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With that in mind, I wondered, is it really necessary to belong to a health club, or can you get fit while working out at home?

There are two important reasons to join a gym -- cardio and strength training. Cardio fitness (jogging, biking, etc.) is much easier to achieve without belonging to a health club, whereas strength training at home can be more problematic. Because of this difficulty, the importance of getting stronger is often overlooked. However, the purpose of lifting weights is not so you can eventually move a refrigerator, but to reap substantial health benefits, which include:

- Strengthening bones, muscles and connective tissue, which decreases your risk of injury (and osteoporosis).
- Adults lose about a pound of muscle mass per year, and muscle tissue is partly responsible for the number of calories burned at rest (the basal metabolic rate, or BMR). By increasing your muscle mass, you increase your BMR, and make it easier to maintain a healthy body weight.
- Enhancing quality of life by improving your ability to perform daily routines such as walking, carrying groceries, or playing with your children.

Many experts agree that strength training requires a variety of exercises that work your entire body, and caution that training at home -- without spending a small fortune on home gym equipment -- will not give you the workout you need. "Although it's possible to get a decent workout at home, in order to get optimal strength training benefits -- specifically for 'global [full-body] fitness' -- you would need to utilize some type of fitness facility," says J. Larry Durstine, Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina.

But what if you just don't have access to a gym, feel embarrassed about working out surrounded by all the "perfect bodies," or you're on a fixed budget? "You can still get a decent full body workout -- including all the benefits of strength training -- by having a few sets of dumbbells and a good attitude," says Brian Kreis, head trainer at Crunch Fitness in Miami Beach. The following is an example of a 25-minute full body workout Kreis created that you could do right in your own home (remember to consult a physician before beginning any exercise program):

CRUNCH (Abdominals): Lie on your back, knees bent and feet flat on the floor, feet and knees together. Place your hands behind your head but don't interlock your fingers. Keep your head and neck relaxed. Movement: Exhale as you contract your abs to bring your shoulders off the floor, hold briefly. Inhale as you slowly lower to starting position. (8-10 repetitions)

LUNGE (Quadriceps, inner thighs and glutes): Stand with feet together, hands holding a dumbbell on each hip. Movement: Inhale as you step forward with your right leg and bend your front knee until a 90-degree angle is formed. Keep your knee directly above your toes during the downward movement to avoid overstressing the knee joint. Exhale as you push off your heel to return to starting position. (8-10 repetitions)

SQUAT (Quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes): Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, arms hanging at your sides. Keep your torso erect and your body weight over your heels. Movement: Inhale as you bend your knees and lower your body as if to sit in a chair until your thighs are as close to parallel to the floor as possible. Do not go lower than this or you will put too much stress on your knees. Exhale as you squeeze your buttocks and come back to the starting position. (8-10 repetitions)

CURL (Biceps): Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees relaxed, pelvis tucked, shoulders dropped, and chin level. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, arms extended straight down from your shoulders, palms facing forward. Movement: Exhale as you bend one elbow to bring the dumbbell three-fourths of the way to your shoulder. Inhale as you return to starting position. (8-10 repetitions)

PUSH-UP (Chest, triceps, and shoulders): Start from the up position with your arms almost fully extended, palms flat on the floor and a little more than shoulder-width apart, feet together. Movement: Bend your elbows at a right angle, and then straighten your arms as you exhale while raising your body (if you can't do a standard push-up, instead of balancing off of your toes, try putting your knees on the floor). Keep your back straight by tightening your abdominal muscles. Your body should stay as stiff as possible during the whole movement, and your arms should be the only moving part. (8-10 repetitions)

LATERAL RAISES (Shoulders): Hold the dumbbells at your sides with your arms straight; your knees should be soft and slightly bent, with your chest up and shoulders back. Movement: Raise your arms outward from your sides (keeping your arms straight), moving the dumbbells away from your legs until they are parallel to the ground, so that your body forms a letter T, and then lower back down to your side. (8-10 repetitions)

ONE ARM ROW (Back): Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your left foot two feet in front of your right. Place your left arm on your left side by your knee, and take your right arm (holding the dumbbell) and let it hang straight down towards the floor. Movement: In one motion, raise your right elbow to your right hip and then back down. Then reverse and do the exercise with your left arm. (8-10 repetitions)

ARM EXTENSION (Triceps): Lie flat on the floor with your knees bent, hip-width apart. Hold your arms straight up towards the ceiling, holding both dumbbells. Movement: Only bending your elbows (not the upper part of your arms), lower your hands towards your ears, and then back to starting position. (8-10 repetitions)

Keep in mind that your muscles adapt to a given exercise, so it's important to increase the level of the weights you are using or vary the method and intensity of the workout to stimulate further strength gains. "If someone were doing bicep curls using 5-pound weights, doing 8 repetitions -- after about eight weeks, they might be able to perform 15 repetitions. At this point, they need to either increase the weight or slow down the motion of the exercise to half the speed, which would intensify the workout without increasing the weight," explains Kreis.

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