If you're looking to ease into an exercise regimen, and find going to a gym too intimidating, design your own workout program with short bouts of exercise. A study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) demonstrated the value of short walks for women who wanted to lose weight. If you have any serious medical issues, get medical clearance from your doctor before launching your exercise plan.
Walk Daily for 10 Minutes
Always make cardiovascular fitness your priority: Moving the body will pump blood from the heart to the arms and legs, and air from the lungs into the body. Start with 10 minutes of walking any time you can do it consistently: after lunch, after dinner, or with your kids after you get home from work. Make it a game if possible --- for instance, walking two laps around the block before or after dinner means they have time to tell you what they did at school that day. On cold or rainy days, skip rope for 10 minutes in your basement or a hallway.
Dynamic Stretching and Combo Lunges
Do dynamic stretching and a combination upper-body and lunge exercise for another 10-minute workout. You can do the 10 minutes of cardio as your base workout, and add 10-minute modules as you have time and energy.
Old-fashioned jumping jacks are an efficient way to warm up; do 20. Move to a wall for wall push-ups, placing palms flat on the wall, shoulder-width apart, with your feet about two feet away from the wall. Bend the elbows, and lower the chest toward the wall until your sternum is almost touching it, then press away. Repeat 10 to 15 times.
Next, do drop-and-lunge exercises to work the chest and legs. Drop to the floor so your hands are in a push-up position; place the right foot flat and knee bent, while the left leg is extended straight back, knee bent just slightly. Keeping your hands flat, switch the legs by jumping back with the right foot, so you have extended the right leg straight out, and hopped the left foot up, knee bent. Then pop back up to standing. Do this exercise 10 times.
Work Abs While Watching TV
Save your abdominal muscles for a concentrated 10 minutes when you are watching TV, or just listening to music. Lie on your back, place both palms flat under your hips, and lift legs straight above you, flexing the heels and drawing the lower abs in. Lower the right leg to the floor, then lift it back up, and repeat on the left side. Do 10 to 15 repetitions on each side.
Release your hands, and, still lying flat, lift your right arm and left leg simultaneously. Touch your left shin or foot, then lower the limbs. Repeat with the opposite limbs, and perform the exercise 10 to 15 times on each side.
Complete the ab workout by lying on your side, stacking the legs and crossing your arms over your chest. Slowly curl up, lifting your shoulders and upper body, but keeping your hips on the floor; lower back down, and repeat 10 times on each side.
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