Just one pillow to tone your legs, buttocks and abdominals
If exercising is essential for our health, it is also true that it is an activity that requires time and dedication, and our life routines do not always allow us to have the necessary hours to train in the gym, swimming pool or somewhere outside the home. Here then, it becomes useful to discover how to use our domestic spaces as if it was a gym.
With the right amount of determination and a little organization, we will be able to stay at home and do exercises that are beneficial for the whole body, but without having to equip a room with expensive equipment. All you need is suitable clothing, a mat and, for the exercises proposed below, a pillow!
Yes, you read that right: a pillow from the bed or even a sofa cushion can become our fitness accessory.
There are some simple exercises on the TikTok @musclesisters account, in which a video shows a series of exercises which are perfect for sculpting the abdomen and the abs. The are also exercises that directly involve the buttocks, leg muscles and the arms.
- Leg raises: Sit down, then bring your arms back to support the weight of your back. With the pillow resting on your shins and ankles, raise and lower your legs together. For better results, flex your arms as well and try to bring your torso closer to your legs every time they rise.
- Just as if it were a soccer ball, pass the pillow under your knees, alternating them in one continuous motion, as if the pillow were tracing an "8" in the air.
- Still while using the pillow as a ball, get on your knees and slam it to the ground, on each side of your body, repeatedly.
- Again, pretend the pillow is a basketball or volleyball, and stand in front of a free wall, or even a glass window. Starting on your knees, throw the pillow against the wall, extending your arms well forward and up, and lifting yourself each time with your torso.
- Starting on your back, with your arms at your sides or under your back, place the cutting pillow between your legs, close your feet. Your legs will hold it tightly together as you hold them slightly raised and bend and stretch them repeatedly.
- A variation of the "volleyball" exercise: instead of doing the movement while kneeling, get into a squat position and throw the pillow out at face level.
Start doing these exercises for a total of 20 minutes and then gradually increase the overall time: they will not steal too many hours from your day, but will give visible results. To better understand the various exercise, click here.
