All MUTU® System workouts last around 15 minutes (some are even less) and importantly, you don’t need any equipment to work out effectively, when you’re doing it the MUTU way!

But home exercise equipment can add variety, intensity and dare I say it, fun, to your workouts!

I don’t have a home gym (and incidentally I am not a member of  nor do I ever go to a gym), I have a normal house with kids in it. So anything I use must meet a few criteria – it needs to multi-task, be portable so I can hide it when I want to, be safe around young children… and I like it to look nice.

Don’t know about you but I don’t want black and yellow pulley equipment or industrial machinery in my front room, and my bedroom is for restful and fun things…  not for an exercise bike 🙂

So where do you start? Well I have honed down my own personal ‘kit’ to a few essentials. I’ll explain why I use this stuff and what you should look for if you’d like to get one.

The resistance band. This stretchy band provides resistance during your workouts and is designed for increasing strengthening and stretching exercises. The one I use is made from a high grade medical rubber, 99.998% free from latex allergens and is 1m in length. . Lightweight, very low cost and portable, this is a really versatile and useful piece of kit to have at home.

What do you do with it?

A resistance band can take the place of hand-weights like dumbbells, as well as giving you a great stretch. I use it for warm ups and dynamic stretching, rows (either standing on the band or tying around a banister, beam or door), deadlifts, shoulder retractions and pelvic floor exercises. Not bad for a strip of elastic!

There’s examples of some of these exercises below, and they all feature in the MUTU System workouts. These exercises also have a particular advantage for exercises for MUMS…

You see in MUTU Posture you learn all about the postural changes and shifts of motherhood, but all you need to know here is that you’re all hunched up. Reading this now, I’ll bet your head is slightly forward of your neck, you shoulders are rolled forwards, your neck and upper back are tense and your posture is slouched. Its OK, you’re a mum. That’s what happens when you are pregnant for 9 months, then you carry, feed, cuddle and collapse over babies for the next few years. And when you’re not leaning over or lifting a child, then chances are you’re leaning over and looking down at a computer or laptop, or picking up a basket of laundry, or toys or…

…you get the picture. You’re all hunched up.

You need exercises that tone and strengthen your upper back, improve your posture, strengthen your core and take the tension out of your neck and shoulders. Exercise like the ones in this video and in the MUTU System structured workouts!

Exercises that work your upper back and shoulders, tone the front of your arms and stretch out the tight muscles of your upper chest often require you to ‘pull’ (like in a rowing movement) rather than ‘push’ (like in a press up), and so are hard to achieve just using your body weight. Pull ups are the exception – so find yourself some monkey bars!