Exercising w/o a gym

[Crom]

I was curious to find out how, if anyone, you stay in shape? Especially since I don't have access to a gym and most of the floors in my house are carpeted or occupied by furniture or people.

[Ghost Rider]

Sparring with friends, regular lite work out(push ups, sit ups, regular bits as such) and LOTS of walking and running

[General Zod]

riding bikes everywhere is also a big plus. got me down to size without any gyms when i was overweight for a bit. running/walking is also a big one as GR said.

[Korvan]

I ride a bike to work, and hit the gym a couple times a week for some weight training. If you don't have access to a gym, then push ups and some ab workout can be good. You can also by a portable chinning bar for some pull ups.

[Crom]

The only thing I have tried recently was yoga, but the carpets, with their poor traction, have limited me on what I can do.

[aerius]

Pushups & situps are no brainers, but there's other fun stuff too. Find a doorframe to hang onto and you can do chinups. If you have an unfinished room in your basement, look at the ceiling and see if there are any cross braces on the joists, if there are, use those for chinups instead, it's a hell of a lot easier to hang onto those. As others have mentioned, ride a bike everywhere, and if you have rollerblades use those too.

You can also use kitchen counters to do tricep dips. Find an inside corner, stand with your back to the corner, put one hand on each side to support your weight, lift your feet off the ground and do dips. Lower yourself down then push yourself back up, repeat till arms die. That's the hard way, to make it easier find a couch or a bed. Sit with your back against the bed, put your legs straight out, then put your arms behind you on the couch/bed and push yourself up a few times till your arms die.

Now if you have a place to hang with your feet off the ground and a fair bit of space in front, you can do this killer ab workout. From the hanging position, start by lifting your knees up as close to your chest as you can. If you can get your knees most of the way up more than say, 10 times, then try doing the same thing with your legs straight, this makes it a lot harder.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Running, walking several miles each day (on campus), many, many pushups and sit-ups. Constant stretches to keep me flexible enough for my tae kwon do classes.

-Damien

[YT300000]

Various sports, running, etc.

I also have a bit of equipment: 2 10 lb dumbells, 2 20 lb dumbells, 1 chin-up bar, 1 space of floor to do the excercises on, 1 of those neat spring things that you stretch to work your pecs, abs,etc, and 2 of those hand closing spring things.

[GoldenFalcon]

Find a doorframe to hang onto and you can do chinups. If you have an unfinished room in your basement, look at the ceiling and see if there are any cross braces on the joists, if there are, use those for chinups instead, it's a hell of a lot easier to hang onto those.

Oh bad idea; door frames are most of the time constructed in a not-so-strong fashion, and thus soon enough you could find yourself crashing into the floor unexpectedly.

Also, some of those cross-braces may not be too stable, and adding extra Human weight would be deadly as well.

[Durandal]

I do 2 sets of 15 pushups every night, along with 50 sit-ups every night before bed.

[Joe]

I do 2 sets of 15 pushups every night, along with 50 sit-ups every night before bed.

Only 15? For shame...

I like to run - running miles is nice, but if you're new to working out they'll wear you out pretty quick (I still can't run a mile without working up a pretty big sweat). Better just to do a brisk walk and jog.

Pushups are great, too. It's too bad you can't get access to a gym, weightlifting really does your body a lot of good, even if you aren't trying to put on a lot of muscle mass.

[Durandal]

I do 2 sets of 15 pushups every night, along with 50 sit-ups every night before bed.

Only 15? For shame...

I'm building up. It used to be 10. Though I wish I had some simple weights around so I could work on my biceps and forearms. I've really got to get rid of these girly dago wrists.

[HemlockGrey]

I do 45 pushups every other day, plus 60 "bicycle" crunches and squats. On the other days I do a weight-lifting regime (not terribly rigorous, but enough).

Question: I have a Nordic Track in my basement. It's essentially a cross-country skiing machine, but missing the arm-working thingys. Would using it about 30 minutes a day as a form of cardiovascular, aerobic exercise be worthwhile? That's about all I have time for; although, I do ride and bike almost everywhere.

[Joe]

I do 2 sets of 15 pushups every night, along with 50 sit-ups every night before bed.

Only 15? For shame...

I'm building up. It used to be 10. Though I wish I had some simple weights around so I could work on my biceps and forearms. I've really got to get rid of these girly dago wrists.

I see. I can usually only get to around 2 sets of 30 myself. My friend can do 5 sets of 30 in the space of about twenty minutes, he's a hoss.

[Joe]

Question: I have a Nordic Track in my basement. It's essentially a cross-country skiing machine, but missing the arm-working thingys. Would using it about 30 minutes a day as a form of cardiovascular, aerobic exercise be worthwhile? That's about all I have time for; although, I do ride and bike almost everywhere.

Absolutely, cardio rocks.

[The Cleric]

I do 2 sets of 15 pushups every night, along with 50 sit-ups every night before bed.

BWAHAHAHAH!!! 4 sets of 50, 100 crunches in 1:30, and 4 min of calf-raises. And I run track. I'M A SEXY BEAST!!! RAWR!!!

[Nathan F]

Sit ups and push ups are some of the most effective you can do, and you can do them if you have a couple feet of clear floor space!

