No equipment exercises

I wrote a guest post on this topic over on The Stoker Kitchen a few weeks ago and wanted to revisit with a little more detail. I love that Brent and Tessa are close in age, we love that they grow and play together, however, having a child at age 30 and 31 was hard on my body and it’s been difficult to recover my previous level of fitness (basically every mom relates to this!) I absolutely loved Treehouse Athletic Club when we lived in Utah and felt it was worth every cent to have awesome equipment, classes, lots of space and most importantly, a great child care. The kids and I were there every morning except Sundays. Here in Austin, we are back at 24 Hour Fitness – this location is pretty crappy but they do have childcare which was basically my only requirement. Joining a gym with child care has been the number 1 thing that has helped me get back ‘in shape’ after having kids.

In the times, I’m not at the gym or outside exercising, these have been awesome to do in the house, no equipment necessary.

I like to do 10-15 reps  and 3-4 sets depending on the difficulty of the exercise OR 30 seconds of an exercise and then 30 seconds rest, repeat until exhaustion 😉 The nice thing is these can be done anytime and even if you only have 10 minutes.

Ab and core exercises:

  • Crunches
  • Bicycle crunches
  • Reverse crunches
  • Leg lifts
  • Plank
  • Side plank
  • Side plank crunch
  • Plank step out
  • Plank shoulder touch
  • Walking plank
  • Bird dog
  • Glute bridge/hip raise
  • Single leg hip raise
  • Split leg (jack knife) sit ups

no equipment exercises to lose weightno equipment exercises to lose weight, abs and coreLower body exercises:

  • Squats
  • Stationary lunges
  • Curtsy lunge
  • Calf raises
  • Standing single leg lift
  • wall sit

Upper body exercises:

Pushups, Spiderman pushups

Whole body exercises:

  • Burpees
  • Surrenders
  • Windmills
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Jumping Jacks
  • Squat jumps
  • Inch Worm

no equipment whole body exercises to lose weight

My top 10 ab/core exercises here

no equipment exercises to lose weight that you can do anywhere

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Top 10…Ab and Core Exercises

I studied Exercise Science at BYU and absolutely loved my major! While I’m not currently working in my field, it’s so applicable to everyday life. Having a strong core is beneficial to one’s overall health and wellness, something I probably took for granted before having kids! My kids are almost 2 years apart and my body was definitely changed through the pregnancies and 2 C-sections (side note: it’s totally worth it, being a mom is the most amazing thing!)

I’m still working on the process of rebuilding my core and abdominal strength. One of the most common misconceptions is that doing thousands of sit ups will give you a 6 pack. Your core is not only the abdominal muscles but your entire core, including your back.

Here my top 10 effective exercises that will build your core (including your back!):

1) Plank

you can also try variations such as plank jacks, plank step outs, or plank leg lifts

 

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2) Walking planks – shown on Bosu ball to add more of a challenge because of the unstable surface

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3) Side plank

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4) Split leg sit ups – I usually do these on the Bosu ball

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5) Knee tuck on ball

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6) Bird dogs – these are so great for your entire core! They can also be done on a Bosu ball for an added challenge

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7) Spiderman plank

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8) glute bridge – the variation is shown here using a single leg instead of 2

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9) pelvic tilt – especially great for those small abdominal muscles in your core. This is also an excellent one for women recovering from pregnancy/diastasis recti 

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10) side plank hip drop

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Top 10 effective