Alternative to Going to the Gym

Don’t like working out at a gym?

Let’s face a fact: Some people are too scared to exercise in front of others. For those who already exercise at a gym, it’s not a problem for you. Maybe you’re already fit; maybe your personality allows you to not care about what others think. But for others, sometimes working up the courage to exercise is more work than actually exercising.

Let’s face another fact: You don’t need to go to a gym to exercise. This is great news for people who prefer to keep their exercising to themselves. Here are some ways someone can get into shape at home without feeling social pressures.

1. Buy an XBox Kinect or Wii.

Already have one? Perfect. Fitness games are a fun and exciting way to do exercise in your own home. Many games like Just Dance have exercise modes that help you calculate your calories burned. Now, of course, it’s not perfect, but it gives you an opportunity to have fun while moving. This is a great one for people who have space in their bedrooms or when they have the house to themselves. It’s also fun and entertaining when you do it with your friends.

My recommendations:

Just Dance
In October, Just Dance 2015 will be coming out for everyone to enjoy! It has brand new songs, including “Happy,” “I Love It,” “Burn,” and “Love Me Again.” They even have Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” and Love Letter’s “Only You,” which features a slow dance for a couple! Keep in mind that it’s focus is not a full body workout, but it still helps you work up a sweat and get your heart rate pumping! Click here to see this song.

Zumba Fitness

I LOVE Zumba Fitness, especially World Party. It is a challenging workout that helps me learn new dances, music, and helps me burn just as many calories as I would spending twenty minutes in misery on the elliptical. What I love about Zumba Fitness World Party is that they use real instructors instead of animations. This seems like a small detail but it really makes a difference in the quality of the game. Click here to see a live demo.

Harley Pasternak’s Hollywood Workout
Mr. Pasternak is a famous trainer for actors, dancers, models, and everything of that sort. He’s also a trainer for normal people like you and me. I’ll admit, many of the exercises overlap in the different focus areas, but it’s a great way to track the progress you’ve made. The workouts are only 25 minutes long, so they’re great for busy people. Harley Pasternak created a Harley Bar for easy traveling which can be utilized in the game. It also gives you an option to add weights or have no weights, which will affect the calories you burn! Click here for an entire single workout example.

2. Download a mobile app to help track your dieting and fitness.

This can really help you realize what you’re eating, how much you’re exercising, how many calories you’re burning, and how active you might be. You might be more active than you think you are! If tracking isn’t your thing, I would still try a free app for a month so you can see data on what you’re eating and doing!

My FREE recommendations:

Nike Training Club
The best part of #NTC is that you have so many workouts to choose from. They do a great job tracking progress, creating workouts, and customizing fitness for you. This is geared towards women, but men can certainly benefit from these exercises as well.

Fitbit

This is a beautiful app. The general look of the dots are really wonderful and clear. You can track your fitness, diet, personal goals, and even sleep! The best part of this is that it syncs up with MyFitnessPal (which has a larger food database). You don’t even need to own the $99 Fitbit Wristband, but in case you do, it syncs up easily with this app.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal

This is an incredibly simple app that simply helps you log food, exercise, and calories burned/gained. You can enter in your weight and set a goal weight and it gives you a calorie allowance. I love finishing a log for the day and having it predict where I will be in 5 weeks if I do what I did that day. It’s a great way to reflect and prepare for what you can and should eat. The best part about all of these apps is finding a yummy low calorie food unexpectedly!

Human – Free

This is a pretty incredible app that tracks your movement and pushes you to do at least 30 minutes of one exercise a day. Most sedentary people tend to be able to get in at least 30 minutes of movement each day, so that alone is motivating in itself. The best and worst part of this app is that it keeps going all day. Great for tracking, bad for your battery. Make sure you charge your phone every day for reliability!

3. BOSUⓇ

Did you really think I wouldn’t list the BOSUⓇ? The BOSUⓇ offers a COMPLETE body workout without ever stepping foot inside a gym. The little blue half ball is the perfect package of fitness.

Here are three great videos that show how to use BOSUⓇ in your home:

BOSUⓇ App

In addition to helpful videos, BOSUⓇ has a helpful fitness app as well as many helpful tools online. Although the BOSUⓇ app costs $1.99, it is packed with quality videos of complete workouts for any part of your body. It even includes a reminder to switch up your routine if you spend a lot of time doing one workout!

BONUS:

This is the sneakiest way of exercise: Doing everyday tasks. Glamour has a great list of ways to add exercise to your daily routine.

This entry was contributed by Shannon Bolen, a Public Relations and Marketing intern at Hedstrom - Ball, Bounce and Sport. She recently graduated from Bowling Green State University in music education and currently listens to Matt and Kim in her car.

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Fitness Memes: No Excuses

Memes are the internet’s way of giving a voice and uniting opinions of millions of users all over the world within the click of a “share” button. We’ve all seen incredibly hilarious memes explode into a craze of shares and retweets. Millions of people agreeing on one single frame of an amusing expression is a pretty amazing concept. My personal favorites include the Success Kid meme and the Yao Ming meme. The ease of adding a caption on the photo makes it available for anyone to use for both good, evil, sarcasm, and downright silliness (looking at you, trolls!). They can be used to motivate people and tear them down. A plethora of memes exist related to exercise and fitness, and just as there are thousands of motivational memes for fitness, just as many exist to tear down the spirit of people who want to work out.

