Best At Home Workouts

Don’t Let Tightening Your Belt In Tough Economic Times Mean Loosening Your Belt To Accommodate A Fat Belly!

There is no way around it, tough economic times means reevaluating your priorities, cutting unnecessary spending and making sacrifices. And for some of you, this might mean quitting the gym. Because the truth is, when most people figure out how much each gym visit costs… the money spent on expensive gym memberships can be better spent (or is needed) elsewhere.

But don’t think quitting the gym means you have to give up your dreams of building a strong, lean, attractive body. As a matter of fact, if you haven’t already reached your fitness, fat loss and physique building goals in the gym, this can be an incredible opportunity to finally reach your performance, health and appearance goals. Might sound crazy now, but quitting your gym could be a blessing in disguise!

Let me show you what I mean…

The OBVIOUS Reasons At Home Workouts Are Better Than Gym Workouts

There are some obvious reasons quitting the gym and working out at home, so let’s quickly go over a few of them:

• It’s cheaper! Since we started off talking about the possibility of giving up the gym because of the tough economic choices you may be facing, this is a big one. Working out at home is free! This is especially true if you use a bodyweight calisthenics program, or already have access to a set of dumbbells.
• You don’t have to drive to the gym! Who knows what the gas prices are doing? But imagine saving on gas and getting a great workout in the comfort of your own home. Depending on where you live, you might even be able to COMPLETE the workout in the time it takes to get to the gym.
• It’s more convenient! Just imagine not having to fight over gym equipment. Or how about getting through a workout without being interrupted by a fellow gym member. And I know it is more comfortable to prepare for and shower after your workout in your OWN BATHROOM than in the bathroom at the gym.
• It’s less embarrassing! Let’s face it, not everyone that goes to the gym LOOKS like they’ve lived in the gym for the last decade. By that I mean, most people go to the gym because they are out of shape, unhappy with the way they look, perform and feel and need to improve. This makes going to the gym and struggling through your workout in front of others an unwelcomed exercise in humility.

While these obvious reasons to quit the gym may be compelling enough to get you to take action, there are some other reasons that I believe are even more important.

First…

Health Clubs Can Be Downright Unhealthy!

‘Primetime’ Swabs Exercise Bikes, Dumbbells – Find Out What Came Out

Dirty Gyms

Once all the swabbing at the gyms was done, we contacted the centers’ managers to hear what they had to say about the dirty results.

Start sweating: A new bacterial strain may be flexing at your gym
The enclosed gym environment, with its bare skin, sweaty equipment and dirty towels can be particularly kind to the bacterium, which often shows up as skin lesions such as boils

Makes you think, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to go through a disinfecting acid bath after each and every workout. I mean, I want to get fit, burn fat and build muscle, not come down with a disease by rolling around in somebody else’s sweat!

This brings me to another issue all together. Can you even get the RESULTS you want in a commercial gym?

Are Commercial Gyms Are More Concerned With Making Money Than Getting You The Results You Pay For?

This is going to be a hard pill for some of you to swallow. So I’m just going to give it to you quick, like pulling off a Band-Aid. Hold your breath… here goes!

“Doing a Machine Circuit and then 20 minutes of Aerobic Activity is not the way to reach your fitness, fat loss and physique building goals!”

Normally I’d go into a big speech here about how gym machines don’t really train you in any useful way.

I’d say that using gym machines trains you to better use gym machines, but NOT meet the challenges of work, sport and life you face OUTSIDE THE GYM.

I’d rant about how aerobic activity is only the STARTING POINT and to really improve cardiorespiratory endurance you need to increase your work capacity by doing MORE in LESS time.

I might even say something offensive like, “Commercial gyms are temples of mediocrity!”

But I’m not going to do that here. Suffice it to say that the use of machines and the workouts in commercial gyms are designed MORE for allowing the gym to take on more clients, than to achieve your fitness, fat loss and physique goals. Putting you on a conveyor belt of machine training, aerobic cardio and pushing you out the door fits their business model perfectly… but doesn’t deliver on your goals of looking great, feeling better and performing your best!

Let’s look at this from another angle…

	When the boys from the movie 300 wanted to look like ancient Spartan warriors did they say, “Let’s go join the local gym and do some machines circuits while a ‘human rep counter’ follows us with a clip board”? No, they didn’t!
	When Mathew McConaughey wanted to beef up for his role in the movie Reign Of Fire did he strap himself into some shiny machines and do some “cardio” in his “target heart rate”? No, he didn’t!
	When Daniel Craig wanted to look the part of a hardened, super-spy in Casino Royale did he go from workout station to workout station just like the rest of the people at the local gym? No, he didn’t!

The point is, many men are motivated to join the gym because of the actors they see on screen. Yet, by doing so, they are NOT doing anything that will give them similar results. As a matter of fact, they are guaranteeing they won’t look like any of those guys!

And once you figure it out and want to quit the gym, they don’t want you to leave!

Here’s a secret: Myself and other coaches and trainers who sell well thought out workout programs online run into this problem all the time. We slave over workouts to make them EFFECTIVE for building muscle, burning fat or improving performance. We go over every detail, picking the best exercises, choosing the right reps, set and rest periods to get the desired results and structuring the workout to be as efficient as possible. And then when we look at the finished workout, we realize most gym goers won’t be able to do the workout as directed.

• Most effective workouts don’t use machines… which are the majority of equipment commercial gyms have!
• Most effective workouts use bodyweight exercises… which gyms don’t want you to know because you’ll ask, “Why did I join the gym if I can use my own body?”
• Most effective workouts use free weights… which your gym may not even have!
• Most effective workouts creatively combine exercises, sets, reps and rest periods… which are close to impossible to perform in a crowded gym!
• Most effective workouts put you in control… which might not even be ALLOWED in some commercial gyms!

If you can’t perform a proven workout program of your choice in your gym… run, don’t walk, to the nearest exit!

Quitting Your Gym Is A Blessing In Disguise!

We started this conversation because many of you might have to quit the gym in these tough economic times. And while this is an excellent solution to fatten your wallet, don’t use it as an excuse to fatten your waistline as well. As a matter of fact, quitting the gym might be the best thing you could do to finally reach your performance, health and appearance goals. Look, if you’ve actually reached your fitness, fat loss and physique goals by doing machine circuits and aerobic exercise at the local gym, do whatever it takes to pay your monthly dues. Take the kids out of private school! Sell your prized baseball card collection! You are one of the LUCKY FEW!

We started this conversation because many of you might have to quit the gym in these tough economic times. And while this is an excellent solution to fatten your wallet, don’t use it as an excuse to fatten your waistline as well. As a matter of fact, quitting the gym might be the best thing you could do to finally reach your performance, health and appearance goals.

Look, if you’ve actually reached your fitness, fat loss and physique goals by doing machine circuits and aerobic exercise at the local gym, do whatever it takes to pay your monthly dues. Take the kids out of private school! Sell your prized baseball card collection! You are one of the LUCKY FEW!

But if you haven’t reached your goals, look at quitting the gym as an opportunity.

• Now YOU can take responsibility for getting the RESULTS you want.
• Now YOU can finally lose the fat, build the muscle and improve performance like you’ve always wanted.
• Now YOU can do the effective workouts that you COULDN’T do at the local gym!

You might have to give up your gym membership, but you NEVER have to give up your dreams of performing your best and looking great with your shirt off!

Eddie Lomax is the Founder & President of Optimum Fitness Network LLC. He believes there is NO EXCUSE for not improving fitness, burning fat and building an athletically attractive physique. His no-nonsense style of physical training can be seen in his workout programs.  Click here to see his latest workouts!