No-excuses Exercises
Don't be a winter fitness-phobe! Try these easy indoor workouts

Emily Claire Afan

You may be one of the many Canadian who beg off physical activity because it’s too hard to get to a sports or workout facility, especially in the icy winter weather. In 2004, the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute reported that 51% of Canadians were inactive, and a major reason given as a barrier to correcting that sad state was the inaccessibility of places to exercise. But before Old Man Winter turns you into homo sedentarius, check out these ways to work up a sweat in the comfort of your own home. You’ll never again add weather to your list of excuses.

Can you have just as good a workout in your living room as you can at the gym? “Absolutely,” says Winnie Talan, a Canadian Association of Fitness Professionals trainer in Toronto. “People don’t realize how little equipment they really need.” In fact, everything you require to get fit—staircases, walls, cans of food, kitchen counters, empty plastic jugs—is already at hand.

One in five Canadian adults strongly agrees that the formal physical activity programs and facilities available in the community are not the right type. Moral: make your own

Warming up

Before you begin your home routine, take the time to warm up, just as you would at the gym. “You want to engage all systems and get them running before you attempt a heavier workload,” says Isabelle Aubé, who is president of Aptitude, a fitness training facility in Laval, Que. Warming up translates to more endurance because it lubricates the joints with synovial fluid, which acts much like the oil in your car to reduce joint stress.” A warm-up takes five to 10 minutes of dynamic stretching with constant but gentle movement. Aubé recommends doing one or two sets of 10 to 12 deep squats, lifting your arms in front of you as you lower yourself. Doing them slowly and barefoot will also engage the body’s neurological system. “This wakes up your brain and puts it on alert because it senses less stability,” Aubé says.

1. Have a ball!

If you’re looking to invest in some basic equipment that won’t take up a lot of space, Aubé highly recommends the stability ball. “It is excellent for posture because if you slouch while sitting on it, you’ll fall off!” It helps engage and strengthen crucial core muscles that stabilize your body from neck to pelvis and control posture. Once in a while,  switch your home-office chair for your stability ball.

2. Pantry dumbbells

No weights? No problem! Those cans of kidney beans will do the job. If you’ve used up the last of your non-perishables, then fill some plastic bags with books for bone and muscle conditioning. Stand with your arms close to your sides and your palms facing upward toward your biceps. Flex your elbows, closing the joint completely. “Empty water jugs and bleach bottles with handles are also excellent stand-ins for weights,” says Talan, “because you can fill them up yourself and make them as heavy as you want.” Do these lifts twice a week, in two sets of 10, then increase the frequency, repetitions and load as you become more fit. To protect the lower back as you lift, brace your stomach muscles as if you’re getting ready to take a punch. Breathe in as you lower your homemade dumbbells and exhale as you bring them back up.

3. Laundry-load workout

When you’re lifting or unloading a laundry basket, don’t bend over lamely from the waist to grab the basket or clothes. Bend your knees in a full squat and rise up slowly to a full standing position to strengthen the muscles of the thighs, lower back and abdomen.

4. Fencing in a vacuum

Home alone with a Hoover? Done vigorously, vacuuming can really get you puffing. Lunge forward with one leg bent and the other stretched out behind you as you push the vacuum energetically in every direction. “Be careful to control the lunge so the knee does not shoot past the toenails, potentially causing undue stress on the ligaments and tendons of the knee joint,” says Talan. En garde. Touché. You’re Errol Flynn in a swashbuckling sword fight. Alternate with the opposite leg and arm as you work.

5. Up against the wall

You can even put away your hand-held equipment altogether and use your home. Those walls are good for more than keeping out the cold and snow, as Ryan Christison, a personal trainer in Vancouver, well knows. Try these wall squats, which will work the quadriceps muscles in the front of your thighs, the hamstrings in the back of your thighs, the adductor muscles in your inner thighs and the gluteals in your buttocks.

Wearing non-slip shoes and perhaps holding homemade weights, stand with your back against a wall, knees bent as if sitting on a chair and thighs parallel to the ground. (Aubé says this also works well with a stability ball.) To avoid knee strain, make sure your knees don’t extend out past your toes. “Hold this position for five seconds, then work your way up,” Christison says. “Breathe normally—never hold your breath!”

6. Put your shoulder into it!

Aubé likes to add a lateral shoulder raise to the wall squat.  Keeping your elbows bent outward at an angle of about 30 degrees, raise your arms no higher than shoulder height. Rise up from your squat to a count of three, exhaling as you rise and lowering your arms to your side. Do 10 to 12 repetitions.

7. Standing push-ups

If you have trouble doing push-ups on the ground, do arm presses against the wall or any waist-high, stable surface such as a kitchen counter or pool table. Keeping your body straight with your hands shoulder-width apart, bend your elbows and try to touch your chest to the wall or counter, then push back to the starting position. Try this exercise twice a week, with two sets of 10 repetitions.

8. Flights of fitness

Forget the StairMaster. Plain stairs are all you need to improve aerobic fitness. Whether you live in a house or a high-rise, tackle several flights twice a week for 15 minutes. Start with five flights and add one every two weeks. “Stair climbing provides a good cardiovascular workout, which will keep the heart and lungs strong and supplying oxygen and blood to your body for more energy and endurance,” says Talan.

9. The hips don’t lie

To make your hips more flexible, Talan suggests this. Seat yourself on a stability ball or chair, cross your left leg over the right by placing the left ankle on the right thigh and pointing the left knee out to the side. Lean forward slightly, maintaining a tall posture, but only until you feel the gluteal muscles of the buttocks stretch without pain. Hold the position for 15 to 30 seconds or three to five deep breaths. Repeat exercise using the opposite legs.

10. Armchair exercise

Sitting in a chair with arms, raise your body off the seat by pressing down hard on the arms and extending your legs out straight. Hold for five seconds. Lower yourself and repeat exercise 10 times.

Cooling Down

To ensure that blood is equally redistributed to all parts of the body, Aubé strongly recommends cooling down. You should do five to 10 minutes of static stretching of all the muscles, and their opposites, used in your workout. Adopt a stretched pose and hold it for at least 30 seconds to allow the worked muscles to get out of the contraction mode. Then relax. This sends a signal to all systems that you’ve finished working out and that your body’s circulation can return to normal. You should feel minor discomfort, but no pain. “Cooling down will reduce stress in the exercised muscles and also release any tension built up in the workout,” Aubé says. “And it helps cells reduce the oxygen debt created at the beginning of the workout.”

Always be careful not to over-exert yourself. “If you can’t do 10 repetitions, stop at eight and aim for nine at the next workout,” says Aubé. “Doing an exercise properly is much more important than the number of repetitions accomplished. The objective is to feel energized and invigorated after exercising, not depleted.”

Adds Christison: “You should always consult your doctor before  beginning an active new routine.” And for the truly serious, it never hurts to consult a personal trainer just to make sure you’re exercising properly.

But the simplest piece of advice—and the most important—is to work out consistently. “You must not let the weather or the lack of equipment prevent you from taking care of yourself,” Talan says. “Keep your body and mind active.”