Thursday, April 19, 2012

Who Needs a Gym

All too often we hear the same typical excuses of why someone can’t get healthy. The one that has been bugging me lately is “I don’t have the money for a gym membership, and I wouldn’t have the time to go if I did.” Well, there are no more excuses because that doesn’t fly! I have gotten into the best shape of my life and I have yet to set foot into a gym. My gym is my back yard, the park, the great outdoors, or on the bedroom floor if need be. All those locations come without membership fees.
As for equipment, one of my favorites is my own body weight. Do a hundred burpees and then tell me you didn’t just get one hell of a workout. Just a couple of weeks ago my workout consisted of 5×100 meter sprints, push-ups, pull-ups, and body weight shoulder presses. The entire workout, including warm-up and cool-down, was under 30 minutes.
My workout gear consists of sandbags, a sledgehammer, Bulgarian bags(made from a truck tire inertube), a homemade medicine ball and some kettlebells. The kettlebells are the only traditional weights that I own. I only need a couple of them, so it’s not like I had to break the bank to get them. The rest came from my favorite gym equipment store, The Home Depot. A 50 lb. bag of sand cost a couple of bucks. I wrapped the sandbag in duct tape(another couple of bucks) to give it some durability, and I’m working out for less money than a McDonald’s Value Meal. The sledgehammer cost a little bit more(still under $20), but I get to use it as tool(imagine that) to get work done too, so it is worth the extra money. The Bulgarian bag was pretty simple.  Cut open the inertube, fill with sand, zip tie closed and duct tape the handles – done!  The medicine ball was an old basket ball.  I cut a hole in it filled it with sand, and duct taped it(You may see a pattern forming here with me and duct tape).
No more Excuses! If you’ve got 20 minutes and your own body weight you can get great workout. Go outside, take a run/walk/sprint/crawl(yes, I said crawl) through your neighborhood. Head to the park and find something to climb(If you have kids they will love you for this). In short, learn to love movement again. Learn the joy of moving in a more natural way, they way we were designed to.
And here is a very important key point. You need to turn off the computer, turn off the TV, and leave the i-Phone behind. Go outside and play.

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