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| CLIMBING HIGH: Stairway to the right shape |
Problem number one: You want to be slim and you want to be fit. But you don’t have the time to hit the gym every day. Nor do you want to invest lakhs of rupees in exercise machinery. So are you doomed to go through life with that pot belly and those sagging muscles?
Problem number two: You are a regular visitor to the gym. You work out everyday. But your college exams, or an impossible deadline at work, or a long, family vacation is upon you, and you can’t make it to the gym. Do you stop exercising completely (and let your body go into cold turkey)?
The answer to both questions, according to fitness experts, is no. And the solution to what fitness experts call, “these very common problems in today’s world”, is to find substitutes for fitness equipment at home.
The good news is that all the equipment that you require is strewn around your house. Just look around you and pick up the pieces — literally.
Of course, before the glory days of gym–going and fitness fads, people stayed fit, wittingly or unwittingly, using familiar household objects and doing mundane household chores. But with the advent of state-of-the-art exercise machines, the familiar faded into oblivion and became, what they primarily were, part of the furniture.
“We have to revive these natural ways of staying fit,” says Preetom Roy Mukherjee, fitness expert at Solace, a gym in Sunny Park, “not just for the benefit of those who don’t have time to get to the gym regularly, but also for those who have to take long breaks”.
Roy Mukherjee identifies the five following household items, for a complete workout.
1. If you have access to a staircase, you have no excuse for those thunder thighs. Stair-climbing is known mostly for its ability to work the muscles of the lower body. It exercises the calf muscles, hamstring muscles, quadraceps and gluteus — hip and buttock — muscles. So for a shapely bottom and strong legs, you don’t have to go far. Just a trip up to your terrace will do the trick. In fact, gyms use machines such as the stepper to simulate stair-climbing.
The exercise: Warm up by first climbing slowly up the stairs for about five to seven minutes, one step at a time, alternating right and left legs. Then walk up the stairs briskly, one step at a time, but don’t run. You should climb for a minimum of 20 minutes. However, you should not exceed beyond an hour.
You can also simply use only the lowest step of the staircase for the exercise. In a series of quick motions step up and down the stair. In gyms they call it step-aerobics.
2. Wait! Don’t get rid of those discarded water bottles. Hold on to them — literally! With these in hand, toned arms may just be within your grasp.
Water or soda bottles make excellent weights. The best thing about them is that you get to choose the weight that you want. You decide whether you want a 500ml weight or a one-litre one. These are excellent replacements for dumb-bells!
The exercise: Fill bottles with water. Hold them to your sides, one in each arm. Bring them above your head. Hold and lower. Repeat 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps each.
3. Replace that tyre around your hips with a flat, washboard stomach … the only equipment you’ll need to perform this feat is a water bucket and an old t-shirt.
That’s right — we are talking about getting down on all fours, armed with a bucket full of water and swabbing your floor. Done over a period of time, you are sure to acquire a fabulously flab-free tummy.
Swabbing serves the same function as a torso-roller, which is used in gyms across the world to work the midriff muscles. It also tightens shoulder muscles and helps develop triceps and biceps.
The exercise: Just swab your floor, the more rooms the merrier.
4. Believe it or not, your everyday, average bath towel may just be the answer to all your love-handle problems. Using a towel, you can do side-stretches, which not only work muscles in the sides of the torso, but also the back muscles, stretching and strengthening the spinal column.
The exercise: Place the towel behind your head, holding the two ends with each hand. Now bend sideways to your left as far down as you can, without leaning forward or backward. Your legs should be straight — not bent at the knees. Come back to original position and repeat, bending sideways to your right. This action is simulated in gyms with a machine called the side-bender.
5. The chair can help you knock off some of that cellulite-dimpled cushion around your own seat.
The exercise: Place the chair in an uncluttered area, where you have space for movement. Stand erect behind the chair, grasping the top of the chair. Now kick your left leg back, bringing it up, without bending your knees, till you feel the muscles in your back stretching. Lower it. Then kick back with the right leg.
Breathing: Exhale as you extend leg back and inhale as you lower it to the floor.
Repeat the exercise — 3 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions each.
These exercises serve the same function as workouts done in gyms using the ballet bar or multi-hip machine, which is used to reduce fat from thighs and buttocks.
(Source: The Telegraph, India)
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