Do you want to stay fit, but get turned off by expensive gym packages and memberships? We feel you. Keeping your body and mind healthy doesn’t have to make your wallet suffer. Here’s 10 ways you can stay fit without breaking the bank.
- Run
This might seem like a rather obvious no-brainer, but many of us forget to even consider it. All you need are some ratty old running shoes, and yourself! Just head out the door, lace them on, and start moving those feet. This is probably one of the cheapest ways to stay fit. If you find that your neighbourhood is not runner-friendly, just head down to the nearest park and get your running fix! Plug in to some good running music such as ‘Eye of the Tiger’ or ‘Happy’ from Pharrell William for motivation.
- Get a skipping rope
While skipping rope might remind you of your primary school days, a skipping rope work-out is definitely not for the faint hearted. Long, intense periods of continuous skipping help you burn calories like no one’s business. Best of all, you can stay fit while watching your favourite TV shows! Anyone up for watching The Noose?
- Use Youtube videos
You could always buy workout DVDs to use at home, but why buy when you can get it for free? There are tons of workout videos on Youtube you can use to stay fit, so just take your pick from the wide buffet of options! All you need is a computer and some open space in your house, and you’re good to go.
- Get dumbbells
While dumbbells might quite be quite expensive, they’re actually a really good investment in the long run, because you’ll be using them many, many times, and you don’t actually need to go to the gym to stay fit again, because you can do a huge variety of effective exercise with just these simple weights. Get those with multiple weights, so you can adjust them if need be, depending on the level of intensity you want for your workout.
- Use exercise corners
There are probably one of these in your neighbourhood, so make good use of them. With pull-up bars, step-up benches and more, many of these exercise corners have a many of the simple structures you need to enable you to do a variety of exercises, so you can stay fit for free!
- Swim
Just head on down to your local swimming pool, put on your swimming attire, and jump in the pool! The public pools around your neighbourhood have a really cheap entrance fee ($1 on weekdays, $1.30 on weekends), so there should no reason for you not to take advantage of them to stay fit. Just hop on down the morning before work or school, and you’ll have the whole pool to yourself.
- Push-ups, sit-ups, crunches…you get the idea
If you really don’t want to spend money on anything at all, and don’t even want to get out of the house, why not just do some calisthenics at home. Simple push-ups, and sit-ups can be done anywhere around the house. Why not make use of your home furniture as well, like using your table or chair to do some dips. It all depends on how creative you are in making use of what you have to stay fit.