How To Workout From Home in 20 minutes a Day with No Equipment

Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking we need to spend money on a gym or a nice set of weights. That thinking usually is more or less of a procrastination method. There are excellent ways to workout from home without equipment or even much time!

In fact, you can tone your body in only 20 minutes per day!

Start By Setting Aside Time

The most important thing that you are going to need is to have time in your schedule that is dedicated to fitness.

But, I get it, time is precious. So, let’s start with setting aside 20 minutes each day.

I like to assign that time to a constant that I won’t forget to do. For example, you could decide to workout for 20 minutes just prior to eating. Or you put your workout immediately after awaking in the morning.

Having another dedicated activity right before or after your workout will help you to stick with it. If you plan on working out right before bed, then sleep can be your reward for completing a workout.

Master Body Weight Exercises

Bodyweight exercises are extremely effective and very useful. They are functional exercises which can help to improve your activities of daily living. Simple bodyweight exercises can get an efficient total-body workout.

Many body weight exercises are compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups. This makes them very time-efficient as well.

What are some great bodyweight exercises to start with?

  • Squatting
  • Lateral lunges
  • Push-ups
  • Going up Stairs
  • High Knees
  • Jumping Jacks
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Pilates exercises
  • Yoga poses

Putting Your Workout Together

You can select five or six moves that will focus on different body movements. Do each one for 45 seconds and rest for 15 seconds between moves. If you need longer rest, take it. Complete the circuit of moves three times for a fifteen-minute workout.

Here’s an example:

  • Bodyweight squats — 45 seconds. Rest 15 seconds.
  • Jumping jacks — 45 seconds. Rest 15 seconds.
  • Stairs – 45 seconds Rest 15 seconds.
  • Push-ups — 45 seconds. Rest 15 seconds.
  • Lateral lunges — 45 seconds. Rest 15 seconds.

Repeat three times for a fifteen-minute circuit.

 

Use Free Online Resources

Many fitness professionals are putting great workouts on YouTube to promote their products and services. You can take advantage of these free resources and incorporate them into your daily workouts.

Here are three excellent 20 minute workouts that you can do from home without any equipment.

 

 

 

When you are ready for longer workouts, you can simply search for longer or more complicated workouts in YouTube.

 

Fitness Apps to Help You Track Your Workout

Let’s face it, sometimes we need a bit of accountability to stick with a fitness routine. Fitness apps are great at tracking our goals and reminding us to workout.

This free app is a no-fuss approach to fitness. You can launch the app and do the quick set of exercises anywhere without any special equipment. Wahoo’s app provides you with a standard seven-minute workout that has 12 high-intensity bodyweight exercises in cycles of 30 seconds followed by a short rest.

Some of the workout variations will charge $0.99 and some are free. Wahoo has a heart rate monitor to improve your workout experience and help you track the amount of effort you are putting in.

The FitBit Coach is a free app that can be used with or without the Fitbit tracker. You can also upgrade to premium for $39.99 per year. The FitBit coach app has short workout videos that you can do almost anywhere.

This is a great app for people who want to be talked through their exercise routines and see humans doing the moves in a video. The workouts are similar to the seven-minute app with a bit more variety.

You can choose to add background music or play your own. FitBit’s free account has limited workout options, while Premium will unlock the entire selection of workouts.

Daily Workouts provides you with free 5-30 minute daily workout routines. These exercises can all be done from the comfort of your own home. They are demonstrated by a certified personal trainer and target all the major muscle groups.

It features ten different 5-10 minute workouts, over 100 exercises, videos showing how to do each exercise, on-screen instructions and a timer.

The premium app offers even more workouts, more exercises, Pilates, kettlebell, stretch and ball workouts.

As you can see, it is possible to get fit at home even if you barely have enough time to watch a sitcom on television. There are workouts for even the busiest person and apps to help you track them! So what are you waiting for?

Get moving!

 

The Unbelievable Health Benefits of Beef Liver

Beef liver has somehow fallen out of the standard American diet. It does tend to taste strong and if it is overcooked it can be quite unpleasant to eat. However, the health benefits of beef liver are amazing.

