No Gym? No Problem!

People trained before gyms. Gladiators in the Roman Empire. Trojans and Spartans before them. Rocky used russian mountains in Rocky 4.



This week has been a long hard week at work, long nights and early morning compounded the usual motivational problem of getting to a gym on a cold dark winters night.

Training has to be done though so improvisation is the key. Being single (at the moment) means I am lucky enough to be able to leave my weights whereever I feel they are handy. I have dumbells next to my couch so I can use them whilst watching TV. Isolating my arms is easy as I can rest my elbow on the couch armrest.

If you want to train, not getting to a gym isn't going to stop you. All you have to do is improvise a little. I normally work my arms and legs quite heavily at the gym and at home I do the same.

Where I would do a lateral pull down in the gym, I jump up to grab on to my doorframes and do wide grip underarm chin ups on it... and I HAVE to use a wide grip or I risk pulling the frame off the wall as its over 100years old. What makes it a harder workout is that I am having to grip with only the tips of my fingers so my forearms get a workout as well as my upper arms and back.



For situps, I hook my feet under the edge of the couch and use that to stabilise myself (realistically you shouldn't need a weight on your feet to do a sit-up/crunch).

Benchpresses are easy at home - I use the bench, however as I am on my own, and the bar could do a lot of damage at 60kg should I drop it, I leave the collars off the weight bar. This makes it easier for me to get out, if I drop it the weights will unbalance and slip off the bar, so I dont get hurt (not too badly). It also means you have to be more balanced and controlled in your press because the weights will slide off the end of the bar if you aren't.

So, the next time you say you dont have the time to get to the gym...stop lying to yourself, use your house, improvise.

Feel free to leave a comment!