How To Get Fit On A Budget 8 Awesome Tips

About 4 years ago I belonged to a gym, to be honest with you, I wasn’t having fun. I knew how to get fit but I didn’t want to pay £40 a month doing it.

The gym had some great equipment and was clean and friendly. The problem was it was too small for my liking and I got a bit sick of waiting for machines.

I sat down and had a think and realized that more than 60% of my time I was either using the rowing machine, the running machine or the cross-trainer.

This led me to think about the way I trained. It seemed all I needed to do to save money and increase my fitness on a budget was to do Cardio without any gym membership.

A friend suggested running and although I hated the idea as I had tried unsuccessfully before, I thought I would give it a shot.

Fast forward 4 years and I now enter into 10k races and run between 5k and 10k 3 times a week.

So below we are going to take a look at how to get fit on a budget. I hope some of these ideas inspire you to either quit paying out for expensive gyms you dont use or to just get your ass off of the couch and start to become a fitter you.

Running:

Seeing as my story revolved around running to get fit why not start there.

Nearly anyone can run regardless of your initial fitness. Certainly to begin with it requires no specialist equipment. You can just throw on a pair of trainers and head out of your front door.

You will find that the first run may only be 1km or so. When you return you are going to feel pretty unfit but that’s ok. Not only that but your body will ache for days afterward.

Do not let this deter you. Strap on those trainers and get back out there and aim to go a little further. Do this 3 times a week. I promise you you will notice your fitness increasing within a couple of weeks.

If you are wondering if you will burn calories by running then you certainly will. Depending on fitness and weight etc you can burn up to 400 calories on a 5km run.

Burning calories running is a sure-fire way to not only help with your fitness but also to help you lose weight and get into shape.

It took me around 2 months before I could run for around 30 minutes nonstop. Please dont worry about how quickly you are doing it though. Just keep running.

Running is definitely one of the best and cheapest ways of keeping fit. If you are looking for free ways to exercise or fitness on a budget then this is for me one of the best ways.

Fitness motivation can be difficult when you have to drag yourself to a gym. It doesn’t require too much motivation to just run around the block.

Running has increased both my fitness and health all round. I may never see myself running marathons but I aim to incorporate running into my later life as part of keeping fit and healthy.

Workout Dvd’s:

A good way of meeting any fitness goals you may have and also staying on point with fitness on a budget is to use workout DVDs.

Gone are the days of lycra-clad women and men with big hair shouting motivational nonsense at you. Nowadays it is Z list celebrities doing that!!

A lot of people who are new to keeping fit may not want to pound the streets by running and or maybe self-conscious about doing so.

Workout Dvd’s are perfect for this as they can help increase your fitness and health as well as give you that initial fitness kick and weight loss you may be after which can boost your confidence and help get you outdoors.

If DVD’s are not your thing then you can also search for a daily workout plan on google. What I did was a search for the best workout videos on youtube. This came up with several HIIT workouts which my wife and I did and it gave us the kickstart we needed to boost our fitness motivation.

When searching for DVDs to use dont look at the celebrity. See what kind of workout plan they incorporate into their DVD and see if that matches what you are after. After all just because you like the person doing the workout it doesn’t mean the workout will be right for you.

Hydration:

Bit of a weird one this but believe me it makes a difference. Swapping out all the different drinks you may have during the day and replacing it with good old H2O (Water).

Water will not only flush out all the bad stuff out of your body and give your kidneys some relief but also it will improve skin condition, help with your sleep and a whole host of other positive effects.

Also in keeping with this post drinking water will invariably save you money as well as helping with your fitness and health.

When searching for how to keep in shape this is one of the things that can be overlooked. However, when you are replacing fizzy drinks packed with calories for water it’s going to give your body a great kickstart.

Fitness Apps:

Fitness apps are a great way of giving you the motivation to get off your backside and move more. Most of the apps available have a free version to get you started and that is usually enough, to be honest.

You can find all kinds of different free workout apps. Some of them even pay you with rewards when you start moving. The apps track your steps and general movement and you can earn rewards for the number of steps you do.

The paid versions do offer better options to help you improve your fitness. Just after Christmas is the best time to be looking as everyone wants to improve their fitness around this time and so a lot of apps have big reductions so you can make a saving and get fit.

The fitness app I used, to begin with, was Strava. This helped me with burning calories running and gave me so many stats about my run that it made it easy to motivate me.

I also combined Strava with Sweatcoins. The sweatco company that came up with sweatcoins has produced a fantastic app that when combined with your running can produce quite a good number of sweatcoins that you can use to trade in for various goodies.

You can check out more about fitness apps that pay you to work out here.

Whichever Fitness app you use, be sure to take full advantage as they are designed primarily to motivate you to move more.

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Home Exercise Equipment:

Although not strictly sticking to the fitness on a budget theme, if you know what equipment you want then buying second hand can save you a lot of money.

Sure everyone wants new home gym equipment but used equipment in good condition is just as good.

Some of the best places to buy used gym equipment are eBay or your local car boot app. Just make sure that the equipment you are buying can be seen put together and working.

Assuming you have space at home for some of this equipment, this is a perfect way to help you meet your fitness goals.

Swimming:

Swimming to burn calories is one of the most effective ways of doing so. When you swim you get a full body workout and it is great for stamina and muscle tone.

To swim on a budget then you can always swim in the sea but apart from being cold nearly all year round and not the cleanest water either then I would suggest a swimming pool for this one.

I appreciate this will come at a cost but if you can pick your times carefully then saving can be made. Usually, most swimming pools and leisure centers have an early bird special. This is where large discounts can be had for an hour’s swimming if you dont mind being there very early. Think 7 am.

Diet:

As with any fitness regime, the key to keeping fit and healthy starts with a diet. Now although you certainly can’t eat super healthily on a budget you can make a start.

Take a look online just after Christmas and see all the savings you can make on dietary supplements. I use MyProtein.com to get breakfast protein, I usually buy in bulk which also saves me at least 50%. You can also make great savings on vitamins and minerals.

Many people buy fresh fruit to use in smoothies. Sometimes even on your breakfast cereal. To save money I would advise buying frozen fruit. This can be defrosted the night before or put straight into your protein shake to make it super cold.

Buying frozen fruit is also a great money saver and will last way longer than fresh.

The Gym:

Ok so technically speaking this doesn’t fit our how to get fit on a budget model, However, hear me out.

As I have mentioned a couple of times in this article if you are thinking of joining a gym do it just after Christmas as there are usually good deals to be had. Make sure to have a good look around it first. Choose a busy time to go such as a Saturday or Sunday morning. This will show you how easy it is to get access to the machines when busy.

Another good idea is to see if any of your friends are gym members. Many gyms have a certain number of free passes their friends can hand out. This means if you had a couple of friends with free passes who were willing to give them to you, you could use a gym maybe once a week in conjunction with your running or other exercises.

Summary:

In short keeping fit and healthy requires motivation and dedication from you. Everything else is easy. If you need to get fit on a budget then the above tips and ideas are great for cutting costs. It also helps keep you from spending more than you should. Good luck with your fitness goals and I would love to hear some success stories.