The Best Way To Workout Is Without A Gym

If you want to protect your heart and get fit, don’t go to the gym.

So why is there so much talk about having to go to the gym? The truth is, so many people dislike going to the gym and find the whole process stressful but drag themselves there anyway. If you don’t, you end up feeling guilty. Know that feeling?

The thinking goes; I have to go to the gym every day, so I lose weight and get fit. I have to push myself while I’m at it; after all, I do feel better after I’ve finished a hard session. Not much time is spent thinking about your health.

The problem is, this kind of thinking isn’t helpful and causes additional stress, on both body and mind. The whole notion of going to a gym, let alone every day, is flawed. You don’t need a gym to get fit and especially not to be healthy. Going to the gym every day is terrible for your health. How can going to the gym be bad for your health?

How can going to the gym be counterproductive and bad for your health?

Let’s take a closer look:

Time.

Nobody has enough time as it is. Wherever you look, everyone is stressed out. Why then spend hours a week commuting to and from the gym. Please add up the amount of time you spend per week, month, and year, going to the gym. Need I say more?

Hassle.

Most of us have to work out when the gym is at it’s busiest, early mornings or evenings.

The charade starts by having to look for a free locker. Often lockers aren’t locked, yet when you open a door, voila someone’s gear is inside.

Waiting.

You may have to wait for a cardio machine or use one you don’t like, which sucks. Or you can’t get a space in the free weights section either.

There are too many guys grunting and groaning, lugging their weights around. Who enjoys training surrounded by sweaty men making jungle-like noises? I don’t, do you?

Bullies.

Then, you have the rude bullies; those are the people who think they own the gym and therefore do whatever they like. These are usually the pumped up lads, often on steroids. When they’re training, forget about it, you better get out of the way, and wait. If you try, you get the dirty eye!

Weight hoarding.

I love this one. Weight hoarding happens with free weights when someone (usually a guy) has six pairs of dumbbells in front of himself.

Weight hoarding also happens with weight machines. The culprits are mostly people training together. Or even better, someone staying put, resting, and texting.

The staring and pick-up action.

This one is particularly annoying for the female gym participants. Wait, as I say that I had to think again. It’s happened to me plenty of times too. You?

Harassment.

My now-wife canceled her gym membership back in October with Indonesia’s most famous gym franchise.

She was being stared at and approached by the gym’s male staff. Word was out that she was still single, so she was targeted.

Personal trainers got her number presumably from the manager and started texting her, asking her to go out. She repeatedly said no, and as a result, was called the B-word. She felt too harassed to go back to this gym!

The shower fiasco.

How many times have you had to wait for a shower after your workout? Waiting for a shower, while having to do your best to avoid eye contact with someone else’s private parts, that’s just not my idea of fun! Some people make a point of dangling it around in front of you too.

Risk of injury.

The risk of injuring yourself working out in a gym is serious. People often use poor form and don’t know what they are doing — this can result in pulled muscles and damaged joints.

We shouldn’t sit in those weight machines, pushing and pulling muscles and joints the wrong way. The machines are made to make weight training seem easier, but they can cause major injuries.

People overdo it with free weights as well, barely able to lift the weights from the rack, and then they struggle. Often, this ends with pulled muscles and long term back injuries.

Warming up.

Something gym-goers don’t like to do. Why? It takes time. However, not warming up properly is dangerous to your health.

Your appetite.

By working out hard for an hour or more every day, you’re stimulating your appetite. In return, you end up eating way more than you usually would.

Then the thinking goes, that’s okay, I’ve trained hard so I can eat as much as I like. Not so fast. Increased caloric intake, despite increased caloric burn, has the same net result. You won’t be burning fat or losing weight, if that’s your goal. But next, your heart…

Your heart.

Last but certainly not least is the question of what you may be doing to your heart. Training too hard is a stressor. Therefore, when pumping iron, going hard spinning, or in body pump classes, our brains perceive stress. Cortisolis released into your bloodstream, warning you to slow down and get to safety. But we ignore that warning, of course.

Cortisol is your fight or flight hormone, protecting you from danger. Daily over stimulation of this protection mechanism can lead to heart disease. Training hard and long in a gym or anywhere can lead to serious health problems.

Unfortunately, the gym is a place where overtraining is the norm and even encouraged.

Exercise, in general, is healthy and can lower cortisol levels, as long as your heart rate remains within the safe aerobic zone. The maximum aerobic heart rate is 180 BMP, minus your age. It’s advisable to stay below the maximum heart rate while working out, keeping you in the aerobic and fat burning zone.

Short bursts of overstimulation at a higher heart rate are part of a healthy training plan if done correctly. The key is to keep these bursts short and infrequent.

