Exercising at Home
I went out and bought a pilates mat and an exercise ball because going to the gym isn’t always practical. Today’s world is too crazy to waste precious time traveling to the gym and back when I can get in a perfectly good workout at home.
I like to start by stretching first. Next I incorporate a few pilates moves like the pilates 100, corkscrew, single leg stretch, and the open leg rocker.
This helps my muscles to wake up by engaging my core and focusing on my breathing. Being able to keep your breathing calm and continuous can be a challenge sometimes but it will help you exercise much more effectively.
Learn to control your breathing. In through your nose and out through your nose. You need to be able to focus on every move you expect your body to perform all while keeping your breathing calm and even.
Exercising in the home can be a joy (if you do not look at all of the things you need to get done during that day). This is why the art of focusing and breathing is so important.
If you do not meditate well and block out the things around you your mind and body will suffer. You will not learn how to deal with stress in appropriate manners. Life will soon consume you and take over quickly and it will be relentless.
There are many exercises that can be done with an exercise ball so here are a few of my favorites:
- Holding the ball between your ankles while laying on your back on the pilates mat, every other time you sit up you throw the ball from your ankles to your hands and catch it. You do this back and forth several times throwing the ball from your hands to your ankles and your ankles back to your hands. This is a great workout for your core and helps with coordination as well.
- Sit on the edge of the ball and lean backwards for sit ups that protect your back from the hard floor. Your core has to work to control the ball from rolling out under you while you do your sit ups.
- Place the ball on the edge of the mat and roll over the ball on your stomach. Walk your hands forward till your ankles are resting on the ball but your hands are still on the mat. This will help your hands not to move or slip. Slowly pull the ball in towards you and back out again. This one definitely presents a challenge. It is not easy to keep the ball under your ankles when moving it towards you and away from you.
If you are looking for ideas to exercise at home there are plenty of other ideas. It is ok to change up your workouts once in a while. Even if you enjoy your time at the gym it is nice to have the option of change sometimes.
Plus if you are always going to the gym to exercise your children may never actually see you in action. It is always much easier to teach them good health habits when they can watch you themselves. You can also invite them to join you and open the moment to build your parent-child relationship.
