Attacking Fitness At Home

So you just don't have time get to the gym? No worries. Here are some quick home moves for you to incorporate in to your day, so you won't miss a beat chasing down your 2012 fitness goals. For the out-of-
towners out there, take this on the road and avoid using travel as a reason for getting off track.

Many things at home provide ample angles of attack requiring simple set-ups and with just a few minutes invested; allowing you to ramp up the heart rate and get a nice burn. Establish a"go to" location in your home, so that when it's time for a workout, you have a "destination" to get to. Destination workouts equate with purpose. If you are going somewhere, it is usually for a specific reason and that focus tends to flip a switch internally on the fitness front too.

Once established a location, let's start with Air Squats. With feet at shoulder width, or slightly outside shoulder width, toes rotated outward about 30 percent, let's drop those hips to parallel (with the floor) and bang out 15-20 reps. This will warm up your entire body a perfect jumping off point for this session.

With a sturdy chair and a sofa you can circuit between Chair Triceps Dips, Elevated Leg Raise Crunches, and Body Weight Push Ups in two different postures. But first let's grab a couple of cans out of the cupboard and warm up the shoulder complex. Hold the cans overhanded, elbows locked with the labels facing your thighs. Lift the cans parallel to the floor directly in front of you five times. For the next five, lift the cans in the same fashion but at a 45-degree angle from the thighs. The next five will be cans facing outer hips rising to parallel to the floor creating a"T"at the intersection of the upper arms and torso. For the final five, rotate the cans from the beginning point at the thighs to above the head creating a big circle, with elbows locked and nice elongated arms. Now you're ready for the main workout.

Triceps Chair Dips should be performed on a sturdy chair with your hands next to your hips, while placing the feet on the afore mentioned sofa. While suspending the body between the chair and sofa, lower your hips below parallel towards the floor with legs locked out at the knee, 8-12 reps will do the trick.

Next, with your back flat on the floor, hips at 90 degrees and your calves laying across the sofa seat, you are perfectly positioned do 8-12 awesome Stomach Crunches by bringing your upper body toward your knees using your abs. Flip over to a Push Up position, hands on the floor, legs extended while keeping your feet on the sofa (your feet are now in a higher position) in an incline push up position. After 8-12 of these, remove your feet from the sofa and from a regular pushup position, another 8-10 should give you the burn we are looking for.

Finally Stretching, it is one of the most overlooked and best practices for your long-term joint and muscle health. Any bar top or chair's back will help you stretch out your shoulders, lats, chest and spine. Place the hands shoulder-width apart on a bar top and with arms extended, lower your upper body so that your spine is parallel to the floor or beyond. Beyond, means your head will drop slightly below the line of your outstretched arms, stretching the shoulder girdle. Now lean back, pulling away from counter just a tad, developing a slight tug at your hands-now you have a nice stretch through your triceps and down your lats to your beltline. Widening you hands to outside of shoulder width will also stretch out those pecs.