Get Strong at Home in 30 Minutes a Day (guest post)

Today’s guest post is courtesy of Edward, the owner of BuildMuscle.org, a website which offers free tips on how to build muscle effectively.

Strength training is important for everyone. Many people think of strength training as just a workout for body builders, but we all need lean muscle mass, especially as we get older. As we age, we lose our natural muscle mass, a little at a time, so strength training is key to helping us keep this important muscle.

Lean muscle is also important to keeping us at a healthy weight. Even when resting, muscle burns more calories than fat. So, keeping some lean muscle on your body will allow you to eat more without gaining weight. And, of course, we need muscle for the strength to do the things we need and want to do. Adding muscle helps us stay strong and active, and makes us look better, too.

Many people avoid strength training because they don’t know what to do, or because they think it will take too much time. But, you can actually see some great results in just 30 minutes a day – and you can do it at home, too.
Here are some tips to help you get strong in 30 minutes a day.

• Reserve 30 minutes each day out of your schedule on Monday through Saturday. You will not work out on Sundays.
• On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you will work on either upper or lower body. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, work the other body area. Don’t work the same body area two days in a row, because your muscles need time to heal.
• You will need a log. A simple notebook is fine. In this, you’ll need to write down each exercise in your routine, the amount of weight used, (if applicable) and how many sets and reps you’re doing. This helps ensure that you get in your full workout each time, and that you can increase your intensity as needed.
• You will need a set of dumbbells in the appropriate weight. If you’re just starting out women should start out with three or five pound weights, men with eight or ten, depending upon how strong you are now. You can also purchase resistance bands and a medicine ball, but these are not absolutely necessary.

The following exercises are basic, and require little to no equipment.

Lower Body

• Squats – Vary between squats that go just halfway down and those that take your rear end all the way to the ground. You can also do plie squats, with your toes pointing out. Hold your dumbbells for a more intense workout.
• Lunges – Regular and walking lunges
• Straight Leg Glute Extensions – These are those “donkey lifts” we’ve all done in aerobics classes.
• Crunches – Abdominal crunches are great for building your abdominal muscles. If you have a medicine ball, do them on that to work abs faster and improve your balance.
• Leg Crosses – Also great for the abdominals, lie on your back with legs straight up in the air and cross them back and forth.

Upper Body

• Pushups – There’s really no better exercise than pushups to work all the major arm muscles
• Pull ups – If you have a bar, a pull up is great.
• Bicep curls – Using your dumbbells or resistance bands.
• Tricep extensions – With dumbbells
• Lateral Raises – Hold dumbbells by your sides and slowly raise them out to your sides until they reach shoulder level.

With these ten exercises, you should be able to gain significant strength in just 30 minutes a day. Start with 3 sets of each exercise and 6-8 reps per set.

The key to continuing to see results is increasing the number of reps, the number of sets and the amount of weight (for dumbbell exercises). When the exercise is no longer a challenge, it’s time to increase one or more of these areas. This is why having a log is so important.

To really see fast results, try increasing your workout at every single session. For example, many people try and do just one more pushup every day.

With these ten simple exercises, you’re well on your way to getting strong in 30 minutes a day!

picture source: Oxygen Magazine

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