I recently heard about Minot and Whipple curing pernicious anemia through a liver feeding therapy. They fed 2-4 ounces of liver to people on a daily basis to cure pernicious anemia, an autoimmune condition. It worked! Within 8 weeks, the patients’ iron levels had all normalized.

I decided that I should look further into the health benefits of liver and begin incorporating this superfood into my own diet. Here’s what I found…

 

High in Bioavailable Nutrients

Liver is high in bioavailable nutrients. This means that there aren’t components of the food that may block absorption. In plants, phytates and lectins can often interfere with the nutrient absorption. You may not absorb all the vitamins and minerals when you consume something like grains or nuts.

  • Vitamin A: Liver is highest in vitamin A. The high amount of vitamin A does concern some people and they feel that you could overdose on liver. Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin that benefits eye health, skin health and cellular turnover.
  • Iron: Liver is high in iron. Iron helps with muscle function, brain function and hemoglobin formation. This makes it crucial for energy production.
  • Copper: Copper is an important mineral because it contributes to nerve and immune health. Copper also assists with collagen production. It is beneficial in the development of hair, joints, skin and nail health.
  • B Vitamins: Liver is a great source of all the B vitamins, especially vitamin B12 and folate. The B vitamins are important for converting food into energy. They help you feel energetic and vibrant in your daily life. Folate is essential for cellular growth.
  • Choline: Liver provides your body with the daily Adequate Intake (AI) for women and almost all of it for men. Choline is beneficial for brain development and liver function.

When you compare the nutrients in liver to apples, carrots and other red meat, liver beats them out by quite a bit!

health benefits of beef liver
Image source: https://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood/

Liver exceeds the RDI (recommended daily intake) for vitamin B12, vitamin A, riboflavin and copper. One serving will allow you to meet your daily needs. Liver is also rich in the essential nutrients folate, iron and choline.

A High-Quality Protein

Protein is an essential building block for every part of the body. It is needed to make and repair cells and turn food into energy. Over 25% of beef liver contains protein.

Beef liver is very high-quality protein. It provides all the essential amino acids which make up proteins. The essential amino acids must come from food, they can not be made in the body.

Helps with Weight Loss

High protein intake has been shown to assist with weight loss. It reduces hunger and appetite. Protein satisfies hunger much better than carbohydrates, according to a study done by the Rowlett Research Institute.

Protein causes increases your metabolic rate by 15–30%, compared to 5–10% for carbs and 0–3% for fats. Including a high protein food, such as liver, in your diet can increase your metabolic rate. This means you’ll burn more calories which can be helpful for weight loss.

Cures Pernicious Anemia

George Minot and William Murphy studied the diets of patients who had pernicious anemia. Minot ordered his patients to eat a diet with 100 grams to 240 grams of liver per day along with 120 grams of muscle meat, and leafy vegetables, spinach, fruits, eggs and milk.

Many of the patients on Minot’s diet recovered rapidly showing improvements within a few days. After eight weeks, patients’ blood was examined and blood showed newly formed reticulocytes. This supported the diet’s efficacy.

 

Treats Tropical Sprue

In 1883 Manson promoted the use of liver to treat Tropical Sprue, a digestive disorder. Tropical sprue is similar to celiac sprue. It shows a loss in intestinal villi, which affects the intestinal absorptive function. Patients who have tropical and nontropical sprue suffer from malabsorption.

The cause of sprue has not been determined. Patients with sprue present with macrocytic anemia due to malabsorption of folate or vitamin B12.

Treatment of tropical sprue with vitamin B12 and folate cures the macrocytic anemia and the glossitis. This results in increased appetite and weight gain.

Conclusion – A Healthy Superfood

As you can see, your body will benefit in many ways from consuming liver. People have been healed from pernicious anemia and Tropical Sprue through a diet that is rich in liver. It contains nutrients that benefit almost every aspect of life for your body. From improving your eyesight to easing your digestion, liver is supporting your health on a grand scale.

While liver may not be the tastiest superfood out there, it is worth it to include it in your diet. You may want to check out beef liver capsules if you don’t want to fix yourself liver everyday.

Not sure why grassfed beef is important? Check out the difference between grass fed and grass finished beef.