Get fit without the spend!
Regular exercise can have a profoundly positive impact on depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more. It also relieves stress, improves memory, helps you sleep better, and boosts your overall mood. So, here are some tips to make sure you are taking every opportunity to stay active. We’ve even included a few sites you can check out for free equipment, so keep reading!
1. Home Dance Exercise routines! Have you tried BollyX yet ? 💛
In September, Healthline published a list of the Best Dance Workout Videos of 2020. This list includes energetic routines from The Fitness Marshall, MadFit, and your very own, BollyX Fitness! We have linked the YouTube channel here, but feel free to reach out to our amazing BollyX Instructors and jump on to one of their fantastic livestream BollyX classes!
2. Walk, walk and walk!!! 👟👟
Walking is one of the easiest ways to get more activity into your day. Breathe in the fresh air, and go for a long stroll. Spending time outdoors is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. Taking a walk outside can help clear your mind and trigger new ideas. Research has shown that people who are up and moving around are more likely to be creative than people who are sitting down.
Try to fit a routine into your journey to work by walking ALL or part of your journey to work or get off a few stops before your destination if you are taking transport and take a nice long stroll and check out the amazing scenery…get creative and start taking some pictures of some amazing hidden views you would not normally see whilst on public transport and share them with your friends and family.
3. Couch to 5K – download the app!
Couch to 5k is for everyone it is a running app for absolute beginners, the plan involves 3 runs a week with a day of rest in between, and a different schedule for each of the 9 weeks. Couch to 5k is a free running plan for absolute beginners.
The biggest challenge a new runner faces is not knowing how or where to start.
Often when trying to get into exercise, we can overdo it, feel defeated and give up when we’re just getting started.
Couch to 5K works because it starts with a mix of running and walking to gradually build up your fitness and stamina.
Week 1 involves running for just a minute at a time, creating realistic expectations and making the challenge feel achievable right from the start.
4. Cycle to work (or workout, when in quarantine)! 🚴♂️
Whether you are cycling to work or school or even for your daily errands this is an easy way to be more active. Cycling is one of the easiest ways of fitting exercise into your daily life, it’ll save you money on petrol and public transport costs!😉
Have a look around your local area for work bicycle schemes.
Cycling improves cardio-vascular and aerobic fitness, lowers blood pressure, boosts energy, builds muscle, and improves coordination. Sneaking the health benefits of biking into your daily commute is so easy it almost feels like cheating! Biking to work makes you happier.
5. Stair Climbing! Where there are stairs, there is a way ;).
Take the stairs, stair climbing burns more calories per minute than jogging and counts towards your recommended 150 minutes of weekly exercise. Regular stair climbing is good for strong bones, cardiovascular fitness and weight management. It ‘s also safe, low impact exercise that requires ZERO equipment.
6. Park games 🏏
Okay, let’s bring some old school games back in the mix, to name a few, piggy in the middle, stuck in mud, hide and seek, or better still get the old rounders bat out or your mothers rolling pin and knock out a ball!
These types of games involve short bursts of intense activity and periods of rest, which are very effective for improving fitness, especially if you’re not usually very active.
Share some of your childhood games with your family and keep active together as a family.
7. Jump Rope/Skipping ➰ . Remember those hopscotch days?!
An excellent way to keep fit, skipping can be done almost anywhere at any time.
Just a few minutes of skipping brings a range of health benefits, including heart and lung fitness, stronger bones, balance and flexibility. The average person will burn up to 200 calories during 15 minutes of skipping.
Skipping is a strenuous exercise, so start slowly at first. Try skipping for 20 to 30 seconds, marching on the spot for 30 seconds, and then repeat. As your fitness improves, you can increase the time you spend skipping.
Once you have perfected the basic moves, you can make your workout more interesting by trying different jump rope workouts which requires a little more concentration to remembering all of the steps!
8. Join Green Gyms – exercise to make a difference and enhance your community spirit 💚
The one thing I love about this idea is community spirit! 💫
Improve your health and the environment at the same time with the outdoor alternative to the gym. Work up a sweat digging, planting, lopping and clearing paths at one of 95 free Green Gyms around the country run by The Conservation Volunteers – (UK Based).
Please do check if there is anything similar happening in your area, if not why don’t you start one of your own with a group of volunteers.
Experienced leaders guide volunteers through a range of practical projects, giving you the opportunity to tackle physical jobs outdoors. This can improve your strength and stamina, and boost your practical skills and confidence.
There are sessions for all fitness levels, and no previous gardening or conservation experience is necessary this is a great way to keep fit, volunteer your time and give back to the community.
Tips to retrieve Free equipment:
People often give away fitness gear, such as weights, skipping ropes or exercise balls. They are the kind of things people buy with high hopes and the equipment then lies around gathering dust. 😄
Check community freebie websites such as Freegle and Freecycle and send emails saying you’re looking for exercise equipment. Search regularly and you might get lucky.
Another option is to swap your own unwanted exercise gear for some different sports equipment using websites such as Swapz.
These are all excellent activities to get the family involved in and to keep all of you active. It is a great way to share with your family and create some incredible memories.