I usually do at least 3 sets of 10, usually 4, push ups, and 3 sets of 15 sit ups. I'm sort of behind right now, as my left arm/wrist flared up the other day when I twisted it from an old break I had in it a couple years back. That plus walking 3+ miles back and forth to classes repeatedly every day.

[aerius]

Oh bad idea; door frames are most of the time constructed in a not-so-strong fashion, and thus soon enough you could find yourself crashing into the floor unexpectedly.

Also, some of those cross-braces may not be too stable, and adding extra Human weight would be deadly as well.

Good point, I'd forgotten about the shitty materials and workmanship that's common in most newer homes. Our nice old home was built back in a time when things were made to last. It's at this point that I brag about how nothing short of an RPG will put a hole through our exterior walls, and that the contractor installing our range hood needed to call in a concrete boring specialist to drill through our brick & reinforced concrete walls.

For doing chinups, if you have nothing at home to hang on to, find a playground with a set of monkeybars or a soccer goal and use that. Also works for the hanging ab workout.

Now, to make you all hate me and to give you guys some motivation, see if you can beat what I can do right now.

Pushups: ~70 (best: 100+, got bored, stopped counting)
1-arm pushups: 9 on right arm, 7 on left
Situps: ~80 (best: 100+, got bored, quit counting)
Chinups: 16-18 (best: 22)
3 mile run: ~27 minutes (best: ~20 minutes)
Hours of sex in one day: ~2.5 hours, ~6 hours including foreplay

[Howedar]

If all else fails, you can sort of hang from a desk on your back and do what amounts to inverse pushups. Not as good as pullups by a long shot, but it works your back and biceps okay.

[J]

Now, to make you all hate me and to give you guys some motivation, see if you can beat what I can do right now.
<snip>

Yeah, but I can throw you further than you can throw me

Not much to add to the stuff already given, but remember to stretch before doing your exercises. You can get away with not stretching up until you're about 20, but after that you need to stretch to avoid strains & other injuries. Once your body stops growing you can't get away with as many things.

[SyntaxVorlon]

I keep kicking myself to do some more pushups situps during the working day, but find myself playing games and typing messages on to this board all day long.

[Crown]

I was curious to find out how, if anyone, you stay in shape? Especially since I don't have access to a gym and most of the floors in my house are carpeted or occupied by furniture or people.

You should at least go out and buy a pair of dumbels. If you get a barbel, get a bench as well, although this isn't strictly necessary.

What you need to do first is list your goals; what are you trying to do? Do you want to be 'buff' or just have a decent shape? Are you going for the 'classical' Greko-Roman look? Or do you just want 't-shirt' muscles?

These things are essential in deciding what kind of shape you want.

Then you organise a work out routine for it. I want a classical Greko-Roman body so I need to work all of my body in order to get that shape, so I do a split 3 day routine, with 1 day off at the end so it breaks down as follows;

Monday
-Arms workout

• 4 sets of bicep curls using dumbels, everynow and then will do 'preacher' curls to really isolate the muscle, but usually I just do them standing up. Sometimes alternating, some times in unison.
• Chair dips to really hit my triceps, 4 sets of 15 reps, really focusing on control and squeezing the muscle. You will feel the burn!
• Every other week I will throw in an extra excersie to just give my body a shock, like overhead extensions, or kick backs (bent over).

Tuesday
-Back and Chest workout

• Bent over rows
• Pushups
• Shrugs
• Standing up rows
• Chest dips
• Pullups (some weeks these would replace the bent over rows)
• Try and get some shoulder work out here as well.

Wednesday
-Legs and shoulders

• Squats, learn to love them.
• Calf raises.
• Lunges (everyother week)
• Military press.
• Lateral and front raises.

Thursday
Repeat Monday.

Friday
Repeat Tuesday

Saturday
Repeat Wednesday

Sunday
Rest.

Now for cardio; do not over do it! If you want to build mass, overdoing cardio will not help you, it will hurt you. I go for a walk/run/bike ride (depending on my mood) straight after I wake up for 20mins, or after I do weights for 20mins also.

Now that is the important part, cardio is 300% more effective straight after waking up, or after weights, than if you do it anyother time. You would have to walk 45mins any other time, to burn the same amount of fat if you do it straight after waking up (before breakfast) or after weights. I usually do cardio 3 times a week. Building muscle mass increases my matabolism anyway, I don't want the 'ripped' look just yet, so it isn't in my training schedule as of yet.

And abs I throw in every third day when I can be bothered, but since we are going into winter here in Australia, I haven't started focusing in that area yet.

And just remember the formula for succes;

S = D(T+R+N)

D, T, R and N can either be 1 or 0

Where;
S = Success
D = Dedication or Determination
T = Training, or Weight Training
R = Rest or Recouperation
N = Nutrition

As you can see you can get a maximum of 3 for Succes, but if D is zero then you will not succeed. It is as simple as that, and the rest is bullshit.

[Joe]

Jesus, Crown, how do you remember all that shit?

[Crown]

Jesus, Crown, how do you remember all that shit?

By doing it every week for the last 2 months (well not the last 2 and a half weeks, since I've had a cold).

[Joe]

BTW, what does the "classical Greco-Roman body" look like?