A quick airport workout can make your flight more pleasant, it will get your blood flowing and it will make you feel great throughout the flight. It is very beneficial for your health. A quick airport workout before the flight is a must.

So why was I the only person working out in LA airport yesterday? And why was everybody staring at me?

Who is that crazy person jumping up and down and doing push ups? Some people stopped by and watched me for a little while. I just smiled at them and told them to join me. But they didn’t.

I was flying only to San Francisco, which is only about 1 hour flight and it’s not a big deal. But there were people in LA airport sitting on their butts for an hour waiting for a flight to New York. There they are, sitting for an hour before the flight, and than they will be sitting on their butts for another 5 hours or so.

I can already see all of them in the middle of their flight to NY hurting from simply sitting too much. Their bodies are screaming and legs are cramping.

Intensive quick airport workout before your flight will make your body handle the long flight better and without pain. Even light walking and stair climbing will reduce the stiffness from prolonged sitting when done before it.

So now, I was thinking, that not I am crazy, but all those people sitting and not exercising or moving around are. Especially those facing 5 hour flight.

I am really serious abut this. To feel better and avoid body aches from prolonged sitting, that is so bad for your body, work out before the flight. And than, sitting will feel more pleasant and natural.

My quick airport workout:

3x

50 push ups
35 squat jumps

I immediately achieved great blood flow without sweating, and really enjoyed my flight.

I hear this a lot: I can’t exercise, because I can’t leave the house. I am watching 1 year old, that means I can’t do anything. That is the biggest dumb excuse I have ever heard. You will probably hate me for that, but I don’t care. Because, you as a stay home parent have a lot of time to exercise.

A lot of stay home parents can be pretty out of shape. But there is no reason for it. You can get into a great shape if you really want to. Just realize that and get busy exercising at home.

All you need is a few right tools set up at your house, apartment or backyard if you have it. And I will show you how to do it.

You can actually achieve exceptional fitness level working out at home. I will even show you how to get to the world championship in indoors erg rowing, while being a stay home parent.

Don’t listen to people who tell you, that you need to join a gym to get fit. I know, they have all those fancy machines and variety, but you don’t need that. And you can’t use it anyway, because you have to stay home with your kid while your partner goes to work.

Anyway, wouldn’t that be much nicer to spend the evening with your husband or wife together, or go somewhere you like to go, instead of waiting until she gets home, so you can go to the gym. When you get your workout done at home, you can do whatever you want in the evening knowing that your workout is done for the day.

Your home strength training tools

You will need 2 pairs of dumbbells – one lighter and one heavier. If you are a beginner woman, get 2X5lb dumbbells and 2X10lb dumbbells. If you are a beginner man, get 2X8lb dumbbells and 2X12lb dumbbells. Weight of the dumbbells is very specific for everyone. You know, that you have good weight if after 15-20 repetitions of an exercise you start feeling those muscles getting tired.

Big exercise ball

Exercise mat – not necessary, if you have a soft carpet in your home.

Chin up bar – It has to be in any household, especially with stay home parent. It is easier to do chin ups and pull ups for men than it is for woman. But every woman should strive to improve at doing pull ups and chin ups. I consider chin ups/pull ups as a best single exercise in the world. It employs all big upper body muscles, increases substantially your metabolism and builds lean muscular body.

Exercise band

Cardiovascular exercise at home

I strongly recommend concept 2 rowing machine for your cardiovascular exercise at home. It is light, fold-able, quite, inexpensive, you can put it anywhere, even outside, and you will get a great whole body cardiovascular exercise on it.

I used to race on these rowing machines and a lot of professional athletes are using them to improve their cardiovascular ability.

If you get serious about working out on these machines, and you want to compare yourself to the other rowers in the world that are using them, there is a whole community that keeps track of times on many different distances and levels. The most common is 2000 meter race. I think, the world record is 5:36 min. for men and 6:28 for women. My personal best is 6:17 min.  You can check all the recent records here and compare yourself to your category. It can get quite competitive between people which is great, because it pushes everybody to improve and exercise more. And you never know, you might become very good at it and maybe attend some local or international competition in indoor rowing.

Of course there are many other cardiovascular exercise options for you to do at home: Stationary bikes, little treadmills, elliptical, stair masters and others. They might be little too big for your small apartment, but there are often the smaller varieties of these.

