My attempt at exercise...

So last week I mentioned I had done some exercises at Dans so I thought I would take photo's to demonstrate :-)

Hopefully you guys will be able to do these at home if you don't have access to a gym. Ladies, hand weights can be found pretty cheap - The little white ones in some of the pictures are mine and cost me about £5. Tesco have a good deal on Kettle bells at the moment too which I find are much easier to hold. If you're a true scrimper at heart - go ahead and grab something like a bottle of water, you can even fill it with sand or stones to make it heavier.

Now I guess I'm probably obliged to give a heads up here and remind you all that I really am not qualified to be giving advice on such things, I am merely demonstrating the ways I am getting fit and if you choose to copy me you do so at your own risk!

So this move below is quite hard to demonstrate in a picture - my squat my isn't the best form here either so perhaps I will demonstrate that down the line somewhere! The idea is to squat (low!), try to get your hips lower than your knees but I think I am perhaps leaning forward more than I should be. Pick up the weight and thrust (explosively) up, pushing your hips forward and curling the weight up. Then squat back down place the weight onto the floor and repeat.

I believe these are Arnold presses...3 steps which are quite straight forward. Arms start out in front then open up so elbows are at a 90 degree angle and then extend the arms up. Come back to starting position the same way. I did these two moves back to back so 12-15 reps of each then 30 second rest and repeat x 3.

Good old leg raises... I had never done these with my hands under my bum before but it did help - usually I hurt my lower back doing these but that stopped it. Raise legs up then proceed to lift your bum higher off the ground. Lower legs and repeat. Keep this slow and controlled. I did this 15 x 3 with rests in-between.

Rows... I used a 7.5kg plate for this. It is important to keep your back straight for this. The easiest way to do this is to stand up straight holing the plate and slowly bend at the hips until your arms are down straight near your knees. Then lift the plate into your chest keeping your elbows in and repeat. I did this 15 x 3 with rests.

Single arm dead lift with shoulder rotation - I think... stand with legs shoulder width a part holding your weight up in the air. With your free hand, place it on the inside of it's opposite leg, now run your hand down that leg as far as you can whilst rotating your arm holding the weight. You can see in the picture my fingers are holding the weight facing towards me and in the second picture they are facing away.
The way I kept good form for this was to remember that when my free hand is as far down as it can go, I should be able to look up in line with my weight arm. Not very technical I know but like I said, I am no professional! Again, 15reps x 3.

I also did lots of jump lunges - which did not warrant a picture, sorry to disappoint! I chose a starting point - like facing a sofa or armchair in the room and then lunged with my right foot forward, then jump and go straight into the next lunge with your left foot forward. I had no set number for these but I did jump round in a circle until I was back facing my starting point... Do not cheat yourself by just trying to jump round super far! You're only cheating yourself. It took be around 10 lunges to get back to starting point.

So there you have it... I cannot really advise on what weights to use but it should not be too easy. If you're not struggling by the time you do your 12 or 15, the weight might not be heavy enough. 

This took me less than 30 minutes to which makes it ideal for doing at home in the evenings when maybe you can't make it out for a run or gym or whatever! No excuses here :)

I hope this has given you some ideas of more exercises you can do at home, it does not need to cost you the world to keep fit.

Much love

Minnie

xxx