Temporary alternatives to gym- weights and cardio

A

amy1985

New member
As those who have been reading my diary know, my gym membership is about to expire (on the 14th), and two weeks after that I'm going to Australia for six weeks. I've talked to the people at my gym, and it seems to me that there's no practical/ economical way I can keep going. But I want to keep up what I'm doing there.

I was wondering if anyone could suggest alternatives to what I'm currently doing, that I can either do at home or otherwise not in a gym. For cardio, I do about 40 minutes of medium-hard intensity (not HIIT throwing up territory, but definitely pushing myself to the point of near exhaustion by the end), and for weights I do a two day split full body workout, almost exclusively using dumbells. This is a temporary thing until I get back from Australia, so there's no point in investing in equipment.

For cardio, as I can't run for more than trivial periods at a time (I have weak knees- I'm pleased when I can run for 3 minutes) and walking doesn't really do much for me fitness wise, I was thinking about going to classes (e.g. Zumba- any other suggestions of the kinds of things I should be looking for? - I like to think I'm reasonable with search engines and I'm coming up with little outside the Zumba class I'm planning to go to, even though I know such things must exist). The area I live in is remarkably flat, so there's little/ nothing to be gained there. A supplement to classes would also be great, as given the cost going to 4-5 of them a week, even just for a couple of weeks, will get expensive.

For weights- are there any alternatives I can do at home with what I have or can have lying around? Cans in shopping bags? Old milk bottles (very weak plastic) filled with water or something else?

Thanks for reading- any suggestions welcome.
 
I'd recommend fit tubes/exercise tubes. They are fairly inexpensive and don't take up a lot of room when going on trips. Here's what I mean here:



With one or two different resistances and a door attachment (), you can simulate a large number of exercises that you'd do with dumbbells. It may take a bit of research and some playing around with the exercises, but you should be able to maintain your strength with these over the six weeks.

As for cardio, why not do a run/walk program? If you can only run for short periods of time right now, why not start with something like this:

5 min warm-up (walking, slowly increasing your pace)
repeat 5-7 times: run 2 mins, walk 2 mins
5 min cool-down (walking, slowly decreasing your pace)

Once this gets easy, try to build up your running intervals by 15 to 30 sec per week then decrease your walking intervals until you're only walking for 1 min at a time. Eventually, you might not feel like you need the walking interval anymore :)

I think that fitness classes might be a good idea, but you may have to wait until you get there to really find out what's available
 
Yeah elastic stuff is good and space saving. And you can really use anything that weighs something to do weight exercises. barbell stuff can be done with anything you can lift with two hands.. like... a suitcase is fine for bench pressing, for bent over rows and even for deadlifts. For squats you can just like.. put on a backpack or something to that effect. And for curls and such anything you can hold in your hand. The whole "omg these kettlebells are so awezum" thing is more or less about the weight being a couple of inches further out from your hand, so anything you hold in your hand will either function as a dumbbell or a kettle bell.
 
PLB, is this the kind of thing you're talking about? (I just realised I have about that amount of money in Amazon gift certificates to spend) And is this pack a good option given I'm currently lifting between 4kg and 7.5kg weights? (8.8-16.55lb- only lifting beyond 5 for this: Dumbbell Straight-back Straight-leg Deadlift as I don't have an alternative at the gym and I'm not getting sufficient stretch/ strain on lower weights. I usually lift 5kg- just over 11lb- otherwise, 4kg on a bad day)
 
Oh, and I'll definitely give that walk/ run thing a try, thanks for the suggestion. I've been looking for a way to build my running up, I think I'm ready, but I haven't been confident enough to do it at the gym.
 
I've just discovered that a day pass to the international competition standard pool in my city is actually quite affordable :hurray: I think that's my cardio sorted :D
 
amy1985 said:
PLB, is this the kind of thing you're talking about? (I just realised I have about that amount of money in Amazon gift certificates to spend) And is this pack a good option given I'm currently lifting between 4kg and 7.5kg weights? (8.8-16.55lb- only lifting beyond 5 for this: Dumbbell Straight-back Straight-leg Deadlift as I don't have an alternative at the gym and I'm not getting sufficient stretch/ strain on lower weights. I usually lift 5kg- just over 11lb- otherwise, 4kg on a bad day)
Click to expand...

Hey Amy, did you mean to post a link to Amazon here?

The exercise you posted is definitely a good one and could be done using anything with weight that you may have on hand while you're away.
 
amy1985 said:
I've just discovered that a day pass to the international competition standard pool in my city is actually quite affordable :hurray: I think that's my cardio sorted :D
Click to expand...

That's great! Definitely makes things easier!
 
amy1985 said:
Oh yes, sorry, here's the link:
Click to expand...

That set looks great! I can't comment on the quality of the tubes as I've never used that brand before, but overall, it looks like it would do the trick! You'll have lots of options since the tubes are interchangeable. The door attachment is extremely useful - you should be able to mimic many of the exercises that you could do on a pulley machine.

You just have to promise that when you're doing arm curls, you'll make the same face as the guy in the 2nd image :smilielol5:
 
On the other hand... today at the gym I wrote down the brand that they have. It's this one: Today I did two exercises (got them off the wall in the gym, don't know what they're called and can't figure out how to find them on ex-rx)- one was step on the band, tie the band to the other foot, and stretch the tied foot out as far as I could; the other was tying the band to the base of a bench on one side and my ankle on the other (on the foot closest to the bench) and crossing my leg over the unused leg. I did 3x12 (I try to do 3x8-3x12) of each of these for each leg. I used the medium resistance band and it was almost so hard that I should've done 3x8 (but not quite). Do you know about this type of band? The weights at my gym sustain a lot of abuse (most people drop them and throw them around- the 7.5kg dumbells are in awful condition) and these seem to be in quite good nick. Would it be worthwhile, say, getting a medium and a strong for similar money as that other kit? (I feel I'm moving up with the weights I use relatively quickly at this stage) The other one is a good idea but I'm concerned that the highest band they have is 15lb, which is a level I'm already reaching with my weights- if I invest in equipment I want to be able to keep using it as I get stronger (although I'm sure there's a point at which I stop increasing my weights, I have no idea what that is- but I'm pretty sure I'm not there yet, I'm only just getting started)
 
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