Here is an excelent article by Ted for a home workout routine. Feel free to check out his website below: No Gym, No Cardio-Equipment, No Running…No Problem When trying to burn fat, most of us think of cardio-activities such as …road running, or gym-based activities such as stationary cycling, treadmills, rowing machines. In the battle to burn fat, gym training in some form is usually seen as a pre-requisite, and if we don’t want to go to gym, we sometimes opt for home versions of cardio machines and other exercise equipment in the hope that we will burn fat whilst staying at home. In most cases, home-based fat burning efforts usually don’t succeed. This is mostly due to a lack of motivation as there is almost always something else to do that can distract us when at home. Also, there is no-one around to motivate us. At least when you go to the gym, you’re making a concerted effort to go to a place that is designed purely for exercise, and is also full of other people who are training. The home, although a convenient exercise location, is sadly also not usually associated with hard exercise. But, if we are to succeed in burning fat and getting in shape at home, then we need to put some rules in place, namely:

1) Consistent Time

Make sure that you set aside 3-4 times a week for exercise. Don’t rely on deciding spontaneously to exercise. Plan your exercise times and be strict.

2) Same Place

Create a "workout space" where you know you will train. For variety, you can change this area every now and again, but get used to a fixed place where you know you will train.

3) Water/Towel/Clock

Make sure you have water, towels, and a clock close by so that you don’t need to keep going to other areas in the house and be potentially distracted

4) No phones, TV or Family

This is your exercise time – so don’t be interrupted

The Routine: Understanding Basics

So how can we lose fat and get fit and strong without any expensive equipment and without "pounding the pavement" or doing some other traditional aerobic activity? The key here is to first understand that all exercise is based on a single fundamental principle…the contracting of muscles. If we contract our muscles continuously for a minimum of 12 minutes, it is an aerobic activity – so if we exercise on a stationary cycle for 12 minutes without resting it is an aerobic activity. Similarly, if we perform a circuit of several exercises without resting, and continue the circuit for a minimum of 12 minutes, it is also an aerobic activity. It is important then to understand that "aerobic exercise" refers to ANY exercise activity that is sustained for a minimum of 12 minutes, not just traditional aerobic activities such as running, cycling, rowing etc. Circuit training – i.e. performing a series of exercises in succession, without any rest inbetween – is extremely demanding on the aerobic system and is also a form of PHA training (Peripheral Heart Action). Where traditional aerobic activities such as running or cycling place an emphasis on just one part of the body (i.e. the legs), full-body circuit- training continually distributes the load across all the muscle groups. If there is no rest between each exercise and the circuit of exercises is sustained for a minimum of 12 minutes, the heart is constantly pumping blood to various areas of the body which dramatically improves circulation and aerobic performance. This is PHA training.

The Best Exercises

These are the best Exercises that can be performed anywhere – at home, in a hotel room - all you need is 3 chairs, a few towels or cloths, a door, and a broomstick. Each exercise uses several muscles at a time, thus placing considerable demand on the body’s energy supply.

1. Pushups (Traditional, with both feet on ground)
2. One-legged Pushups (traditional, but with one foot elevated off the ground)
3. Elevated Pushups (traditional pushups with feet elevated on a chair)
4. Dip Pushups (traditional pushups between 3 chairs - with each hand on a chair, and feet elevated onto another chair)
5. Door Chins (Wedge a thin book under a door to support door and stop door swinging. Place towel along top edge of door to rest hands and do chins on door, pulling yourself up along face of door – hands shoulder width apart)
6. Chair Chins (Face the backs of 2 chairs towards each other with a small towel draped over the back of each chair. Place a broomstick across both chair backs on each towel. Lie on ground between 2 chairs and hold broomstick, each hand holding close to each chairback. Elevate your feet onto a 3rd chair in front of you. Pull yourself up to horizontal position).
7. Crunches (feet on floor, knees bent, curling yourself up, hands next to sides)
8. Wallsit (stand upright, back against a wall, slide down wall with back touching until in a sitting position. Hold position, pushing back continuously into wall –slide back up and repeat)
9. Squats (Traditional squats, squatting down until top of legs are parallel to ground)
10. Chair Hamstrings (lie on floor, knees bent with feet on placed on seat part of chair. Push feet into seat using hamstrings and lift butt off floor as high as possible. Hold and lower)
11. Burpees (traditional burpee: 1 Repetition: From standing, drop to haunches, shoot legs out (to pushup position), shoot legs back (to haunched position), go back to standing.
12. Handstand Pushup (Optional Exercise; Very Advanved). Facing a wall, go into a handstand with feet touching wall (you should ideally be as close to the wall in the handstand position and also as straight as possible). Lower your head to the floor, but don’t let it touch and push up again. This is a very tough exercise if you are not used to it. At first, just maintain handstand position until arms are stronger to perform pushup.

