Categories: Fitness

5 Quick and Easy Exercise Moves To Do Before Class

The college 15 is no joke! Between class and studying, there’s hardly any time to exercise. The problem isn’t the time, it’s the moves you are making. There are several exercise moves and programs designed for college students looking to work out in their downtime, you just have to commit. Listen up because these 5 exercises are what’s going to shed the pounds and increase your status on campus!

1. Yoga

What’s a better way to start your day than by doing some yoga poses! Yoga puts you in the right mindset for conquering anything school related. It is known to relieve stress and help realign the inner self. Slip into some comfy clothes, anything you feel you can move around in.

Pick a spot in your room and start in a standing up position. Bring your hands together in a praying motion and really focus on your breathing, nice and easy. This will transition into a forward bending position called “Big Toe Pose”. Lean down and reach for your feet, try for as far as you can without hurting yourself. This will strengthen your hamstrings, giving you more flexibility in the legs. Next, you’ll go into a high lunge. Starting with your right leg, step forward and bend at the knee. You’ll want to form a right angle position as you go down, with your left leg extended straight back. Remember your breathing exercise and hold it for a couple seconds. The more you relax, the longer you’ll last. Move on to the left leg and repeat the same motions. I usually like to bring it in at the end with a Lotus pose. You’ll be sitting down with your legs crossed, opposite feet on each thigh. You can choose to meditate during this time or use it as a cooling off period. You should feel more relaxed and energetic after completing only a few of the many poses yoga offers.

2. Squats

When it comes to squads, you want to make sure to squeeze the butt or it doesn’t work. One of the first areas that starts losing its shape is our glutes. Hours of homework and sitting through lecture halls one after another, it’s not our fault it slouches after awhile. A couple squat exercises across the week will tighten that up and leave you looking plump! Now, the important point to keep in mind is becoming comfortable with this workout. It’s going to take some getting used to and push you to your limits, but it is doable and very easy.

Start by standing in a shoulder width position with your feet apart. Go into your squat as low as you can, really dig into that burn. As you’re coming up, flex those butt muscles making sure you are squeezing on the way up. That’s really all it takes. Keep doing these a couple more times, eventually working it into a set and you’ll start seeing results!

3. Bicycle Crunches

This is a great exercise to target your six pack area. This workout and a couple of others got me through a stubborn period in my fitness journey. Living on my own and going to school, I was desperate to find fun and easy exercise I could do from my apartment. Bicycle Crunches seemed to fit me because of how I could do them when relaxing at home.

Similar to normal crunches, you’ll be laying on the floor. For this one, you have your legs bent and above your body. Imagine you’re sitting upside-down. With your hands tucked behind supporting your neck, you’re going to alternate by extending your left leg out. You’ll want to bring your right elbow into it. Switching off, you’ll continue this motion throughout your workout. You’ll know you are doing it correctly if you’re moving in bicycle form. This quick and easy exercise is set to target your waist as well, improving the flexibility and range of motion you gain throughout the workout.

4. Jogging

You can never go wrong with sneaking a jog in before your class. Jogging can seem strenuous and a lot to take in during the day, but it doesn’t have to be. Turn it into your personal time and you’ll see how much fun you’ll have. Start by carving out a schedule in your day that is dedicated to your jog. Most of the time, the reason why we skip exercising is the excuse of not enough time in our day. You have to put yourself in the right mindset and set the time aside.

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Prepare yourself with the right type of footwear, you want your jog to feel effortless. Pick out a workout playlist. Some of the best jogs have happened in the company of great music. Start off slow, work at a pace you feel comfortable in and increase that as you go. Let the music take over, leaving everything that’s weighing you down on the track. This time is reserved for you and your goals moving forward. Before you know it, you’ll be finishing a mile on a casual jog out.

5. Planking

This no equipment workout is very easy to accomplish from right in your dorm room. You just need to push yourself to get there. Start by laying flat on the floor. When getting into position, your hands should be parallel to one another on the floor. Bring your feet together when bridging up. As soon as you’re ready, push up and hold it. Try to remain a few inches off the ground. This exercise does target your core in strengthening it, but I believe it’s a mental exercise as well. We’ve all been there where we tell ourselves we’ve reached our limits and want to give up. We want to listen to it and give in, but then there’s a tinier voice that says to keep going for another 30 seconds or a minute. Planking does that to you, it pushes you to want to hang on longer. You’ll feel proud you hung on in the end.

Are you sweating yet? Let us know these workouts made you feel and what you want to try next!