How to The seven best exercises that help you lose weight after Christmas and that you can do in your living room

January, the month of joining the gym as a New Year's resolution, is already underway, and with it the dreaded January slope of the scale. To lose those extra kilos, we Spaniards tend to overflow the gyms during the first two or three months of the year, and then begin to abandon that purpose of being healthier. To save you that economic expense that can involve paying an annual fee to the gym and leaving it months later, we are going to review the best exercises you can do in your living room without material (or with the bare minimum), so you can train in the comfort of your home. Squats We couldn't start the list of exercises without talking about one of the great classics such as squats, one of the basic exercises to work the lower body with our body weight. For this exercise, we will point out two key points to take into account when avoiding injuries: the first of them is the posture of our back, which must remain as neutral as possible, avoiding arching in the lower back hyperhidrosis and dorsal. If it is difficult for us to maintain the posture, a good way to start performing squats is to opt for the isometric variant against the wall, for which we will stand with our back against the wall and bend our knees until they form an angle of 90 degrees, at which point we will hold the position for a few seconds and return to the starting position. The second point to take into account is functional limitations in the form of injuries. If for any reason not attributable to lack of strength we were not able to perform the squats, we can choose to try to perform them with a chair: from the position of sitting on the edge of the chair and keeping our back straight, we will get up and return to sit. The use of the chair will allow us to limit the range of movement if we are not able to perform the squats traditionally. This option can also be a good alternative for lower body work for the elderly. Push-ups or squats are the classic exercises to work on the strength and power of our lower body, push-ups would be its equivalent when we talk about the upper body since they work the strength of our arms, chest muscles, and core (the latter is involved in the stabilization of posture, thus avoiding arching of the back at the lumbar level and possible injuries). If we have a strength deficit that prevents us from doing push-ups directly on the floor, we can choose to do them inclined, leaning on the edge of a chair or a sofa, for example, or, if we want to work on the floor, we can choose to lean on the knees instead of on the feet, and in this way "reduce" the body weight with which we are going to work. Lunges The strides are another way to work on the strength of our lower body and a good complement to working with squats since in addition to being a strength exercise it will allow us to work and improve our balance through the activation of the gluteus media. In addition, we can work the strides both forward and backward. If we want to add difficulty to this exercise, we can choose to hold a weight with one of our hands, which will force us to compensate for this "imbalance" with more core work. If, on the other hand, we do not enjoy much balance, we can start by doing it next to a table that we can lean on in case of losing balance while we improve it. To work the lower body from the "posterior" point of view, the gluteal bridge is a very good exercise that will focus the work on the hamstring, gluteal muscles, and the lower back mainly. Like all exercises, it has different variants depending on the degree of difficulty with which we want to work, the most basic being the one that starts from a position lying face up on the floor with the legs bent. As we raise the support of the feet, for example by placing them on the edge of the sofa or a chair, the work done by the hamstrings and the gluteus will be greater. Mountain climbers Complementary exercise to the plates will allow us to continue working the core muscles and, in addition, cardiovascular resistance. For those who are not able to start working this exercise directly in the initial position of flexion on the ground, we recommend starting by doing it with your hands resting on a chair, so that you are leaning against the ground and performing the movement as if you were walking (The main idea of ​​the exercise is to perform the movement as quickly as possible). There are numerous options depending on the degree of difficulty with which we want to work to add intensity and demand to our training. Two routines to work at home with our body weight Once we have seen the main exercises that we can do at home with our body weight to get fit and lose weight after Christmas, we are going to propose two types of routines to work at home: one of them will be based on the system of series-repetitions and the other will be as a HIIT circuit. Set-Rep Exercise Routine Between each series, we recommend leaving between 45 and 90 seconds of rest depending on the physical condition of each person, and between exercise and exercise between one and two minutes. Burpees - 2 x 10 Squats - 3 x 10 Gluteal bridge - 3 x 15 (we suggest doing a few more repetitions of this exercise in the first few weeks since the hamstrings are usually a muscle area that is often "back" with respect to the quadriceps) Lunges - 2 x 10 (with each leg) Push-ups - 3 x 10 Mountain climbers - 3 x 20 Abdominal plank - 3 x 10 x 3-5" (three sets of ten repetitions of between three and five seconds each repetition) HIIT circuit mode exercise routine For those who wish to work these exercises in high-intensity circuit mode, we are going to structure it using the Tabata method, consisting of 20-second work periods alternated with ten-second breaks. For beginners, doing three rounds of this circuit can be a good way to start getting in shape. For intermediates, we could do between three and six rounds, and, for advanced, a good job could be to complete ten rounds of it. Between round and round, depending on the physical level of each user, the breaks can range from three minutes for the most novice and 45-60 seconds for the most advanced. The order of the exercises will be the same as for the previous workout: burpees, squats, gluteal bridge, lunges (here we would do two consecutively, one with each leg), push-ups, mountain climbers, and abdominal iron. This article was originally published by Miguel Fitness in January 2018 and has been reviewed for republication.