So what’s the answer or alternative?

Your Body is Your Gym and Your Home Your Sanctuary.

All you need to get fit and healthy is to use your body as your gym. Learning to move and train efficiently, using only your body is incredibly liberating. The best part? It takes so much less time than going to the gym. Plus, you don’t have to deal with any of the above-mentioned nonsense, and you can spend much more time outdoors.

All you need are these four basic and simple exercises to work your whole body and feel great. There are tons more bodyweight exercise variations, once you get the hang of the basics, and if you want to mix it up.

However, you can sttick to these moves for the rest of your life, and achieve great fitness and a healthy heart, and save so much time.

The Body Weight Basic Movements:

Push-ups
Pull-ups
Planks 
Squats

The Body Weight Advanced Movements:

Handstand 
Headstand 
Wall-sit (or Downhill)
Lunges

I don’t expect you to only take my word for this, though. So I’ve listed a few well-known people in the industry who stay very fit using only body weight. Please check them out.

Mark Sisson

Al Kavadlo

Hanibal

Kyarra Keele

You can view my “how to” videos on the eight bodyweight movements here.

The Routines:

The standard workout.

I use the 3 sets system with maximum reps. Once you are fit and feel energetic on a given day, you can increase this to 4 sets.

However, 3 sets are plenty if you keep the right form. The one piece of equipment you need for this is a door or wall-mounted pull-up bar. If you can’t do pull-ups right now, you can learn how-to here.

Perform each exercise to exhaustion, maximum reps for push-ups, pull-ups and squats, and maximum time for the plank. Go from one exercise right to the next with only 15 seconds rest. After set one is complete, rest for 2 minutes then go for set two. Rest again for 2 minutes, then complete set three.

Make a note of your reps and time, repeat this twice a week. That’s it.

This bodyweight routine takes only 15 to 20 minutes. You’ll have worked all muscle groups, and only released cortisol for 20 minutes, twice a week. That’s 40 minutes per week, as opposed to maybe 6 to 8 hours in the gym per week.

Make a note of your reps and time, repeat this twice a week. That’s it.

This bodyweight routine takes only 15 to 20 minutes. You’ll have worked all muscle groups, and only released cortisol for 20 minutes, twice a week. That’s 40 minutes per week, as opposed to maybe 6 to 8 hours in the gym per week.

Please think about which method is better for your heart.

The negative workout.

Alternatively, try the negative method. Here you use the same four basic movements, but you are not moving. You get into position and hold that position as long as you can. Break for 15 seconds and go to the next position; repeat three sets.

Holding a position is called negative training because you aren’t moving, as opposed to the “active” in motion routine. Muscles are broken down more intensively using the negative method. The result is your muscles will rebuild stronger and faster.

The negative routine is hard at first, so start with the standard method. After two weeks, give the negative routine a try. You must hold each exercise for around 30 seconds for it to be effective. Build this time to 1 minute per movement; then, you are in great shape. Keep extending your time per position of you want to get stronger.

The negative routine takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

Micro workout.

I like to use micro workouts as they save even more time. I’ll use this method if I’m traveling or in between meetings. Micro workouts are fantastic because you can work your whole body in 5 to 7 minutes.

With the micro workouts, I go for speed. I’ll pump out 25 push-ups, 6 pull-ups, 30 squats and plank for 1 minute, rest for 30 seconds, and repeat x 3. Done!

Micro workouts are amazingly efficient and effective. And, there’s no excuse not to workout, you can make the time, always.

Your home.

Working out from home, which is your sanctuary, is the absolute best way to workout. You have total freedom, you can go at your pace, and nobody is there to bother or judge you. You save an enormous amount of time and can work out whenever you want, using the methods I’ve described.

By “at home” I’m also referring to your garden, a park, a forest, or your place of work. Somewhere where you are alone and have peace. That’s the wonderful thing about this, it works, and you can do it anywhere!

The final stretch.

Summing up the benefits of using your body as your gym:

• Learning to use your body effectively and efficiently
• You save a lot of time
• Save money
• Can work out wherever and whenever you want
• Little to no risk of injury
• You are exercising in your chosen sanctuary in a peaceful environment
• Spending more time in nature

Using your body as your gym makes strength training fun, and is an easy way to work out.

Thank you for reading.

Rob Hourmont

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Former Olympic Athlete & Certified Health Coach.

“It is my mission to educate people on how to lose weight, how to build a healthy, strong heart, body, and mind, supporting a longer life.”

rob@robshealthcrunch.com

IG: robhourmontcrunch

IG: robshealthcrunch