Home exercise?

Fluorescence

Hey all, looking for a bit of advice here.

At the moment I'm doing the Couch to 5k programme, and finding it great. I'm on Week 3 at the moment and I love it. However I want to do something else on the rest days of the programme that will help me to shift some more weight and generally improve my overall fitness.

I have no home gym equipment other than an exercise bike, which I hate. It's just too dull - I can't stomach it for any reasonable amount of time before giving up out of sheer boredom. It doesn't matter what music I listen to, what books I read or what games on the DS I play, time just seems to crawl on the damn thing. So that's out.

Are there any exercises I can do at home instead? I don't want to do anything too intensive with the legs since it's supposed to be a rest day for C25k, but I want to be active in some way. For the record, I'm a broke college student with no job, so I've no money to buy equipment or a gym membership.

Any help you can give me is really appreciated

Frogdog

There's a home workout thread somewhere here on the forum if you search for it.

TommyKnocker

Here you go

M

Fluorescence

Whoops! Thanks

I'll watch those videos when I have some time this evening.

Fluorescence

Hello again.

I've decided to do the 200 Sit-Up plan and the 100 push=ups plan during my rest days from running. Are these sufficient for now to build up my strength?

There's also a 200 Squats plan but since I'm supposed to be letting my legs rest during the days off I thought I'd leave it for the moment.

gymfreak

Hi there,
Well done on the progress for C2k5 so far!

fluorescence wrote: »

Hello again.
I've decided to do the 200 Sit-Up plan and the 100 push=ups plan during my rest days from running. Are these sufficient for now to build up my strength?

There's also a 200 Squats plan but since I'm supposed to be letting my legs rest during the days off I thought I'd leave it for the moment.

I'm not too sure what the purpose of doing these is? Why do you need to do 100 consecutive pushups? Although I completely see the benefit of doing pushups and I do them myself, I personally could not care whether I could do a 100 in a row or not same goes for those other two programs...seem like a waste of time IMO.

fluorescence wrote: »

Are these sufficient for now to build up my strength?

Short answer- no.
If you were to follow what you outlined you would end up with strong chest muscles...yet you wouldn't have worked your back, therefore might cause ya to be a bit hunched(I'm not very technical at explaining)..same goes for the situps, you would be focusing on one set of muscles extensively and not working your sides or lower back..leading to the same unbalanced issues.

Have a look through www.bodyrock.tv there are loads of 15mins overall strength workouts for beginners on it. Other websites ya could browse would be gubernatrix.co.uk or transforms website.I think that these are a lot more benefical than the ones you outlined..good luck:)

Transform

gymfreak wrote: »

Hi there,
Well done on the progress for C2k5 so far!


I'm not too sure what the purpose of doing these is? Why do you need to do 100 consecutive pushups? Although I completely see the benefit of doing pushups and I do them myself, I personally could not care whether I could do a 100 in a row or not same goes for those other two programs...seem like a waste of time IMO.

Short answer- no.
If you were to follow what you outlined you would end up with strong chest muscles...yet you wouldn't have worked your back, therefore might cause ya to be a bit hunched(I'm not very technical at explaining)..same goes for the situps, you would be focusing on one set of muscles extensively and not working your sides or lower back..leading to the same unbalanced issues.

Have a look through www.bodyrock.tv there are loads of 15mins overall strength workouts for beginners on it. Other websites ya could browse would be gubernatrix.co.uk or transforms website.I think that these are a lot more benefical than the ones you outlined..good luck:)

i would have to agree that all those 200 sit ups 100 press ups programs are stupid - work the whole body NOT body parts

Mellor

What about their inclusion as part of a whole body home routine Transform?
Actually just the press-ups, its a simple enough chest progression excercise. I think the sit ups would be time better spent else where

Transform

I think the press ups as part of a whole program is grand for say a month but after that i would get clients focused on learning new movements and getting stronger (e.g. doing weighted press ups) not just doing high reps on any exercise.

Fluorescence

Thanks for the replies eveyone - point taken. I'll have a look around for other exercises to do on my days off.

Transform

go on to youtube as there are tons of short workouts you can do in 10-20mins of less with very limited equipment

quinnthebin

Well done again on your progress

fluorescence wrote: »

Thanks for the replies eveyone - point taken. I'll have a look around for other exercises to do on my days off.

Or howabout a friendly suggestion to concentrate on the C25K programme until you finish that rather than overdoing it with cross training?

I know you're probably not planning on going mad on your days off but might be an idea to enjoy them as intended and rest as your body gets used to the running rather than placing additional strain on yourself - it's 'only' 10weeks after all

I'm no expert but completed the C25K myself last year and overdid it a bit towards the end resulting in having to take time off from running. Nothing more disheartening than reaching the 5k target and getting injured - resulting in pretty much having to start again :mad:

Fluorescence

Transform: I'll check youtube so, thanks :P

Quinnthebin: I figured if I did something that didn't involve my legs very much I'd be safe enough. I really just want to do something on the days off! Sucks to hear you got injured though I'll keep your words in mind