4 Exercises You Can Do to Stay Fit at Home

With people all over the world spending more time at home due to the pandemic, exercise has become more important than ever. Sadly, the World Economic Forum noted in a report that 27.5% of adults currently do not meet the World Health Organization (WHO) physical activity recommendations, and most of this number were women.

This is because women, according to WHO, do less active work compared to men. Mothers and working women also face the additional burden of having less time for themselves.

However, you don't need to visit the gym to stay fit, nor do your workouts need to last hours. Here are four exercises you can do to stay fit even at home.

HIIT

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) involves short bursts of intense exercises alternated with low-intensity recovery periods. For example, you sprint, perform squats, and jumping jacks continuously for 30 seconds each before catching your breath with a low-intensity exercise like jogging.

It has many benefits aside from keeping your body healthy too. For example, it increases your metabolic rate, so it's good for women on a diet. It also reduces blood sugar levels, helping prevent type-2 diabetes.

To start on this exercise, there are plenty of HIIT workout videos you can follow online.

Because it greatly elevates your heart rate, each HIIT workout only lasts for 15 to 30 minutes, it's the best option for entrepreneurs and busy moms.

Pilates

Pilates is the perfect home exercise for pregnant and postpartum women, as long as your doctor has already cleared you for physical activity. After all, a study published in Jurnal NERS emphasizes how Pilates can help prevent back pain by strengthening your core muscles and pelvic floor. There's even a Pilates variant called "postnatal Pilates," which promotes total-body alignment.

Typically, Pilates only requires a mat. But for an enhanced at-home workout, you can use other equipment. Here at So She Slays we are big fans of Pilates.

We have listed some of our favorite Pilates Props, including the foam roller, which challenges your balance, and the magic circle, which pushes your arms, core, and legs more. You can even add light hand weights to better work on your body's alignment.

Barre Exercises

Barre is a workout technique inspired by three elements: Pilates, yoga, and ballet. The leading health resource SymptomFind has detailed articles on the benefits women can get from exercises such as barre. For example, contemporary leg exercises based on Pilates and yoga (like Plié Pulses) help improve your posture. Barre's ballet-inspired exercises like Développé Leg Lifts, meanwhile, work on your flexibility and balance.

Barre exercises are beginner-friendly and adaptable to different skill sets as well as ability levels. There are a lot of videos online that can teach you the basics of barre at home, like arm and glute sculpting.

Strength Training

Strength exercises will help increase more than just your muscle strength. It can also improve bone density and reduce joint pain, which is great news for older women.

You don't have to purchase expensive weights to get started either. Wellness website Self informs us that resistance bands can be used in a number of ways, such as by standing on one and pulling on it to work your upper arms, as well as looping it around your ankles and lunging to exercise your legs.

No one workout works for every woman. Your options depending on your body's condition, age, and of course, your personal preferences. Try each routine for a week and see what sticks.