How to Exercise Without Joining a Gym

We all know the benefits of regular exercise for the health. But we don’t always have time enough, a flexible timetable or simply the budget necessary to join a gym. That’s why today we suggest how to exercise without joining a gym. From your own place or outdoors. You can choose the modality that better suits your needs. There are some many options, as training on your own has lots of positive points.

1) Outdoors training

Training outdoors is healthier is case of doing exercise out of towns or in a big park, so we are in contact with nature. We can perform both strength and endurance training with simple materials such as: shoes, rubber bands and some easy to transport mean of hydration.

Depending on the physical level we will make the training walking or with continuous running. Choose an area with poor circulation and with different slopes, benches, stairs etc.

Warm-up and exercises

We start with 10 to 20 minutes warm up. We will work joint mobility and stretching.

Then, we will make 3 to 5 series of varied exercises. Each of them will last for 40 seconds and will be done continuously: bands, push-ups, burpies, sit-ups, jumps, stairs climbing… We will carry on walking or running for 3 to 5 minutes between series, recovering and hydrating.

Series can be organized depending on muscular groups or combining upper body, lower body and medium body. It would be great to have medium/high intensity exercises, to tone and gain strength, as well as activating the metabolism of fat. My advice is not to lengthen the training for more than 1 hour / 1 hour and 15 minutes, depending on the intensity level, so you don’t get too tired. It’s advisable to practice this training from 2 to 4 times a week.

We end up with some stretching and back to calm, hydration and nutrition.

2) Training at home

Warm-up and exercises

Time is an advantage when training at home. We don’t have to move to the gym and can take advantage of the breaks to accomplish different tasks. It would be more difficult to practice aerobic exercise though. We would need a cardio machine such as an static or elliptical bike. If we are ready to get in shape, we will need some tools that make it easier and motivate us, such as dumbbells, elastic bands, a rope, a bosú ball, a mat, certain furniture that help us doing some exercises and stairs.

Just like outdoors, we warm up (but for a shorter time- 10/15 minutes) taking into account that we warm up quicker indoors. We follow with joint mobility and stretching.

Specific work will be 3 to 5 series of 3 or 5 varied exercises each: jumping on the rope, push ups, pull ups, stairs climbing, running intervals on the same place, squats, strides, sit ups, toning with elastic bands. Each exercise lasts for 30 seconds to 1 minute (non-stop). We recover on the cardio machine (in case we have one) for 3 to 5 minutes between series. The time needed for this training will be from 45 minutes to 1 hour, 2 to 4 days a week.

The best option is actually to have a Personal Trainer that plans the sessions for you each week, settle an objective and finds the way of motivate you. Someone that knows your needs; free time, physical level… also to prevent you from being injured or getting too tired that makes you abandon.

And if you need an introduction to physical activity with the best orientation, some habits to implement on your routine and combine it with a healthy diet, have a look to our SHA Fitness Programme. It’s exactly what you are looking for!