Stay At Home With This Great Indoor Workout

The great thing about exercise is that you can do it pretty much anywhere and you do not need lots of expensive equipment to burn some calories or get a great session done. With the weather starting to get worse, a great way to avoid adding the Christmas pounds is to work out from home. A lot of people avoid the gym or exercise classes this time of year because it's dark and dangerous by the time we get home from work, so we opt to stay in. But take 40 minutes out of your evening to try this workout. It is broken down into two mini circuits, if you are a complete beginner try just one to start with and build up to being able to complete both in one session.

Each circuit is made up of five exercises which you need to complete back to back with ideally no rest in between. Take your time and pace yourself if you need a rest, then have a 30 second to a minute between them — just don't make it five minutes!

Circuit one contains sit ups, burpees, Russian twists, shoulder presses and squats. Circuit two consists of tricep dips, mountain climbers, step-ups, star jumps and lunges.

Circuit One

Sit-ups: Use a mat if you find this is uncomfortable, lay on the floor on your back and have your knees at about a 45 degree angle so your feet are flat on the floor. Cross your arms across your chest and tense your tummy muscles to lift your head upwards. Keep the back straight and raise your back off the floor until at 45 degrees and then lower. If you can try not to rest your back fully on the floor between reps.

Burpees: Start laying face down on the floor, when you are ready plant your palms onto the floor and lift yourself up into the press up position and pull the legs into the chest. Then jump upwards into a star jump/jumping jack. When you land the star jump squat down, push the feet back out as if in the push up position and start again.

Russian Twist: This works the ab muscles again, get into the same position as the sit up but raise your back until you are already at 45 degrees (top of sit up). Clasp your hands together and then raise your feet a couple of inches off of the floor using your stomach muscles to hold you in that position. Then twist your hands across the body and tap your outer hip then tap the opposite hip.

Shoulder Press: For this use either dumbbells if you have them or two items in the house that are the same weight, e.g. tins of beans. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and hold the weight in your hands level with your shoulder. Push and extend the weight above your head until your arms are fully straight and lower to the start.

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Squat: Standing with feet shoulder width apart, slowly lower your bottom towards the ground as if sitting on a seat. Keep the back straight and try not to let the knees push in front of the toes, go as far down as is comfortable and then return to the top.

Circuit Two And Timing Your Exercises

Circuit Two

After completing circuit one, take a break of about 3 minutes to give your body a chance to recover and drink water during the circuit and the whole workout. Then move onto the next five exercises, again completing them back to back with no rest until all the way through.

Tricep Dips: Using a chair or sofa which is stable and not likely to fall over, sit on it and move yourself to the edge until your bottom is in front of the chair and your arms are taking the weight. Lower your bum to the ground by bending your arms as far as you can, hold and then raise to the top again. IMPORTANT - the chair must be stable or it will fall over and cause an injury.

Mountain Climbers: Get into the push up position with legs outstretched behind you, when ready bring your feet into the chest alternating between each leg as fast as you can. Try to pick a pace you can maintain for the entire time slot. Your arms should stay straight and hold the weight of your body.

Step Ups: Using the bottom step of your stairs or another similar sized step this is a really simple exercise. Starting with one foot step onto the step and then quickly follow with the other leg and then back down again. You must do each movement one step at a time and go as fast as you can for the time limit.

Star Jump/Jumping Jacks: Starting with feet together jump to push your feet out to a wide position and clap your hands above your head. Then push feet back together and repeat the movement.

Lunges: Stand with feet together toes pointing forwards, step forward with one foot about a foot or so in front of you. Lower the rear knee to the floor until about an inch above the ground and then step back so feet are together. Then do the same with the other foot. Make sure the front knee does not push over the toes.

Timing

Each exercise should be completed for 30 seconds and go through all five exercise before resting if possible. As a beginner, stick to 30 seconds but after 2 weeks you can increase the time per exercise to 45 seconds and then to a minute. You should aim to keep a record of the number of reps you do on each exercise to track your progress and give you something to work towards.

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You can adapt the exercises to make them harder if you find them too easy, for example adding weight to the lunges and squats by holding them in your hands. Change the height of the step on the step ups and even wear a back pack with weight in it during the mountain climbers, jumping jacks and burpees. But remember to secure any lose objects to avoid the risk of injury.