What are the benefits of weight training at home? Have you ever wondered how slim women in the past got tough muscles after marriage and motherhood? Did they get workouts at the local gym after everyone has gone to bed? In actual fact, they have benefited from weight training at home, first as a housewife mopping, washing and hanging out the laundry, then an expectant mother, and eventually muscle woman carrying Number Two in her womb, Number One in one arm and marketing other the other hand.
Today's modern women rely on maids to tend to household chores and tend to the children while she dons high heels, drives a Mercedes to work and takes the escalator or the elevator with her micro-computer. There is no need to lug heavy files home as everything is on soft copy, saved snugly in a thumb drive or emailed home from the office and vice versa. There is hardly any need to flex a muscle at all.
By and by, the notion of carrying heavy things around at home belongs to the past, save for a few highly independent women who prefer to eke out a single and effluent life with maids to do the heavy stuff at home than to risk having her slim build misshaped by the notion of motherhood or being a housewife.
On the other hand, in the gymnasium, there are no heavy children to carry around, nor are there grocery bags, school bags, laundry baskets and pots of food to carry around. Weights and springs of high tension replace these. Equipment which echo the macho man's ego surround the body builders and weight trainers.
How then does a regular housewife and mother benefit from working her muscles from home? Her baby is indeed a natural weight she carries around. She is a mother and a weight trainer at a single go. With today's crafty handicrafts, her baby can be carried piggyback style to strengthen her back or slung around her front in a front pouch as a kangaroo would carry her joey, strengthening her shoulder and back muscles at a go. While climbing the stairs with a bag of groceries in each hand, she has the choice of holding the bags right where her hips are, creating a weight that will strengthen her hip and leg muscles or curling her clenchedfists which are gripping the bags of groceries the groceries upwards towards her shoulder blade and strengthening her arm muscles further. As she hangs hanger upon hanger of clothing onto the horizontal pole about her, her biceps and triceps as well as her ribcage muscles get a simultaneous workout while the laundry is done. As she mops the floor with her hands, and sometimes her feet using two pieces of floors as if she is skating, she exercises the muscles in the hands or legs.
The motherly housewife indeed has huge savings. First, she is exercising and going about her chores simultaneously, saving vast amounts of time not having to go to a gymnasium for her weight training. Money is saved on gym fees and clothes for exercising. She also need not find a babysitter as she can be with her children as she exercises. She is also doing things that are natural and healthy for the family, the body, mind and spirit. Her children will grow up taking household chores into their routine and reaping the benefits of the exercises simply by going about the household chores. Finally, she weight trains at her convenience. If she is occupied with visitors, she simply does her routines at the next convenient time.
Don't have a baby? Don't wish to invest in dumb bells and weights? Save your discarded plastic 1.5 litre soft drink bottles and fill them with sand or rice grains to the brim and screw on the plastic cap tightly. Get your heaviest encyclopedia although they may be a little cumbersome due to their size. Need some weight for leg raises? Borrow your neighbor's toddler for a few minutes and seat him on your clean feet and legs - your neighbor, I am certain, will also be relieved for a few minutes and her toddler will love the rocking on your feet and legs. A little haversack packed tight with books does fine for a substitue weight too. You can exercise anytime, in front of the television while you catch that movie you missed at the cinema dead in the night.
The next time you do your grocery shopping, split the groceries into equal weight on either arm and do your arm raises - sideway, sideback, sidefront, front and you will get a good workout. Walk home if possible and you are sure to entertain folks along the street and pass on a smile that you are doing your grocery run, weight training and making the world a healthier and friendlier place.
The benefits of weight training at home draw many to home based weight training no matter how attractive weight training packages at the nearest gymnasium may be. This is due to a few reasons which include:
# Availability of the trainer
# Convenience of time
# Environmental concerns
# Hygiene reasons
# Resistence to crowds
Availability of the trainer: Trainers are easily available and provided free at times at some gymnasiums, to draw the crowd. However, they may not be as easily accessible at all times of the day. You may hire a personal trainer to trail you from station to station. A crowded gymnasium will not afford you the space or duration at each station according to your personal training program.
Convenience of time: Work and family factors may deter some weight training enthusiasts from a regular daytime weigh training routine. Weight training can be done at your own convenience even if it is at two in the wee hours of the morning as the nearest gymnasium is unlikely to be open throughout the day and night.
