Being on your hands and knees is a good position to get into if your life is sedentary. It stretches your upper back and activates the core muscles in your abdomen, which support your frame.
Get onto hands and knees, hands under your shoulders and knees beneath your hips. Circle your hips clockwise, then anticlockwise. Then lengthen your spine from tailbone to the crown of your head, making a tabletop shape. Press on your hands and push the top of your back towards the ceiling, making an "n" shape. Relax your head and neck. Holding the position, exhale, pulling your abdominal muscles back and up. Inhaling, return to the tabletop position. Repeat a few times. Now scrub the floor, making wide circles clockwise and anticlockwise, using both hands equally.
6. Clean to the beat
Put on some high-energy music when tidying or cleaning up, and coordinate your movements with the beat. Or spend the first five minutes dancing around to warm up before getting down to work. Have another five-minute dance once you have finished, making your movements slower and smaller as you cool down.
7. Squat pick-up
Picking up toys or laundry from the floor is a great excuse to work your thighs and buttocks. Stand with feet hip-width apart with the objects within arm's reach. Inhale; and as you exhale pull in your tummy muscles, then bend at the knees and hips, squatting low enough to pick up the item easily. Inhale as you come back to standing. Squat for each item. If your children scatter the floor with toys daily you'll notice a difference in your shape in a couple of weeks.
8. Start a family chore list
To get the whole household active, draw up a chore list that assigns tasks. Make sure everyone gets a good mix of duties: carrying heavy garbage cans, scrubbing the bathtub, raking the yard, washing windows, turning mattresses, and mowing the lawn count as high intensity; washing the dishes, putting away dishes, and setting the table count as moderate.
Page 2 of 3 -- From practicing simple yoga to exercising more of your arm muscles, find more simple ways to tone up your workout on page 3
Excerpted from 1,001 Ways to Get in Shape, copyright 2009 by Susannah Marriott. Used by permission of Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.