Another one of my favorite cardiovascular exercise optionsat home or in the garden or anywhere you want is rope-jumping. Just a simple 7 X 100 jumps with 3 minute brakes between will give you about 30 minutes of intensive interval cardiovascular work.  

If you rather do your cardiovascular exercise outside I don’t blame you. I think cardiovascular exercise should be done outside. If you are lucky enough and you have a backyard, pull your stationary cardiovascular machine outside and do your cardio there.

But sometimes, it is impossible if you are a stay home parent to do your cardio outside. When your child is still very young 0-2 years, you can use baby-bjorn and you can go for a intensive fast walk, or climb long neighborhood stairway several times. I wouldn’t try to run with that thing, but you can use special stroller that you can push in front of yourself while you run. But don’t do it on a busy street where it can get dangerous.

Now, you are probably wandering, if I forgot your child. What is a baby going to do while you exercise? I know, babies and kids need a lot of attention. And you should give it to them, if you can. Just remember this about your exercise: You don’t need to do your workout without interruptions to have a great workout. Interruptions are very common when you are a stay home parent. And that’s OK. Interruptions are natural and you have to learn how to stay calm when they happen. No, they are not going to ruin your workout.

Before you start exercising, realize, that it is not going to be done without interruptions and that interruptions are fine. The home workout is always interrupted and that’s OK.

It will look something like this: You will start warming up on your rowing machine and probably you’ll have to interrupt your warm up, because your kids need something. That’s fine, just go give them what they need. And as soon as you come back, follow your warm up where you left of.

The same  will happen, when you’ll be doing sets with weights. The goal is to complete a set. And than you can do whatever you need to do. Right after you finish that task, you’ll come back to your station, which is probably few yards away from your kids and do another set. Do 20 push ups, give little Johny his toy, tell him you’ll be right back and do another 20 push ups, and so on until you finish the whole workout.

Same with cardiovascular exercise. Set your time, start rowing, when interruption comes, deal with it, come back and start where you left of.

I am probably explaining this too simplistic. I know, it gets always more complicated, than it seams. But the most important think for your success in staying home and staying fit is to focus on finishing your daily plan. If you can finish it without interruptions, great. If you can finish it with 37 interruptions, perfect. Just finish it! that’s the main thing to focus on.

Here is a simple example of a home week of training for stay home parent:

Strength training:

Mondays and Thursdays:

Warm up 10 minutes on your rowing machine or by rope-jumping.

As on the picture, 3 circles of:

Push ups – maximum repetitions

Pull ups – maximum repetitions

Standing shoulder press – 20 repetitions

Squat jumps – 20 repetitions

Hamstring curl with ball – 20 repetitions

If you can’t perform regular push up, do modified push ups with your knees on the floor – see picture below  

If you can’t perform pull up, use band, put it on top of behind the door and do rows – see picture below.

If you are a beginner, instead of squat jumps, do regular squats.

Cardiovascular exercise:

Wednesdays and Fridays:

Long less intensive cardiovascular training lasting  30 – 60 minutes in heart rate target zone of 70 – 90% of your maximum heart rate.

Saturdays and Tuesdays :

Cardiovascular interval training. You can jump- rope – 5X50, 5X100, 5X150, depending on your level.

Zlatka:

1. Is 55 years old.
2. Is sedentary and about 20 Lb overweight.
3. She doesn’t like gym environment.
4. She was diagnosed with pre-diabetes (high blood sugar level).
5. Her doctor recommended to her to exercise.
6. She is a strength training beginner.

If you are a strength training beginner and want a simple way to start in strength training, try this workout too.

It is a great way to add strength training to your fitness program.

Simple directions/direkcie

1. Keep your back straight/translation to Slovak/Udrzujte vystrety chrbat.
2. You should feel medium hard resistance, if not, go for more resistant band or make the one you are using shorter by steping on it higher/Malo by to natahovanie tej gumy byt stredne tazke, ked nie je skratte gumu stupnutim na nu vyzsie.
3. Do 3 – 5 circles of these exercises/Urobte 3 az 5 okruhov tychto cviceni.
4. Do this workout 3 times per week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays/Cvicte tento plan v Pondelok, Stredu a Piatok.

1.Biceps curl – 20 repetitions

2. Lateral shoulder raises – 20 repetitions

3. Chest press – 20 repetitions

4. Seated rows – 20 repetitions

5. Shoulder press – 20 repetitions

6. Biceps curl squat – 20 repetitions

Dont sit. Just touch the chair with your butt.

