The 21^st Century mother is no more restricted to looking after the household work and helping her kids finish the homework. She earns a living too.  Amidst all the responsibilities she often tends to forget to take care of herself. Her kids, her office and the clean room take higher priority. Eventually the desk job starts giving her an acute pain on the lower back. The constant stress day-in and day-out takes a toll on her blood pressure or ends up giving her migraine issues.

If you identify with the above, here are a few tips which might just help you get in a quick work-out and be a fitter version of yourself:

Glute bridges:

You might have seen the Instagram models do these exercises a lot in their posts. This exercise isn’t just for bigger glutes. More often than not, the lower back issues start to happen due to weaker glutes and hamstrings.  Glute bridges can help strengthen your glutes and the hamstrings too. Three to four sets of 15-20 repetitions of this exercise will suffice for a start. As you get stronger, you can use some weights to hold over your groin area to increase the difficulty level of the exercise.

Push-ups:

Women generally tend to have a weaker upper body compared to the legs. That is also the reason why you rarely get to see women doing pull-ups or push-ups. If you have never done this before, then you can start with knee-pushups. If even that turns out to be too difficult then you can start with placing your arms on an elevated surface like a bench or a chair and gradually progress towards lower surfaces. This single exercise will help you strengthen your triceps and the shoulders along with the chest muscles.

Planks:

“You don’t know how long 1-minute is until you have done the plank”.

This hold can single-handedly engage your shoulders, your core, glutes, hams and the shoulders. More importantly, if you have a habit of holding a slouched posture naturally, then practicing the planks regularly can help solve that problem.

Skipping:

If you’re new to skipping, then on just within your first attempt you will realize how difficult it is to control the coordination between your arms and your feet. Apart from improving your coordination skills, skipping can also get you a quick and intense cardio session in within a few minutes. Moreover, it will also help tone up your calf muscles.

Lunges:

This exercise can hit almost all the muscles in your lower body. There is no other exercise which is as effective as the lunges. Also, lunges can help even out the imbalances in strength between the two legs which generally people tend to have.

Resistance band drills:

Just like the skipping rope, even resistance band is an accessory which is a must-have. If you are short on time and can’t afford to jump from one equipment to another, then resistance band is the way to go.

-Bicep curls

-Shoulder press

-Seated rowing

-Lateral raises

You can do these exercises back-to-back in a circuit. Make it as intense and fun as possible.

Sleep:

With the working population, the waking time is generally fixed, but it is the sleeping time which gets compromised. In a survey it was found that the working women tend to sleep less than 6hrs on a daily basis. Our body needs anywhere close to 7-8hrs of good quality sleep every day.  Sleep deprivation tends to trigger anger and anxiety issues eventually thus resulting in decrease in productivity throughout the day. A good night’s sleep can directly translate to improved overall health and productivity across the day.

Nachiketh Shetty, Fittr Health Coach, Nutrition and Wellness Consultant, FITTR