Free exercise

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thrifty++
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Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Free exercise

Post by thrifty++ »

I am thinking of packing in the gym to save another $80 a month. However I have clung to it my whole life and use it on a regular basis. I am hoping to hear of strategies and tricks (and possibly all in one devices to buy - not like a while piece of gym equip though) to be able to have robust all body workouts.

Walking or runnning will not cut it. That might be part of a regime, but only a part. Particularity seeking advice on resistance workouts. For males. Typically I have done a mix of regular weight training, swimming, yoga, and some running, and walking as trainsport. So need something equally robust and muscle growing, fitness enhancing, health developing and fat minimising.

chenda
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Location: Nether Wallop

Re: Free exercise

Post by chenda »

Buy a pair of dumbells and just get a swim membership - or pay as you go. Swimming is a good all round cardio and usually pretty cheap.

BRUTE
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Re: Free exercise

Post by BRUTE »

thrifty++ could start building a home gym. with not so much investment, it's possible to lift weights better than at most commercial gyms using barbells. this will likely incur costs of several hundred dollars. MMM has posted on this, brute thinks. it basically involves buying a squat rack, a barbell, and some weights. few things increase strength better than deadlifts, squats, and presses. cleans are fun too.

metabolic conditioning and endurance (cardio) can easily be done by bodyweight interval training and sprints. jump ropes are good too, and cheap. kettlebells cost some money, but offer a great combination of strength, strength-endurance, and metcon.

for pure strength, the barbell route is the best. metcon can easily be added to anything. endurance can be trained on the cheap (long distance running, biking, swimming), but is also somewhat sport specific. if general cardio is desired, any of these methods will be fine. kettlebells are kind of a mix, but they're pretty good value. for <$100 new, they deliver a lot of results efficiently.

Riggerjack
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Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: Free exercise

Post by Riggerjack »

Apprentice stone mason. Move rocks. Break rocks. Lift rocks, repeat. And get paid!

Downside, it may require more time than you want to give it...

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C40
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Re: Free exercise

Post by C40 »

+1 to what BRUTE said.

If you have space for it in your home, you can get weightlifing equipment for pretty cheap (and sell it later for the same price). For my basement I had a power rack, barbell, bench, and abotu 300lbs of weights. Got it all for $300 I think and sold it for $300 (or even more because right when I bought it, I sold the third pair of 45s which I didn't need). With that, I could do all kinds of stuff. I liked working out at home WAY better than going to a gym:
- No transportation required
- Lift whenever you want
- Can take however long rest you want and do productive things at home during rest periods (I liked 5 minutes between sets) , and thus for strength training your actual time required for working out can be reduced by like 80% (because for weightlifting, most of the time in a gym you're just standing/sitting there doing nothing


Now that I live in my van, I've found bodyweight calisthenics that are a pretty darn good replacement. They aren't quite as good, with my main reason being that monitoring improvement is much harder when I'm providing resistance with an arm or the exercises are just not as repeatable. But I've replaced Squats, overhead press, bench press, and rows quite easily. (And of course I can do pullups on bars, playgrounds, trees, etc.). I described my routine somewhere in my journal.

Cardio stuff should be ovbious and easy to do outside or at home in most cases, barring maybe daily torrential rain or really long and cold winters (but there are ways to do it at home inside - a bike on a trainer or rollers, burpees, jumprope, intense sex, certain home chores, etc.)
Last edited by C40 on Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

stand@desk
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Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 9:40 pm

Re: Free exercise

Post by stand@desk »

Are you as fit as this dude?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlJ_xDzmdg

thrifty++
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Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: Free exercise

Post by thrifty++ »

BRUTE wrote:thrifty++ could start building a home gym. with not so much investment, it's possible to lift weights better than at most commercial gyms using barbells. this will likely incur costs of several hundred dollars. MMM has posted on this, brute thinks. it basically involves buying a squat rack, a barbell, and some weights. few things increase strength better than deadlifts, squats, and presses. cleans are fun too.
I live in an apartment in the middle of a very expensive city. So home gym not a feasible option.

thrifty++
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Re: Free exercise

Post by thrifty++ »

stand@desk wrote:Are you as fit as this dude?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlJ_xDzmdg
No but I have got nicer teeth.