The biggest advantage AND disadvantage about memes is that anyone can make them. Fitness always seems to be a “soft topic” in the sense that many people are uncomfortable even talking about it. Why? Perhaps people don’t believe they are working out enough or well enough. Exercise is brilliant because of its versatility and the ability to learn powerful exercises without a trainer or a professional’s help. At the same time, that freedom can bring incorrect form, insecurity, and frustration in a workout session.

Let’s take a look at a meme about fitness.

“My favorite exercise at the gym would probably be judging.” Wow, what a statement. Let’s dissect the qualities about this meme. This meme has the “someecards” design quality with the vintage photo on a solid background, but what makes this type of meme stand out is its deadpan humor. Exemplifying some of the worst aspects of fitness, Newsflash: This attitude is what makes people not want go to the gym. What I really don’t like about fitness culture is the constant belittling of people trying to make a positive difference in their lives. The worst part of it? We see trainers posting things like this. Not all gyms or trainers are like this, obviously. But, just like in elementary school when one kid ruined it for the class, this can turn clients away from the idea of buying gym memberships, hiring trainers, and not motivate people to exercise period. It hurts the overall fitness community. Why would anyone want to do something to help build their confidence if they knew people were going to criticize them for even trying? An even bigger question is, why are some trainers posting these types of memes on social media? Do they realize those memes are addressed to potential clients? Just like with anything else, fitness is a business. Why would someone push their customers away by saying they’re negatively judging them? Keep in mind, this is only one meme. There are thousands of other ones just like it.

Imagine what it might be like for the an average person buying a gym membership for the first time. The chances are that they have done some basic exercises, like push ups, sit ups, crunches, lifting dumbbells, running, or walking. They get to the gym and look at the equipment their membership just bought them. “Wow,” they say under their breath. They can’t wait to start getting into shape with the rower, the machines, and attending a couple spinning and cardio classes. They look over at the treadmills and think, “Great! I know this one!” They stretch and eventually fumble with the buttons with different settings and start at a quickened jog. Easy peasy. They start looking around and see someone using a machine that catches their eye. They spy for a while, still jogging. “I think I can do that..” They patiently wait until the person is finished and wipes down the equipment. They finally arrive at the machine and try it. This is really difficult. They do 10 repetitions and are exhausted. Logically, this makes perfect sense. This person is at the gym to get in shape and to have equipment available to help them achieve their fitness goals. The machine probably worked muscles that are not yet developed and therefore, the person should struggle. However, maybe someone who goes to the gym regularly sees this person and eventually judges them. Maybe someone laughs at them; maybe someone gives them a look. Here is where most people are faced with two options: Keep going or quit.

While the struggle of exercising is inevitably difficult and the options of “keep going or quit” are often faced in fitness, this person shouldn’t even be faced with this question at this point. Even if they are, those feelings shouldn’t be confirmed on the internet from memes and certainly not by personal trainers. Having a healthy and balanced mind about what is expected at the gym can really change the atmosphere. Some people find their #fitfam at the gym and some other people are motivated by serious competition. But who would compare the skills of a sixth grader to the skills of a kindergartener?

If people removed this condescending attitude at the gym, if personal trainers removed this attitude from their social media, imagine what the difference might be for the average person. Working out at the gym would be more about THEM the customer, instead of the social injustices and the unfriendly atmosphere. Maybe we’d see more creative memes, and millions of people can agree on the idea of positivity instead of judging at the gym.

Another popular trend is “no excuses.” Remember when Maria Kang posted her photo of her cute kids with her rockin’ bod with the title “What’s your excuse?” I’m pretty sure she broke social media for a tiny bit. There seems to be this idea that an “excuse” is not believable or good enough. Maybe one excuse someone has is that they work a lot and have a family. Because there are people in the same basic situation but do exercise, it creates this illusion that the first person is avoiding exercise. People are always challenging the “impossible,” like Caroline Berg Eriksen who looked like a model just four days after giving birth. However, those stories are amazing and make newslines because they’re not normal, not expected, not predicted. Just because it was possible for one person doesn’t mean it’s possible for everyone.

The truth of the matter is that people choose how they want to balance their time. I had plenty of friends who would skip classes to practice their instruments. Their grades were lower in classes that should have been an easy A. Is that inexcusable? Maybe to some, but it was also their choice. They simply wanted to spend their time doing something different than someone else. Luckily, it was something they enjoyed. The point is that people are going to spend their time the way they think is best for them. Maria Kang’s fitness is really important to her, so of course it was a priority. She does fitness competitions; it only makes sense. In college, my professor prepared to give a violin recital. She was also enrolled in a few exercise classes and told me about the guilt she felt about skipping some of the exercise classes so she could practice more as her recital date drew nearer. I told her the classes were just an hour or so of her day, but she said that was an hour more she could spend with her instrument. She then said, “I would rather buy a bigger sized dress rather than not perform exactly the way I want.” Her job is to be a performer; it only makes sense. Her excuse IS valid.

Judging people based on appearance stems from someone else not having the same expectations. I judge people who don’t use a blinker when they’re switching lanes. But unlike the road, the gym is a wonderful place where transformations can happen. People change their lives there. They gain confidence, or should at least. The gym is not the place to make judgments. Seeing evidence of gym judgment on social media is reaching millions of people. Take down the negativity associated with gyms, fitness and exercise. I’d love to see people post more memes like this instead.

This entry was contributed by Shannon Bolen, a Public Relations and Marketing intern at Hedstrom - Ball, Bounce and Sport. She recently graduated from Bowling Green State University and loves sticky notes and Adventure Time.

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