ph01460jThese times of global credit crunch and economic downturn have seen massive numbers of people cancelling their gym memberships as they decide that they don’t really need to pay hefty fees to keep a gym afloat.

The True Cost of Gym Fitness

Gym membership fees cost anything between $300 and $1,000 each per year. The average fee for a single person is just under $50 per month, and of course this can rise to over $100 for couples and families. Yet of all the people who have a regular membership, only the most dedicated fitness enthusiasts make it a regular 3 times a week. According to a recent study only 1 in 5 people attend their gym at least twice a week.

(Source: http://www.healthandfitness.com/resources/gym_evaluation.asp)

Looking at it another way, 80% of people pay an average of $50 per month to attend a gym only once a week, or less. These people are paying more than $10 for the luxury of a single workout. In the current economic climate, this is fast becoming a luxury many cannot continue to afford, and they are quickly waking up to it.

Taking Fitness Out Of The Gym

Peter Carvell, a fitness instructor of some worldwide acclaim, once said that if you worked out regularly but did all the wrong exercises in all the wrong ways, you would still be much fitter than if you did not work out at all. In a sense, there is no such thing as the wrong exercise – as long as you are not causing yourself some injury. The important thing to realise is the type of physiological input that your body needs in order for you to maintain a high level of fitness.

Let’s say that you were able to identify all these essential inputs, and you had the ability to somehow come up with a simple plan to deliver them. If that was the case, it would not matter in the least bit where you did it and what equipment you used to do so. The basic requirements for a home gym, or indeed an anywhere gym are not massive amounts of floor space and state-of-the-art, high-tech fitness equipment. Rather, all you need is just a sufficient space, and the willingness, motivation and enthusiasm to learn or develop a novel approach to your fitness, your health and your wellbeing.

So, What Does Your Body Really Need To Stay Fit?

The reason we need regular workouts is quite simple. Our highly civilised world has evolved faster than our bodies. Our physical biology is still primed for hunting and gathering, but our rather large brains as human beings have allowed us to imagine and create a world where we do not use the body in the way nature had designed it to be used. Any muscle in the body that is not regularly put to use will waste away, and conversely, muscles that are put through regular and vigorous activity actually develop. It is as simple as that.

What your body needs, therefore, is a regular system of actions that will work all the different muscles. Obviously you will not need to do all the muscles all at once, but a simple fitness system that you can apply regularly is all that your home fitness routine needs to be. Keep in mind that you can never store up enough fitness to cover many months in the future. This is to say, your workouts need to be regular, and measured and should be done with your current health and wellbeing in mind.

Time At The Gym, Please

You can join the millions of people who are calling time at the gym, and thereby reduce the cost of your everyday fitness. You will discover that you can have more fun working outside of the gym. Apart from the money saved, you will have more time to yourself and with your family, simply by eliminating the gym trip. With a bit of imagination, a little learning and lots of enthusiasm, you fill find that you are not any less fit.