Looks like he is doing some cool stuff outdoors.

thrifty++
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Re: Free exercise

Post by thrifty++ »

C40 wrote:Now that I live in my van, I've found bodyweight calisthenics that are a pretty darn good replacement. They aren't quite as good, with my main reason being that monitoring improvement is much harder when I'm providing resistance with an arm or the exercises are just not as repeatable. But I've replaced Squats, overhead press, bench press, and rows quite easily. (And of course I can do pullups on bars, playgrounds, trees, etc.). I described my routine somewhere in my journal.
Yeah I was have been thinking about calisthenics but was worried about measurement problems leading to no motivation. Do you try measure progress through repetitions?

stand@desk
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Re: Free exercise

Post by stand@desk »

Thrifty is right, it's not a question of "needing equipment" but of motivation. You can do endless close grip triangle pushups and one legged squats etc all day and get super ripped, but you need upper percentile levels of motivation for that. If you go to the gym, you see other people working out so you have others to "stack up against" for motivation. Motivation comes easier when you are working out around rivals or beautiful girls. I think this can be somewhat "hacked" by just doing your own work outs and watching some youtube videos of people working out to simulate that you are working out with others. But if it is really the "gym environment" you crave instead of the hard work of working out, then you need to be honest with yourself.

Scott 2
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Re: Free exercise

Post by Scott 2 »

Another strategy is to get hired teaching classes or training people on a very part time basis. Instructors often get to use the gym for free.

Pick something like spin or Zumba, and you'll also get paid to work out.

A couple kettlebells and resistance bands will fit anywhere. The heavy duty ones used by power lifters are awesome cable alternatives.

KevinW
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Re: Free exercise

Post by KevinW »

Ideas for strength training, from largest initial investment to smallest:
new home gym ("Bowflex"), used home gym, weightlifting equipment, monkii bars (https://monkii.co/), kettlebells, bodyweight exercises with pullup bar (http://www.simplefit.org/), bodyweight exercises at a public park, bodyweight exercises with nothing ("prison workout")

Ideas for cardio training in the same order:
new treadmill/stationary bike, used treadmill/stationary bike, bicycling, jogging, swimming (if you have free access to a body of water), jump rope, running up stairs, jumping jacks

Stretching routines are just a Google search away.

I tend to agree with stand@desk, motivation is a bigger obstacle than facilities. It's possible to do a complete workout with just a few square feet of space and some YouTube videos. But following through without external motivation, especially during the initial period when there are no visible gains, seems to be very difficult.

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Ego
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Re: Free exercise

Post by Ego »

stand@desk wrote: But if it is really the "gym environment" you crave instead of the hard work of working out, then you need to be honest with yourself.
Personally, the gym environment has grown on me. I mentioned before about the old guy at the gym with whom I am in an ongoing handstand competition. This morning a woman pulled me aside to tell me about a twenty-something guy who has started doing handstands. She asked him about it and he told her he had started because he had seen me doing them. Next time I see him I am going to introduce him to the old guy and see if we can start a movement of our own. I push myself harder when I've got others to compete with.

I mentioned the November Project in another thread. If you are looking for group motivation, you might try this if there is one near you. If not, start one. https://november-project.com/

BRUTE
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Re: Free exercise

Post by BRUTE »

convict conditioning has a pretty cool progression system over a variety of bodyweight movements. the only equipment needed is really something to do pull-ups from.

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C40
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Re: Free exercise

Post by C40 »

I downloaded the Convict Conditioning book and now I'm gonna get totally jacked... like a felon

halfmoon
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Re: Free exercise

Post by halfmoon »

This thread makes me feel ancient. I would far rather do something joyful or productive than repetitive motion designed to sculpt my body.* Form follows function, maybe?

Some suggestions for free exercise:

Walking (ultimate joy for me)
Dancing
Building something for yourself
Building something for others (e.g. Habitat for Humanity, or a side business in garden sheds)
Gardening
Planting trees
Clearing brush
Eradicating invasive plants
Restoring wetlands
Cutting firewood, either for yourself or for sale
Trail maintenance (brutually hard work, FYI)
Volunteer firefighting
Digging (Any time I whine about feeling sluggish, DH says: "Dig a hole and plant something.")
Etc., etc.

