Yes, I took off like a bee and collected 20-minute Pilates workout routines from the internet. And why? Why did I do it? Well, I don’t know about you, but …
I was just doing the first at home kettlebell workout on this list and thought, why don’t I make a collection for everyone else as well? You know why? Because, …
If your lifestyle involves many hours of sitting, you’re probably going to need this one week workout plan for better posture and strength! These are some of my favorite workouts …
Time for our last weekly workout plan with this challenge…I admit I’m a little late for this one as I didn’t make it to my laptop yesterday. But it’s a …
It’s Wednesday and a new week, which means time for a new workout plan! This week we’ll do a 7-day barre workout plan, because, well, I kinda really love barre right now.
What It’s About
If you’re new, we’re doing this workout plan as part of a 70-day challenge to keep us motivated, inspired and to help us reach some of the goals at the beginning of the year until July, so that we basically live our best lives, no matter the circumstances. To improve our health and fitness we’re doing a new workout plan every week for the first four weeks. Here are the previous two workout plans, if you need to catch up:
We’ll be switching up between cardio or HIIT barre workouts, toning full-body barre workouts and we’ll have days focusing on specific parts of the body.
I must say, I’m feeling so much better since starting the challenge and working out every day, but I don’t see results quite yet. Might be that my diet and eating habits are still all over the place, so that’s slowing me down. Yep, you’ll never get those 20s you spent reading the last two sentences back, sorry.
And we’re back with the weekly at home workout plan! This week we’ll be doing barre and pilates workouts at home and we’ll get longer, leaner, stronger and more relaxed. …
Every week for the next month I’ll be sharing an at home workout plan. This week we’re gonna ease into exercise with this 7-Day Yoga and Pilates workout plan that needs no equipment to calm your mind and strengthen your body. Hopefully, within a week you’ll feel stronger, more relaxed, more confident and happier overall.
Sedentary Life For Everyone
So during the last week, I’ve counted my steps using an app on my phone, which by now feels like a vital organ and a best friend to me, and it’s not looking pretty. I think my record was 3000 steps, which as we all know is considered sedentary. Well, who am I to argue. Sedentary means that you sit a lot, right? Most days I sit on a chair, couch, floor or the bed and don’t do much else.
But it’s time for a change and I don’t know about you, but this is what I need right now – a simple workout plan to help me create a routine. Help me make exercising for around 20-30 minutes every day a habit again.
The other thing…Posture. Ugh. I, again, don’t know about you, but I feel like that hunchback is growing on me like in an animated movie. Just Wwwooooop. There it is, it tripled in size. Again. So this plan is also to combat that. Strengthen the core and the neck and walk upright already.
The Challenge
The challenge for this yoga and Pilates workout plan is simple: Move your body every day for 20-30 minutes. We’ll be using yoga and Pilates videos from Youtube to get started.
If you’re lacking workout motivation, you probably haven’t found the right music yet! Today I’m sharing my running playlist with the music I like to work out to and it’s so scary, I’m basically crapping my pants sitting in the chair I just bought.
Believe it or not, there’s never been an article I’ve been more afraid to post in my life.
Why?
Because when it comes to music, people get very judgemental. Based on your taste in music many people would draw conclusions about your intelligence, your job, hobbies, and lifestyle.
But music is just music. Someone who’s listening to Mozart isn’t a better person than someone who listens to Taylor Swift.
Now, this here is my playlist and if you’re thinking: Wow this playlist is from 2013, you might be right. I do not remember when I made it, but I found it recently on my phone and it motivates the crap out of me to run as fast as I can.
Why I Started Running
Don’t get me wrong, when I say I started running I don’t mean I do it every day. I even skip weeks, but I come back to it and I love it.
So the reason I did it was that I was sick of all the other workouts. I was sick of doing 12 repetitions of everything and I missed simply playing outside as if I’m a kid.
I love basketball, I love badminton, but with all of these I depend on other people. I needed something I could do every time when my head was about to explode or I needed an energy boost.
And running became it.
But I didn’t just want to run, I wanted to challenge myself. See how fast I can go. See how far I can go. I wanted to feel free and like I can fly. I know, I sound crazy, but I haven’t felt this good working out in a long time.
