Ditch Your Gym Membership has been published on Minimalist Finance
Being healthy and staying fit is important. It’s part of a balanced lifestyle, and exercise is loaded with many mental and emotional benefits as well. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend hundreds of dollars per year to get your cardio in.
Gym memberships are tricky, because we often use the money that we are spending on the membership as a motivational factor to get to the gym; if we are spending money on the membership, we try to use it. However, that is one expensive piece of motivation that your budget could do without. If you can stay motivated to work out without a gym membership, you could save hundreds of dollars per year.
The average gym membership is anywhere from $35-$60/month. Assuming it is $45/month, you are spending $540 per year on the ability to use their equipment. If we take into account the amount of gas we use to get to the gym, we are spending a lot on fitness that can be had for free.
Here are some things that you can do, for free, that will keep you healthy and fit on a budget.
Go for a Walk
Walking may not give you the intensive cardio experience that the elliptical trainer will at the gym, but you can get just as good of a workout if you find a hill and power up it. Make sure to load up your iPod so that you don’t get bored, or go with a friend. Use the hills around your home, or even walking trails and speed walk.
This is free, and you get to be in nature, which is calming and rejuvenating.
Home Workouts
For those cold winter days, when you’d rather stay inside in the heat than brave the great outdoors, there is plenty of opportunity to work out in your home.
If you have stairs in your house, use them! Believe it or not, even walking down stairs uses different muscle groups and can increase your heart rate.
Use Youtube to your advantage. Find a workout video and follow along. Invest in an exercise ball and Google different exercises that you can do with it.
Buy Your Own Equipment
If you have room in your home, purchase your own equipment that you can use to get your workout in. You can get a used treadmill for a fraction of the cost of an annual gym membership, and if properly maintained, you can use it for years to come.
This cuts down on transportation costs, and you don’t have to wait for the machine at the gym. You get to stay indoors if that is what you’d prefer in your workouts, and you can always set up a TV in front of the treadmill so that you don’t get bored.
It’s a win/win.
You will save hundreds of dollars per year if you get rid of your gym membership. There are plenty of opportunities to work out without one.