I enjoy writing about fitness. I enjoy working out. I enjoy learning about fitness. Once upon a time, I was one of those people that bought every fitness fad product that came down the line. I bought books by the tonnage (but I think that has more to do with the fact that I love books) and I bought lots of tools from hand weights to stability balls to resistance bands. What makes it neat is I use pretty much every one of these pieces. Still there are some exercises and exercise routines that I love above all others and I practice them regularly. So in that interest, here are a few of my favorite exercises.
A Few of My Favorite Things:
- Walking – Walking ranks up there as my number one form of exercise because I can do it anywhere and at any time. I walk my kids to school. I walk my dogs. I walk when my daughter wants to go out for a stroll. I walk when they are riding their bikes. I walk when they want to go to the park. I park in the back of the parking lot and I walk from store to store when I have several to go to – I’ll even make ferrying trips to the car to increase my daily steps. I walk 90 minutes a day on the treadmill on the days I don’t get out of the house and I keep a pedometer on to make sure I hit at least 5,000 steps every day
- Yoga – I took my first yoga class about 2 years ago and it was very hard the first time out, but the more I went, the more I enjoyed it. Eventually I traded in my gym membership with the yoga classes for a couple of yoga DVDs and a mat at home – the effect and the enjoyment were the same – yoga helps me to limber up, to relax and to help calm my mind
- Lunges – I can tell you the first time I started doing walking lunges – I hated them. They made my legs hurt and tremble. Balancing was pretty hard and frankly I felt it every single time I did it and when I was done – after a few weeks, I couldn’t imagine doing my workout without doing a few lunges in there
- Triceps presses – I never really thought about my triceps, but despite the strength in my legs, I never had a great deal of upper body strength – triceps presses help to give my upper arms some definition and strength and it’s harder to get tired arms when I have to carry a baby (such as my nephew) or pick up my daughter
- Bicep curls – I like these for the same reasons I like the above. I am not muscle bound by any definition, but the firmed curves help out a great deal
- Chest Flies – I worried about these the first time I started doing them because I thought they would increase the size of my chest and it’s not an area I desire to have increased – but rather than increase it, it’s firmed the area and helped return some of the tone that gravity has robbed me of
- Stability Ball Crunches – I love my stability ball (balance ball) and any exercise that lets me use it is a great exercise in my opinion – I enjoy the crunches I do on it because not only am I focusing on tightening my abdomen, I am increasing my own core stability, flexibility and strength
- Plank stretches for my lower back – this is one that I perform with my feet on the stability ball and my arms pointed out straight from my sides at a 90 degree angle from my body. I raise up my lower back so my body creates a diagonal line – this helps to stretch out my lower back and strengthen it. It’s amazing how much your posture and upper body strength is improved by this exercise and it does wonders for the sore tautness I get after a day of typing
- Leg presses – If I had a leg press machine, I’d be in heaven – but this is my absolute favorite exercise in the gym because it works thighs, calves and buttocks as you strength press the weights with your legs!
- Dancing – any kind of dancing whether it’s tap, modern, hip hop, belly or just dancing around the house to music on the CD player while cleaning the house – I love it!
It seems hard to come up with just ten exercises that I love – but if I could only do ten and ten only, these are the ten I do – there’s lots of aerobic, upper body and lower body toning with the some core strength workouts as well.
What are some of your favorite exercises?
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