Whether you don’t have access to a gym or you simply do not not feel drawn to working out in such a public space, there are so many ways to exercise without a gym. As a premed kinesiology major hoping to go into sports medicine, I firmly believe that if there is a will there is a way to get at least some physical activity in every day. Exercise is vital to maintaining your physical health and can benefit your mental health as well.
Working Out at Home
Lymburner, Maddie. Madfit’s Instagram Post.
One of the more obvious solutions to not working out at a gym is exercising in the privacy of your own home. I think a lot more people got familiar with finding ways to get an effective workout in at home over the pandemic, though it can be tricky with limited space and some or no equipment. Those who can afford it can create home gyms, but people with limited space can follow workout tutorial Youtube videos, use makeshift weights (heavy water bottles, sacks of rice, anything), and buy cheaper equipment such as yoga mats and jump ropes. One fitness creator that I used a lot over the pandemic is Madfit. She has videos of different lengths and difficulty and she helped me discover exercises I had never seen before. She has a dance background that sometimes melds with traditional gym exercises to create unique and creative workouts.
The World is Your Gym
A photo I took while walking on campus.
Lots of things can replace gym equipment (if you are safe about it, of course). Replace the stair stepper with real stairs, do tricep dips on a stable chair, run on the sidewalk and up hills instead of the treadmill, and do core under a shady tree. Find a place that is comfortable for you. When I was in high school and my track practices were cancelled, I would do reps up the hill by my house and jog on a flat road to warm up and cool down. I still got an excellent workout in. Just be cognizant of being safe outdoors. If you’re in a city that can mean watching out for cars, protecting yourself from the weather, and making sure that you are in a safe area (crime-wise). This selecthealth article explains a few ways to stay safe outdoors in more detail.
Every Second Counts
What if you don’t have time to commute to the gym? I’ve already touched on ways to workout at home and around your home, which greatly reduces commute time, but I haven’t really talked much about workout length yet. Here are the recommended guidelines for exercise presented by the CDC, which is what people should aim for. However, any bit of physical activity is better than nothing. If you’re having a really busy day, you can squeeze in a short walk around the block or do jumping jacks while you wait for your food to heat up in the microwave. I personally love having to walk far for my classes–it forces me to get blood flowing through my body and to have an opportunity to listen to music and relax.
Dipping Your Toes in the Water
The gym can be a really intimidating environment with all the fittest people in town getting their pump in, but if you really want to try getting into it, there are a few ways to ease into it. Try going with friends for the first few times or staying in quieter sections of the gym until you get used to it. It would be even better if you have a friend who knows how to use all the machines and can teach you how to use them. You don’t need a gym to work out, but if you want access to more machines and additional means of exercising certain muscles, it can be a great option.
Exercise centers me when I’m anxious and makes me feel healthy and strong. It’s something that I recognize not everybody enjoys, but I feel passionate about making exercise accessible and fun. So many Americans suffer as they get older because they did not incorporate preventive care in their lifestyles (that includes getting enough physical activity), and it is important to further emphasize active lives to foster happier and healthier Americans.
I also loved doing MadFit’s exercises during the pandemic! Her dance background really makes it feel fun, rather than a chore. Your choice of images was strong — the picture from campus is really beautiful and compels the reader, as a Penn State student, to get out there on campus and exercise. My one bit of advice is to center the photos on the page — it would make it look a bit cleaner! Good work!
I really liked the topic of this blog post! I have been getting into working out throughout the past couple months, and I totally agree with your sentiment about it being really relaxing and centering. After a stressful day of classes, I love to sweat it out in the gym because it lets me get all of my anger out. Funnily enough, I was literally obsessed with Madfit throughout the pandemic. I think the isolation of spring 2020 really allowed me to understand the benefits of being active, because although it was a really difficult time, I felt better by getting some exercise. I also think you’re doing a really good job promoting different methods of working out for anyone who may be interested with this blog post. The gym can sometimes be scary, so I think it’s important that we promote healthy lifestyles without making others uncomfortable, which you did effectively 🙂
I love how you gave multiple options for working out not only in a gym, but in your house and outside. I think people tend to think they can only get stronger by lifting in the gym but some of those YouTube exercise videos are not joke. I like doing the ab/core workouts because they’re easy to do without an equipment but for people who are ok spending money, getting a roller or a pull-up bar is great for building some upper body muscle. The gym can definitely be intimidating sometimes and can be a hassle to go to if you don’t want to spend the extra money each month but I’m glad you offered some alternatives to this issue. If you look at people from the early 19/20th century some of them are very strong without even having gyms so it’s definitely possible to achieve your fitness goals simply by going outside and finding work to do that involves physical activity!
This was a really great post, and I love how you approached exercise! It is definitely a really intimidating topic for a lot of people, especially with the busy high-stress lives of college students. Personally, I have started to work out more to try to improve my mental health and so that I can be better at activities I enjoy, like hiking. I think diet culture has really warped the perception of working out to a lot of Americans, and I like that you took a more holistic approach to working out and how it’s not just going to the gym.
I think as a result of the pandemic, and a time when people were extremely bored and didn’t know what to do with all the newfound time on their hands, a lot of people turned to the gym and exercise. And especially since no one could really go anywhere, there were definitely plenty of people finding ways to exercise from home. As you said though, I think as long as you exercise in some type of way most days, it will be beneficial to both your mental and physical health.
I really like how you focused on alternative exercise locations in your post! Years back, I would watch exercise videos from Beachbody, and it was very convenient to walk down into my basement to workout. Also, I completely agree with you that people can pretty much workout anywhere. I think today there is an inaccurate stereotype that you need machines to work out, while there are so many more options. Great blog post!