Exercise you can do without Equipment (or money)

[Mehm]

Barefoot hiking/walking is a good way to get into it. Bring a pair of shoes in your pack for when your feet start to get tender. Just like training muscles your feet will toughen up and you will be able to go for longer amounts of time. It really adds a whole new level of mindfulness and engagement into a hike/run.

I also second hitting up a junglejim or playground. Plenty of stuff to do pulls and pushes off of. My routine is to run up to the play ground, do windsprints, lunges, squats, pulls, and pushes. Sometime I only do one, sometimes I do them all. I also try to integrate jumping, landing, and balancing exercises into the routine.

 

[madaboutmuscle]

there is a style of training called metabolic conditioning or Metcon for short
it takes 20mins and you need access to a park if you dont wanna spend 30quid on a pull bar as trees work
you've gotta do as many circuit of 5 pull ups, 10 press ups and 15 squats in 20mins,
due to high no. of reps good cardio workout to,
if exercises become to easy do jump squats from all the down and incline press up

 

[Gattuso]

Yes i agree with you allans. There are lot of exercises that we can do without any equipment like
1. Swimming
2. Yoga
3. Running
4. Cycling
5. Walk.

Removed unnecessary link. No more of that. Thanks, AP.

 

[Psychotrope]

Look up dynamic tension. It basically involves flexing muscles and going through movements that alternate extension and contraction of opposite muscles, effectively using the strength of one muscle to provide resistance for another, and then switching. Its easy, quick, and requires no money.
This thread reminded me that I typed up a list of home exercises a while back. Here it is, edited a bit and with some explanations:

Warm Up/Light Exercise:
Stretching
Stationary Jogging
Kicking
Punching
Jumping Jacks
Knee Raise (Raise your knee to your chest, fast. Like a strike)
Arm Circles (Big ones to stretch, small fast ones straight out to the side works the shoulders)
Wrist Circles (stretching mostly. Make a fist and tighten your forearm muscles to work them)

Work Out

Burpees (just google it)

Abs:
Bicycle Crunch (Most effective non-equipment ab exercise according to Stanford!)
Crunches: Regular, Oblique (sideways...kinda), Alternating (come up towards the left, then the right, etc)
Crunches on Exercise Ball (If you have one. It expands your range of motion and is more efficient. Apparently)
Vertical Leg Crunch (Legs straight up. Crunch)
Reverse Crunch (Body stays on ground, use abs to pull knees to chest)
V-Sit-Snaps (Google. I found these hard)
Sit Ups (Meh. Not good)
Leg Lifts (Head off the ground, hands under your butt or by your head. Legs 6 inches off the ground. Raise them up, lower them down. Focus on the lower abs)
Bicycles (Pump legs in and out like a bike. Head off the ground)
Plank (Google. Hold for as long as possible, use your core)
Side Plank (Plank on its side, using one arm)
Isometric Flex (FLEX AS HARD AS YOU CAN AND HOLD IT)
Stomach Vacuum (The Ahhnold loves this apparently. Look it up)

Chest:
Push Ups: Regular, Close (hands close), Wide (hands wide), Plyometric (push up OFF the ground, clap, land, repeat), Knuckle (Careful here, these are from martial arts class. Use only your first 2 knuckles. Consult google), Knife Edge (PUSH UPS ON KNIVES! No, hands sideways, one on the other. Supposed to be on pinky side, think karate chop), Tiger (Martial arts. Hands right next to each other under the solar-plexus, elbows back. Works triceps a lot I think) , Fingertip (Yep. Martial arts class. Careful), w/ Side Plank (Push up, rock onto right hand and stretch left to ceiling, move back to push up position and repeat on other side. Do it slow)
Isometric Flex (FLEX UNTIL YOUR CHEST EXPLODES FROM THE PRESSURE)

Arms:
Tricep Dips (Someone else explained it.)
Straight Arm Raises: Front, Side (I think I meant raising your arms from your sides up to the front or the sides. Should work your shoulders. Hold weights or water bottles or books while you do it)
Isometric Flex (FLEEEEXXXXXXXXXXX)

