Fitness Tip
5 Quick Tips for Working Out in
Small Spaces
From the Team Beachbody Club - Join Today and Workout to
Win!
Former heavyweight
champion Muhammad Ali once said he could train in a phone booth. His point was
that commitment and determination are more important to reaching fitness goals
than fancy equipment or spacious facilities. I thought about that when I lived
in Manhattan and worked out in a place not much bigger than a storage
unit—it was called a "studio apartment." For tips on how to maximize your
workout when you've got minimal home-gym space, consider these options:
 Opt for
fitness-friendly furnishings. Whether you live in a tiny one-room
apartment or a palace crammed with wall-to-wall furniture, to get a decent
workout, you need enough unobstructed space to do a push-up and take two or
three steps without crashing into something. So if that's a problem, reconsider
your priorities. If your living-room area doubles as your home gym, think about
investing in space-saving or easy-to-move furniture: ceiling-to-floor
bookshelves maximize vertical space; rollaway hinged-top ottomans provide extra
storage; and most chairs, sofas, and end tables can be fitted with casters,
making furniture easier to move out of the way when it's time to Push Play.
Once you have enough space to roll out your mat, you're good to go.
 Do it longer if you can't
go farther. P90X® trainer Tony Horton loves those
traveling lunges where you take a giant step into a lunge three or four times
in one direction before turning around and giant-step lunging back. I can
barely do two of those in my narrow little living room before I crash into the
wall or my couch. So instead of trying to keep up perfectly with Tony and
DreyaI'd get too dizzyI pause the video at that point and just giant-step-lunge
twice and then turn around and giant-step-lunge back at a speed that doesn't
scramble my brains. You can do the same with most multiple-step moves. Just
make them shorter but do them longer.
 Gear up.
You can also modify moves that call for more floor space than you've got by
shortening your steps and increasing the move's intensity. Grab lightweight
dumbbells when you're lunging and baby-step squatting side to side. And do your
crunches and chest presses and even push-ups with a balance ball. You'll use
more muscles to stabilize your core trying to balance on the thing, resulting
in a more efficient ab workout. The ball can also serve as a chair when you're
watching TV, helping to improve your posture and making it easier to keep your
fitness goals in mind. Trust me, you'll find yourself doing bicep curls and
crunches instead of munching on snacks in front of the tube. Or give Fast
10® a tryyou'll get a total-body workout using resistance bands,
and the moves don't require much space at all.
- Substitute no-can-do
cardio. If you're bruising your shins against the corner of the couch
on a few of those Turbo Jam® kicks or you simply do not have
enough room to do justice to some of the dance moves in Yoga Booty
BalletTMLIVE, it's okay to jog in place for a few seconds or do
jumping jacks to stay in your heart-rate zone. You can rejoin the action when
it's safer to do so. The last thing you want to do is injure yourself and have
an excuse to lay off exercising for a while.
 Just Press
Pause. For the most part, Beachbody fitness programs require minimal
workout space. Some moves, though, call for a wider areaor a way to compensate
for not having it. When you're lying on your back with one leg straight up in
the air, for example, and you're supposed to bend it slowly to the right and
then over to the leftall the while keeping your leg straight and your shoulder
blades flat on the groundyou may need to press Pause, turn around, or shift
positions a couple of times to be sure you stretch both sides equally. I'm
always pausing the video, turning, and readjusting my mat during the yoga and
stretching workouts so I can watch the trainer and do all the moves to full
extension. That's what makes video workouts so convenientyou have control over
the pace of the action. And it sure beats jump-roping in a phone
booth!
Yoga Booty Ballet is a trademark of Goddess in Training,
Inc. |
