Top 10 Winter Exercises You Can Do At Home

It is heading to the middle of winter. Your training regime has been hit hard by the realisation that bed is far warmer than anywhere else on the planet.

But don’t be so slack. Get out of bed and put yourself through a great workout.

Greg Stark from Better Being in Sydney has put together the 10 best exercises to do at home during winter.

“The exercises are based on five fundamental exercises, with a variation/progression on each,” the Lululemon Athletica ambassador explained.

“I recommend doing each as a circuit, 10 reps of each three times through.”

Push Up

1. Beginner: a push up is the best upper body exercise to build strength and tone. If new to push ups start with your hands on a raised surface, such as a kitchen bench top or park bench seat. As you get stronger and can do more look to progress this till you can do 10 military style push ups with your hands and feet on the floor.

2. Advanced: if standard push ups are getting too easy for you, try to incorporate different arm and leg movements as you push up. Our favourite is the Spiderman Push Up, where you bring your knee to outside your elbow on the same side as you lower yourself into the push up.

Lunge

3. Beginner: start with an in place lunge, if you’re feeling unsteady on your feet place your hands on a bench or TRX to help keep you stable. Progress this to a steeping lunge.

4. Advanced: as you perfect the standard lunge, start to progress into other planes of motion, such as a lateral or rotational lunge. This will work different parts of your leg muscles and can help to decrease your risk of injury as you are moving your leg in 3 planes of motion.

Squat

5. Beginner: start by sitting and standing on a bench or chair without using your hands. As this gets easy progress the depth of the bench or chair.

6. Advanced: to increase the difficulty of your squat see if you can sit down and stand up on the chair using only one leg. Place your hands out in front of your body to help counter balance your weight. Again a TRX can be helpful with this

Plank

7. Beginner: start on your hands and toes, see if you can hold this for 30 seconds, with no lower back pain. Then progress your plank by touching to your opposite shoulder while keeping your hips perfectly still and parallel to the ground.

8. Advanced: looking to progress your plank see if you can hold a handstand. Start placing your feet on a wall and slowly progress off the wall until you can hold a freestanding handstand.

Run

9. Beginner: running is still one of the best ways to build cardiovascular fitness and increase your metabolism. There is no better time than the cooler winter days. If you’re new to running start by doing short little runs in between periods of walking. Take on a running or walking event to give your training purpose.

10. Advanced: If you are looking at improving your fitness or running performance start incorporate some variety into your running routine such as stairs or hills. Or find a running buddy as everyone loves a little bit of competition.

Last Updated on Jun 5, 2015