In Home Personal Training: Why Your At Home Workout Can Be Your Most Powerful Weight Loss Tool

This is why, whether we go to the gym or not, or go sporadically, at home workouts, and office workouts, are so important. Yes computer time, desk time does make it challenging to get physical activity. However, as someone who has designed thousands of in home training routines, it is very possible to live a physically active life, exercise, train, without stepping foot into a gym. Not integrating the activity into our daily lives is our weakest link of health.

A Huge part of the problem is the association we make between exercise and the gym, we can't exercise because we can't make it to a gym for whatever reason - and yes this is being said by a hard core gym rat herself! Regularly I hear " I have no time for the gym so I can't exercise" or "I went to the gym 3 times this week (please note going to the gym and actually working out are noticeably different... walking around kicking the machines is not a workout!)". Going to the gym is NOT synonymous with getting sufficient physical activity. Have you ever told someone who runs for a couple of hours a week or goes to the gym a couple of times per week they are physically inactive? Its not pretty! Physical activity should be every hour. Pump your circulation, keep the metabolism humming, refresh your brain, no marathon metabolic comatosity... 10 simple ideas for office or home fitness program:

1) Wear a pedometer - no excuses. This is a true measure of physical activity.

2) Keep weights or an exercise band a your desk. I have a 10 pound dumbbell on my desk on which I have written in black permanent marker "Use me dummy" - regularly I pick it up - chest presses, bicep curls, shoulder presses

3) Desk cycling - pick up your legs and cycle

4) Get up move around. Pump your arms above your head. Go to a washroom or printer on another floor, go get some water or tea.

5) Watching television at night? Great time to get up and jog in place. Jog with light weights in hand - pump overhead

6) Kids learn so much more from watching what we do rather than what we tell them - don't sit and watch television with them - get up and move, jump, jog...

7) Find excuses to run the stairs (please not in high heels) - they are one of the best pieces of home or office exercise equipment.

8) set reminders on your phone, leave love notes to yourself on your desk to get up and move.

9) Stand up and do some squats

10) Watching television or before bed, do some core exercises. Please no situps and crunches - lousy for the back. Give the metabolism a light nudge before sleep.

Even if we went to the gym, or a morning workout - this does not give us a get out of jail for free card. The beauty of home or office workouts is we can do them at any time, any where.

And it is very aggravating to hear people say " I tried exercise and I didn't lose weight." With this paradigm of workouts X number of times per week, and being physically inactive the rest of the time - it is completely unrealistic to expect fat loss. The metabolism needs to be revved, rebooted regularly throughout the day. So whether you play hockey once a week, soccer, run, gym rat - keep the metabolism pumping throughout the day and avoid metabolic comatosity. And... remember exercise & nutrition are the greatest love affair of all time - one just cannot live without the other!

Shira Litwack, Medical Fitness Professional... proud creator of thousands of health enthusiasts & corporate health cultures world wide...