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You do not have to carry heavy weight, run miles each day, pay a lot of money at the gym or spend a lot of time working out. Whether you are a beginner, or you are busy, this work-out is for you.

It is easy, effective and does not take all the time in the world. You do not need a long-term commitment (that can be hard) to be fit and healthy. This is an easy ten minute step-by-step workout you can do at home.

Because it is step-by-step, you can print this out and follow the instructions.

First, there are three things you must consider before working out at home:

Choose a Consistent Time for your Workout

To be effective, you need to workout consistently. Choose the time of day you want to workout and be consistent about it. Most people prefer morning workouts to get them ready and active for the day. If your mornings are very busy to the extent that you cannot spare ten minutes to do this, definitely schedule it for the evenings.

 

Wear The Right Clothes

To work out, you need to wear the right clothes even if you are doing it from home. A skirt for instance will obviously hinder free movement. Wearing the right fitting clothes will put you in the mood and prepare you mentally for a workout. Find an appropriate tank top, fitting sports bra, the right pants like this stretch yoga leggings  and get ready for the workout.

Footwear would be good, but because of the nature of these exercises and because it is done at home, you can go barefoot. Your choice of footwear depends on the type of exercise and where you are exercising. Yoga, Pilates and swimming for instance are usually done barefoot.

High Waist Out Pocket Yoga Pants- Click to check it out  

Choose an Exercise Spot

Depending on how your home is, this may not be a constant. Choosing a place or room for your routine exercise will go a long way to help keep you mentally prepared whenever you go there to exercise. It is important to make sure you have breakables and things that can be destroyed out-of-the-way to prevent causing any damage and also, prevent yourself from getting hurt.

 

GET TO WORK

When you have the three points at the top figured out, you are good to go. You only need the will power and the right frame of mind to keep going.

This is a 10-minute workout.  It should not be hard for you to spare 10 minutes every day for something you will thank yourself for in future. You do not need any equipment to do all these exercises (you may need a mat at some point).

Play some music in the background if you like.

 

1.  2- Minute Arm Exercise

Start easy with some arm circles. It is a shoulder exercise which helps to loosen up your arms, shoulder muscles and joints.

Stand straight with your legs spread a little apart (about 15 inches). Stretch both arms wide apart and keep them straight. Start moving your arms forward simultaneously in small circles. As you do this, widen up the circles a little bit and keep moving your arms in circles, then expand to giant circles.

Do this for about 30 seconds and repeat the same process backwards. Repeat for another 30 seconds. Stretch both arms in front of you and move them in circles again. Do this for another thirty seconds. (you can extend the time and speed when you get used to the process over time).

Complete your arm exercise with Bicep curls.

Make a fist, stretch your arms wide and flip the fist facing the ceiling (this makes you bend your elbows). Move your fist back to the sides of the top of your shoulders (do not let your arms rest on your shoulders). Squeeze your bicep with each movement and put an effort to build an imaginary resistance as you make the movement. Start with ten curls and move the number up with time.

To maximize the effect, you can use a regular pair dumbell to do this exercise. Hold it with a firm grip and move your arms in and out as explained above.

Apart from helping with your shoulders and joints, these exercises can help in toning your arms if they are done more frequently and in tightened manner (so you can feel the effect).

                                                                                                                                           Duration:  2 Minutes

 

2.  10 Squats

Next, you want to do some squats and do it well.

Squats are a lower body exercise which when done correctly, keep your hips, toes and knees healthy.

To begin, stand up straight and widen your legs a little (a little wider than the width of your hip). Put Your arms forward for balance and keep your feet firm on the ground with your toes facing forward. Keep your chest up and your head up, and start doing your squats by sitting your hips back gently, like you were sitting in a chair. Get back up slowly. Keep your knees straight over the toes and do not push them towards each other.

Remember: Feet firmly down, chest up, head upright, belly in and hip firm.

What you are doing is strengthening the muscles around you knees and hips.

If it is your first time doing squats, you might want to start with ten squats. If you are quite used to it, you can do 20 or 30.

                                                                                                                                         Duration:  3 Minutes

 

3.  20 Crunches

This is a simple yet effective abdominal exercise.

Just like any other exercise, you want to start easy and build up slowly as you progress.

To do the crunches,

On a yoga mat, lay flat on your back and bend your knees with your feet completely flat on the floor. Keep your chin straight but slightly down towards your chest (but not on your chest). Keep the fingers of your two hands laced at the back of your head. This supports the weight of your head.

Curl your upper body up slowly, raising your head and putting some pressure on your upper abdomen. When you feel the pressure in your abdomen, pause halfway and go back down (keeping your head up and your chin still pointed straight towards your chest).

Repeat the process

When you are moving up, do not get up too high, otherwise that will put pressure on your neck and make you uncomfortable while giving you little impact as well. Also, do not come up and drop back immediately. When you do that, you are not engaging your core and that would also give you little results.

Move up slowly, pause halfway for a few seconds, when you feel the impact in the abdominal area, get back down slowly, maintaining your fingers behind your head and your chin straight pointing towards your chest.

Repeat the process.

For starters, you can do ten crunches and increase with time as you get comfortable.

                                                                                                                                       Duration:  2 Minutes

4.  30 Jumping Jacks

For some reason, jumping jacks for me are fun to do.

It’s a great stretching and warm-up exercise which comes with great calory burning movements. The jumping jack is also cardiovascular, and you can use it to get your heart rate up. You do not necessarily need to be out jogging to get this effect.

First, understand that this exercise involves movement in both your upper and lower body.

Before you start, bear in mind that you will jump with both legs out, and jump again with both legs in (it’s an in and out movement of both legs).

Similar movement for your hands. You will move both arms up straight over year head, and in the form of an arc, your two palms will meet over your head.

To do jumping jacks,

Stand straight with your legs together and your arms on your side. Jump out by spreading your legs apart and move both hands above your head simultaneously. Jump back in return position by bringing your feet back together and your arms back down to your side.

Continue jumping and moving your legs and hands in and out as described.

Do this slowly and once you get comfortable, you can increase the speed at which you jump and make the movements.

Jumping jacks is one of the easiest and active exercises. As you keep jumping, you will feel the movement in your shoulder and your hip.

                                                                                                                                   Duration:  2 Minutes

 

5.  Dance

Work-out-motivation is hard to find so I love to toss in some fun which keeps me motivated and helps me to get results.

Can you believe I am sometimes motivated to work-out because I know I get to dance at the end of the session? Even though I am still exercising in the process, it feels like a reward (more like the icing on the cake).

Now, get your phone or computer or wherever you have your much-loved soundtrack (active music) and spend the last-minute dancing. We just saved the best for last (woohoo!).

Toss in some random dances moves, dance, laugh and release some tension in the last minute of the work-out.

Tip: Keep track of time. You don’t want to keep fit and lose out on something else you need to spend time doing.

                                                                                                                                         Duration:  1 Minute

 

And that’s it, my friend. I know you are busy, probably lazy (hahaha) or ill-motivated. This is your 10-Minute workout.

NB: If you cannot do this 7 days a week, choose at least four days in the week and stick to your routine.

Happy Work-Out!

Do you make time to workout? How do you do it? Before you go, check out this 7-Day self-improvement challenge (workbook). Click here to get it while its FREE!