How to Stay in Shape When You Can't Go to the Gym

Many people who are serious about exercising stop exercising for the holidays, when a family member gets seriously ill, when they are busy meeting a big deadline at work, when money gets tight, or maybe when they have a health issue ranging from a serious infection to dropping a kettlebell on their toe.

It only takes about two weeks for their hard-earned benefits of exercise to begin to disappear. Falling off the wagon for those two weeks can lead to months or years of sedentary activity until another health crisis, or not being able to get into clothes, or a shocking revelation from looking into the mirror drives former exercisers to the gym again.

It doesn't have to be this way. There are great ways to stay in shape that don't require a gym membership, and that you can do anytime you like on your own schedule 24/7 at home.

You Don't Need Expensive Equipment for the Best Home Gym

It's possible to spend tens of thousands of dollars on home gym equipment, but the basis are:

• Two dumbbells or kettlebells of a moderately challenging weight. For women, that's often about 5 kilograms (10 to 15 pounds), and for men it's usually about 10 kilograms (20 to 25 pounds).
• A resistance band 100 cm long and 1 to 3 cm wide (40-41 inches long and 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches wide).

These three items together can be bought in the US and Canada for $50 or less, $10 if you visit a surplus store. Keep them someplace where you see them all the time, so you won't have to look for them when you have time to do a workout.

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You Don't Need Complicated Exercises to Stay in Shape

The workout you need to maintain your gains from going to the gym doesn't have to be complicated. Here are some basic exercises just about anyone can do at home (with a few comments on what to do if you can't).

• Bear crawl. Get down on the floor on all fours, push down with your toes to lift your knees off the floor, and crawl for 10 seconds. If you haven't exercised in a long time, make sure you have an easy way to lift yourself back into a standing position at the end of your exercise. It's getting up from the floor that becomes the critical skill as you get older.
• Push up, the simplest and most familiar "plank" exercise. Starting in a plank position, use your arms to lift your torso above the floor, keeping your shoulders directly above your hands. Keeping your elbows straight, and keeping your shoulders together, lift and lower your torso, touching the floor with your chin, and repeat.
• Reverse lunge. Start standing up straight with a dumbbell (you can also use a kettlebell) in each hand. Kneel on one knee, placing that foot behind your body, while keeping your back and neck straight. Move the weight forward as you return to a standing position. Do a complete set for one leg and then the other.

More Easy Home "Gym" Exercises and the Health Rational for Doing Them

The preceding three exercises are basic to any gym-free home exercise routine. Here are three more that aren't as commonly done but tone different muscles.

• Banded hip extension. In a standing position, secure the resistance band behind your neck and under your feet. Push your hips back and bend at the waist until you feel a slight resistance in your hamstrings. Then return to a standing position.
• Single-arm dumbbell row. Stand in front of a chair with a dumbbell gripped in your right hand. Move your right foot behind your body and lean forward to brace yourself against the chair with your left hand. Lift the dumbbell up and down, pulling it toward your lower ribs, while keeping your shoulder blades together. Repeat with the opposite arm.
• Squat. Stand with your arms extended in front of your body. Clasp your hands and lower your hips as far as they comfortably go, keeping your back straight and knees aligned with your little toe. If you haven't done anything like this in a while, do the exercise while standing in front of a chair.

Any exercise you can do with a weight you can also do without a weight. The resistance provided by your own body mass, especially if you are overweight, also counts as exercise. It's better, of course, to work with the greatest weight you can use without injury, but if that's zero, that's where you start. 

Similarly, it's best to use "good" form, but it's critical to avoid injury, so you won't go right back to not exercising. Doing these exercises in front of a mirror helps you improve your form. Don't stop exercising just because you can't do an exercise like an expert. Just exercise.

How many repetitions should you do? Generally, it's a good idea to aim for ten. If you can easily do twenty reps, then maybe the exercise is too easy. If you can just do the exercise once, don't worry, this means you are exercising at your max, and your muscles will benefit. Do these exercises about every other day.

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What are the benefits of keeping in shape at home?

• Probably the biggest benefit is self-respect. You take care of your health without help. You can take credit for your gains.
• You keep muscles in good tone. This helps you avoid accidents and injuries later, and minimizes their impact when they occur.
• You keep your arteries and veins elastic. This lowers blood pressure, and also helps you survive cardiovascular catastrophes. You may also build collateral circulation that can keep blood flowing even when major arteries are clogged or clotted.
• You encourage bone health. Bones are constantly rebuilding themselves when they are placed under just the right amount of stress. Tiny stresses in exercise help your bones build up so that you are less likely to suffer a full-blown fracture in a fall, a crash, or an auto accident.
• Your brain benefits from exercise, too. You have better short-term memory. You make better decisions. You are more aware of the world around you when you exercise.

It doesn't take a lot of time to maintain your gains from the gym. As little as 20 minutes every other day, or an hour a week, may be enough. But you have to invest that hour a week to keep yourself in good shape so you can build fitness levels even better when you have time to go back to gym or sport.