On the cheap: Exercise
As one of my big goals right now is to reign in my spending I thought it would be interesting to do a short blog series looking at how you can be healthy, fashionable and fantastic on the cheap! First up, exercise…
Its not all about the gym!
I’m pretty lucky with my gym membership which costs me £27 a month which I don’t think is that bad. My gym is only 5 minutes from my door, and parking is free so I’m not wasting any extra cash on additional mileage or parking. All of my classes are included in my membership too.
Although the gym can be great, especially in the winter months, there’s still a lot of exercise that you can do without having to lay out a monthly fee:
Running
All you really need is some decent trainers, a good sports bra and some suitable clothing and your set. If your new to running you can find lots of Couch to 5K plans online to get you started, as well as longer distance running plans. I think running really is one of the best cheapest form of exercise as long as you build up slowly to protect yourself from injury. You can even enter races on the cheap, Park Run organise free timed 5ks in parks across the country and many races take place at a low cost when you fundraise for a good cause.
DVD’s
There are an absolute mind boggling number of workout DVD’s out there for almost every form of exercise you can think of. Amazon is always a good place to start but don’t forget to compare prices on other websites too. If your looking for variety and don’t want to spend too much how about doing a regular DVD swap with your friends? Some Libraries even loan out DVD’s as well.
Magazine workouts
Lots of magazines include workouts you can cut out and try at home. If you don’t even want to fork out on the cost of a magazine check out their websites as many of them include workouts on their websites as well. My fave online magazine sites include US Women’s Health, Health and Fitness Magazine (check out their downloadable Body Shape Plan) and Ultra Fit (you can find all their workouts here)
You Tube
I’m just starting to discover the wonder that is You Tube, I think its one of the best sources of free fitness inspiration available! You can find video workouts for all kinds of exercise, my current favourite being yoga. My favourite You Tube channels are Blogilates, Body Rock and Tara Stiles. I now have my own You Tube Channel which I’m going to use to share with you workouts I’ve done at home (as well as the possibility of vlogs in the future!) you can find it here!
Podcasts
I am a huge fan of podcasts such as those available from Yoga Download. Many of the 20 minute podcasts are free. You just sign up, download the audio file and PDF pose guide and your good to go!
Phone Apps
As well as podcasts there are now loads of free and low price phone apps you can download. My favourites are Run Keeper, iFitness, Fitness Pro and the Gymboss interval timer
Something I’ve started to notice more and more are the number of workouts being posted on Pinterest. Some of these require a gym or equipment but a lot of them you can do at home and using your own body weight. Here’s a great example:
Check out the fitness pages of Pinterest for more inspiration!
Bloggers
Of course lest we forget that many bloggers will post details of their workouts – Fitnessista has some awesome workouts on her blog and many bloggers are personal trainers so they know what they’re talking about! I’ve even posted a fun ‘As good as the gym’ workout!
What is your favourite cheap form of exercise?
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