The jumping squat is my all time favorite exercise for toning the leg and butt muscles. It has been used by footballers, soccer players, martial artists and sprinters for generations in order to build strength in the lower body. The good news is that it is also amazing for burning fat and toning your legs and butt. In this post I am going to show you how to do the perfect jumping squat.

What muscles does the jumping squat target?

The jumping squat targets more muscles than just about any other exercise. It is what is known as a compound exercise because it works more than one muscle group at a time. In particular it will hit:

• the hamstrings
• the glutes (your butt!)
• the calf muscles
• the thighs
• the hip flexors

When you do a jumping squat you are essentially doing a cardio workout and a strength workout all in one handy exercise. Your heart rate will be elevated to a point where you will feel like you have just run a sprint race and your legs will burn like you have just been doing the most difficult squats of your life. If you want to tone your legs and butt and lose that problem fat then this is an exercise you need to make a regular in your fitness plan.

How to do the jumping squat

The photos above show the starting position and then the landing position. You must swap your lead foot in the air.

The jumping squat is easy to do but it will take a lot out of you. Many women cannot do more than five or six on their first go. That is okay. As long as you do more each time you will be making progress. Try to do at least four or five sets with about a minute break in between each set.

1. Starting position
   Crouch down in a squat position with your left foot in front of your right foot and your hands touching the floor for balance.
2. The movement
   Spring up in to the air as high as possible using your quadriceps and butt to make you jump. This is a very dynamic and powerful motion.
3. Whilst in the air
   Whilst in the air change feet position so that you land with your right foot in front.
4. Landing and repeating
   Crouch all the way back down to the ground and repeat as fast as possible with the other foot now in the lead. Don’t stop at the bottom but keep going as fast as you can.

And that’s it! As I said, the technique is easy but exercise is not. You will get a burn in your legs like you have never had before.

I do this exercise at the start of every workout. It takes a lot out of me but I truly believe it is one of the best ways to burn fat and tone your leg muscles.

Good luck!

photo credit: Claudia Castro

The morning walk is one of the most common forms of weight loss exercise. When I sit at my table in the morning and look out the window I see scores of women going for walks with their dogs, husbands or a group of friends. And while we have approached the question of “does walking burn fat” before, in this post I want to give you a few ways to super charge your morning walk so you can burn more fat in less time.

How to burn more fat on your morning walk

While I think walking has its merits (it is relaxing, low impact, etc.) I do think there are a lot better ways to burn fat. High intensity exercise like sprinting, skipping, hill climbs, kick boxing classes and weight training are all far superior in my opinion. But for some women these choices just aren’t options. And sometimes a walk is a nice start to the day – it is definitely a lot better than doing no exercise at all. Here are a few ways to super charge your morning walk.

1. Walk for at least 45 minutes
There have been several studies done on the topic of whether walking actually burns fat. In these studies it was found that you need to walk for at least 25 minutes before you actually start burning fat stores in your body. And while I am not so sure if this science still stands up, the principle remains the same. You need to walk for more than 25 to 30 minutes if you want to burn a good amount of fat.

Why is this so? Well the main theory is that when you walk before breakfast you have no available energy from food and as such you will tap into stored fat reserves. Apparently you need to walk for at least 25 minutes before this process begins to take place. This is not entirely true because glycogen energy remains ready for action for a long time. A more likely reason, in my mind, is that walking is not very likely to lift your heart rate and as such you need longer to get to a point where you are actually doing some damage to the energy stores in your body.

Whatever the reason, make sure you are walking at a good pace for at least 45 minutes in the morning. If you can’t bare to be out for that long at least try to get half an hour.

2. Hit the hills
Walking, as we mentioned, is a very low impact form of exercise that doesn’t do much in the way of pushing your boundaries. For this reason it is a great idea to change the terrain a little bit so that your muscles are doing some work that they might otherwise miss out on. The hills is a great place to start.

Walking hills has been one of the best forms of exercise for a long time. It is an exercise that tones your butt and legs, gets your heart rate up a lot higher and is far more interesting and challenging than just walking on the flats. Now, you don’t have to find some gigantic mountain in order to get a good workout. Most of you don’t live near mountains. But almost all of you will have some form of hill near your house. It might be an actual hill in a park or reserve or it might just be a sloped street that you can walk up and down. Hit it.

At the end of the session you will feel more energetic and vibrant because you would have actually worked out a large part of your body. Hill walks are a really good way to super charge your morning walk and burn more fat.

