Is this enough excersise...?

beanyspoon

I am really confused as to what is too much excersise or not enough.

I can't afford to join a gym, and the weather in the UK is way too bad right now for me to get my skipping rope out in the back garden! So I don't think I'm doing enough, and I don't know how to do more, or what sort of excersise to do!

I walk to work and back everyday, and I walk very briskley, so for 5 days a week I walk for 30 minutes a day.

Once a week, I use my stepper for 15 minutes. It makes a lot of noise, which other people in the house don't like. I guess I could increase this to twice a week if I am not doing enough excersise.

I do gentle stretching 3 times a week for 15 minutes. I do stomach crunches 3 times a week, reps of 10 each time. I use light weights twice a week for 30 minutes too for my arms.

Can someone please tell me if this is enough excersise? Any tips on how to increase my excersise if I'm not doing enough would be good too. I don't have much space, so things that don't take up much room would be great!

Thanks

beanyspoon

I am really confused as to what is too much excersise or not enough.

I can't afford to join a gym, and the weather in the UK is way too bad right now for me to get my skipping rope out in the back garden! So I don't think I'm doing enough, and I don't know how to do more, or what sort of excersise to do!

I walk to work and back everyday, and I walk very briskley, so for 5 days a week I walk for 30 minutes a day.

Once a week, I use my stepper for 15 minutes. It makes a lot of noise, which other people in the house don't like. I guess I could increase this to twice a week if I am not doing enough excersise.

I do gentle stretching 3 times a week for 15 minutes. I do stomach crunches 3 times a week, reps of 10 each time. I use light weights twice a week for 30 minutes too for my arms.

Can someone please tell me if this is enough excersise? Any tips on how to increase my excersise if I'm not doing enough would be good too. I don't have much space, so things that don't take up much room would be great!

Thanks

dulceluva

Basically they are saying to have a healthy heart you need to exercise everyday from 30-60 mins. It can be separated but get aleast the above.

You also need to get your heart rate raised up and then you will know you are burning those calories.

I think you do more than I do. lol

MsJohnny5

Some of the best exercises you can do don't require much space at all! I've read in multiple places that it's good to work muscle groups, rather than focusing on one specific muscle. For example, try doing sit-ups and leg-raises, which work muscle groups(rectus, internal&external obliques, transverse abdominus) rather than crunches, which only work the outer layer, the rectus abdominus.
In addition, push-ups (start from the knees if you can't do full push-ups) work your back, chest, triceps, and your biceps and are a much more efficient exercise than doing bicep curls with dumbbells.
In the 70's, body-building really became popular and exercises that are designed to target one specific muscle (making your bicep bigger, etc) hit the mainstream and became popular, but they're not really efficient exercises. Bicep curls are an example of this. Instead, it's good to focus on doing exercises like push-ups or overhead presses that work several muscle groups at once. Squats and lunges are also really great exercises. If you do all of these exercises in a circuit, your heart-rate will be up and you can easily pull off a 30 min workout without making any noise and bothering your roomies. Best of luck!

jbird94

bigger question is this: Are you working hard enough at the exercise you are doing?
It seems that you are trying to mix it up and make it work in your life (which is good) but be sure to work hard at it and get as much out of it as you can.
~BREAK A SWEAT BABY!~

songbyrdsweet

It really depends on your goals.
Do you want to just burn calories? Then getting up and moving is better than sitting.
Do you want to improve the strength of your heart? You'll have to get your heart to 65-90% of your MHR (220-Your Age).
Do you want to gain strength, increase bone density, and put on a bit of metabolically-active muscle? You have to lift a weight that is too challenging to do more than 15 repetitions with. If you're working with 'light weights', you're not overloading the muscle, so no changes will occur. Another way to train similarly is to use plyometrics, which are explosive movements like jump squats and high skipping. Great ways to train the upper body without weights is through bodyweight exercises, like push ups and dips.

Remember that, if it feels easy, it probably isn't doing much for you. Sitting feels easy. Exercise shouldn't.

catlover

These are great suggestions. We have 8 inches of snow in our driveway this week, I know about not wanting to be out in bad weather. Driving to the gym is out of the question unless I want to dig out the van every day. I made a personal "home gym" with an elliptical machine, a step, a set of weights in 3-5-8-10 pounds, some leg weights, and several videos. I have two that use the step, two for weights, one tai chi, and several aerobic workouts. I do 60 minutes of cardio on the elliptical every day, burning up 600 calories. Every other day I add in one of the tapes, which happen to be 20 minutes in length. You can usually find these in second hand stores, or trade with a friend, or see if you have them in a library. I can check one out at the library for three weeks. If no one wants it on the due date, I can take it for three more. I also have a Play station game called Dance, Dance Revolution that I play with my daughter. I set it on workout mode for me and will burn over 300 calories an hour. I'm hearing that people with the gaming unit called WII are losing weight like crazy because they are up and moving instead of sitting and playing. The key in all of it is to challenge your body. My philosophy is this: If I'm going to take the time to exercise, I'm going to make every minute count. Oh, and that 30 to 60 minute idea is what I've also heard. And I have to oil the elliptical machine a lot. Maybe your stepper needs some servicing like that. Look the model up online and see if there is something you can do to help quiet it down.

beanyspoon

Thanks for all the advice!

I think I'll do some of those lunges and things as they don't take up much space and work the muscles!

Unfortunatley I can't do excersise videos, as our room is so tiny, our TV is at the foot of the bed, so unless I do it on the bed I have no chance!!