No gym? No problem!

My best piece of fitness advice ever has been to

"find something you love, and DO IT!!"

If you love running, then run.  If you love lifting weights, go lift.  If you love team sports, join a team or club that plays for fun and fitness.  Whether it's swimming, dancing, bowling, golf, roller hockey, cycling, boxing, figure skating, lacrosse, yoga, water aerobics or walking, just get out there and do it.  And keep doing it.



Today I'd like to share with you how I've managed to work around my excuses and find ways to get fit while being frugal, and having fun, too!

Up until recently, my favorite activity had been taking kickboxing classes at my local gym.  I loved my teacher, I loved the intensity of the exercise and the camaraderie of the group class.   (For posts about Body Combat classes at my former gym, go here:)

But then we moved out of the city to a more rural area where the nearest gym with my favorite class is 30 minutes away.  No more kickboxing class for me,  I thought.  No gym workouts period.

Without a lot of money to spend, I decided to use what I've got. And what's the one amazing thing that almost everybody has these days?  The internet, of course!  So I went online and found a few of my favorite Body Combat videos,  on YouTube!  

Here is a short clip of Yours Truly following along in the messy comfort of home:

(Want to give this Body Combat video a try?  Go here: )

Ok, so that's great!  But something else I also miss a lot...my "real" boxing class.  The class where we're taught everything we need to  get in shape through boxing, from how to wrap our hands to throwing  punches and kicks with proper technique and posture for an efficient and safe workout.  That fun gym that's one  big room of heavy punching bags, lined up side by side like a gigantic maze, ready for the pounding to begin.  I miss that place.

Again, I improvised.  Having been a yard sale queen, dumpster diver and keen eye for thriftiness for years, I am always on the prowl for good deals.  A stroll through a thrift store every now and then, keeping an open mind, is always sure to bring home unexpected treasures.  Call it luck, call it serendipity, call it being in the right place at the right time,  here's what I found one day at Goodwill:

 A perfectly good heavy punching bag!

This lovely bag of sand cost me a mere $40, and because it was local, not ebay, there was no shipping charge! 

My only problem was my laziness.  Sure, I love to raise my heartbeat with a couple rounds of hits now and then, but it's the tedious chore of wrapping my hands each time that I loathe.  My poor punching bag often sat for days, motionless.   Crying out for some of my hard superman punches to send it swinging again.  It was that silly issue of wrapping my hands up that kept me from going at it.

 

(For those of you new to boxing, the handwraps are key to protecting your hands, obviously.  Big puffy boxing gloves may absorb much of the impact, but you still need a tight wrap around the fingers, hand and wrist to hold the bones together during those rounds of smashing bags or skulls.  Just like a ballet dancer stuffs lambswool or even paper towels into the box of her pointe shoes to protect her toes from the agony of dancing on pointe.)

My solution: 

These great pink Everlast gel hand wraps!  Just slide your hands in, adjust the velcro strap, slip your hands into your boxing gloves, and start jabbing!

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the traditional hand wraps; ask any seasoned boxer and I'm sure they will prefer the long manually-wrapped wraps to these new thangs.  If I go to a boxing gym again, where I'll be punching for a longer time, why, yes, I would definitely prefer the traditional wraps.  You can customize them more to fit every nook and cranny of your sweet little hands.

But these are cool. 

I love these for my short rounds of boxing at home.  I don't usually spend a long time at the punching bag, maybe only a round or two before moving on to other forms of exercise.  These are much easier to slip on, pull on the velcro strap, slide them inside my standard boxing gloves and I'm good to go!

Get them here. 

Next issue:  Sometimes I don't want to have to think about my workout, I just want to do some cardio where I can get it done while my mind can float elsewhere.  Like taking a run while listening to music on headphones.  Maybe even reading a magazine or watching tv while letting the cardio machine track the miles.  

Walking or running is the  cheapest, and it's great when the weather conditions are favorable.  But until I get myself a dog, I have a hard time getting myself out there, most days.  So I decided to invest in some cardio equipment.  Whoa!  These things can be expensive!

Good thing there are sites like https://www.craigslist.com or https://www.offerup.com.   Buying locally means no shipping fees, you can look at it before you buy, it usually comes pre-assembled (a big yay! for me)  AND you get to meet some pretty interesting folks (and their pets!) while you're at it!  (Trust me, I could write a book about some of the characters I've met..)

Here's the sweet baby I found on Offer Up!

This is a more high-end elliptical machine, very sturdy, like the ones you see in the gym.

My price?  Only $85!!  Ok, actually I paid a total of $100 to get the guy to deliver it in his truck.  I went over to his house in just a standard SUV,  thinking we could fit it in, not realizing what a monster this thing is to carry.

(Did I mention that this guy's house smelled like a zoo and looked like one too?  Dogs, cats, gerbils, and rats the size of cats were the main occupants.)

Anyway, now I'm reaping the benefits of this monster!    

It tracks miles, calories, heart rate, even has a 3-speed fan on it to keep me cool. 

Building up a small home gym just takes a little time, patience and resourcefulness. So far I've got a punching bag, gloves and wraps, an elliptical, and all the internet's workout videos at my fingertips!   What else could I possibly need?

Another class that I really miss at my old gym was Body Pump, the weightlifting class by Les Mills that uses a bar and light weights to target all muscle groups of the body.  I really miss those group classes of choreographed lifts, presses, squats and curls set to rockin' music that made us sweat, grunt and groan together. 

Who says I can't do the same at home? Well, I'll miss the social aspect, but here's what I'm looking at to add to my home gym collection.. Check out this deal on ebay for a whole barbell set !

What I love about this set is that it includes a variety of smaller plates, so you can do the large rep, small weight routines like they do in Body Pump, assuring that you get a great lean look; strong, but not bulked up, a good thing for us ladies!     The "W" shape of the bar also keeps your hands from slipping.  52 pounds of weights plus the bar and the locks for just $45.99!

My other wish list item...these kettle bells :

I can't believe you get this whole set of kettle bells, from 10 pounds to 50 pounds, for just $14.99!   Usually weights are sold for about a dollar per pound, so hopefully this offer isn't too good to be true!

Check out the deal here:

Whatever it is you love to do, JUST DO IT.  And if you find yourself making excuses, just be creative.  I love hearing how people make a way, where there seems to be no way, just by using their ingenuity. Have you tried a new form of exercise lately?  Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!