How to Get Fit On a Budget
Learn how to get fit on a budget with these money-saving workout tips.
Ben Greenfield
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How to Get Fit On a Budget
In this article, I’m not only going to tell you how to get fit on a budget, but I’ll also give you my best quick and dirty tips for money-saving workouts, body weight exercises, and affordable home gym equipment.
How to Save Money On Gym Memberships
Let’s face it: working out at a gym just makes it easier for most people to get fit, since there is such a wide variety of exercise equipment, classes, workout instruction, and social support. But memberships can range from $50-200 each month, which can make shrinking your waistline prohibitively expensive!
However, having worked at a gym for many years, I can give you three proven tips for saving money on a gym membership.
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Ask for the joining fee to be waived. Most gyms already do this in January, when everyone is rushing to join, but you can usually politely ask them to waive the joining fee at any time of year. Gyms will also often refund the fee if you attend the gym a certain number of times per month, typically 15-20 visits.
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Commit to a long term membership. If you’re really serious about achieving your goals, and you want to save money too, ask the gym salesperson whether you can be offered a lower monthly price if you commit to a longer than typical contract of three, six, or 12 months.
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Set up a bidding war. Bring the gym you want to join the best local gym membership deal you can find, and ask them to match it. This is a good strategy if a gym close to your house or office is too expensive for you to join, but a less convenient gym is affordable.
How to Make An Affordable Home Gym
In the episode, “How To Make A Home Gym,” I go into greater detail about essential gear and tools that are good for a home gym, but here is a summary of what you need:
Elastic tubing: Although one piece of elastic tubing with handles on either end is fine, a few different tubes with varying levels of resistance can offer you more variety for exercises from pulling to pushing to twisting.
Free weights: A set of light dumbbells or a light barbell is fine if you’re just starting out. If you’re more advanced, you may want a range of sizes. One very useful and space-saving piece of equipment is a set of adjustable dumbbells, which allow you to adjust a single dumbbell from five pounds up to over 50 pounds.
Stability ball: This is the big ball you can use for crunches, squats, sit-ups and even as a bouncy, moving desk chair. As an added bonus, you get the workout of pumping it full of air.
Mat: I prefer a standard yoga mat, although there are thicker options if you happen to be a princess-and-the-pea type of exerciser.
Foam roller: A foam roller can be used for a warm-up or cool-down muscle massage, as a balance device, or as a fulcrum for doing variations of crunches and back bridges.
Cardio equipment: Here’s where you may need to start spending a bit more money. Though a simple, inexpensive weighted jump rope will burn quite a few calories, you should also consider an elliptical trainer, treadmill, or bicycle. Craigslist or your local classifieds listing can often offer such equipment at much more affordable prices than purchasing new, but expect to spend anywhere from $200 to $600 on a decent piece of cardio equipment.
Body Weight Exercises
Even if you have no money to spend on exercise equipment, you can easily work out with just your body weight in a park, backyard, basement, or living room. Beginners can start with push-ups, squats, lunges, or crunches, and here are a few more intermediate-advanced exercises that will keep you from getting bored:
Towel pull-ups: Wrap a towel over the top of your door and pull yourself up. If that is too difficult, tie a knot in one end of the towel, close the towel in the door, and then pull on the towel in a rowing motion (the towel doesn’t move, just your body).
Somersault push-ups: This exercise burns a ton of calories. You simply sit on the ground, somersault backwards, then somersault forwards, kick your legs out, and do a push-up.
Stair lunge jumps: Put one foot on a step and the other foot on the ground. Jump and switch legs! For added difficult, space your legs by two to three stairs.
Be sure to check out this YouTube channel, where there are more than 30 additional body weight exercises for you to try!
A Money Saving Workout
Finally, here is a workout that will cost you nothing, burn tons of calories, and keep you entertained. It is performed as a circuit, going from the first exercise to the last with minimal rest. Try to perform 3-5 circuits.
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25-50 Jumping Jacks, or 30-60 seconds of any other cardio
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10-15 Repetitions of a Push-Up Variation
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25-50 Jumping Jacks, or 30-60 seconds of any other cardio
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10-15 Repetitions of a Squat Variation
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25-50 Jumping Jacks, or 30-60 seconds of any other cardio
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10-15 Repetitions of a Plank or Crunch Exercise
The only drawback to the workout above is that it doesn’t include any upper body pulling exercise, so if you can include some type of rowing or pulling exercise, it will help to balance out your upper body muscles. For example, you could install a pull-up bar in your house, or do the towel pull-up I mentioned earlier.
Do you have body weight exercises or other money-saving workout tips? Share them with others at the Get-Fit Guy Facebook page.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.