Environmental concerns: Some gymnasiums are small but crammed with many machines. Due to their cheap memberships and programs, however, they may be popular with many weight training enthusiasts. They will be packed at peak periods and that makes the place stuffy, smelly and sweaty as well as overcrowded. Weight-conscious ladies and hygiene freaks are unlikely to train at these gymnasiums. Air-conditioning in the gymnasiums may worsen the situation as the place may be too cold for comfort to some enthusiasts and the dank air can be stuck in the gymnasium if it is not circulated out of the room.
Hygiene reasons: Many prefer training at home because they are assured of cleaner machines. Imagine that you are rotated to work on an inclined sit up bench after a burly, sweaty and smelly athlete. The sweat-stained machine is sufficient to send a cringe on any genteel lady's face.
Resistance to crowds: Some beginners in weight training may fight shy of crowds because of their self-consciousness of their size and their low self-esteem due to the same reason.
What benefits can you reap from weight training at home? It is likely every athlete's dream come true to be able to reap these benefits of weight training in the comfort of what one can call a heavenly home.
Accessibility: Your personal gymnasium is more readily accessible to you even if you need to share it with some family members.
Best time: You can select the best time you can train at even if it means the whole neighborhood is sound asleep.
Convenience: You can discount the transportation cost when you train at home.
Dining in: You are also unlikely to splurge and binge on unhealthy food after a work out, as you can head straight to your kitchen for healthy bites and drinks.
Ease of scheduling: Because the stations are all available to you, you can work at each at a pace you are comfortable with.
Finish the whole routine: You do not need to compete with others for any station. You are thus likely able to complete the whole training regime and not leave out any station.
Guaranteed attention from the trainer: Your trainer is able to be with you at a time convenient to both of you and you will not have to fend for any station with other gymnasium trainers.
Healthy training stations: As the stations belong to you, you are likely able to maintain high hygiene standards of your stations, to your preference. Other than your family members, possibly your personal trainer and invited guests, it is unlikely that the stations will be used by anyone else.
Idyllic schedule: As an overweight beginner in weight training, you will not need to feel hassled through your schedule as you become more familiar with the stations. You are also less likely to become self-conscious and more at ease with a personal trainer who can work well with you and who can go at your comfortable pace.
Justified costs: Be a wise spender who has consulted many users, personal weight training coaches and honest friends and you will likely invest in the minimum number of stations that fit your financial capabilities, your space constraint and your availability of time. Besides, if you work with your family members or good friends and share a trainer with them, the long term overall cost savings for you, your family and your friends are likely to be high.
Keen use of stations: You will probably be more motivated to exercise with a wonderful personal weight training coach and clean and well-maintained stations than fend for a few seconds on stations shared with members of the public that you do not know.
Less chance at mishaps: Being on your own stations which are well maintained by your coach and you, accidents are less likely to happen. You will not be rushed by others at a station and will be able to focus on using the stations correctly and when you are tired, you can take a break and not be hassled to get on the stations when you are not ready to resume your training.
Motivation to exercise: Because you have paid for the stations and wisely invested in a good trainer, you are likely more motivated to exercise than if you had to drag your feet to an overcrowded gymnasium. You are also able to put up motivating displays on your home gym walls and exercise while watching some motivational videos or listening to some invigorating music.
Organized wholesome lifestyle: You can work your weight training around your daily activities rather than overstress your muscles at a goal. For example, you can do a training program in the morning and another in the evening when you return from work. You thus maximize and optimize your time at the stations and you will not feel discouraged that you are not able to complete a tedious workout session at a go.
Peaceful environment: Many of us do not perform well under stress and undue competition. At a public gymnasium, you may not be comfortable with the many pairs of eyes around you even though they may not be watching you at all. Back at a familiar place called home that is decorated the way you want and free from the wandering eyes of strangers, you are more likely to feel at home and feel safe as you work it out at the machines.
Quiet without and within: With a peaceful exterior like your personal gym area and stations, you are also likely to feel peace within you after the workout and achieve a great sense of accomplishment, let alone have a greater and healthier body.
Rested and relaxed: Nothing beats a great workout session that keeps you rested and relaxed after a hard day at work. Exercise that reaps maximum gains tend to result in a healthier body and relaxed total being that feels confident, healthy and capable to achieve goal.
Satiated soul: A freed soul often comes with a well-rested and relaxed body and mind. You are more likely to notice elements of a natural and spiritual nature that brings peace to your soul.
Total well-being: Who would have realized that by investing in exercise stations at home will bring total wellness? Few have reached that karma because many have never even considered it possible or found ways to keep up with their personal weight training schedules.
There is indeed much to benefit from weight training at home, so why not read the benefits listed above again and be motivated to start your own weight training on your homeground? You have nothing to lose except a flabby body and low self-esteem and plenty of beneficial goodness to reap.