Shoulders:
Press: Vertical, Side, Front (Press your hands from in by you chest out to the indicated direction. Hold something kinda heavy in each hand)

Back:
Upper/Lower Body Raise (Face down on the ground. Use back to raise upper or lower body. NO FLOPPING)
Isometric Flex (I usually do this with the ab flex or shoulders or something)

Legs:
Jump Squats (Squat stance. Jump up high. Land in squat stance)
Tuck Jumps (Jump and tuck your knees to your chest)
Squats (Legs a bit wider than shoulder width. Squat. Go for a 90 degree bend of the knee)
Horse Stance and variations (Google. Basically squat and hold. Push your hands out and keep your back straight)
Flutter Kicks (Lie on back. Flutter kick. Also tighten abs)
Lifts (Tippy Toes): Both Sides, Right, Left (Stand. Go up onto balls of feet. Use both feet, then one foot, then other)
Isometric Flex (FUCKING FLEX)

Google almost any of those exercises for better descriptions. Actually yeah, I recommend finding proper instruction.
Remember, always keep your back straight (when applicable). For leg stuff get a backpack and fill it with water bottles (gallons or 2 liters are good) or books or something. Gallon jugs filled with water, sand, or wet sand are good weights for some things. Smaller bottles or soup cans can be good too.

Oh, and run. A mix of long distance for endurance and short sprinting for explosive power is good.

Edit: I also had some exercises involving a bar that I deleted from that list up there. Here's some of that.

Pull ups: Underhand, Overhand, Overhand Wide, Overhand Side (These all work arms, chest, lets, core, etc. Tense all the supporting muscles you can)

Hanging Tuck (Hang. Bend knees to 90 degrees so your feet stick out behind you. Use your core to lift your knees up as high as you can. Really tighten up and tuck into a ball as much as possible. Slowly move back to start. Or don't bend your knees to start and just do it on the way up.)
Hanging Leg Raise (Legs straight. Lift them up as high as possible without bending your knees. For a different variation, bend your knees. You may want to look up psoas and iliacus stretches if you do this.)

 

[Jblazingphoenix100]

Here's the routine I just started, it doesn't require but a pullup bar and maybe a couple other things

NSFW:

Monday morning- 45 minute run-> Chest, tri's, & shoulders-> abs

Monday evening- Light cardio


Tuesday morning- Light cardio-> Back and bi's-> abs

Tuesday evening- Light cardio-> Grip training


Wednesday morning- 45 minute run

Wednesday evening- Yoga


Thursday morning- Light cardio-> Chest, tri's, & shoulders-> abs

Thursday evening- Light cardio


Friday morning-> Light cardio-> Back and bi's-> abs

Friday evening-> Light cardio-> Grip training


Saturday morning-> 45 minute run


Sunday morning-> full body stretch



As for the specific exercises:

Chest, tri's, & shoulders-
• Standard pushup
• Military pushup
• Wide pushup
• Diamond pushup
• Incline pushup
• Divebomber pushup
• Chair dips
• Side tri rise
• Pike press
• Lateral dumbbell flies
All exercises I do 2 sets

Back and bi's-
• Wide pullups
• Close grip underhand pullups
• Standard width pullups
• Standard width underhand
• Close grip overhand pullups
• Behind head pullups
• Concentration curl
• 21's
Same, 2 sets each


Abs-
• Crunches
• Leg raises
• Kayak twist
2 sets each


Light cardio-
• Two minute jumping jack
• Two minute jump rope
• Two minute double heisman
• One minute high jumps
30 seconds rest between each


Grip training-
• Newspaper balls
• Nutcracker, 200 squeezes each hand

I would suggest doing yoga at least 3 times a week. Once a week will only get you more flexible and slightly fitter...do it 3+ x per week to reap the full benefits, then you can tone down all that excess exercise.


THere's PLENTY of exercises you can do without equipment.

Google "buddhist Isometric exercises" (think it's called this).


Yoga is one of them, but you can only really get so much from it without being instructed...in fact you'll most likely hurt yourself if you really go for a good session, uninstructed, due to lack of correct bandha and breathing knowledge.

