ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Great Exercise Ideas

Updated on November 2, 2017
tlcs profile image

I love writing about a variety of different subjects. I hope you enjoy my view on these subjects and will appreciate your honest opinion.

Effective Exercise for a muscle workout. We all want to feel good and look good without going out of our way.
Effective Exercise for a muscle workout. We all want to feel good and look good without going out of our way. | Source

Take a look at your Posture

Spine stretched

Chest up

Shoulders back but relaxed

Neck stretched

Head comfortably centered over the spine

Buttocks tucked in slightly

Stomach pulled in and up, nice and flat

Knees slightly bent

Weight of your body resting on the balls of the feet

Instantly by changing your posture you discover a new you, see how different that feels.

Most of us think that good posture implies stiffness. But really it means grace, poise, suppleness, proud carriage of the body whether your standing, walking, sitting or bending with good posture your body is properly aligned the way it is meant to be.

To learn how to achieve good posture practicing in front of a mirror can help, at first you may feel awkward and getting it right needs complete concentration, once you get the feel of it it will become instinctive.

If we think of the amount of times we have to sit down, stand up or bend our bodies during a day by making good use of the movements instead of just flopping or dragging ourselves around can transform them into "exercises".

By thinking about our movements instead of going around like a robot we stand, walk and sit tall allowing the parts of our body, bones, nerves, blood vessels and muscles to take their proper place and perform their various roles correctly.

We find that we gain more energy and vitality and a better outlook on life in general.

So in a nutshell, good posture gives your body an instant lift! Try it and see what happens.

Good Posture -v- Bad Posture

Good Posture Can:
Bad Posture Does:
Make you look younger, thinner, more attractive, graceful, poised and relaxed
Makes us look dumpy, awkward, defeated and strained
Free up tension and save many aches and pains
Increases tension and creates unnecessary aches, pains and muscle fatigue.
Reduce tiredness and strain
Gives poor muscle tone
Lifts breasts and buttocks
Creates a double chin
Flattens the stomach
Makes breasts and buttocks sag
No indigestion
Gives a protruding abdomen
Improves circulation
Interferes with proper digestion

Not like this

Feet should be flat on the floor, not crossed to gain the best posture
Feet should be flat on the floor, not crossed to gain the best posture | Source

But more like this

Feet should be flat on the floor, with back straight
Feet should be flat on the floor, with back straight

SITTING

From the standing position before sitting move one leg back until you feel the chair, shift your weight to the back leg, lean forward slightly by pulling stomach muscles in and up, and bend knees to lower yourself into the chair, when getting up reverse the process.

If we sit and stand properly it actually exercises and firms muscles, it shapes and moulds our bodies.

When we sit, we need to do it right, back straight and supported by the back of the chair. Stomach pulled in.

To find the exact point for comfortable sitting, fidget on the seat of your chair until you feel the two bones located at the bottom of the buttocks.

If we sit badly it becomes destructive to the body. Slumping will cause the chest to cave in, back curves out and the stomach collapses and protrudes. The weight of the upper body rests entirely on the lower spine opening the way to future back aches.

By using your thigh and stomach muscles to pull you up and sit you down your be giving yourself a nice workout, avoiding back strain and looking a lot more graceful than slumping into a chair.

Walk tall

Swing your legs from the hip, not the knee
Swing your legs from the hip, not the knee | Source

WALKING

You can get as much out of walking as you put into it. It becomes a great exercise when you concentrate n walking with your whole body.

The secret being to swing your leg from the hip, not the knee in one motion. Keep stomach pulled in and back straight, and your shoulders and arms should be relaxed.

For even more benefits tense your inner thighs and buttocks with each step.

Bending for Beauty

Bend a little: From the knees, brace yourself with your thigh muscles to keep strain from landing on the back

Bend all the way: and make it work for you. Get control of pelvic and thigh areas. Pull in stomach, lift and lower with thighs and buttocks

When you lean over always bend knees slightly, Pull your stomach in as your body goes forward. Put one foot in front of the other for balance and use your thigh and buttock muscles to lower and raise yourself.


What form of exercise does it for you, which gives the best results?

Out of these options which do you think gives the best result for an effective muscle workout

See results

STRETCHING

So we have looked at how to achieve good posture now let's look at stretching to keep us on the right track.

Stretching is the most natural form of movement. It is the surest way to keep young and supple and the safest way to ward off aching and tight muscles, tension, fatigue, even injury from sudden movements.

You can use stretching during your daily movements:-

  • Making a bed
  • Lifting a child
  • Filing office documents
  • Going through a doorway
  • Reaching for something
  • On the phone
  • In the bath
  • In the car
  • At the cinema
  • In front of the TV

You can also stretch whilst you are getting dressed and whilst you are working and playing. You can stretch whilst you are brushing your teeth or brushing your hair.

