Last September Daniel and I ditched our gym memberships scoring an extra ninety bucks a month plus like a million bucks in gas money to and from the sweat box. Our old gym was precisely twenty-seven minutes from our apartment. An hour at the gym + an hour in the car = bleh, not worth it. It only took us twenty-two months to figure that one out. 

(I don’t think we will be gym-less forever – we miss it ocassionally – but right now it makes sense for us.)

I’m happy to report we haven’t turned into couch potatoes and our workouts are still a priority. To keep it interesting we mix it up with circuit training at the beach park, long runs, short runs, and home workouts (i.e. videos – specifics on videos another time). 

Here are some shots I snapped of Daniel making good use of the park “equipment.”





While I was worried about missing elliptical trainers and StairMasters, Daniel was concerned about not having access to squat racks and bench presses. If you’re not afraid to look a little crazy (or a little fit!), substitutes like a kiddie jungle gym can become your weight room in no time. As long as your weather cooperates, of course.

Turns out we’ve been able to maintain our fitness levels without any of our previous necessities. 

We do have dumbbells in weights ranging from 5-15lbs; a set of these are highly recommended! 

It’s true what they say – that the key to a successful fitness program, gym or not, is to keep those muscles guessing. When we had our memberships, I used to get really complacent and lazy by just doing the same routine every day. Bad idea! 

Recently we’ve felt really good by getting heart-healthy cardio 3-4 days per week and 3-4 days of lean muscle building bodyweight or free weight workouts. We spend anywhere from 30-60 minutes exercising daily; that’s considerably less time than we spent at the gym competing for equipment. Awesome!

Here is what we’ve logged so far this week. Plus puppy steps every day 🙂

• Sun 60 min: 2 mile warm-up, 30 min upper body video, 10 min abs
• Mon 35-40 min: 4.5 mile run 
• Tues 60 min: 2 mile warm-up, 30 min total body video, 10 min abs
• Wed 50 min: 5 mile run, 10 min abs
• Thurs 60 min: 1 mile warm up, 10 min beach park circuit, lower body video, 10 min abs

Best bonus of working out near home: Instead of constantly fueling our cars after the gym, we are finally fueling our muscles within 30 minutes of exercise. 

Got protein?