The Routine

This routine is not easy, so if you are a beginner or intermediate – please start slowly and take longer rests between exercises. Also, some of these exercises take some getting used to, so it is recommended that you do a few "orientation workouts" to familiarize yourself with each exercise. Perform 1 set of each exercise with minimum rest between each exercise. Aim to do at least 8-10 repetitions of each exercise. At first aim to do one circuit of each exercise. As you get fitter, increase to 2 complete circuits. Feel free to change the order of the exercises.

• Pushup (advanced: do one-legged)
• Crunch
• Elevated pushup (advanced: do one-legged)
• Door Chins
• Crunch
• Dip Pushup
• Door Chins
• Burpees
• Wallsit
• Squats
• Wallsit
• Burpees
• Chair Hamstrings
• Chair Chins
• Handstand Pushup (Optional)
• Crunch

Please Note: This routine is very demanding. Take it slow until you feel comfortable with the movements. Then gradually increase intensity.

Ted has been dedicated to Health and "Wellness Revolution" for 20 years and has written a fast-selling e-book "The Total Diet Solution" . Visit Ted’s website http://www.total-diet.com and download the first chapter of his e-book FREE!

A poor person like me can’t afford a gym membership. Nor can I afford a trainer, who is normally provided with a gym mebership. And without a trainer there is no one around to help me with the new exercise routines and to show how it’s done, right? Actually, wrong. Internet is a great gadget. If I have a question about anything I go to my MSN list and talk to my friends about any doubts and problems I may have. Or I lookup information on other blogs, google or forums.

But what about routines that are not easily explained in words, like stretching? A big advantage of a trainer is that he can actually SHOW you how to do something. An article can only show a few pictures that are often very confusing and depressing…

But keep your head up, o bodytweaker! The great information age has arrived! Now you don’t even have to have a trainer to see how something is done right. Just look it up in video directories! God bless internet!

Jokes beside, here is a list of great video sources and some samples where you can get cool new workout ideas from:

Google Videos - a great source of videos. Doesn’t have a lot, but quite enough.

1. Golf stretching video 1 and video 2
2. A woman stretching in sitting yoga position
3. Another woman performing leg stretching on a railing
4. Lower body stretch
5. 3 women performing stretching on the beach. Hot!
6. 30 min. Video of a marathon preparation class: stretching.
7. A 4 min stretching video with expalnations. 5 star!
8. A woman performing deadsplit
9. Cycling stretching exercisses. Very useful!
10. 5 stretches routine. Rather exotic (tai-chi like) stretches. Cool!
11. Abdominal stretching to tighten up stomach

1. Beginner gymnastics stretching.
2. Angela Joyce performing back stretching. Check out her other 15+ stretching videos on the same site. On your place, I would bookmark that page. Very useful!
3. …Heck, here is a whole list of hundreds more videos: http://www.expertvillage.com/category/health-fitness.htm

1. Stretching video 1.
2. Stick stretching.
3. …wow! this flexibility inspires a lot! also check out her other videos like this one of the splits.
4. Towel stretching, a good idea.
5. …etc.

There are a lot of more videos, but I think these few are a good start and give a good idea of how a stretching routine should look like.

There are also ton of material about yoga, strength training, endurance training, etc. Just look at those websites and use their search functionalities.

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 28 million US citizens suffer from this desease. 80% of them are women. This has been recently linked to the fact that women are physically less active especially when it comes to strength training.
Osteoporosis is a desease of bones in which the bone density is reduced and therefore the bone becomes less stable and breaks with minimal “effort”. The most affected bones are the vertebral column, hip and wrists. Severe pains as well as bent stature are the results of osteoporosis of the vertebral column.

Osteoporosis isn’t something old people get either. More and more people show tendency to develop osteoporosis in their 40’s and even 30’s.

So how can you reduce the risk to suffer from this desease? Strength training. When you work out with weights your bones naturally become stronger.

The problem is that women try to avoid dumbbells, because they don’t want to build muscle mass and to look like men. What women don’t realize is that they have 10 to 30 times less hormones needed to build muscle than men. This means that if you did work out with the same weights a man does, and eat as much as a man does, you’d still develop 10 to 30 times less muscle mass.

You don’t have to lift the same weights nor eat as much proteins though. This means that the muscular mass you could develop is close to zero. Women can’t get huge muscles “by accident”. It requires very big weights, enormous dedication, scientifically designed diet, huge ammounts of protein and sometimes even chemical hormones to get any closer to a muscular body.

On the other hand strength training can give you a toned body, help you burn fat and make your bones stronger. Keep pumping!