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Staying Fit On A Small Budget: Cheap, Free, Or Outdoor Workout Tips For Low Income Earners

by — Last updated: 2020-06-28 in Workout & Exercises

Exercise is something necessary to pursue a healthy lifestyle but it can become quite expensive if the gym is your chosen location to burn off those calories. There are some cheaper and more effective options to help achieve your fitness goals.

Diet and exercise are two of the main pillars of lifestyle modifications — and your doctor will likely ask about them and stress their importance each time you visit their office.

The main reason doctors often "harp on" about a healthy diet and regular exercise is that most diseases in society are linked to the choices you make in the kitchen. A bad diet and a sedentary lifestyle are some of the most common modifiable risk factors. Prioritizing them can improve your chances of having better health, but other stressors in life can easily side-track your goals.

Stress, long work hours, and convenience are some of the biggest reasons that a diet or exercise plan will fail. It is important to remember that a New Year’s resolution of losing weight or exercising more is a good start towards a healthier life, but self-discipline is necessary for a lasting impact. According to one study, approximately 55% of resolutions to eat healthier, 44% of goals to exercise more, and 40% of weight loss resolutions fail. It's a fair bet to assume that similar statistics hold true for goals set at any other point of the year.

Even if you are unsuccessful at the start, it is important to remember to stay positive and keep trying, because consistency is key. 

One key reason why someone may be unable to achieve their goals of weight loss could be linked to their mentality. You may feel that the only way to achieve sustained weight loss is to follow a strict exercise plan. This will usually involve buying a gym membership and perhaps even buying an exercise-package with a personal trainer As you may already be well aware, the costs associated with this can be extreme. If you are working off of a limited budget, it may be nearly impossible for you to exercise at a gym. 

Take me — I used to like to exercise at the gym. Going to the gym can be expensive and does take a few hours out of your day considering the commute back and forth, but I was stubbornly attached to the idea that this was the only place I would be able to exercise effectively.

Then, the year 2020 happened and the coronavirus pandemic effectively closed all gyms and facilities for an extended period. This led me to explore other solid exercise options for which I wouldn't need exercise equipment — and they all can be considered free or much cheaper than a gym membership. Here are some of the recommendations that you can try for yourself if you are working towards better health while hoping to keep your wallet from becoming empty. 

Cheap exercise option 1: Biking on hilly terrain 

I understand that a bike can be an expensive piece of equipment, but you do not need to break the bank to buy a good quality bike. Most bike shops will have options depending on your budget and will also offer some type of guarantee to ensure that you will have a serviceable bike for a few years after the purchase. 

Biking is a great form of exercise that is much more forgiving on your joints compared to jogging or walking. There is significantly less trauma to the cartilage of your knees and hips, so you can bike much more frequently during the week compared to the stress you put on your joints after a jog. 

The key thing to remember with biking, however, is that your effort will be directly correlated with your results. To start off, it is a good idea to just get into biking an hour a day on a flat surface, but you should try to start challenging yourself with more hilly terrain to increase your cardiac exercise. 

Cheap exercise option 2: Doing some laps in the local pool 

Depending on where you are currently reading this from, this may or may not be an option for you, but most cities or towns will have access to community pools that you can utilize as part of your exercise plans. 

Swimming vigorously is a very demanding cardio exercise, and I can guarantee you that if you are just an amateur swimmer like myself, a 30-minute session in the pool will be much more tiring than riding a bike for a few hours.

A great thing about swimming is that you will be able to do this activity for a very reasonable price. Most city pools offer monthly passes for a citizen that can amount to a dollar a day and they typically also have specific hours for swimmers to limit the number of people that may interfere with your exercise. Because you are doing this activity in the water, you will not have any strain on your knees or ankles so it is an activity that you can enjoy even into your senior years. 

Cheap exercise option 3: Walk

A brisk walk isn't only quite a good cardio exercise, it's also practically free. That is, we are much less likely to feel the need to invest in special workout clothes or expensive running shoes when we walk than if we go jogging — and walking can even save money, if we use it as a means of transport. Walking does, of course, take more time than driving or biking somewhere, and time can be money. 

Cheap exercise option 4: Home workouts

If you are reading this, you have an internet connection. Make full use of it to stay fit by following along with some of the countless free exercise videos out there. Exercises like jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, and many more, do not require you to have any special exercise equipment. If that sounds unappealing to you, dance videos and yoga tutorials may meet your needs.

Beyond exercise: Watch what you eat 

When the budget comes into play, healthy food options can become a very stressful factor. Unfortunately, many industries around the globe can capitalize on this fact. As you know yourself, the fast-food industry is notorious for offering “great” deals that can be attractive options for someone on a limited budget. This puts the phrase "poor diet" in a whole new light, doesn't it?

I remember when I was younger that McDonald’s would typically run a promotion during the recession of 2008 where you could buy a hamburger for 10 cents on Wednesdays. I can also remember that classmates of mine would come to school on Thursday bragging about how they bought 50 hamburgers and had their school lunch covered for the rest of the week. 

Chips, soda and candy are other much cheaper offerings compared to fruits and vegetables, but the quality of calories that you consume after ingesting these products is much lower compared to healthier options. Stores around the globe are now targeting this trend in the industry and trying to market organic fruits, vegetables and meats but it is something that can be extremely expensive as well. 

The best way to find a balance between these two extremes is to focus on healthier options and limit the amount of money you invest in meats. Although they are packed with protein, numerous medical studies have already highlighted the fact that we each much more meat than we "need to", or even should. 

You may feel that the only way to have a satisfactory meal would be to have a piece of meat and maybe a vegetable or two as a side for every meal, but a better mindset would be to highlight vegetables as the main source of nutrients with meat acting as a side dish that you use occasionally. 

Avoid late-light Snacks 

Another tip that I can suggest when it comes to dieting is to also be aware of the timing of your meals and snacks. You may find yourself eating small portions of food and still having issues keeping your weight down, but numerous studies have pointed out that periodic fasting helps you maximize your metabolism and stay fit.

Avoid eating foods late in the night because once you go to bed, these foods will be digested and more likely to be converted into fat because you are not actively moving during these hours.

Try to avoid snacking four hours before you go to sleep at the start, and work your way up into more realistic fasting programs. I am currently following a 16-hour fasting program where you are only able to eat for an 8-hour period between breakfast and dinner. This is a great thing to do if you have issues with portion sizes because even a large dinner eaten at 4 or 5 pm will not be as damaging as a big dinner at 7 pm. You may have issues following this program every day but as long as you limit the slip-ups to just a few times a month, you will find it much easier to stay fit and it cost you absolutely nothing.