When we think about being in shape, most of the time we think about going to the gym before anything else. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Joining a sports team/group could be a nice way to meet people while doing some exercise, although this article will talk mostly about weight lifting outside of the gym, because I’m not much of a “team player”.
I believe that anyone who wants to be in good shape must do some weightlifting, but it doesn’t have to be done inside a gym.
Generally, what the gym has that we don’t have is equipment. But the thing is that a gym has too much equipment, a lot of machines and other specialized objects that we don’t need. The basic stuff that is really necessary are the dumbbells and barbells, and maybe a pull-up bar and some form of a bench.
What? You don’t have a treadmill or a stairmaster at home? Go fu**ing outside and do some hiking instead, or if you don’t live near any mountain, do some sprints in a park, take your bicycle and ride for an hour or two or at the very least go jogging for half an hour. If you have access to a lake or public pool, go swimming. Jump on things, throw rocks around, anything that make you move and spend some energy. If you’re lucky enough to live near an outside gym, go there.
But the weather is not always good for these activities, or sometimes you just want a quick training because you’re busy with something else but still want to train for a few minutes. If you use social media just a little, you have probably seen many “home workout” videos in your timeline. While I don’t recommend that you buy the fitness plans of those people, who most of the time are just people with a six pack or big booty that improvise themselves as fitness specialists (which also probably train in a regular gym themselves). You can still inspire yourself from them.
It is quite easy to do squats, push-ups, and many other exercices with just your bodyweight. But it still isn’t quite enough, buying a few items would make it better. Having a few dumbbells and/or kettlebells would be nice, there is quite a few compact kits that fit all the weight onto two handles with an adjustable button that lets you pick up the desired weight. While regular dumbbells are definitely the best choice, the compact kits will do the job for home use (you won’t be using them 12 hours every day like the equipment of your local gym is). A step or box could be useful too, and a chin-up bar (please spend a few more bucks on the one that attaches solidly onto the doorframe) and a few rubber bands of different stiffnesses.
If you’re the crafty type, you can probably build up at least half of those items with wood and metal. But for the rest of us, buying them is pretty much the only choice left. It would probably cost a few hundred dollars to get a descent amount of items to create a usable gym, but anyway, how much do you pay for your gym membership every year? Aside from the cheap gyms that cost something around 100-150$ a year, most gyms where I live cost at least 200$ a year. So instead of renewing your gym membership, that you are barely using anyway, just think that the equipment you’re about to buy amounts to 2 or 3 years of gym membership, which you would be paying anyway. With the added benefit that the stuff is yours (which is an advantage up until you have to move them to a new place).
If you didn’t already think about it, most of these things can be found second-hand, because let’s be honest here, a lot of people buy this stuff and almost never use it then after many years of accumulating dust in a corner, they finally decide to sell them. So it is possible to get descent (and almost unused) equipment for a reasonable price.
So it brings me to this: just like not everyone is made to go to the gym, not everyone is made to not go to the gym. Before investing in all the material you need, maybe try working out somewhere else before quitting your gym membership. If you find out that you can’t get any exercice done when you’re not inside the gym (i.e. you get distracted too easily by TV, chores, etc), then maybe you should keep on going to the gym.
But if you can manage to do it, it can very well remove some stress of your back. What I personally like about training at home is that I don’t have to drive to get there and that I don’t have to wait to use the equipment. Gyms generally have a dress code, but at home I can train in pajama if I want. If you’re not going to the gym to talk and meet with people, then you may very well train at home or outside and it will be as effective as the gym, provided that you get the right equipment and use a little bit of creativity.