4 Simple Exercises to Get You into Better Shape for the New Year

Introduction

The new year is upon us. Many of us have vowed to get into better shape this year. Also, many of us have had the same new year's resolution year after year. Yet we have not acted on it. Let this be the year that you change that pattern and begin to actual shoot to achieve your objective of better fitness and health.

All you have to do are only four simple exercises every single day. And mind you, they don't take long. In fact, they can be integrated into your everyday life. Not only that, they only require little time to do and a wee amount of equipment: a pair of athletic shoes, loose clothing, and a rope. Most importantly, you don't have to lay out your hard earned money to anybody's gym.

What are those four simple exercises that I am talking about? They are push-ups, walking, climbing, and jumping.

Do push-ups

When I get up first thing in the morning after showering, I do my push-ups--all 100 of them. I don't think about it. I don't debate with myself whether I want to do them today or not. I just do them. In fact, I have been doing my daily push-ups just about every single day for the last few years. It has becoming a habit like taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and eating breakfast in the morning. It's second nature. It behooves you to do the same. Make doing push-ups some time during the day a regular part of your routine. The idea is to get to the point where you are not thinking about whether you are going to do them today or not. You want, in the words of Nike, to "just do it". Make it an instinct. After all, it takes less than a minute or two to do. Meantime, you are building up your upper body--arms, chest, shoulders, torso--and keeping it strong!

Walk

How hard can that be? We naturally do it. Like doing push-ups every morning, I walk just about every morning as well. I do that, in part, because I work at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. My point is that the train runs directly into the airport. Hence I walk each morning just about a morning just to catch the train to get to work. That walk comes to about a block or two shy of a mile. And it takes me about 15 to walk to the train station. I have, thus, integrated walking into my everyday routine. You can do the same. Whether you walk every morning like I do or walk during lunch or simply walk to get a breath of fresh air, you can integrate walking into your everyday fitness routine. And what benefits can you get by incorporating walking to your everyday fitness routine? You will have a stronger heart, lunges, and legs, and better endurance.

Climb

I know what you are thinking, I live in the big city or in a rural where the landscape is flat. There is neither hills nor mountains. Now tell me, how in the heck, I'm going to make climbing an exercise routine? No problem. Why? Because you've got steps in your neighbor! Once I get to my job at the airport, I hardly ever take the elevator or the escalators, I climb! I either walk up or run up the stairs. There's neither hills nor mountains in Chicago where I live. Still, I climb everyday by taking the steps wherever I can. This, too, builds up your heart, lunges, legs, and endurance. I know that you might not have hills or mountains in your town, but I sure that you can find and climb several flights of stairs to integrate into your everyday world.

Jump

Jump rope. Sure, it requires more skill --timing, coordination, agility--than do the other proposals. Still it something that most of us did when we were kids. We can all do it. Perhaps not so well, but we can learn to do it better over time. I actually just started jumping this year back in July. When I first did it, I was breathless after thirty-two jumps. Slowly, I worked my way up to doing 100 jumps a day. Today, I often do 1000 jumps a day! Either 4 sets of 250 jumps or 2 sets of 500 jumps. By so doing, I have noticeably lost weight. I increased my endurance. I have built up leg muscles, and to top it all off, I have toned my torso--chest, stomach, and all. As the old American Express advertisement goes: Don't leave home without it. I apply the same to the jump rope. Never leave home without it. Take it wherever you go. You can jump while waiting for the bus or train. You can jump on your lunch break. You can jump before heading home. You can jump just about whenever and wherever your heart desires!

Conclusion

Jump into the new year and make achieving better fitness one of your new year's resolution and stick to it. Perform the simple and non-time consuming exercises of push-ups, walking, climbing, and jumping.