Too cold outside? Work out at home

The sun is yet to rise when your alarm clock goes off. You feel like diving under the blanket rather than driving to the gym or heading to the park for a jog on this cold, dreary morning. Sleep in for a bit if you like but don’t let the weather affect your fitness. After all, you need to look smashing at the Christmas and New Year Eve parties.

We make things easier by giving you a list of do-at-home exercises that you can do in the warmth of your home.

1. Skip: Relive your childhood days and slim down at the same time. A 10-minute session of moderate skipping will help you burn 20 calories. Vigorous rope-jumping for the same duration will help you lose 110 calories. Even boxers use skipping as training before a fight because of its high intensity.
2. Step up: Climbing is a great indoor exercise, especially for those aiming for a slimmer bottom half. You could head to your building’s stairway or simply find a sturdy low stool in your house and get going. You may not sweat like you would while skipping, but you will still drop 220 calories in 30 minutes. Try stair running to mix things up.
3. Dance: Just turn up the volume and shake your booty like Beyonce. Dancing is the best way to de-stress, get your heart rate up, build lean muscle and shed the excess baggage around your waist. A high-intensity dance like hip-hop will burn at least 450 calories per hour.
4. Lunge: This is an ideal exercise for those who want to shape their lower body and lose weight on the hips. Stand with your legs together. Step forward with your right leg and slowly lower your body until the front knee is bent to 90 degrees. The back knee should not touch the floor. Repeat with left leg. To make it more fun, continue to step forward and lunge around the house instead of stepping back into place.
5. Squat: Work your quads, glutes, hamstrings and lower back by squatting. Stand erect with your feet shoulder width apart with keeping your arms extended in front of you. Now, push your hips back and downwards slowly as if you were sitting in an invisible chair. Your knees shouldn’t extend beyond the tips of your toes. Pause for a moment and slowly rise to standing position.
6. Bottle-lifting: Yearning for strong toned arms and shoulders? Use bottles filled with water as Increase the quantity of water each time you work out to challenge your body. Curl your arm upwards, bringing the bottle to your shoulder to work your biceps. Move your arm behind your head and slowly lower the bottle as you hold your upper arm stationary for tight triceps.
7. Jumping Jacks: Do you know why kids can eat candies and still stay slim? They are always jumping around. Stand with your feet together and arms by your side. Jump up, bringing your feet out to the side and raise your arms above your head at the same time. Reverse this motion by jumping back into the first position. You can burn 100 to 200 calories by doing 100 jumping jacks.

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