Girlfriends: Workout with Household "Equipment"

Don't have the time or money to work out at the gym? Tired of expensive fitness equipment cluttering up your space? You can get good results by working out with towels, brooms chairs and other everyday items you have at home. Mark Beier, a personal trainer from Crunch Fitness (www.crunch.com) says try these exercises to build strength and tone your body. Don't forget to add some cardio work several times a week too: walk, run, ride a bike or jump rope.

Dishtowel Workout

This boring household item doubles as a great exercise tool for working out at home.

Use a dishtowel as you would a Gliding Disc under your heels to perform exercises that really target your butt and thighs.

Use it under your hands in push-up position like you would an ab roller to target abs, chest, and arms.

Detergent or milk jugs

Use in a combination of ways to work the core, arms, shoulders, glutes, hamstrings and quads.

Perform a lunge with a twist, while holding the container in front of your body; you will engage all of your leg muscles while also working the shoulders and core.

Add a curl or shoulder press to the movement and it becomes a full body exercise.

You can also perform a single arm row with any of these containers by getting in push-up position on the floor and using the container as the resistance to perform a rowing motion.

Broomstick

Place in a doorway to perform doorway push-ups to work the chest shoulders and core.

Turn around and do two arm rows to work the rear delts, medial traps and core.

Chair

Put one leg up on the chair and you can do a single leg lunge.

Bend the knee of the forward leg and drop the hips toward the floor to work glutes, hamstrings, and quads.

Step-up on a chair while holding two containers of approximately the same weight; it will provide resistance to build glutes, quads and hamstrings. You can also perform a curl with a shoulder press during this exercise.

Use a chair can also easily be used to perform dips

Cans

Find two of the largest canned food item in your pantry and hold them in your hands, reach high into the sky, arms extended straight above your head.

If you have a set of stairs in you house, run up and down the flight of stairs 5 times in a row keeping the cans extended above your head. This will work your core, rear delts, legs and will increase your heart rate to improve your cardiovascular capacity.

If you do not have a set of stairs in your home, perform a set of walking lunges with the cans extended above your head.

Towel (You'll need a partner)

Perform alternating partner tricep extensions and bicep curls with a rolled up towel. One person grabs the towel with hands facing upward and the other with hands facing downward. One person performs the curl and the other provides the resistance, then a tricep extension is performed while the other performs the resistance. This provides great eccentric and concentric stimulus to the biceps and triceps.