You can do yoga anywhere, you just have to start. In the same breath, pun intended, you can workout anywhere, it's just a matter of being creative. I know, I know, even I have a hard time after lying around all day watching Lifetime movies and eating 'Pirate's Booty' to get my tush in gear and walk into the other room, burn some incense, turn on the music and vinyasa. It's even harder to put on my sunscreen, strap on my heart monitor and walk five blocks to the beach and run the esplanade. Ok, that one isn't so hard. I love the beach!!
The thing is, you never regret working out. You will always feel better and more accomplished if you get up and go. It's like those five minutes that are hard before waking up. You wanna snooze, but you know you gotta motivate. Once you do you're rockin' and rollin' into your day.
So, let's get started.
Get out of your house and go.
Well, put on sunscreen first.
Invest in an ipod mini or shuffle. It's changed my life.
Lock your door.
Press play on your mini, hopefully you have something on their that's super upbeat, it sends the messages to the brain to bring up the energy.
Start with a walk.
Look around.
If you are one of those people that gets bored with your work out fast, like moi, well then turn your walk into EXPLORATION! Remember when you were a kid? Yeah, well just 'cause you are bigger and more serious doesn't mean you can't pretend you're Indiana Jones on the hunt for the holy work out. Just play. Adults can play too.
If you live on a side street or a quiet street like I do, I like to step off a curb, face the curb about 6-12 inches away and toe hop one foot followed by the other. You'll look a little like Lord of The Dance but people will look at you only out of envy for being so creative and not like, what the heck is that nut doing?
If you are feeling really strong, jump both feet up on the curb then hop down.
You can do it side to side too.
Do either for like a minute then keep walking. It'll get the heart rate up and give you energy to keep going. Think, like interval training, but don't think too much about it, just move.
If you are walking on a sidewalk, those side walk squares are pretty big. Lengthen your stride and bend the front knee once you take that big step.
Then step your back foot to the next square and bend that knee. Go for a whole block or one minute, whatever is longer.
Watch out for puppy poo. It'll keep you focussed.
Bring it up a notch and pulse the back knee down a few times or hold the lunge for a couple beats.
Hold your hands to your hips to keep you balanced.
Do your lunges to the side. Step to the right for a block, then turn around and step to the left for a block.
Get your arms involved, swinging the arms toward the lunging leg. Like a speed skater.

Are their stairs near your house?
Start at the base of the stairs on the left. Reach your right leg to the far right of the first step.
Take the left leg and reach it to the far left of the step above that one.
Take it up a notch and skip every other step or bend the knee and hold. Walk down the same way and do several times or up to a minute whichever is longer.
Or, go up the stairs side ways, walk down and go up again on the other side.

It's important to move forward like you are walking but its always good to throw in a move to the side or add a pivot or turn and work in other planes of motion. It helps make you become more agile and quick. Working in different planes of motion helps you control your body under quick and unpredictable circumstances. It'll build focus so that you can keep the body in more control if gosh forbid, you ever lose your balance and fall. If you have kids, this is great training cause if you're like my mommies (clients), you have your Blackberry in one hand, toddler in the stroller. You guys are other worldy as far as agility so train yourself to get better so that after the toddler gets a little bigger, you don't have those creaks and cranes in your bod because you are better prepared.

Moving on...

Bring a jump rope with you and jump for a minute. Don't have a jump rope? Pretend you do and phantom jump.
Do your minute jumps in between every other song.
Ideally between Brittany Spears and Nina Simone.
If their is a bus stop or tree on your walk, take your hands and place them on the tree or bench, shoulder width apart. Take the feet hip distance apart and do push ups. One whole minute or until you just can't stand it anymore.
Take it up a notch and add a clap between push ups.
If you live in an area with trees and grass, it's a great place to walk, because the surface is unstable. The more unstable the environment that you are working out in and around, the better you will be in the gym or your work outs at home.
Is their a large tree nearby with a bulging root?
Balance one foot on the root, let's say the left one, then hop the right one to the root and send your left leg to the left. Keep hopping one foot then the other onto the root. This will help strengthen the ankle and work the core. Yes, the core, so far away from the foot, but it's what helps you stay balanced and strong and we all want a strong core (pretty much your entire torso sans arms and legs 'case you were wondering.

Get yourself a heart monitor to help keep track of your progress. It's fun to see how many calories you burn on a short walk of twenty to thirty minutes with all this fun stuff added in. It'll make you feel accomplished.
If you don't have a heart monitor. Monitor your breathing. Make sure whilst you are doing these little cardio bursts on the stairs or roots or curbs that you can say fa la la la la without feeling dizzy. If you are panting like a pooch, for goodness sake, slow down a little and that's a good pace.
If you wanna get technical, and we will later, you can take your pulse at resting and at your maximum to make sure you are not pushing yourself too hard. But that can be intimidation so just get out there and play and see what happens.

Just don't grab a donut afterwards.

Come home. Lay out your mat and do a couple down dogs and forward folds to stretch out, lower the heart rate and calm down. Take some deep breaths.

Try that and let me know what you think.

Some yoga later.

Be well!