Quick And Easy Calorie and Fat Burning Exercises For Slimming At Home

     One of the most frequent reasons for not being able to exercise is time pressure. In modern society most of us have busy lives and need to be able to maximise our time. This article will show you how you can lose weight at home using some simple but effective fat burning exercises.

FAT BURNING EXERCISES

Squats - place your feet shoulder width apart and lower your bottom to the point where you are in a seated position, before returning to a stand. Create variations of this by holding the squat for longer periods of time - 3 seconds for example.

Leg Lifts - lie on your side keeping the lines of your body straight and raise your leg towards the ceiling. Repeat for a set of 20 and then switch sides. You can vary this exercise by the number of repetitions you do per set and by varying the speed of the lift.

Crunches/Sit-ups - lie on your back facing the ceiling. Put your arms across your chest so each hand is touching the opposite shoulder. Lift your head towards the ceiling as far as you can go. If you can't get upright don't worry - any movement you can do will work the muscles.

Star Jumps - standing with your feet together and your arms by your side jump whilst spreading your legs and reaching your arms out in a diagonal to the ceiling - creating a star shape. This is a great exercise to use in a warm up too.

Step Exercises - stepping up and down on a little step - you can use the bottom stair in the house if you don't have a step.

Press-ups - many people find this exercise difficult but you can vary the difficulty by doing it on your knees or against a wall.

Running on The Spot - an often over-looked but fantastic calorie burning exercise you can do in your house. Again you can vary the difficulty by using high knees, spread feet, sprints etc. Reduce the impact on your joints by using a cushioned mat or a mini-trampoline and a good pair of running shoes.

These exercises can all be done at home whenever you have spare time. Obviously this is just a small selection to get you started as there are many more - you are only really limited by your imagination. You can also increase difficulty by adding extra weight using food tins etc.

EQUIPMENT

For those of you with enough space there are some basic pieces of equipment you can use to increase the variety and effectiveness of your workouts.

Mini trampoline - these are reasonably cheap and work very well at reducing the impact on your joints. They can be used for running on the spot, hopping, jumping and more. For those who don't have space you can put a board over the trampoline and use it as a mini-table when not exercising.

Hand Weights - useful for adding more resistance to your exercises. You can use either specialist weights or substitute with household items, such as soup cans.

Skipping Rope - skipping is very good exercise but it would be recommended to do it outside. If you're confident you could even do it on a trampoline, but be careful.

Exercise Ball - a good piece of equipment that provides a vast amount of exercise variation whilst reducing the strain on your body. Most of them come with exercise suggestions and diagrams to help you get started.

Wii Fit or Equivalent - a modern approach to home exercise which keeps things interesting and provides a way to track progress

Just to re-iterate - you don't NEED any of the kit above and there are plenty of other kit options besides. These are just suggestions to open your mind to the possibilities for home exercise. There are endless options to keep things different and most of them are very effective.

CONCLUSION

If you're struggling for time then home exercise is a great way to burn some extra calories and boost your fat burning efforts. You can do many of them while watching your favourite programs on TV and, best of all, little or no financial outlay is required.

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