Any complete exercise program has three main parts. Giving the body a complete workout does not mean daily strenuous exercise.

In fact, using a home gym, even in limited space, can be a great workout for women and put you on the road to fitness.

Target your home gym to body needs. To burn fat effectively regular cardio, heart/lung, workouts must be done. You don’t have to run for two hours a day to get that. I always find it amusing when I drop by a friend’s place for a visit and see a treadmill barely used and substituting for a expensive clothes hanger.

While I think a treadmill, stepper or bike is a great way to burn fat I believe it’s to easy to become bored and unmotivated. I myself would probably go out of my mind doing this repetitve movement over and over again. Also most people read a magazine when training on a treadmill. Why? Because it is damn boring so you have to find a way to kill time!

My favorite piece of equipment I like to recommend to my clients is the punching bag, skipping rope, and boxing gloves. It is relatively inexpensive and the amount of drills you can perform are endless. To build your cardio you can work punches and kicks to the bag. Start with 5 rounds at 2 minutes per round. You should rest 1 minute per round. It’s a fun way to relieve stress while exercising at the same time.

As you get fitter, increase the speed or number of punches/kicks per round to maintain the fat burning level.

The second part is muscle conditioning. This is achieved by resistance training, in slow controlled movements. Anything adding resistance to a movement such as bodyweight exercises (i.e. push-ups, squats, crunches).

The third should come after warm up and cool down. Stretching lengthens muscles and eases soreness. All of this can be done in the comfort of your own home gym. Consult your doctor before getting started in the home gym.

Tags: fitness for women, home workout, lose weight, weight loss after pregnancy, Weight loss for women, Workout for women, workouts for women

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Workout for women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.