The beginning of a new year brings associated the end of the Christmas holidays, and with it the end of a month of continuous excesses of meals, dinners and celebrations that suppose. As a general rule, and as much as we try to avoid it, these holidays suppose an increase in the number of calories we eat.
And that’s when the New Year’s resolutions appear to get us in shape, start a diet (one more year) , do some sports … In short: the purpose of acquiring healthier habits and improving our physical shape. Unfortunately, these New Year’s resolutions tend to last most people for a short time because excuses soon come in the form of lack of time or absence of results among others. So that not being targeted at the gym does not become an excuse, today we give you alternatives to get fit both at home and outdoors.
Practice calisthenics in the park
When talking about practicing sports and getting fit , it is very common for the vast majority of people to think of a gym and all its equipment and machines, since for a large percentage it ends up being the chosen option. However, calisthenics is a much cheaper (if not free) alternative to gyms and also has the advantage of being practiced almost anywhere.
Based on the use of our own body weight as a resistance to overcome, calisthenics will allow us to achieve truly amazing results in terms of strength gain, power, endurance and fat loss . A simple bench in a park, a group of swings or a circuit where we can carry out cardio workouts are enough to start practicing sport with the arrival of the new year and getting fit at zero cost.
Some references in the world of calisthenics are: Frank Medrano , Dejan Stipic, Lazar Novovic or Lee Wade Turner.
Mobile applications to train at home
With the rise of technology in all areas of our lives, have begun to appear in the market, for a while, applications for mobile devices that allow us to train at home without moving to the gym or a park (especially useful for the winter season if we do not want to go cold in a park or on the street and reduce the risk of flu). While some applications offer a free basic version and the full version of payment, there are others that are 100% free.
Some of the applications that we can find for both iOS and Android devices are:
- Swordkit Lite : app in which basically we will be able to choose betweenstrength work, cardiovascular, yoga or stretching . Available for Android .
- Nike Training Club : application that has explanatory videos of each exercise for those looking for something simple. Available for iOS and Android .
- 30 days : this application is characterized by working on the basis of an exercise that we have previously selected from the list it offers us and for programming our training routine for 30 days. Available for Android .
- Teem o: fitness app available for the moment only for iOs devices , transforms our workouts into an adventure game , in which for example the adventure of crowning the everest is to perform an exercise of climbing stairs. Without a doubt a new way of approaching the sport.
- Freeletics : one of the most popular apps in terms of paid apps. It has a part of free routines and exercises , but if we want the complete pack we must pay for it, so the choice is in our hands.
Are you going short of time? HIIT training helps you
On many occasions we have spoken in Vitónica of HIIT entrainment and the multiple benefits it presents to us. Among them, the reduction of the time necessary to carry out physical activity stands out significantly , since a HIIT session of a significant intensity can suppose us only 15 or 20 minutes of our time.
In general, the apps that we can find to do HIIT workouts at home tend to focus more on the structuring of exercise-rest times, although some like Freeletics or 7 minute workout – HIIT also incorporate the exercises to be performed. In addition, a combination of calisthenics with HIIT training could be a fantastic combination to obtain more than optimal results.
Start practicing yoga or pilates in your living room
But not bodybuilding exercises or cardiovascular workouts live people. Disciplines such as yoga or pilates gain more followers every day among both the masculine and, above all, the feminine gender. And obviously the world of technology and apps could not stay out of this market.
The application “Pilates” of the developer ShvagerFM is a great option especially for beginners , since among other things, it presents a series of lists of exercises that we can modify to our liking by eliminating exercises that we do not want to perform. In addition, all the exercises are accompanied by drawings and diagrams that will help us avoid injuries while we take our first steps in the world of pilates.
But if we prefer to opt for yoga, ” Down Dog ” by Yoga Buddhi Co. (available for iOS and Android), is one of the reference apps that we should try. In addition to selecting the level and duration of the classes, this app also allows us to select the music we want to listen to during them.
The versatility of kettlebells or kettlebells
The so-called kettlebells or kettlebells began to appear in the market (despite going back to the beginning of the eighteenth century its creation) thanks to the boom that involved the crossfit , as they are a very used element for the realization of exercises like the kettlebell swing or the turkish get up . Thanks to its shape of iron ball with handle, these weights allow us to make variations of classic exercises , so we could say that they are more functional than a simple dumbbell (although on the contrary they can also be more expensive).
Other characteristics that we can point out of the kettlebells apart from their versatility , is the benefit that they can give us in terms of working with components of instability for the improvement of our balance and the wide use that we can give through the different exercises to achieve an effective and complete cardiovascular work .
Sign up for a race and start preparing it
Another way we can start exercising and get fit is by aiming for a popular race(there are different distances, from five kilometers to half marathon or marathon), but for this we must take into account our capabilities and state of form and not wanting to cover more than we can (for example, pretending to prepare a marathon in three months if we are sedentary people or with a low level of form is something completely impossible to achieve).
Through the Carreraspopulares web portal , we can select different popular races based on our place of residence and see their distances and dates of celebration.
For beginners and sedentary people: the “ca-co method”
But it can happen that you are beginners or sedentary people or with a low level of fitness and you want to start preparing your first race as the first goal of the year to improve your health and physical condition. For this, the “ca-co method” may be the best option, since it will avoid over-training in the first weeks and you can adapt it to your progress and improve progressively .
What is this method? This method or form of training is ideal if you have never run before or you have a very low state , and it consists, basically, of alternating periods walking (ca) and followed by periods running (co). We could say that it is a kind of routine HIIT for very beginner people or with very little cardiovascular capacity .
In general, this training system usually lasts between eight and ten weeks , during which the ideal training frequency (since we are talking about people without physical condition or with very little condition) would be three workouts per week:
- In the first week we could start doing four series of three minutes walking and one minute jogging .
- In the second week, we can go on to make the first two days four series of three minutes walking and one walking and the last day four series of three minutes walking and two minutes jogging.
- In the third week, we would increase the number of series for example to five, walking for three minutes and jogging for two .
- For the fourth week, during the first two days we would continue with the five series of three minutes walking and two jogging for, the last day making two series jogging eight minutes and walking between two and three minutes.
As you can see, the progression during this method of training is gradually increasing to avoid overtraining and we can exceed our physical levels, not reach the objectives and leave due to frustration. In addition, the structuring of both the number of series and the times of walking and jogging is completely individualized, so that each person can adapt it to their characteristics and initial physical condition .