Making exercise a part of your healthy lifestyle means not just scheduling the time to exercise, but finding a place to work out. Not every house or apartment has a lot of room for large, bulky exercise equipment; however, even a small living space can be made into your own private workout area. There are several pieces of exercise equipment that can help improve your exercise experience, even in the smallest of areas.
Small Weights
A full-blown weight system may not fit in your living room, but a good set of hand and leg weights should not take up much space. If you are just starting out, you will most likely need either 1-lb. or 3-lb. weights in the beginning. You can obtain additional weights as needed or purchase a set. Some small weight sets come packaged in a convenient storage box. When storing the weights, as with any fitness equipment, be sure to keep them someplace easy to access. As the saying goes do not let your weights be "out of sight and out of mind." Weights are useless if you do not get them out and exercise with them.
Resistance Bands
Weights are not the only way to build muscle strength. A set of resistance bands of varying difficulties can be the next best thing and they take up much less space. Resistance bands are light weight and are easy to use in small areas. It's very easy to pack a resistance band for travel and use it in a hotel. If you have space to do a sit up, push up, squat, knee bend, curls, or crunches then you have enough space to use a resistance band. Just adding a band to those simple small area exercises will increase the difficulty of your workout and make it easier to get a good workout regardless of where you are.
Ab-Roller Wheel
Most ab-rollers consist of handle bars attached to a set of wheels. These abdominal muscle toning devices are small and can fit in a storage cabinet or under the couch or bed. It is a good idea to get an ab-roller that has a protective casing over the wheels, as this can help protect your body from potential accidental injuries.
Fitness DVDs
A DVD can be just the piece of equipment you need to get some guided instruction on how to lose weight and tone your body. Yoga, Pilates, dance exercises and even kickboxing conditioning programs can be found on DVD. You do not have to go to a gym to start some of the world's most popular exercise programs, like Tae Bo and Jazzercise. The DVDs for these programs can be your guide to getting fit in even the smallest of spaces. Quite often instructional exercise DVDs are more expensive than a resistance band or hand weights. If you're not sure which DVD program is best for you, it may be worth visiting your local library to see if they have a copy you can borrow to try it out.
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