30 Minute In-House Workout

Ah.  It's been what?  Five months?  I can't promise that I'll blog regularly but I will answer questions about diet and exercise when they come to me.

A long time ago I served a mission for my church.  I was in the Washington DC area for 18 months.  My days were always very scheduled and exercise was not part of the schedule.  If we wanted to exercise we had to wake up earlier than our normal 6:30 AM wake up time to get it done.  When I trained someone new we always woke up an hour early anyway because new missionaries got an extra hour of study time but I didn't want to use it during our normal proselytizing time.  So when I was training someone I often woke up at 4:30 AM to exercise.  It's not something I would recommend and I think that it probably hindered my productivity a little because I was so tired.

Oh, the things I would do differently…

Anyway, now the church has put 30 minutes of exercise per day in the missionaries' schedule.  How cool is that?!  I'm a little jealous.

The question I had is how.  How can someone get a good workout in 30 minutes inside when weather is bad and the neighborhoods are worse (specifically in Russia)?  What are their options without televisions (no Jillian DVDs or iPad apps for missionaries)?

On my mission I was usually lucky enough to have roommates who would go running with me (not an option for some people).  When I didn't, I was lucky enough to have a treadmill (also not usually an option).  The last thing I did was buy a jumprope and hung out in the living room jumping to the most upbeat hymns I could find.  Boring.

Here is a list of things I would recommend to take up the 30 minute time slot without having to buy expensive machines -- but if you can get bands or a couple of dumbbells that would be great:

Do 1 minute of each cardio option 2 or 3 times.  Then pick the part or parts of the body you want to work with resistance and finish the 30 minutes doing reps of those things.  Or do 30 minutes of jumprope.  I promise the first idea will go by a lot faster.

Cardio
jumping jacks
high knees
jump squats
jump in a square
run in place (like sprint in place)
jump rope
butt kicks

Resistance
Arms:
triceps dips
bicep curls (with bands or weights)

Chest:
push ups

Legs:
lunges
squats

Shoulders:
shoulder raises (with bands or weights, if possible)
upright rows (with bands or weights)

Back:
rows (with bands)
pull-downs (with bands)