There are so many excuses not to exercise. Sometimes we think it’s too hard, and others feel really intimidated walking into a gym. I’ve worked with some beautiful women who are a little overweight, and they tell me that when they walk into the gym, and they see all the muscular heads dragging their knuckles grunting and sweating, and they feel intimidated to even go near any of the weights it makes them feel like they don’t know what they’re doing.

Actually, those muscle heads are really nice guys. They know you have to start somewhere, and there is no judgment from them. In fact, they would be happy to help if you ask them a question. Anyway, I tell my clients that and they still feel nervous about going to the gym alone.

So, there are many exercise routines that you can do from home. You can always take the most popular exercise DVD and do it on your own. And there’s always the fitness channel. Those are the easiest to do, because you have someone you can follow. Find something you enjoy and stay with.

I’ve even seen some videos that incorporate holding your baby for the new mom. Mom gets exercise and baby enjoys it, because they get valuable play time with mom.

I used to travel a lot, so I call this routine at home the ‘hotel workout routine’. Something I could do in my hotel room without the need for weights or extra gym equipment. I start to warm up. If I have stairs somewhere, I could warm up by going up and down the stairs slowly at first and then eventually as fast as I can. I do this for about 20 minutes. If there are no stairs, I just warm up with some jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, and jumping jacks like I have a jump rope. I call them cordless jump ropes.

After a sufficient warm-up, I like to do a bit of stretching. I take a deep breath as I raise my arms above my head, and as I exhale I reach my hands down to my toes. Feet are slightly wider than shoulder width apart. I press my lower back into my legs and stretch the back of my legs a lot. (Group of hamstring muscles). Then I walk it down my right leg, then down my left leg, then back to the middle. I walk my feet together from there so it still touches my toes. I bend my right knee and stick my hip out, then alternate my left knee and back and forth until I feel stretched enough. I roll my vertebrae slowly, one vertebra at a time, until I am standing.

Now for the most difficult part of the home exercise routine. I start with 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups, 20 squats, and 20 lunges on each leg. If I have something to hold on to, like a desk or bench, I do 20 tricep presses. You are sitting on the edge of the bench or chair, with your feet in front of you and your palms facing behind you. You grab onto the chair and dive down, using the back of your arms to push yourself up.

Then I do 19 of each exercise. Then 18 reps, then 17… I think you know where I’m going with this. All the way down to one of each. That should cover just about every major body part and give you a great workout!