3. Drink a black coffee before you leave
I can hear all of you breathing a sigh of relief. A fitness website telling us to actually drink coffee! What a great idea. In fact, if you want to burn more fat on your morning walk you should drink a cup of black coffee. Isn’t that great news? The bad news – you aren’t allowed to have any milk or sugar. Just coffee and water. Add anything else and you won’t get the benefit.

photo credit: e.asphyx

So why does coffee help you burn more fat? Well many people believe that it allows you to access fat stores instead of carbs. Others believe that the stimulant aspect of coffee assists in its fat burning. To be honest, however, neither of these things makes much scientific sense. In fact, talking to nutritionists and doctors who have looked at studies around this issue and not many of them agree with the above assertions. So why am I recommending it? Because I have seen results in myself and my workout buddies. A bit of caffeine before a morning workout seems to have a positive effect on our weight loss progress. Bodybuilders have been saying the same thing for years.

One last reason; a morning coffee can help to wake you up and get your head in the right place for a workout. I can’t tell you the number of times I got up for a workout and then went straight back to bed because I couldn’t wake myself up. A coffee can help to prevent that. Give it a go and see how it works for you. If you don’t see any results after a couple of weeks chuck it in.

4. Take some weights
Another great technique to super charge your morning walk to to take along some hand weights to give your arms something to do. While your legs do all the walking it is great to do some work for your upper body. This effectively means you will get a full body workout which will, of course, burn more calories.

So what do you do with the weights? Well, if you are a little self conscious you could just hold them by your sides to provide some resistance for your arms. This is good enough and will give you a little mini bicep workout. But if you want to spice up the walk a bit more and perhaps even do some arm toning then why no do some full on bicep curls or slow punches or overhead presses? That way you can workout your shoulder, biceps and triceps – all on your morning walk!

Give it a try and see how you go. If you feel stupid, embrace it!

5. Wear a backpack with some weight in it
You have to be a little bit careful with this one because it can produce some back and shoulder injuries. This tip is only for super hard women who are not afraid of a little bit of pain. Be warned though, if you don’t take it easy and do this one carefully you are probably going to wind up with some sort of injury.

This idea actually comes from the army. One of the main things you do in the army is walk. In fact, you walk a lot. And I’m not just talking about walking around in the park. No sir. These guys carry massive guns that weigh as much as your upper body, ammunition that would squash your dog and, you guessed it, backpacks full of supplies. And they burn a lot of fat. You will never see a fat person in the army on active duty.

Fill up your backpack with some light weights and go for a walk. If you have any pain you should stop but over time you will find that your legs and butt get a good workout and you have to push yourself extremely hard just to finish the walk. It is an army style workout that also helps you become very tough mentally.

Any more ideas?

We loving hearing your ideas and experiences. Talking on the blog is a great way to meet new people and learn new things. If you know of any other ways to super charge your morning walk please leave a comment and let us know.

photo credit: Calc-tufa

Getting to the gym is not always possible. In fact, as we get busier and more strapped for time it is important to know a few things you can do from the comfort of your own living room. That way you can forget about making excuses and just get to work. In this post I am going to show you 10 exercises that you can do in your living room that will help you burn fat and get toned.

The complete home workout strategy

If you are going to workout at home you want to make sure you are approaching it with a strategy that will allow you to get a complete home workout. Just because you are at home does not mean you can take it easy. In fact, you have permission to go a little bit crazier now that no body is watching! In order to get a complete workout you will need to:

• Work every muscle group
  A big part of losing weight and getting toned is doing a full body workout. Your living room exercise should hit every body part in order to make sure you are not taking it too easy.
• Elevate your heart rate
  If your heart rate does not go up you aren’t working hard enough and you are not going to lose any weight at all. Make sure you are pushing yourself so that your heart rate gets up and stays up for most of the workout period.
• Sweat a lot
  Sweating is a sign that you are working. I see so many women workout well below the threshold that they need to in order to make progress. Make sure you are sweating a lot when you exercise at home.
• Warm up and down
  Warm ups and warm downs are essential in order to prevent injuries and make sure you can workout again tomorrow. There is no point working super hard if you injure yourself and can’t workout for a whole week while you recover.

10 living room exercises that burn fat and get you toned

photo credit: bandita

Keeping in mind the above four points here are the ten exercises that you can do in your own living room if you don’t have time to get to the gym. Try to keep your technique as clean as possible and make sure you are only taking 30 second breaks in between exercises.

1. Jumping squats
   We are always talking about jumping squats here at Free Women’s Fitness because they are an absolute super exercise. They burn fat, get your heart rate up, shape your entire lower body and push you to an entirely new level of fitness. As far as body weight exercises go these are the absolute hardest thing you can do. Do not take them lightly.

   How to do them? Simply squat down on the ground with your left foot in front. Spring up into the air as high as you can go and then land with your right foot in front. Go down as low as you can and then repeat until you can’t do anymore.

2. Coffee table step ups
   Make sure you have super stable coffee table or bench before you do this one. It is a great way to tone your lower body with a particular emphasis on your quadriceps and your butt. If you have bad knees these might be a little bit hard.

   How to do them? Stand in front of your coffee table or bench and step up on to it with your left foot. Step back down and repeat with the same foot. Carry out as many reps as you can and then switch feet. You can increase the difficulty by either going faster or wearing a backpack with some heavy weights in there.

