targets both the hamstrings, quads, and glutes while chiseling the arms and shoulders to perfection,” says Cohen.
Modification: “Eliminate the power element, and simply squat down and up while dropping and picking up the cans. If the cans are too much of a challenge, they can be eliminated as well or swapped for empty water bottles — whatever works!” she says.
Floor Bridge Move From The Couch
- Move the coffee table aside so you have plenty of room.
- Lay down on the floor and put one foot on the edge of the couch and keep the other elevated.
- Do 10-12 floor bridges on each leg by thrusting your pelvis to the ceiling. This will work your glutes and hamstrings.
- While you’re already down on the floor, keep your legs on the couch and do 12 crunches. Then bring your feet down under the couch and try your crunches that way
- For a higher intensity, add intervals of cardio:
• High knees jogging in place with couch toe-touches for 30 seconds
• Get down into push up position with feet elevated on the edge of the couch and do 10 plank-pushups.
• Rest for one minute and repeat these exercises two more times.
Adding cardio keeps the heart rate elevated which burns more calories.
Franci Cohen is a fitness trainer and certified nutritionist with a masters degree in both nutrition and exercise physiology. She is also the creator of SPIDERBANDS®. This modality is a total-body cardio resistance workout that leverages gravity and your bodyweight with other intense exercise modules such as rebounding, kickboxing and indoor cycling. Visit her website, www.francicohen.com for other exercises and fitness tips.
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