Alternative to Going to the Gym

Don’t like working out at a gym?

Let’s face a fact: Some people are too scared to exercise in front of others. For those who already exercise at a gym, it’s not a problem for you. Maybe you’re already fit; maybe your personality allows you to not care about what others think. But for others, sometimes working up the courage to exercise is more work than actually exercising.

Let’s face another fact: You don’t need to go to a gym to exercise. This is great news for people who prefer to keep their exercising to themselves. Here are some ways someone can get into shape at home without feeling social pressures.

1. Buy an XBox Kinect or Wii.

Already have one? Perfect. Fitness games are a fun and exciting way to do exercise in your own home. Many games like Just Dance have exercise modes that help you calculate your calories burned. Now, of course, it’s not perfect, but it gives you an opportunity to have fun while moving. This is a great one for people who have space in their bedrooms or when they have the house to themselves. It’s also fun and entertaining when you do it with your friends.

My recommendations:

Just Dance
In October, Just Dance 2015 will be coming out for everyone to enjoy! It has brand new songs, including “Happy,” “I Love It,” “Burn,” and “Love Me Again.” They even have Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” and Love Letter’s “Only You,” which features a slow dance for a couple! Keep in mind that it’s focus is not a full body workout, but it still helps you work up a sweat and get your heart rate pumping! Click here to see this song.

Zumba Fitness

I LOVE Zumba Fitness, especially World Party. It is a challenging workout that helps me learn new dances, music, and helps me burn just as many calories as I would spending twenty minutes in misery on the elliptical. What I love about Zumba Fitness World Party is that they use real instructors instead of animations. This seems like a small detail but it really makes a difference in the quality of the game. Click here to see a live demo.

Harley Pasternak’s Hollywood Workout
Mr. Pasternak is a famous trainer for actors, dancers, models, and everything of that sort. He’s also a trainer for normal people like you and me. I’ll admit, many of the exercises overlap in the different focus areas, but it’s a great way to track the progress you’ve made. The workouts are only 25 minutes long, so they’re great for busy people. Harley Pasternak created a Harley Bar for easy traveling which can be utilized in the game. It also gives you an option to add weights or have no weights, which will affect the calories you burn! Click here for an entire single workout example.

2. Download a mobile app to help track your dieting and fitness.

This can really help you realize what you’re eating, how much you’re exercising, how many calories you’re burning, and how active you might be. You might be more active than you think you are! If tracking isn’t your thing, I would still try a free app for a month so you can see data on what you’re eating and doing!

My FREE recommendations:

Nike Training Club
The best part of #NTC is that you have so many workouts to choose from. They do a great job tracking progress, creating workouts, and customizing fitness for you. This is geared towards women, but men can certainly benefit from these exercises as well.

Fitbit

This is a beautiful app. The general look of the dots are really wonderful and clear. You can track your fitness, diet, personal goals, and even sleep! The best part of this is that it syncs up with MyFitnessPal (which has a larger food database). You don’t even need to own the $99 Fitbit Wristband, but in case you do, it syncs up easily with this app.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal

This is an incredibly simple app that simply helps you log food, exercise, and calories burned/gained. You can enter in your weight and set a goal weight and it gives you a calorie allowance. I love finishing a log for the day and having it predict where I will be in 5 weeks if I do what I did that day. It’s a great way to reflect and prepare for what you can and should eat. The best part about all of these apps is finding a yummy low calorie food unexpectedly!

Human – Free

This is a pretty incredible app that tracks your movement and pushes you to do at least 30 minutes of one exercise a day. Most sedentary people tend to be able to get in at least 30 minutes of movement each day, so that alone is motivating in itself. The best and worst part of this app is that it keeps going all day. Great for tracking, bad for your battery. Make sure you charge your phone every day for reliability!

3. BOSUⓇ

Did you really think I wouldn’t list the BOSUⓇ? The BOSUⓇ offers a COMPLETE body workout without ever stepping foot inside a gym. The little blue half ball is the perfect package of fitness.

Here are three great videos that show how to use BOSUⓇ in your home:

BOSUⓇ App

In addition to helpful videos, BOSUⓇ has a helpful fitness app as well as many helpful tools online. Although the BOSUⓇ app costs $1.99, it is packed with quality videos of complete workouts for any part of your body. It even includes a reminder to switch up your routine if you spend a lot of time doing one workout!

BONUS:

This is the sneakiest way of exercise: Doing everyday tasks. Glamour has a great list of ways to add exercise to your daily routine.

This entry was contributed by Shannon Bolen, a Public Relations and Marketing intern at Hedstrom - Ball, Bounce and Sport. She recently graduated from Bowling Green State University in music education and currently listens to Matt and Kim in her car.

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Fair Weather Exercise

You wake up, roll over and search out the window. You squint, wondering why it’s so dark and twist your neck to find the time. After all, the darkness outside should only mean that you can roll over for a few more zz’s. You find the time and you do a groggy shrug as you realize you did not wake up any earlier than need be. You twist to see the window through half-closed eyes and make out the large storm clouds and the blowing tree branches. The alarm buzzed for your morning workout without seeking the sun’s permission.

If the sun couldn’t find the energy to rise, you feel no obligation to beat it. You hit snooze until the 45 minutes you had devoted to set aside for you and your body pass by. When you can’t push it off any longer you rise, dress, and step out of the house into the storm to face the day.

The morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. The hours drag by, lunch is composed of office meetings, and errands after the workday ensure that there is no other time to shake loose. At the end of the day your brain is fried and it is all you can do to eat dinner and take care of the family, check stocks, or plop on the couch to watch mindless reality TV. Meanwhile, the intermittent rain starts again while you promise that tomorrow will be a new day.

It happens. Some people are more affected by negative weather patterns than others. There exists that breed of people who celebrate storm clouds and rain and take the opportunity to sit by the window and enjoy the show. Others are fueled by light and sun and overcast weather signals a less than optimal day.

Should the weather really dictate your life? An off day is not indicative of anything. We all need days to sleep in and recuperate. However, letting those off days trudge into a wearing routine implies more serious problems. Lacking the energy to rise at the sound of the alarm or barely being able to make it through the day laying the blame on the weather are symptoms of bigger imbalances. Your life should not be subject to the whims and fickleness of the skies.

Analyze your habits. Is your inability to rise a sporadic occurrence that follows the occasional overcast day or a regular pattern where the sound of the alarm makes every morning look like a storm is about to break?

Don’t let the weather make or break your day. The secret isn’t the weather. The energy you have is what determines how you greet the day, rain or shine. The lower your energy, the more gloomy weather you will exacerbate your sluggishness.

Go back to the basics if you need tips on how to start the day off right regardless of the weather.

This entry was contributed by Stephanie Berger, a Public Relations and Marketing intern at Hedstrom - Ball, Bounce and Sport. She studies at the University of South Carolina and is addicted to breakfast foods and sunshine.

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60 Resources for Ab and Core Workouts

Spring and summer typically bring heightened interest in being fit and looking good. However, we are now in the fall season and (brace yourself) winter is quickly approaching.. Whatever your intent is, there is no reason why you cannot rededicate yourself at any point of the year to a stronger core or more defined abs. Regardless of whether your desire is to look good or to reach peak physical performance, these 60 resources will aid you in your commitment and offer workout routines and nutritional tips to help you reach your goal. My favorite page just might be number 60, but dig through and see if you can find your own favorite.

Happy shredding!

60 Resources for Ab and Core Workouts

1. The Lower Abs Trifecta

2. Best Moves and Foods for 6 Pack Abs

3. Top 5 Moves for Shredded Lower Abs

4. Core Workout Timed Training Session

5. 8 Exercises to Target Your Lower Abs

6. The New Rules of Abs

7. No More Crunches? Abs-olutely.

8. 12 Best Foods for Your Abs!

9. How to Get Perfect Abs

10. How 15 Minutes Can Change Your Life

11. 10 Minute Intense Abs Workout

12. 5 Killer Moves for Yoga Ready Abs

13. The Best Yoga Poses for Flat Abs

14. 41 Exercises to Do On a BOSU Ball

15. How Long Does It Take to Get Six Pack Abs

16. HIIT Workout Clip for Abs and Obliques - Training Cardio & Abs

17. Core Vs. Abs: The Smackdown

18. Core Conditioning-It’s Not Just About Abs

19. Lumbar/Core Strength and Stability Exercises

20. 7 Core Moves That Are More Fun Than Situps

21. Core Strength and the Athlete: Keeping It in Perspective

22. How to Sprint Your Way to a 6 - Pack

23. 8 Ways to Spice Up a Plank

24. Chair Exercises for Older Adults

25. 3 Non-Boring Ab Exercises to Try

26. 70 Best Abs Exercises

27. Advanced Core Exercises- Bosu Ball Total Body and Core Routine

28. Dance Fitness With Tony Dovolani – Abs and Core

29. Best Swimming Stroke for Abs

30. 10 Nontraditional Ab Exercises For a Powerful, Rock Hard Midsection

31. My Top 15 Non-Traditional Muscle-Building, Fat Blasting Workouts... No Sissies Allowed!

32. 15 Olympic-Inspired Exercises to Try Today

33. Fast Abs

34. Core Training – Do You Know About These 3 Things? (Many Don’t)

35. Why and How to Strengthen Your Core for Pregnancy

36. Abs Diet Power Review

37. How to Strengthen Your Core

38. 7 Flat-Ab Tips for Men

39. 12 Surprising Facts About Your Abs

40. Bend to Build Midsection Muscle

41. Forget Crunches: How to Actually Strengthen Your Core

42. What Causes Muscle Soreness After Exercising

43. Is Your Core Weak? Take This Test

44. How Strong is Your Core?

45. 14 Plain Greek Yogurt Recipes to Shrink Your Belly

46. 10 TRX Exercises to Sculpt a Tight Core

47. The Six Pack Abs Shopping List

48. How Do the Abdominal Muscles Affect Posture

49. Pilates 3D

50. Do You Have a Core Muscle Weakness

51. 14 Uber Lower Abs Exercises to Flatten Your Belly and Carve Out a Sharp V-Cut

52. CrossFit Ab and Core Workouts

53. Strength, Core, Balance, and Agility

54. Core Concepts

55. Apps for Ab Workout

56. Are Abs Really Made in the Kitchen?

57. Meal Planning

58. Developing Strong Abs for Martial Arts Training

59. 8 Best Core-Strengthening Exercises for Endurance Athletes

60. Let’s Draw Abs!

This entry was contributed by Stephanie Berger, a Public Relations and Marketing intern at Hedstrom - Ball, Bounce and Sport. She studies at the University of South Carolina and is addicted to breakfast foods and sunshine.

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