Nothing is forcing you to go to the gym if you want to get fit. You could do most of the exercises you do at the gym, even strength training ones, from the comfort of your home. And, if you don’t like the feeling of training from home, you can do tons of activity outside. It’s really about being creative and understanding that you don’t necessarily need expensive dumbbells and machines to get results. Let’s take a look at how you can get fit without going to the gym.
Fall In Love with Calisthenics and Bodyweight Exercises
Bodyweight exercises may not be the best for people who are trying to build lots of muscle mass, but they are great for completely untrained people or people who want to preserve the current muscle mass they have. Push-ups are, bar none, one of the best exercises you can do, but you should also try to add chin/pull-ups to your routine along with crunches, squats, and lunges. The park is one of the best places to go if you want to get a full-body calisthenics workout. You could use the monkey bars for chin-ups and sit-ups and find a nice clean spot for the rest of your exercises.
Get Some Resistance Bands
We also suggest that you start looking at portable fitness products like resistance bands. Good resistance bands will give you the same benefits as weights though there will be a limit on how much you can lift with those. They are a great option for newbies and people who don’t need super heavy weights. You can use them from your home or in a park and perform everything including deadlifts and chest presses.
Get into a Team Sport
Team sports are one of the best ways to get some cardio exercise in and it sure beats spending 30 minutes on a cycle machine or a treadmill staring into space. Any sport that will get your heart rate racing will work here. Basketball is one of the best options because of how little equipment it requires. You can also easily get into a pick-up game with people at your local park. Soccer is another great sport that you can try as it’s highly demanding and you shouldn’t have issues finding people to play with.
Try Individual Sports too
There are also some individual sports that you could try. Swimming is one of them. Swimming is one of the best forms of cardio exercise that you can practice because it engages the whole body without putting stress on it. Cycling is another good option. Mountain biking in particular is very demanding and you can use your bike to run errands instead of your car if you want to burn more calories.
As you can see, you don’t necessarily need to get a gym membership to be in shape and healthy. Just follow our few tips and look at all the opportunities for exercise that the great outdoors offers.
