Get Rid of that Gym Membership

Ditch the Gym and Still Get Fit While Saving Time and Money

So a large part of my life is about simplification. And when it comes to exercise, I don’t always have 2-3 hours a day to devote to attending the fitness center. That’s just stupidly ineffective when you start taking into account travel time and bath time, etc. So what I’ve been doing (and have found excellent results with) is finding ways to make physical fitness part of my daily routine. So let me tell you what I do, and how you can do the same.


And no, you’re not likely to get instant results, but the collective effect of making these small modifications over time is MUCH easier to continue than your $99 a month gym membership to Bally’s, Golds, or that 24 hour fitness center. I don’t know about you, but I love saving money and even more importantly: time.


Please maintain an open-mind and don’t fret so much about what other individuals think, because this is quite distinct and you may get some funny looks, but you’ll get the last laugh with your new totally fit body! Honestly, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that’s the case for you, then that’s your loss.


Here’s how the "exercise at home (or work)" plan operates (these exercises can be done at home or even in your office):


As an alternative to doing your conventional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 days a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45-60 minutes at a shot… with this method, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.


The system will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 5-7 times per day, throughout each day. Now certainly if you work a normal office job, you are going to need to not be shy about carrying out a few exercises in your office and having your coworkers watch you. Truly, I’ve found that some individuals that have tried this have actually gotten their colleagues to join up with them!


If you have a private office, then you don’t have to stress about anybody seeing you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there is no good reason you can’t fit these in all through the day while at your home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.


If you’re on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I suggest carrying out your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.


A couple of the bodyweight exercises that are best for this use are:


bodyweight squats (and variations)
pushups (and variations)
forward, reverse, or walking lunges
up & down a staircase if one is available
floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
This checklist is not totally extensive, but I desired to keep it reasonably simple. If you identify other good bodyweight exercises, you can include those to your routine as well. If you want to keep it real simple and don’t like to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results. The bonus here is that these are 'real world' exercises, and use your whole body.


The fantastic thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a great deal of your body’s muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it’s generally not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. For the most part, you may just get a little moist on the skin.


An additional reward of this type of exercise is that now you don’t have to dedicate any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little during the day. You’ve now got some more free time (and money) on your hands!


Give this type of time-efficient workout schedule out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your typical gym routines. I think you’ll find that it was a fantastic way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You might try combining in a cycle of these “mini” workouts every couple of months to keep things refreshing.


Just remember that this is only one method of training and doesn’t mean that you should only stick to this method without end. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I’d recommend just alternating it into your armory of different training methods. And of course, don’t worry so much about what other people think…get the willpower to try something a little different. In the end, you’ll be the one laughing back at all of the “naysayers” at work that are giving you comical looks while they eat their burgers and fries!


If you want more tips like this and embrace the 'get fit slowly' lifestyle, then you'll definitely want to sign up for my newsletter. I'll put tips, hacks, recipes, and otherwise awesome stuff directly in your inbox. Also check out the fithacker.org tools page to see what I use at home to get better results than a gym.