If you find it hard to fit time in to go to the gym or don’t want to pay the membership fee, but still want to build strength, here are some easy home based exercises to try:

Pushups – This is the standard chest exercise that can be practiced anywhere. Pushups not only work your chest, but help tone the rest of your body, including your arms, back, stomach, but and legs. All you have to do is get in the starting position to realize all the areas that it work. Start out lying on the floor on your stomach. Put hands on the floor under your shoulders - palms down. Take a breath and push your body up, keeping your toes pointed towards the floor. If you can’t do a full push up, try pushing your upper body up only - keeping your knees on the floor. You will feel this mostly in the chest and arms, but the rest of your body is working as well.

Sit Ups – There are variations of sit ups you can do to strengthen your core area. You can do crunches, which are probably the easy ones to start off with. With your knees bent, lying on your back on the floor, cross your arms over your chest and bring your head up towards your knees. You can also lay on the floor with your legs up on a chair. If you want to work the sides of your stomach, you can lay on the floor with your knees bent, arms behind head and bring your left elbow up to your right knee and then switch.

Dips – Dips work the back of your arms (triceps), but again, will also help tone other areas. Using a chair extend your body in front, with your arms bent behind you and your hands holding the edges of the chair. Your heels are touching the floor in front of you and your hands are the only part supporting your torso. You can now extend your arms to an almost straight position.

Squats – Although most people do squats with waist in the gym, we can also work the same muscles at home. Stand feet shoulder width apart, and slightly look up to the ceiling. You can raise your arms as if you were holding a barbell across your shoulders and then squat down. As we are not using weight, try to really squeeze your leg muscles for the entire movement and especially when coming up.

To get your cardio, you can either skip rope or get outside and walk or run. You may also want to look at the various home fitness videos on the market. Yoga and Pilates are both great for home based exercise.