Swimming is EXCELLENT exercise - gets your whole body toned as fuck if you swim a lot.

WIll write more in the morning.

 

[skillet]

What's with all the 4 post members in this thread posting nothing really then adding a random link a day or more later? Bizarre...

I 'found' a copy of convict conditioning and really like what I've read so far (most of it, just skipping bits here and there). The basic idea is if you want to build strength you need to do just a couple of sets of <20 reps, obviously. So you start with easy versions of 6 excercises (pushups, pullups, squats, bridges, hanging leg raises and handstand pushups) and gradually build up to the full excercise, then gradually remove one arm or leg until you can do the one-armed or one-legged version, except for hanging leg raises, which are the final goal in that series.

eg. for pushups you start with wall pushups, then incline (against a desk) pushups and kneeling pushups to condition the joints and tendons and get used to the movement. Then move on to half pushups, full pushups and close (handed) pushups. Once you can do 2x20 close pushups you move on to uneven pushups (one hand on a basketball or other object), half one-armed pushups, lever pushups (using the other arm out to the side just to help get you out of the lower part of the motion) and finally full one-armed pushups. (You progress one excercise at a time, once you can comfortable do 2x20 or so of the previous excercise, I just wrote it out in groups as a shortcut).

I'd definitely recommend it, it makes a lot of sense, and is well written and illustrated.

 

[modern buddha]

What's with all the 4 post members in this thread posting nothing really then adding a random link a day or more later? Bizarre...

I 'found' a copy of convict conditioning and really like what I've read so far (most of it, just skipping bits here and there). The basic idea is if you want to build strength you need to do just a couple of sets of <20 reps, obviously. So you start with easy versions of 6 excercises (pushups, pullups, squats, bridges, hanging leg raises and handstand pushups) and gradually build up to the full excercise, then gradually remove one arm or leg until you can do the one-armed or one-legged version, except for hanging leg raises, which are the final goal in that series.

eg. for pushups you start with wall pushups, then incline (against a desk) pushups and kneeling pushups to condition the joints and tendons and get used to the movement. Then move on to half pushups, full pushups and close (handed) pushups. Once you can do 2x20 close pushups you move on to uneven pushups (one hand on a basketball or other object), half one-armed pushups, lever pushups (using the other arm out to the side just to help get you out of the lower part of the motion) and finally full one-armed pushups. (You progress one excercise at a time, once you can comfortable do 2x20 or so of the previous excercise, I just wrote it out in groups as a shortcut).

I'd definitely recommend it, it makes a lot of sense, and is well written and illustrated.

And there are other versions of pushups, like mantis pushups and hindu pushups. Yoga has a lot to do with these motions, but hey, it works different areas of your body and helps your rotating joints to get used to rotating.

 

[skillet]

Sure, they're in there too, hindu pushups at least, as alternatives you can use sometimes. But the main point is that for most people pushups, pullups, squats quickly become too easy to be useful for gaining strength just by using your bodyweight, so to keep the difficulty up and the reps down you try to progress to one-armed or one-legged versions. And the excercises involve more muscles (eg. for balance/stabilisation) than lifting weights, don't heavily load the spine at the top, it's harder to exceed intended range of motion etc.

 

[Bearlove]

I'm sure you've had one of those busy days when you get home and your aching? Well what gets 'you' aching? Simply repeat that exercise over and over and your set!

Gardening, running up/down stairs, walking , running , using your own body weight against you (crunches, Sit ups, press ups) sandbag training [fill a bag with sand and carry it / move it around the house etc], download some of the exercise videos from P90X.

 

[voxmystic]

I hate repetitive excercise, but I love to dance. It's free if you have something that plays music. Doesn't really build mass, but is excellent to tone up, and keep limber.

Singing is good, too, believe it or not. You burn a ton of calories just from breathing so deeply, and oxygenating your blood. It also conditions and strengthens the core muscles that support the diaphram.

 

[MyFinalRest]

I don't get into marathon style stuff anymore. I used to hit the weights and running hard and heavy, but as you get older your body can't handle the cortisol output. Keep at 45 min a day and you may actually reduce cortisol instead. Although this magazine is a too metrosexual for me I see lots of good equipment free workouts in "Details." It could help you strengthen your abs as well as the hold of your hairgel!