Brush your hair, bending from the waist to release lower back tension. Bounce gently and bring nature's own blush to your face!

Brush your teeth on tip-toes to stretch the back of your legs, squeeze buttocks together. Pull in your stomach. Feel the tautness!

Some other stretches to do on your own

Stand straight with fingers laced behind back. Start to bend, sliding hands down the back of the legs as far as you can. Hold it there and come up slowly. You should be able to feel the release.

Or, alternatively kneel down, sit on your heels and stretch your arms out as far forward as they will go. Let all the tension go. Can you feel it?

These illustrations are some other stretches that you can do to feel the tension disappear!

Oh! That's a good stretch, don't forget to repeat it on the other side.
Oh! That's a good stretch, don't forget to repeat it on the other side. | Source
Feel the stretch!
Feel the stretch! | Source

Think about stretching whilst your walking, climbing, or at anytime!

When your walking go around the house on tip-te, keep knees stiff, stay on tip-toe. Keep your stomach in, buttocks tucked under.

Use the stairs to trim your legs, by going up stars, lifting as you go, on each step lace foot securely, then rise on toes, And go down stairs standing "tall", not hunched over and land on your toes or on your heels all the way down.

What a great way to stretch out those legs!

Improvise, Innovate. Stretch your feel better and look better!

So many stretches to choose from!
So many stretches to choose from! | Source
Why not involve your partner in some stretching!
Why not involve your partner in some stretching! | Source

Involving your partner or friend in exercising and stretching would be beneficial to both of you.

Lets take a look at some inner thigh exercises

With a minimum of effort we exercise the whole thigh as we sit, walk, bend and play sports. The inner thigh however is much more difficult.

Try these to help your inner thigh:-

In the sitting down position - thighs together, feet apart, toes turned out, press your knees together as hard as you can. Hold then slowly release. Repeat these a few times.

In the standing position with feet apart and knees slightly bent, toes turned in, try to bring your legs together without moving your feet. Remember there is no movement involved.

For the best results go s-l-o-w-l-y and repeat each movement 3 to 5 times to start as you get better aim for at least 10 times.

This inner thigh video may help you

Let's look at ways to gain a taut shapely behind

It doesn't take that much to firm and lift your behind.

Try these simple exercises:

Lie down, chin on your fists. Spread your legs apart and lift them as far as you can, crossing one leg over the other, keep crisscrossing, going from 5 to 10 to as many as you like. Feel as if your buttocks are pulling up and controlling your toes.

Lie face down, chin on your fists, with legs stiff, heels together, lift legs as high as you can and hold. You'll feel it but buttocks firm faster the more you do this exercise!

This video cover thighs and buttocks

And finally, lets look at the dreaded stomach exercises!

A rare few of us are born with flat stomachs, but even they have to practice posture.

Stomach exercises don't have to be boring, sit-ups and leg-ups are not the only exercises that we can do to achieve that flat stomach we all rave for!

To accomplish this, the small of the back must be pressed flat against the floor when doing exercises lying down. Shoulders must be rounded when doing exercises sitting on the floor. Stomach muscles must be pulled in as if you were trying to raise your pubic bone.By doing this you are sure that the stomach musles and not the back muscles are doing the work.

If you don't do it properly it can cause more harm than good as too much strain is put on the back which can cause lower back pains.

O.k, so here are a few:

Lying on the floor, the bed or a board imagine that your stomach is flat against your spine. Pull it in-in-in. Round your shoulders and head, then lift and reach for your knees, control the motion with firm stomach muscles. Hold,. Slowly go back to flat position. At first, do this about 5 times. When you can control your stomach, raise yourself higher... and higher to keep that stomach flat!

STOP AND THINK

None of the above will do you any good unless you CONCENTRATE on pulling your stomach IN. To keep up progress, build your holding time to 20 slow counts.

This video will help you for the stomach exercises

To finalise for a muscle workout to do at any moment of any day follow the above!

You can keep your figure:

At home, in bed, in the bath or shower, in the kitchen, dining room, playroom; morning, noon and night; cleaning, cooking, and even babysitting

On the job, in the office, waiting on customers, and at the computer

Whilst waiting for a bus, in the car wash, the movies or in the dreaded shopping queue!

By concentrating on your movements, by making every movement count towards a vibrant, alive, sensational looking you!

I knew this plan would have to be easy so you would follow it.

I knew it would have to be uncomplicated.

Because we are all so busy, we want to feel good and look good without going out of our way. You know and I know how much better we feel after some exercise.

And that my friends means moving our bodies anywhere and everywhere we happen to be!

Don't forget to take a look at my hub on keeping a diary to keep a check on what we eat, it works for me so hopefully it will work for you!

© 2015 Trudy Cooper

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)