My Favorite Exercises Anyone Can Do
Written by Maria Sauda
Introduction
Exercise is so important to do, and so it's important that you find exercises that you genuinely enjoy, so that you can have fun doing it and actually want to do it!
I've been doing different types of exercise ever since I was little because of my mom, who was a dancer and later on an aerobics instructor. Growing up she encouraged me to try lots of different things, and I'm so grateful she showed me how fun exercise is and that she taught me how to do various workouts without hurting myself.
I love to do different sports outside, but this blog post is about exercise anyone can do, which means things you can do for free in your own home! Many of these exercises have low-impact variations, and I've seen many videos of people with physical disabilities do these exercise types in their own way!
The Exercises
Slow Weight Training
There's a lot of different types of weight training. Slow weight training is where you perform your reps in a controlled way, making sure your form is correct all the way through the exercise. This really helps to maximize the growth of your muscles, and helps you make sure you don't injure yourself!
You can do weight training without going outside and buying weights, you can use water bottles, books, bags of flour/rice/pasta, and other things like that. One time I used my dog as a weight because she wanted my attention while I was working out, she loved it, and it definitely made my muscles sore!
If you're a beginner at using weights, please follow a video that explains in detail the form, or research how to do the reps you want to do. It can bes so easy to hurt yourself, proper form is key!
Following a video while exercising can also make it less boring. For me personally, if I don't follow a Cory Everson video while lifting weights, I honestly feel bored and lonely and it makes me want to stop! Make sure you find your favorite way of exercising so that it makes you want to come back to it consistently.
Stretching
This ties in well with weight training, because stretching is an essential part of muscle recovery! It also helps you be able to do weight training exercises better if you stretch before, as it prevents injury further. Stretching also helps you stay fit and helps prevent injury in many daily activities.
There are different ways to do stretching, but even then your form is still important, stretching with bad form can really hurt you (trust me I have experience with this). You can do yoga if you want to combine strength training with stretching, or you can do long stretches where you sit in the stretch for a long time, this is really relaxing and good to do if your muscles are sore. You can also do stretches in quick movements, which helps you become more flexible.
Currently I'm very inspired to become more flexible after seeing how MovementbyDavid collaborated with people of various fitness types to show how important it really is. It helps you later in life, it helps you recover after a workout, and it also really helps for with stress!!
One of my favorite things to do before work, aside from walking, is to do some stretches in the morning to help prevent stress. 
I'm really proud of myself because recently I was able to do bridges again, I did these very easily as a kid, then for a while I couldn't do it, but recently, with some help, I've been able to do bridges completely by myself again!
Aerobics
Listen to my closely, I absolutely do not mean HIIT when I talk about aerobics!! I know myself well enough and I have tried HIIT so many times, it actually makes me hate exercising, which is not what we want.
My favorite way to do aerobics exercise indoors is to follow the 80s and 90s aerobic videos, they used to make them so fun and the instructors would help you make sure you aren't hurting yourself. They also featured a lot more low-impact variations which I appreciate, since my knees are weak. The music, the sets, and the clothes are so fun, they make me feel like I'm in a gym with other people! It's so fun that I forget I'm even exercising, especially since they used to make those workouts in a way that felt like dancing (80s & 90s aerobics were developed by ex-dancers).
It's crucial to find an aerobic activity that is fun for you! This type of exercise is already hard, because the point is to exercise your heart, but if you find the exercise you love you won't even feel like you're working out. Aerobics will make your heart stronger (it's a muscle!), give you more stamina, and increase your VO2 max.
Body Sculpting
Body sculpting and piltes are very similar, if not the same thing. It's exercises where you use your own body weight to do different repetitions. I love doing this exercise because it makes me really aware of my body and which muscles I'm using, which is great because unfortunately I'm sitting for a big part of my day.
Right now I'm still struggling with body sculpting because some exercises I do make my muscles shake a lot, I really want to get to a point where I have the strength to do it without having my muscles shake.
One of my favorite things to do is combine aerobics with body sculpting, it makes me feel on top of the world!!
I hope I could inspire you to try out one of these exercises, starting your fitness journey doesn't have to be painful and excruciating, it can be fun, and you can slowly build up to do more and more, you just need to experiment with different things and find what works for you!
Thank you so much for reading my blog, I'm so grateful! 🩷 - Maria
Question for this post: what point are you at in your fitness journey?