Home Training

Whether you reside in a North Raleigh mansion or a Hillsborough bungalow, you can use what you have in your own home to work out. Here are a few tips that can help turn your abode into a personal gym:

Rely on technology — Draw on resources like YouTube workout videos.

Try bodyweight exercises — Moves such as squats, lunges, abdominal crunches and calf raises capitalize on your body's weight for resistance, with no equipment needed.

Use furniture — The dresser and the desk can become multi-purpose for assisting in your exercise routine. Borrow a sturdy chair to do squats or a stable coffee table for tricep dips. Rely on your sofa to assist you with stretching.

Crunch in your kitchen — Recruit your counter or chair as a base for pushups, squats and dips. Lift soup cans in a bicep curl. Execute a drill with gallon jugs of water.

Go cardio crazy — Jog in place, briskly walk from room to room and perform jumping jacks. Household chores, from washing widows to doing the laundry, can count.

Gluten Secrets

Some Triangle women have been medically tested and found to be gluten-intolerant; they must eliminate all consumption of gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Other women are thinking of limiting the substance because they believe it may improve their health. If you're one, do a lot of research before making your decision. Part of that is to be aware that gluten lurks in some surprising places. Check this out:

With Gluten
Beer
Candy
Cold cuts
Soy sauce
Corn flakes

Without Gluten
Cornbread
Jams and jellies
Rice cakes
Potatoes
Mayonnaise

Walk the Plank!

To target your entire midsection, Triangle fitness experts say, do planks three times a week. An isometric, or static, exercise, the plank is also commonly found in yoga. Basically, it's the straight-arm part of a push-up.

Start with the modified, or elbow, plank: Lay facedown on a mat and evenly distribute your weight between your toes and elbows, keeping your back flat, core steady and head facing the floor. Hold the pose for up to 30 seconds. Do this three times in a row with a short rest in between.

Heart of the Matter

Heart disease is often thought of as a man's disorder but it's the No. 2 killer of women in North Carolina (trailing just behind cancer). Heart disease can present differently in females than in males. This results in challenges to recognizing cardiovascular problems in women, which leads to disparities in treatment, research suggests.