I am looking for exercises, both aerobic and anerobic, that i could do in the confines of my bedroom, so any suggestions would be helpful.

The context of this is that

1. as a university student i don't have the money to waste on gym memberships and nearest gym is a 40 minute walk away.


2. The area i live in is not the nicest and i would preferably not want to go running or biking around it.


3. If i do it in my room, then there is less excuse for me to not do it.


4. Of course, as a student my diet is not the best, but i am definitely eating better than a lot of my peers.

Well... there is always the most popular uni student exercise, but that requires two people.

Alternatively there are always http://greatist.com/fitness/50-bodyweight-exercises-you-can-do-anywhere that require no equipment of any kind.

Pilates, Yoga & Tai Chi and those things, weights (if you can't afford fancy ones get old milk or juice jugs with a handle and fill them with water or sand), jumping jacks (try not to drive the people below you crazy with that sort of thing it can be loud downstairs), steps (again you can make your own or use the staircase in the dorm), hula hoop (great for abs), Jazzercize

Push ups - Start off doing standard pushups. Hands should be at shoulder with and your back and rump should be straight and not arched. Get to where you can do a decent rep of these (20 +) comftorably. Then try knuckle pushups, slightly harder because of the extra elevation and slight turn of the forearms to compensate for going to knuckle positon. When you get good at these move to diomond pushups (standard push up position except hands should be together and index fingers and thumbs should meet and form a diamond where your nose would touch the floor) and jumping push ups (standard push up except when you push up, you do so with enough force to lift yourself off the ground, quickly clap and then catch yourself just before coming to the ground in the standard position).

Sit ups - do a normal rep and then later do another rep except cross over. Make your right elbow touch your left knee, go back down and then come back up except left elbow to right knee. That is one rep of cross over sit ups.

Squats

Crunches

Deep knee bends

Cant remember the name of it but you can squat at your bed or a bath tub with your arms at 90 deg behind you suporting your body on the propose objects. Now push yourself up and resist coming down only using your arms.

Also work on cardio. Just going out and taking a lap or two around campus at a jog can help out.

You may also want to invest in a set of dumbbells. But before doing that you need to ask yourself what your focus is. Do you want to build muscle or make lean muscle? Building muscle you take heavier weight at low repetition and lean muscle takes lighter weight but at a much higher repetition.

Planking!


That thing where you support yourself face down just on your forearms and the tips of your toes touching the ground its supposed to be super hard (I get sore just imagining it)

I'd definitely recommend planking over sit-ups as they can cause back injuries, which is why professional trainers have been steadily phasing them out of exercise plans for the past years.

Body weight stuff, running is great exercise if you have a park around, youtube videos of workout programs are a cheap and free if you can find people who actually know what they're doing. I also bought a pull up bar that went in my bedroom door, i made a rule that i had to do a set everytime i entered/exited. Good luck!

A good substitute for sit-ups besides planking is also butterfly kicks. sit on the floor, lay your legs out flat in front of you, put your hands underneath your butt, lean back a little and lift your legs up, then kick them up and down in the air(in opposing directions, one goes up as the other goes down). Doesn't hurt your back but gives you a good core-tightening exercise.

Doesn't that only apply to hands behind the head/neck sit-ups? Most sit-up exercises used I know of recommend the arms over the chest method since it won't risk spinal damage to your neck.

As far as I know the biggest risk is still lower back injury.

The best exercises to do at home, if you have a little bit of space and can make a little noise, are workout DVDs. Back in the day *creak* I used to love Jane Fonda's workout, but I've used a number since and they've always been great (regardless of what they are) for exercising different bits, working up a sweat and being quite entertaining (if the music's good). This time of year, you can get all the post-New-Year bargains, too!

the absolute best workouts for casual fitness are ones that you can stick to that don't eat up a ton of time. unless you LOVE fitness or LOVE admiring your body in the mirror constantly, daily exercises exceeding 20 minutes tend to get dropped from routine in a matter of weeks.

Another comment on the planking, it is great for people who have limited mobility due to back injuries. My physical therapist AND my pain management doctor recommended Planking for me as a way to get a little bit of exercise in without hurting my back, as well as a way to eventually lower the pain in my back(I can't recall the explanation given, but it sounded convincing). I'm a slacker though and haven't gotten around to it, but I plan to soon, so hopefully it's as good as they say it is. Would be nice to be able to cut back on my damn pain medication a bit, as that is one of my biggest worries, is that I'm going to eventually need like 60-80 mgs of Oxy a day when I'm older just to keep the pain under control. I'm half zombie like on 15, I hate to see myself on 60-80 mgs.

Looks like there is a consensus on planking.

Don't say that. Mods will come in here and lock this thread since we are not Doctors and just because a lot of people agree, doesn't mean it's healthy or correct. After all, in my day it was sit-ups was the way to go. Now look how that has turned out, after reading this thread first time I herd of sit ups not healthy for back.

So not being a Dr will not comment on that. So we have to stop giving out medical advice, or this thread will be locked.