Calling all frazzled mums who long to work out but simply can’t find the time to shower, let alone exercise. You can farewell the guilt with these easy sweat-free ways to burn fat and tone your body.
Burn fat with ballet
Discover your inner ballerina with a barre-style workout. Pretend you’re about to make your debut in The Nutcracker or Swan Lake and warm up with a variety of stretches and plies for a complete body workout. Rather than putting the emphasis on sweaty cardio, this is great way to tone and tighten without needing to shower afterwards. There’s no reason why you can’t encourage your kids to join in and turn the lounge room into an after-school ballet studio.
Squats on the run
Squats are the one exercise you can do that use your entire body. You can do squats when you’re brushing your teeth, on the phone to your mother or even waiting for the toaster to pop. Simply stand with your feet apart and bend at the knees like you are going to sit down on a chair, hold for a few seconds and stand up. It’s that easy. After doing 10 or more, you’ll soon start to feel your legs burn.
Sit on a Swiss ball
Say what? You can exercise while sitting still? Hard to believe, but by sitting on a Swiss ball, you have to engage your core muscles to balance. Maintain the good posture, suck in your tummy and try to raise your right foot. You will instantly feel all your muscles working to ensure you don’t topple off the ball. You’re guaranteed not to get all sweaty and it’s something you can do while the kids are glued to the TV.
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Dance while doing housework
You have to do it anyway, right? So why not use it as part of your exercise program? We know housework isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but you can make it fun by turning up your favourite music, dancing and pretending the broom handle is a microphone. Studies conducted by the University of Exeter in the U.K. found that just a couple of hours of dusting and cleaning or 82 minutes of vacuuming or mopping burns up to 400 calories.
Watch and walk
If you’re a sports mum who spends every weekend standing by the side of a soccer pitch and who has to take the kids to training during the week, there’s no reason why you can’t watch while walking several laps of the field. Put on those walking shoes and you can still get some exercise without having to miss a single goal.
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