Low-Cost or Free Ways to Exercise Effectively

Exercise can be as simple as putting a little more effort in making your daily routine a little more beneficial. While vacuuming or mopping the floor, do it briskly. When going to the mall park at the end of the parking lot and walk up the stairs instead of riding the elevator or escalator. Think of other everyday tasks that you can turn into free workouts. You don't need to join a gym, hire a trainer or buy expensive equipment to get an effective workout. For instance walking or running is free and if done where there are hills can be a complete workout.

If you are just starting to work out and want to do it as cheap as possible until you have decided how or if you will continue then look around your home for ways to use what's there. Here are number of items found in most every home that can be turned into no cost exercise equipment. I have used all of these and they are good to get started with.

Canned goods. These make good light hand weights.

Empty milk and water jugs. Fill them with water or sand to get heavier weights.

Rope. Cut the rope to the length you need to make a jump rope.

Stairs. These make great workouts by either walking or running up them.

Dancing. This is a great exercise you can do while listening to the radio or a video.

Step stools. A low stool or anything similar can be used as a stair stepper.

Rope pulley exerciser. A strap for over the door, a pulley and 15 feet of rope is all you need to make an exerciser that can be used for a number of exercise where you use the opposite arm or leg to provide resistance.

Body weight can be used for exercise with push ups, chair dips, jumping jacks, leg lifts or crunches being just a few of the exercises you can do where your body weight provides the resistance.

After you've been exercising for a while you will probably start thinking about getting some professional equipment. If cost is still a factor you're in luck because today you can find used equipment everywhere you look, both free and low cost.

Go online and you'll find a number of sites where you can ask for free equipment or find people offering it for free. Even when its not free its usually cheap, I guess maybe because who wants the equipment sitting there reminding them of their failure to use it. Check the newspaper ads and bulletin boards also.

Ask your friends and family if they have any equipment they want to get rid of. Over the years I've picked up 3 exercise bikes, 2 treadmills, a benchpress bench and hundred of pounds of weights and dumbbells, all free.

There always seems to be some sort of equipment at garage or yard sales. I've bought everything from a small dumbbell to a treadmill at them. I've also seen those high priced machines they advertise on TV at huge discounts.

Thrift stores are an excellent place to find equipment. Most of them have a discount day when the bargains get even better. A little more expensive but with some bargains are your used equipment stores, such as Play It Again Sports.

Check your local library for exercise books and videos that you can check out free. They range from plain to exotic exercises, such as dancing, aerobics plus many other types of exercise and fitness information sources.

Places where you can get some free exercise include schools which have basketball and tennis courts. Parks often have basketball courts, tennis courts and volleyball nets along with handball courts. Even if you don't have your own equipment you can usually get in a game of volleyball or basketball. Beaches almost always have volleyball nets where you can usually join in. Frisbee is another almost free activity and many cities have a free Frisbee golf course.

If you live in a condominium, planned community or a mobile home park you'll find a wealth of free activities. Most of them have swimming pools with many having tennis and basketball courts, shuffleboard, exercise rooms, putting greens etc. Many planned exercise activities are usually available also.

I think you can see that with a little work you can find exercise equipment for free or for very little money as well as free places to exercise. The information here is just some of what's available and should be able to get you thinking about where or what else you can do to exercise for free or almost free.