3. Couch leg reverse crunches
   Reverse crunches are one of the best exercises you can do if you want to flatten your tummy and develop some stronger abs. You can do them a variety of different ways but, actually, one of the most comfortable is to do them while holding on to the bottom of your couch.

   How to do them? Lay on your back and position your head about a foot away from the couch leg. Grab the leg with your hands and raise your knees so they are 90 degrees with the floor. Tense your abs and roll them back into your chest. At the top of the motion tilt your pelvis for a final little crunch. Lower them slowly back down and repeat.

4. TV shadow boxing
   Shadow boxing has been used by boxers for decades as a way to build up their speed and their reflexes. It is extremely good for toning your arms and requires zero equipment and almost no space. It will get your heart rate up if you do it right.

   How to do it? Stand in front of the TV with your hand by your ears in the boxing ready position. Bounce on the spot like a fighter ready for action. When the camera changes angle or focus punch at the TV with your left hand and bring it back to the guard position. Repeat with your right hand the next time the camera changes. If you want to pick up the pace choose a more regularly occurring TV moment or do three punches every time it happens. Try and keep it up for five minutes and see how you go!

5. Chair push ups
   If you have two sturdy chairs you have all you need to get an amazing chest, triceps and shoulders workout. Push ups are incredible when you do them on the ground, and they are even better when you do them between two chairs. This is an amazing way to firm and shape your flabby arms and even push up your bust by working your chest.

   How to do them? Place the two chairs next to each other with enough room for your torso in between them. Now place your hands on the seat of the chair and assume the push up position with your butt tensed, back straight and elbows back at a 45 degree angle. Lower yourself down until you feel a stretch in your chest and then push yourself back up. You can make this SUPER difficult by lifting your feet higher and higher on a couch, table or another chair.

6. Shopping bag bicep curls
   If you want nice toned arms you need to work on your biceps as well as your triceps. One of the best ways to hit those biceps is to do some curls with a medium to heavy weight – like a shopping bag filled with books, groceries or other weighty items.

   How to do them? Fill up two shopping bags with some items until it is quite heavy for you to hold. Now stand up straight with your shoulders square and your head up. Tense your biceps and curl the weight up to your shoulder without moving your elbow from its position. As you are lowering the bag breathe out. Repeat with the other arm. Make this exercise more difficult by adding more weight to the bags. Remember to swap the bags over after each set in case one is actually more heavy than the others.

7. Door step calf raises
   Have you got a set of stairs or a raised door step in your house? If so then you have all you need in order to develop some amazing calf muscles. Calf raises are one of the best things you can do for some tight and toned lower legs.

   How to do them? Simple stand on the step with your heels off the edge. Hold on to something so you don’t lose your balance. Lower your heels down and then push upwards using your calf muscles until your heels are as high as they can go. If you want to make this harder try adding a backpack with some weight or even doing it one leg at a time. This one burns!

8. Superwoman back lifts
   It is really important to work your lower back if you want to counter all the badness that occurs after months and years of sitting at a computer all day long. These superwoman exercises are a simple and easy way to get some back health into you.

   How to do them? Lay on your stomach with your toes pointed and your arms up in front of you like you were superwoman flying through the air. Keep your face down towards the ground. Breath in and then lift your arms and legs off of the ground about one inch and then hold. Breathe out, lower and repeat. Don’t try to push this one too far, just do as many as you can.

9. Army star jumps
   Good old fashioned army star jumps are an extremely good way to work your shoulders, coordination and get your heart rate up at the same time. You might even want to do these in between the others exercises as a way to keep loose and warm. Don’t underestimate them though, I imagine most of us couldn’t complete 100 in a row.

   How to do them? Simply stand with your feet together and your hands by your side and jump so that your legs land about two to three feet apart and your hands clap above your head. Jump back to the original position and repeat. Try to keep a flowing motion without too many stops.

10. Dictionary crunches
    We all have one of those big dictionaries that are almost too heavy to put on the shelf. They are a great crunches tool. If you don’t have one just find something else that weighs about 2 to 5 kilograms. These crunches will help to flatten your tummy and strengthen your core area.

    How to do them? Lay on your back with your feet flat on the floor. Place the dictionary on your chest and tense your abs. Roll your upper body towards your knees and crunch your abs tight at the top of the motion. Lower your body down on the exhale keeping your abs tensed the entire time.

You can perform these exercises in this order or you can mix them up. It is really important to use the correct technique so if you are unsure on how to do something just leave it out until you have time to research it and learn it fully. Remember, don’t rest too much and keep your heart rate up.

Conclusion

Every now and then it will be necessary to workout at home. The great thing about this workout is you can do it while dinner is in the oven or while you are watching Grey’s Anatomy at night time. Try and keep it going for at least 20 minutes if you want to get some noticeable benefit out of it. And if you have any more ideas please drop a comment and let us know.