Cheap Exercise Tips For A Fit Frugal Lifestyle

Cheap exercise tips for those of us who want to stay fit and healthy but who don't have the budget to afford expensive gym memberships.

When we were a double income family, both my partner and myself would visit the gym about three times a week, it was great for the first couple of months and then afterwards we got rather bored, although we did still go. The biggest problem was paying over £1000 a year for both of our gym memberships for something we were not enjoying.

So we have now stopped our memberships to gyms and have developed lots of cheap exercise plans that don't cost us a lot of money or time and which we don't become bored of. By incorporating many exercises into our daily lives we hardly notice the fact that we are keeping ourselves fit and healthy.

A lot of these tips may seem obvious, but it is amazing how many people don't take advantage of all the free and easy cheap exercises around them, just because they don't necessarily consider them real Exercise. Well the good news is all of the following cheap exercise tips will help to keep you toned and fit all on a frugal living budget.

Housework

Put away all those labour saving devices and use some of that elbow grease. Chores that need to be carried out in the house every day can be turned into great exercise workouts.

So get the brushes, scrubbers and cleaning clothes out. The more you build up a sweat the better your work out is. End result, a great clean house and a fitter you.

As a guide it is estimated (based on a 150pound person) that washing dishes for 30 minutes burns around 77 calories, gardening for 30 minutes uses around 183 calories and washing those windows for the same time will burn 105 calories.

Shopping

Instead of doing all your shopping in one go, what about breaking it up into several small grocery shops during the week. Then while you are there, use a basket rather than a trolley and bag all your groceries yourself. This is a great strength and cardiovascular workout. I always get home slightly out of puff but feeling great.

Walking

This is the ultimate cheap exercise and something that a lot of us do very little of these days. Even taking a regular brisk walk around the block will help with your fitness. Utilising local parks, forests and open spaces in your area will help to keep the activity varied and interesting.

If you have children it will help them with their fitness too and help to give you quality time with them.

Stairs

How many of us use the elevator or escalator instead of the stairs without giving it a second thought? All those stairs you encounter when you are out are like little bursts of exercise through out the day.

My fitness increased tremendously once I ditched the elevator.

Exercise videos

Rule number one, never buy an exercise video. You will get bored of it quickly and it will become dated very quickly. Instead use your local library to take out cheap exercise videos. They can be great fun to do at home and they can give you a real sense of achievement at the end of them. They are also a great way to target certain areas of your body that might not normally get much exercise.

Chair exercises

As part of my daily routine I always collapse into a chair to watch TV every evening. However I am a restless sitter and have discovered that by doing some simple sitting down exercises I have managed to tone many areas of my body.

Butt clenches are great, alternate cheeks and speed; soon you will have buns of steel. Leg lifts are good too whilst sitting down, you soon feel the muscles tightening after a while.

Find a friend

Exercising on your own can get boring and lonely. A good tip is to ask a friend to join you in doing some exercise with you perhaps once a week. Running is another cheap exercise option and one that is great to do with a friend.

Used equipment

If you do prefer to use some exercise equipment for your workouts then, yard sales are the best places to buy your cheap exercise equipment from. There isn't one home that hasn't bought some expensive piece of equipment in the past and which never got used. You can probably find any exercise equipment you want at these sales and all at a frugal price.

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