Some of these activities can make you more interesting/interested, some can make you a little money, and most will give you some useful muscles if pursued on a regular basis. I'm sure that @7wb5 could provide a few more suggestions. 8-)


*totally aside from the fact that my body is probably well past sculpting.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Free exercise

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

halfmoon said: Some of these activities can make you more interesting/interested, some can make you a little money, and most will give you some useful muscles if pursued on a regular basis. I'm sure that @7wb5 could provide a few more suggestions. 8-)


*totally aside from the fact that my body is probably well past sculpting.
Yes, I am generally in accordance with the "make work fun/ make play productive" modus operandi. Some other ideas might be:

1) Ride your bike with hauling trailer attached to used book sale 10 miles away.

2) Get paid to take two tykes to a wave park for the afternoon.

3) Hike a trail which is also a frisbee golf course and pick-up all the returnable cans the terrible frat boys left behind.

4) Lure others into stretching your legs into unnatural postures

5) Beach comb.


However, I will concede that the downside of this mixed approach is that you need to allot more time overall and exert more energy to planning and overcoming initial inertia than daily calisthenics routine would require. So, your druthers might really depend on what you are currently attempting to maximize in your system. I think what I am attempting to maximize is something like the time I am able to relax and indulge in the reading of 19th century gardening essays in a lovely setting with a refreshing beverage within reach. But, sometimes it seems like there is an almost infinite regress through which I must travail to achieve this state of being. Unfortunately, since I am seemingly not capable of relaxing enough to achieve the epitome of enjoyment of 19th century gardening essay reading unless I have recently engaged in vigorous sexual activity, I must also still concern myself somewhat with the sculpting of my body into something resembling an attractive vacuum into which masculine energy might be likely to flow.

BRUTE
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Re: Free exercise

Post by BRUTE »

brute would say it can really depend. the question is basically if outsourcing/separation of concerns is a better fit than insourcing/holistic renaissance man/lifestyle behavior.

for brute currently, it's 90% outsourcing/separation of concerns. brute's job involves sitting on a chair for 8 hours a day, and brute's sleep involves lying down for 8 hours. even finding a garden to dig a whole in or squat to plant a sapling would be more effort than brute is willing to put into physical activity. yet a close-by gym or some bodyweight exercises lead to a bunch of exercise with <1h per week invested. this allows brute to maintain some physical capabilities when his lifestyle is extremely incompatible with digging ditches and running around with dogs.

if brute lived on a farm in the countryside, he'd probably think the other way around.

halfmoon
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Re: Free exercise

Post by halfmoon »

7Wannabe5 wrote:However, I will concede that the downside of this mixed approach is that you need to allot more time overall and exert more energy to planning and overcoming initial inertia than daily calisthenics routine would require. So, your druthers might really depend on what you are currently attempting to maximize in your system.
BRUTE wrote:this allows brute to maintain some physical capabilities when his lifestyle is extremely incompatible with digging ditches and running around with dogs.
Conceded; different approaches are optimal according to the individual and current life circumstances. There was a time when my workload involved sitting in a chair for 10 hours/day, which was intensely frustrating because I lived in the woods and yet had no energy to take advantage of natural physical/recreational opportunities. I tried to exercise indoors, but that was sheer drudgery. I don't ever want to be there again.
7Wannabe5 wrote:4) Lure others into stretching your legs into unnatural postures
I just knew that 7wb5 would have some helpful suggestions. :lol:

Scott 2
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Re: Free exercise

Post by Scott 2 »

For me at least, the gym time is play. I enjoy every minute of what I'm doing. If I didn't, I would quit and do something else.

I find the intense dosing causes a different physical and mental response than active daily living. It's much more about feeling great than appearance.

One of the first things I did when living on my own was put together a home gym. It's varied over the years, but pretty nice at this point. Yet, I also have a gym membership, because it's fun to try new stuff, and despite my extreme introversion, it scratches a necessary social itch.

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