The Poor Man's Solution to Fitness
For everyone out there who might not be able to afford a great gym membership or can't afford to go out and buy weights, here's a few things I do that cost little to no money:
There are many object that we come in contact with every day that can be put to use as weights. Some of my favorites are:
Backpacks with lots of books in them
Milk Cartons or Water Jugs filled with sand or pennies/loose change
Any food that you can but in bulk is usually heavy..especially canned goods.
You can use things like these as weights for squats, bicep curls, etc...works great! Don't get me wrong, its great having real weights to use, but this is the next best thing.
Another great thing to do if you aren't a member of a gym is go to your local park. I know this sounds a little strnage, but hear me out: Things like monkey bars are great excersize no matter what age you are. Not only that, but there are tons of places at a pakr's jungle gym that you can find to do excersizes like chin ups.
When it comes to cardio, the obvious free thing to do is to run. If you live in a crouded city and you cant run, just jump rope instead.
Also, tons of excersizes dont require weights especially when your starting out (pushups and crunches, for example)....never make the mistake of thinking that in order to be physically fit you need to pay a lot of money...when the time come's, you'll probably want to get some weights, but when your just starting out, its not the most necessary thing.
I might think of some more stuff later, but for now I've got stuff to do...If you guys have any other suggestions, feel free to post them, because we can all use a little help no matter who we are...
Good Lord brother are you
Good Lord brother are you sure you are only 15?/!! Great post when i started boxing I use to Shadow box alot and it is an excellent cardio workout and change of pace. Also a heavy bag is fairly inexpensive and is again cardio and you will add muscle. You are so right about the push ups, changing hand positions will target different muscles. Good Job Kevin
Well, I'll be 16 in a
Well, I'll be 16 in a month...hahaha..thanks :)
Let me tell you
Dude I did the whole thing with the 4 liter (1 gallon) milk jugs filled with sand or water when I was 16 and I had the biggest arms on the block. It doesn't matter what you use for weight as long as it works. I have used a big long steel bar (about 8 feet long) with like four cinder blocks hanging off each end to do squats and deadlifts and clean and press. You have to make do with what you have on hand when you can't hit the gym. Running in sand on the beach is also great cardio, and doing interval training on hills is another great conditioning exercise. There are also lots of crazy exercises the russians made like the four man pushup, russian situps and all kinds of other bodyweight exercises you can use to build core strength. Also there are tons of plyometric exercises that can give you explosive power and don't require any equipment. And lastly, there are isometric contractions you can do that involve using your own opposing strength, such as isometric chest presses.
Couple more things I thought of
One of the greatest examples of strength is the handstand pushup. Once a guy can master these, that is an amazing show of strength and co-ordination. And I also forgot 2 or 3 other great bodyweight exercises you can do w/o any equipment like dive-bomber pushups, burpees and hindu pushups.
This forum post was a great idea Kevin! I think we should do a whole section on the site called "the poor man's gym" or something.
Dive Bombers and burpees
Yeah I do dive bombers and burpees in my bodyweight only program, and they are awesome. I didn't think they would give me as good of burn as they do. I also do a ton of squats and lunges, as well as close grip push ups, the plank (which is great for abs), v-ups, pull ups and chin ups. There are a bunch of more advanced things i wanna do too, but im not in good enough shape yet for em.
idea? its my life
idea? its my life hahaha.....
great ideas, by the way! My friend was talking about plyometrics because i was talking to him about gaining leg muscles so i can jump higher and he said to check them out...ill do that
Ive been wanting to do a handstand pushup for a while...today just for fun a tried a handstand and i held it much longer than ever have before, so im on my way.
I'll also check out those other excersizes you talked about (and most likely post about them)
EDIT:
Here's some stuff I found from what HealthyandHot said that I think you should all take a look at:
Plyometric Leg training - http://www.performbetter.com/catalog/matriarch/OnePiecePage.asp_Q_PageID...
At the very bottom, this page has a great diagram of leg workouts (which I will do when my legs are all healed up from the intense stuff i did before)
Russian Dumbell Sit Up
http://www.dietsite.com/dt/exerciseplanner/RussianDumbellSitUp.asp
i did 40 reps of this just now (20 with and 8 pound dumbell in one hand, 20 with it in the other hand) and it felt great.
Hindu and Dive-Bomber Pushups Explained
http://www.mattfurey.com/hindu_push_ups.html
Bodyweight exercises
A bodyweight only exercise routine can work great. I did one for awhile (and will start again soon hopefully because I just don't have time to drive out to the gym every day) and it worked pretty good. I didn't do it long enough to find out exactly how it affected my body as compared to a weight lifting routine, but I felt and looked pretty good after.