You may not know it yet, but that favorite couch of yours can easily be your ticket to fitness.
Common household items, furniture and fixtures, can also double as gym equipment, enabling you to jumpstart that fitness regimen you’ve been putting off for some time now.
If budget’s a little tight and you can’t bring yourself to spend a fortune on gym memberships and fancy equipment, no need to sweat it. Just a few ordinary items should do the trick. It can be those heavy old books gathering dust in your shelves, or those gallon jugs you’ve been meaning to get rid of. Even those sturdy pillars and walls of your home will do.
Fortunately, a number of websites are offering all these ingenious ways on how you can use these items for your workout. Inquirer Property has rounded up for you five of the most common household items and fixtures used for exercises.
Workingmother.com shows you how to break a sweat using just a chair for your workout. You can go for a triceps dip, a chair plank, a seated hip thrust, a Russian twist, different kinds of squats and a whole lot more. Always make sure though your chair’s sturdy and stable.
Who says you need to get off your couch to get fit? Well, technically, yes you still have to—but you can also do a set of exercises right in the comfort of your couch. Totalbeauty.com explores this option as it lists a few good moves for you: the seated scissors, calf and toe raises, and arm extensions.
Heavy books can do wonders not only for your mind, but also for your body. Add a couple of books to the routine to get your muscles working harder. Exercise.co.uk says you can use it for Russian twists, crunches and leg lifts. Of course, make sure the books aren’t too heavy so you won’t hurt yourself.
Think of it as doing Mother Earth a favor. Recycle those old gallon plastic jugs by using them as makeshift weights or dumbbells. Cardiosmash.com advises one to fill them up with just the right amount of water, sand or rocks so you won’t strain yourself too much.
You’ll be surprised to hear that you can get “high intensity sculpting from abs to calves” with just a wall as your equipment. Shape.com offers a fresh way of doing your workout as it puts the wall on the spotlight for this routine. You can do a push up tap, wall squat snow angel, leg lift pike, bridge hip up and wall circle, among others.
Ultimate test
Once you fall into that habit and you finally see yourself getting stronger and more toned, you might want to put your newfound strength, stamina and endurance to the test.
This coming May, health maintenance organization Medicard Philippines is hosting the MediCard Supremo Obstacle Challenge, where you can discover how you can push yourself beyond limits. Participants will need to pass obstacle course challenges during the conditioning sessions to be held at the Ayala Triangle, Centris and Festival Mall Alabang before they can join the culminating activity on May 31 at the Glorietta Activity Center.
So you might want to get started on those exercises at home because for sure, the MediCard Supremo Obstacle Challenge will be the ultimate test to all your hard work.
Sources: exercise.co.uk, skinnyms.com, shape.com, cardiosmash.com, workingmother.com
Photos by Andrea Piacquadio, Paula Schmidt and Anthony from Pexels