Nesadajte si. Len sa dotknite stolicky zadkom.

Beside doing this workout plan 3 times per week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Zlatka should do some cardiovascular exercise Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Since Zlatka is a beginner, fast walking for 30 minutes is a great option for her.

Translation to Slovak:

Zlatka, okrem vykonavania tohotoplanu 3 krat do tyzdna v Pondelok, Stredu a Piatok by ste este mali robit earobny trening- 30 minut rychlu chodzu v Utorok, Stvrtok, Sobotu a Nedelu.

Related articles:

• World belongs to strong women
• Strength training makes you smarter
• Muscles shape you smaller
• Muscle strength is a matter of life and death
• Change, you have to

It will make a huge difference for inactive person to keep doing this simple workout 2-4 times per week on a nonconsecutive days.

What will you need?

Women will need two 5 pound dumbbells. Later, when you get stronger, switch them for two 6 pound dumbbells.

Men will need two 8 pound dumbbells. Later, when you get stronger, switch them for two 10 pound dumbbells.

If starting with that weight is too heavy, keep them, but go get two 3 pound dumbbells for women, and two 5 pound dumbbells for men.  Do the same thing when the weight is too light.

2 – 5 circles of:

1. Dumbbell shoulder press – 15 repetitions

Starting position: stand straight holding dumbbells over the shoulders – inhale.

Press dumbbells straight up without locking your elbows – exhale. Lower slowly dumbbells to the starting position.

2. Dumbbell biceps curl – 15 repetitions

Starting position: stand straight holding dumbbells next to your body – inhale.

Curl dumbbells up to 45 degree angle in your elbow – exhale. Return slowly to the starting position and repeat.

3. Seating dumbbell rows 

Starting position: sit on the chair holding dumbbells.  Lean forward keeping your back straight and head up – inhale.

Lift dumbbells up keeping your back straight – exhale. Return slowly to starting position and repeat.

4. Seating dumbbell triceps curl

Starting position: sit on the chair holding dumbbells over your head, elbows extended – exhale.

Inhaling and bending only your elbows, lower the dumbbells slowly down. Lift dumbbells back up to the starting position and repeat.

5. Standing lateral shoulder raises  

Starting position: stand straight holding dumbbells next to your body – inhale.

Lift the dumbbells up to the side (lateral) keeping your elbows extended – exhale. Return slowly to the starting position and repeat.

6. Seating toe raises

Starting position: sit straight on the chair, hands holding dumbbells are on top of your knees – inhale.

Raise your toes up – exhale. Return slowly to the starting position.

7. Seating leg extension 

Starting position: sit straight on the chair holding the sides of the chair – inhale.

Extend your knees and lift your feet up – exhale. Slowly return to the starting position.

Day 1.

Whole body resistance (weight) workout

Day 2.

Cardiovascular (endurance) workout

Shorter and more intensive – 30 – 45 Minutes in heart rate of 70 – 80 % of your maximum heart rate.

Day 3.

Cardiovascular (endurance) workout

Longer and less intensive – 45 – 60 minutes in heart rate of 60 – 70 % of  your maximum heart rate.

Day 4.

Whole body resistance (weight) workout

Day 5.

Cardiovascular (endurance) workout

Longer and less intensive – 45 – 60 Minutes in heart rate of 60 – 70 % of  your maximum heart rate.

Day 6.

Interval workout

Day 7.

Day off 

To find out how to calculate your heart rate zone, click here.

1. Triceps dips – Maximum amount of repetitions you can do

Find high curb or bench. If keeping your legs extended is too hard for you, bent them slightly.

While slowly lowering your body as low as you can, keep your back close to the high curb or bench and push back up.

2. Abdominal leg raises hanging on bar – 20 Repetitions

Hang on the bar with your arms and legs extended.

Without swinging, lift your straight legs up almost touching the bar, than lower them slowly back down.

3. Push ups with legs up on high curb – max. amount of repetition you can do

Assume the push up position with your legs up on the high curb or bench.

Perform push up, lowering your body as low as almost touching the floor without letting your but sink and push back up.

4. Chin ups – max. amount of repetitions you can do 

Hang on the chin up bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulders apart.

Lift yourself up so the bar is below your chin and slowly lower your body back down to extended arms.