 

[tiggerific]

I'm sure you've had one of those busy days when you get home and your aching? Well what gets 'you' aching? Simply repeat that exercise over and over and your set!

Gardening, running up/down stairs, walking , running , using your own body weight against you (crunches, Sit ups, press ups) sandbag training [fill a bag with sand and carry it / move it around the house etc], download some of the exercise videos from P90X.

Sandbag training is what I was going to suggest. There are other household items you can use such as bottles of water, tins of food etc heavy books and use the basic exercises and hold them whilst doing it or, using them to increase the pressure to increase body toning and muscle without building up. even jogging on the spot whilst holding a couple of tins of tomatoes and moving your arms about will help build up rather than just the same old stuff.

 

[modern buddha]

Gallons of water are very useful, and cheap nonetheless!

You can use hardcover books as placeholds while you do pushups for an extra challenge (so you can balance while you press).

 

[llama112]

Yoga! I tried it and hate it but a lot of people love it.

Pick up dance moves from watching TV shows or anything on your computer. There are lots of dance instruction videos. Buying one for like $10 is better than the free ones but free ones will work.

Use water bottles or cans of soup, veggies, etc. for weights. Or you can figure things out with bags of sand or something.

Walking is definitely a big thing!

Crunches, situps, pushups, those kinds of exercises

Jumping jacks

There are some small investments (under $10) you could make such as
- skipping rope
- hula hoop

**Thanks for all the ideas in the above posts as well!!**

 

[euphoria]

Gym memberships are offensively expensive here.... so instead, today I just jogged down to the highway overpass where there's sets of stairs going up each side. I ran up and down those for awhile, alternating going fast and then going slow skipping a step in between. I did lunges on the actual overpass going to the other side. Then I did some pushups on a parking block. lmao.

24 hour ghetto workout pass yo... the world is your gym! get your ass outside!

hard body style!

 

[muvolution]

get a big fucking rock and haul that fucker around, do some lunges with it, run with it, basically just be a caveman for a bit.

 

[herbavore]

If you make your exercising a part of your socializing, it is a great motivator. I have two really good friends and we were having trouble finding time for each other with all our obligations. We made a pact a few years ago to make hiking or town-walking the way we get together to talk. I'm going to suggest that we add Muvolution's rock to the walking--that would look hilarious--3 middle aged women walking around carrying small boulders!

 

[muvolution]

I have like 5 or 6 big rocks and when I work out, I move them all over the place. It's great. I usually try to leave them in a cairin, too.


also, you could always just get a shovel and dig holes, fill them in, repeat, et al.

 

[slimvictor]

Between yoga, which I do 4.5 hours a week, and riding my bike to and from school - at least 100 km a week - I don't really need any other exercise. I could have bought bus/train tickets instead of a bicycle, but even with my not-too-cheap bike, I am sure I have saved money over the years. So, buying a bike instead of riding the bus can save money - and if you are looking for free exercise, saving money is even better!

That said, I love to build muscle, so I go to the park once a week or more and do chinups.
I do them in an "L" position, however, so I work my abs as well as my upper body.
I have built up to doing several chinups in a V position, and the rest in an L position.
Highly recommended as an approximately-whole-body workout.
(Add pushups and lunges and you are pretty well set!)

(I also pay for a gym, to do squats, bench, and swim, but I would still be in good shape without it.)

 

[herbavore]

I have like 5 or 6 big rocks and when I work out, I move them all over the place. It's great. I usually try to leave them in a cairin, too.


also, you could always just get a shovel and dig holes, fill them in, repeat, et al.

I already do that a lot--I practice extreme gardening. I plant trees and then decide they don't like where I put them and dig them back up with an even bigger root ball and plant them again.

I forgot to say that before--one of the best forms of free exercise out there--gardening. I just built a new wall that involved finding free broken concrete all over town and hauling it home bit by bit and then mixing 6 bags of concrete 1 at a time to mortar the whole thing together. When it was done I was sore all over but I now have room for chard beets and kale this winter.