These yoga routines for neck and shoulder pain have worked wonders for me and can help you release tension as well!
A few weeks ago, I hurt my neck (cue the sad music). I was not doing anything too wild, just turned around to talk to someone too fast (and too furious, I guess). I was in pain for a few days, cried my eyes out and hated the world. The one thing I did, that I’m actually proud of, was going on the internet and finding some super helpful yoga routines to relieve neck and shoulder pain.
Like that, just in a few days – my neck was fine again. You say a few days of pain are too long? Well, usually it lasts longer for me – one or two days with a pinched nerve I’d say, is bearable at this point. So, below are some of the neck and shoulder yoga routines I found on the internet – the ones that I really loved. Like I’m so grateful that the instructors made them.
Some of these stretches I did regularly before, some are newer to me. So, if you’re spending too much time in front of your computer or hunched over your phone in order to protect it from evil forces, similarly to the way a squirrel would hunch over a nut – it’s time to release that tension and start looking up again without screaming from pain. Let’s remember that we are supposed to look forward, not down. These yoga flows are a great start!
Once you do some of them, you’ll definitely feel less pain and freedom in your neck and shoulders.
Neck And Shoulder Pain Causes
So, in my case, the question is: Where does this neck and shoulder pain come from? I did nothing wrong. I’m a good, younger person who exercises regularly and doesn’t eat that much crap. “Why me? Waaaaaaaaaahhhhh” she whined in pain.
Turns out you can hurt your neck and your shoulders, even in your 20-ies, 30-ies and even 10-eens when you do these things:
have a bad posture
sit for an extended period of time in front of the computer or hunched over the phone
grind your teeth in your sleep
sleep on a pillow that is too high or too low
or doing what I did: moving your head too fast and too furious while you’re working out, because you’re excited and you need to be punished for that excitement.
It’s a multiple choice, where you can check more than one answer.
How To Relieve Neck And Shoulder Pain
What I understood from watching countless videos and reading the occasional article here and there, is that, in many cases – neck, shoulder and back pain come from overextension or elongation of the muscles in the back.
While these are getting stretched all day long, the muscles in the front of the body are getting shorter and shorter until they look like the dwarfs that changed Snow White’s life. So naturally, they’re getting short and bitter.
But because they’re now evil these short front muscles pretend they’re not the ones that need to be stretched. “Stretch out the back muscles, those suckers hurt.” And then they point and laugh at you while you’re in pain.
Well actually, no. I now know, when your neck, shoulders or back hurt, you’ll need to stretch the muscles in the front of the body and to basically strengthen the entire thing including your abs. Yes, abs aren’t just for rappers and models, we all need them.
Exercise makes us feel good, is good for us, but if you’ve never had an exercise routine in your life, getting started can be a bit confusing. And it doesn’t have to be, it’s actually pretty simple. All it takes is a decision, your body and 20-30 minutes a day. So today, if you don’t have a workout habit yet, let’s talk about how to start working out for beginners!
Just to make something clear: I’m not going to show you how to equip a gym at home. You know what you need to start working out? The very basics? A functioning body. Even if you want to exercise at home, anyone can look up a beginner workout on Youtube and try it. So, let’s lose the excuses and find some ideas here.
The Mindset: Make Working Out Fun
Exercise is not that hard thing that you have to do to get fit, so you can look good and tell people look at me now and laugh at them.
It can be a very fun thing. It’s something you do because you want to make your life better. Not because someone’s gonna applaud when they see your abs. But because it makes you feel good. Because it’s a completely natural part of your day that brings you back to who you really are.
We are made to move, to play and to be active.
Think about children. Nobody makes toddlers move. Young children don’t know or care about the benefits of exercise. They’re not trying to lose weight or get abs. But if you try to stop them from running around all day…well prepare to be screamed at and possibly bitten.
When I was a kid, my mom put me in a gym class and I was a little gymnast for a little bit. I loved it. I could bend my body any way I wanted and I was really quick. Then I became a teenager and suddenly hanging out in coffee shops and talking about guys became the cool thing to do. Another cool thing back then was to start smoking. Thankfully I didn’t start it, but I had fallen out of love with exercise for a while. I only worked out because I wanted abs, or…No that’s it. I wanted abs. Well, I never got them, because I was eating pizza every day. But at some point, I changed my perspective and started actually craving exercise.