5. Shoulder press push ups – 25 repetitions 

Assume the push up position with your legs on high curb or bench. Get closer to the curb lifting your but up and bringing your hands closer to the high curb.

Lower your body slowly down bending your elbows. Almost touch the floor with your nose and push back up.

6. Michael Johnson high jumps – 10 – 20 repetitions

Stand 3-4 feet in the front of the high curb or bench. Bent your knees – squat – hands up.

Jump on the cub.

Get right into a squat on the curb position. And up and jump right back down.

Squat and repeat.

Other workout plans and tips: 

Gym workout plans:

Workout plan #1 – simple, effective and safe all-body-machine-resistance workout

Workout plan #2 – more extensive intermediate all-body-workout with combination of machines and free weights

Outdoor workout plans:

Workout plan #3 – Outdoor – beach circuit workout with Marta 

Workout plan #4 – Outdoor – beach circuit workout with Milan

Increase your upper body strength, and your metabolism and get leaner with these intense chin ups workout 

Interval workout on tennis court- tennis workout

Stretching and warm up:

Stretch before workout, after warm up!

Stretch at work, office

Office workout:

Office workout – beginner # 1

Office workout – beginner # 2

Office workout – intermediate # 1

Office workout – intermediate # 2

Office workout – advanced # 1

Office workout – advanced # 2

Office workout guidelines 

Strength training guidelines:

Breath correctly during the resistance exercise

Warm up before workout

If you are a beginner, use an old ball with a slower bounce to take a better control.

What will you need? You need only tennis racket, ball, wall and tennis court – not necessary.

Warm up: Only in first circle – use 60 % of your maximum intensity hitting against wall. Than use maximum intensity in second and other circles.

1. Forehand drill against wall – 3 minutes

Assume the ready position.

Contact point of a  tennis racket and ball is in front of the body.

Fallow through with good shoulder rotation and balance.

2. Backhand drill against back board (use aether one handed backhand or two handed backhand) – 3 minutes

Assume a ready position. Step out with foot closes to the ball.

Contact point of a racket and a ball is in the front of the body. Fallow through with good shoulder rotation, extension and balance.

 3. Forehand volley drill against wall – 3 minutes

Come closer to the wall. Practice volley against wall without letting the ball fall.

4. Backhand volley drill against wall – 3 minutes

Come closer to the wall. Practice volley against wall without letting the ball fall.

5. Sprint on court; if tennis court is not available, you can set up sprinting lines by yourself anywhere close to the wall you are practicing your strokes.

This is not a warm up anymore. It is a sprint/interval workout.

Start in the front of a end (doubles) sideline.
Sprint toward the middle line.

.Touch the middle line with one of your hands.

Sprint back to the end (doubles) side line.

Touch the end (doubles) side line with one of your hands and as fast as you can sprint back toward the singles side line.

Touch the singles side line with your hand.

Sprint back toward the opposite end (doubles) starting  sideline.

Touch the end (doubles) sideline.

Sprint toward opposite end (doubles) sideline.

Touch the end (doubles) sideline.

Sprint back toward end (doubles) sideline.

Sprint across the starting end (doubles) sideline.

If you did this right and tried to do it as fast as you could, you feel tired and you are gasping for breath.

Take a 3 min. break and start with:

7. Push ups – try maximum amount of repetitions 

Keep your back straight. Don’t let your but sink.

Go as low as you can without touching the ground.

If you can’t do regular push up, put your knees on the ground and do modified push ups. Also try as many as you can.

Go as low as you can without touching the ground.

8. Abs – legs and arms raises – 25 repetitions 

Lie down on on the ground. Legs and arms are extended.

Bend your knees slightly and lift your legs and arms simultaneously up until meeting each other in the middle.

9. Squat jumps- 25 repetitions

Lower your body bending your knees to the right angle and keep your back straight. Hands go up while you’re bending your knees.

Jump up explosively as high as you can swinging your hands down. Repeat squad jump going right away back to the low (knees in right angle) position.

10. Mountain climber – 15 repetitions each side 

Assume a push up position.

Bring your right knee as close as you can toward your left elbow while moving your but forward.

If you are doing this exercise right, your bent leg is almost parallel to the floor.

Repeat the opposite side. Left knee touches right elbow.

Do 2 – 4 circles of these interval workout on tennis court, starting again with tennis drills than sprint and strengthening exercises. 

Keep 3 minutes break only between sprint and strengthening exercises.