Good morning, fellow fitness enthusiasts!
I tossed around what I was going to write today, waffling between this topic and gym etiquette, but then I went to my mixed martial arts class and noticed a distinct drop in the number of attendees...most likely due to economic reasons. Our gym is not inexpensive -- luckily we paid for six months up front before Mr. Janus lost his job. So, it ended up being a no-brainer that I should write something about losing fat and gaining muscle without an expensive gym membership.
Don't get me wrong, I love group classes, because I find them more motivating than working out alone. I love gyms with cutting edge classes. But is a gym membership absolutely necessary?
Absolutely not!
Here are some ways to start getting ripped and healthy for very little cash.
1) Cook your own meals
In the fitness field, it is generally accepted that approximately 80% of your results are due to diet. You've probably heard eighty million times about meal planning, blah blah blah. The problem is that it is really, really difficult. Diet maximization means you eat every three hours and keep track of your "macros" -- or percentages alloted to each kind of food component, like carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The typical breakdown for the average person is 40 grams carbs, 30 protein, 30 (good) fat. Good fats come from nuts, olive oil, and dairy fat. You will have to experiment to find the right breakdown for you, and you will need to journal what you eat.
A meal every three hours means you must always carry something with you -- like a sandwich bag of almonds, a protein bar, or something similar. My desk drawer at work contains almonds, protein bars, and a jar of peanut butter.
How does this have anything to do with money?
Basically, it is a cheaper way to lose weight because you won't be going out for lunch or dinner. Cooking is cheaper than dining out. And when you cook correctly and pay attention to your macros, it gives any exercise program a boost and you will see significant results. Also you are less likely to binge when your macros are accurate. Notebooks are cheap, much cheaper than gorging.
2) Craigslist is your friend
Anthony Bourdain once said in his book Kitchen Confidential that chefs should never buy cookware and equipment new when they open a restaurant. The same thing goes for working out. Fitness equipment is sold every day on Craigslist and other services like it. You can get sets of dumbbells for relatively cheap, whereas if you purchase them new you get gouged. Unless you get a professional discount, stock your home gym through second hand equipment.
3) Fill an Army duffel with sand
This one comes to you courtesy of Mixed Martial Arts training. These guys, the real fighters, are hardcore and don't mess around with pretty equipment with the newest bells and whistles. Get a cheap duffel or dig one out of the closet. You can fill it with bags of sand, which makes controlling the weight of the bag easier, or you can put anything in it that shifts around and makes the weight unstable. You can do just about anything with a duffel of sand. Deadlifts, throws, Zercher squats, anything. Its instability means that you have to use your core to stabilize yourself and the weight. It's a killer!
4) Join an online fitness board
Nothing keeps you more motivated than belonging to a group that pushes you along. One example is Bodybuilding.com. Keep in mind, though, that liberals tend to be the minority on boards like this and sometimes the talk is shocking, racist, homophobic, sexist, and juvenile. If that bothers you, focus in on the topics that are relevant to you and ignore the political threads for your own mental health. On the other hand, things will probably settle down at some of these places after the election. In between walls of infantile behavior, you do find people who know what they're talking about. I learned about many myths I had about exercise from Oxygen. You need to create a user name to access the fitness board.
5) Check out your work benefits
Our workplace offers cheap gym memberships, but we are also working towards smoking cessation programs and group weight loss support. Employers sometimes get discounts on their health insurance premiums when they offer programs to employees. It could be that your employer just doesn't publicize what they offer well. Check in with HR. Hurry up before your health benefits, such as walking to HR, are taxed.
6) Run
I personally hate running, but some people get into it. The cost here is usually associated with purchasing good shoes, but that's an expense you can monitor and the internet offers good deals on discontinued shoes at specialized sites, like Road Runner Sports, which is currently having a shoe sale. Running is good for burning off election stress.
7) Go back to the beginning
A hundred years ago, people stayed in shape by...oh...doing stuff they had to do to get by. That means farming, chopping wood, shoveling, and many other things on a daily basis. Some of these things still need attention. Shoveling your walk burns more calories than you think. Check here to see how daily activity adds up! Since your house or property is now worth crap, fix it up -- and be active in the process.
8) "Turn off the idiot box"
It's a fact that the number hours spent watching TV is correlated with exponential weight gain. Save money by canceling your premium membership or even canceling cable entirely. You can still get the highlights on the Internet. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are online. And Keith posts here so you won't miss anything.
9) Walk, Forrest, Walk
Just walking around your neighborhood, fidgeting, and using the stairs instead of the elevator burns calories. One study found that fidgeting can burn up to an additional 300 calories. Fidgeting is obviously not enough, but take an inventory of how many opportunities you pass up to make your day more active. For example park far away from the door to the grocery and hoof it.
10) Read, and make a commitment
Go to the library and the couple of sites I recommended, read up on fitness science, and get a good sense of bodyweight exercises that can be done in your living room. And then make a commitment to do something every day. If you ignore #8, do your stretches, martial arts practice, or bodyweight exercises while you watch Rachel or Keith's show. Not only does it make use of otherwise fattening downtime, it keeps you from punching someone during that McCain commercial.
So, there you are. 10 ways to get fit with very little money -- and you might even save in the process. Not to mention the long term savings you will get from a lifestyle change.