When you think of exercise as something you like, something that brings you joy, you start wanting to do it more often. You start looking forward to it. You want to make it a part of your daily routine.
Officially, we need between 150 and 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise every week. This means, at least 30 minutes five days a week of brisk walking, light jogging, dancing, swimming, or water aerobics.
Another way to get enough exercise is to do 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise. That’s 15 minutes five days a week of running, cycling, hiking uphill, basketball, soccer or even intense gardening.
Now imagine your days having these activities in your life! I don’t know about you, but it sounds pretty good to me. It doesn’t sound like the treadmill five days a week. It sounds like a lot of fun. Sounds like doing a variety of memorable, fun things.
The WHO also wants you to add 2 strength training sessions to strengthen the major muscle groups in the body. And if you don’t have a gym – you can do that too. I’ve seen people do it using tires or even cement blocks outside. I personally have some dumbbells and a kettlebell.
The Benefits Of Exercise
Cardio and strength exercises are shown to improve sleep, reduce depression, prevent diseases like diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, some cancers, prevent fractures and help maintain weight loss.
Strength training can not only make you look super hot, so you can create an Instagram profile, but, almost as importantly, – preserve bone mass, prevent fractures, reduce the risk of osteoporosis, improve sleep and help you burn more calories even at rest. (source)
If you’re feeling unmotivated, chances are, once you start working out regularly for at least a few weeks – you’ll become more motivated by the action itself. Not just to exercise, but in life in general. You might even want to start eating better in order to move faster and perform better.
This is a quick upper body workout for women, who, very much like myself, want to tone arms, chest, shoulders, and back and fix bad posture. You only need dumbbells, and you can do all of these upper body exercises at home or at the gym.
Train Upper Body As A Woman, Why?
Why in the world would you want to look like The Hulk? That was my belief when I was a teenager and in my early twenties.
Then I got a desk job.
And that desk job turned me into a Quasimodo.
And there I was left with a dilemma, we all face at some point in life:
Quasimodo or The Hulk?
Which one do you want to be? Or be with?
If you’re not someone who has a strong back and upper body and are sitting for a loooooong time, chances are, you’ll start getting pains when you’re working a desk job. And it sucks. The neck hurts, the lower back aches, and you’re just blaaah.
Training upper body will help build strength in your back, neck and shoulder muscles so that maintaining correct posture, even when sitting becomes much easier.
Another reason to work upper body? Toned arms. Waving without the wobble. Getting older, but defying gravity as if it’s nothing. Natural laws, you can’t touch this. Tarararam. Hammer (curl) time.
You Won’t Become The Hulk
Even if you answered The Hulk to the famous question above, let me disappoint you real quick. An upper body workout here and there will not make you look like The Hulk. Trust me.
There are a lot of people out there eating more protein powder than the pharma companies can produce in a day, who also lift weights heavier than themselves. I’m not talking about ants. We all know they’re talented and miraculous creatures. I’m talking about real people whose goal is to actually look like The Hulk. With all that effort, they still don’t reach that goal. Go figure. So, we’re safe, mkay?
This 10-minute at home ab workout is for women, who don’t have much time and can’t or don’t want to make it to the gym! You can do these ab exercises anywhere you want and don’t need any equipment. For best results do this plank routine 2-3 times a week to strengthen your core, tone your abs, improve posture and burn belly fat!
How & Why Burn Belly Fat
There are many reasons you might want to lose fat around your waist beyond just having abs. Having too much fat around your belly can, for example, increases your risk of getting a heart attack as you get older.
What you need to do if you want to get rid of your muffin top is incorporate a cardio/HIIT component to your ab routine. This will make your body burn more calories and fat overall which will also result in a leaner midsection. Another part, of course, is eating clean.
10-Minute Ab Workout For Women To Do At Home
Made out of 4 different plank moves, this workout is perfect for reducing abdominal fat, as it combines HIIT and ab exercises: it tones and it makes you sweat.
I did this routine today in the morning and realized it’s also a great way to start your day! You feel strong, energized and happy you’ve done your workout before 8 am. And it took you what? 10 minutes? Come on!
