Ten minutes isn’t a long time. It isn’t long enough to reap the long-term benefits of cardiovascular exercise or get in a solid muscle-building session. However, it is long enough to quickly tone your body and do just enough exercise to jump-start your metabolism. Here are some ten-minute workouts that can accomplish a mini fitness-goal: burn a few extra calories, strengthen your body or work on flexibility. The best part of all is that you can do any of these quick workouts right in your apartment. Use them as a compliment to your regular workout or when you can’t fit in a trip to the gym.
Quick Cardio Blast: Burn up to 150 calories
Minutes one to two: High-intensity cardio, jump rope or run up and down stairs.
Minutes three to four: Do as many push-ups as you can.
Minutes five and six: Jump rope or run stairs again.
Minutes seven and eight: Do squats by standing with your back against a wall and squatting as low as you can. Focus on form rather than speed.
Minutes nine and ten: Back to the high-intensity cardio, but this time give it your all. Try to get in ten more jumps or stairs in the same amount of time.
Tone and Strengthen
Do each of these exercises for about one minute. The goal is to move continuously for the entire series.
Squats against a wall: Stand with your back against wall and squat down as far as you can.
Push-ups: Focus on form, not quantity. Knee push-ups are perfectly fine until you have the strength for military style.
Walking lunges with a front kick: Step forward with one leg and lunge until your knee is above your front foot. Stand and kick up, lower your leg and repeat with the other side.
Squats/Chest squeeze: Hold a weighted object and pull it in towards your chest as you lift up.
Dead lifts: Stand with a weighted object in your hands and bend forward until your back is parallel to the floor. Keep your back lifted the entire time. For an extra challenge, stand on one leg and alternate.
Shoulder raises: Keeping your arms straight, lift the weight to the front of your body and hold. Lower slowly and repeat.
Side raises: Stand with your upper torso parallel to the floor. Raise your arms to your sides with your thumbs pointing up. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold.
Triceps Dip: Support yourself on a couch or sturdy chair with both hands behind you, facing away from the chair. Bend your knees and lower yourself using only your arms. Lift and repeat.
Wide-leg squat: Stand with your legs spread open past your shoulders and squat as low as you can.
Crunch: Lie on the floor and do a set of traditional crunches, with your arms behind your head and your knees bent. Lift up your upper torso, squeeze in your abs, lower slowly and repeat.
Stretch and Lengthen
These five stretches will target the major muscles in your body. Hold each stretch for one minute on each side.
Hamstrings: Sit with your legs in front of you and reach for your toes with your hands, keeping your back straight. Then alternate the same stretch on each leg, bending your other leg inwards.
Triceps: Hold one arm under your head, bend it and use your other arm to gently push it back, stretching the muscle on the front of your arm.
Shoulders: Stretch one arm across your chest and hold it in place with your other arm. Gently pull the straight arm towards your chest.
Quadriceps: Stand up and bend one leg back behind you. Pull the leg in with the same-side arm until you feel a stretch.
Spinal twist: Sit with one leg straight and the other bent. Twist your torso toward your bent leg, supporting yourself by resting the opposite elbow on your leg. Use your other arm to hold yourself up by resting it on the floor behind you.
Source: Apartment Living
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"Try old fashion calisthenics."
Calisthenics
There are numerous methods to beat the weight and stay fit, calisthenics workout being one of them. Bodyweight calisthenics exercises help in improving the overall fitness, physique and strength of a person. Calisthenics originated from the Greek words, ‘kalos’ meaning beauty and ‘thenos’ meaning strength. Check out the benefits of a calisthenics workout.
Every human body has its own innate activity pattern. Added physical activity in the daily routine helps in conditioning the body in a natural way. Calisthenics help in regaining the natural conditioning of the entire body. Methodical, regular exercises like push-ups and sit-ups are intrinsic to any calisthenics workout. They help in toning and strengthening the muscles and also help in improving the overall fitness of the body.
Squats: Stand with feet spread apart, squat as much as possible while keeping your arms parallel to the floor. Get back to the standing posture and repeat. Other types of squats include squatting by lifting one leg off the floor in front of you and positioning both the arms in front of you for balance (mainly for lower body).
Sit-ups/crunches: Lie down on your back, position your knees at right angle. Place your hands below your head and support your head while you lift up slowly using your abdomen muscles (mainly for abdomen).
Arm rotation: Stand straight and stretch out your arms horizontally. Move your hands in a circular motion both in forward and reverse directions.
Knee rotation: Place your feet together, keep your hands on your knees. Gradually rotate your knees clockwise and then in reverse direction for one minute each.
Hip rotation: Stand straight and keep your hands on your hips, gradually rotate your hips in the clockwise direction and reverse direction for one minute each.
Flutter kicks: Lie down on your back and place your hands below your buttocks. Raise one leg at a time for a minimum of 6 inches from the ground. Follow leg motion similar to motion of kicking legs while swimming.
Jumping jack: Start in a standing position with both legs close to each other; hop up while spreading your feet apart as you hop. Keep clapping your hands over your head and then get back to the initial standing position.
Start slowly, exercise according to your stamina levels. Slowly and steadily increase the exercise repetitions and period. Calisthenics require high energy levels.
Exercise according to the energy levels of your body for the day. You need do all the exercises everyday. You can skip a day of exercising when you feel low and embark again when you feel better.
Wear comfortable clothing that is stretchable. A padded floor mat will be immensely helpful for floor exercises.
Source: Targetwomen.com
These workouts will be posted here thru 2008, refer to them as often as your like.
