Fitness without Money

Capitalism has a way of turning everything into a commodity; more and more Health has become a commodity, cheap unhealthy Food is what is available to the poor, healthy Food is available to the Rich. Physical excercise is now a luxury.

Anyway, I'm a little bit of a Fitness enthusiast, I've been training for many years and try my best to eat accordingly; I've been through time periods of being broke, and have learned how to stay in shape With almost no Money, so I figured I'd share a couple tips.

1. Find a bar park if there is one available:
If there is a park With pullup bars and dip bars Close to you make that Your gym. Believe it or not you can build a very, very strong upper body without touching a barbell or dumbell.

Pullups work almost the entire back, from the middle traps, the rhomboids, the lats to the posterior deltoids, as well as Your biceps. Chinups focus more on the lats and biceps.

If you're so strong that you're doing multiple sets of 20, there are different tricks to make them harder; squeeze Your buttcheeks together (this will prevent any lower body momentum from helping), raise Your legs, or do slow negatives, or turn Your pullups into muscle ups.

Dips, work Your chest and triceps, if you want to focus on Your chest lead Your body forward, and bring Your knees up as a Counter weight, if you want to work more on Your triceps keep Your body upright and Your legs straight (perhaps knees bent so Your feet are behind you), to make it harder you can squeeze Your buttcheeks (again, preventing lower body momentum), focus on keeping Your scapula Down (avoid shrugging shoulders) to keep the tension on the chest and triceps, pause at the bottom and do slow negatives.

Pushups are often thought of as not really relevant to People who are already strong, but that's only becuase most People dont to them right. a stiff body, (tightend butt cheeks), shoulders no wider than shoulder length, head pulled back and chest pushed out, elbows at a 15 to 45 degree angle from the body (should look like an Arrow when seen from above), all the way Down until the chest touches the floor, pause, up to locked out arms. You'd be surpised how difficult those are when done correctly. If you want to make it harder do them on Your fists With Your fists Down to Your hips, (at this poit Your arms should be maybe 0-15 degrees flared from Your body) so that most of Your upper body is in front of Your hands; or to focus more no chest do hand clap pushups. If you want to turn them into a shoulder buildger, do handstand pushups against a wall.

Sprinting is probably the best way to work Your lower body, it'll strengthen Your entire lower body, as well as Your Central nervous system, it will also kick up Your metabolism. If you really want to beat up Your legs sprint up a hill in short bursts.

2. If you can afford it buy a suspension trainer, and/or a pullup bar.

TRX's are very good, a bit expensive (around $80) but you can get other brands cheaper, or if you're hand, you can build Your own quite easily.

Shoulder flies on a susptension trainer is probably the best shoulder Builder I have come across, I do them everyday, they'll turn Your shoulders into cannonballs quick. Do them often.

A pullup bar in Your doorway is usually not all that expensive and will give you the ability to do pullups and chinups from home.

3. Food.
Eggs: Eat a lot of eggs, lots of protein, lots of healthy fats (fat is good for you, especially monosaturated fats which are necessary for the Production of the male hormone), eggs will build muscle like nothing else.

Legumes: an affordable Source of nutrient Rich and protein Rich Food, buy them dry in bulk, and Cook them With onions and perhaps carrots and peppers and you have a filling, muscle building meal.

Canned Mackerel: A really good Source of protein as well as omega 3 Oils and vitamin D, usually you can get it rather cheap.

Of course it goes without saying that one should eat as many vegetables as one can, and avoid sugar and processed Food as much as one can.

If you're trying to lose fat I've found Intermediate fasting to be very helpful, basically you eat nothing for 16-20 hours (other than water and perhaps coffee), then you eat Your calories in a 4-8 hour period, eat large, protein and fat Rich meals. There is plenty of science behind this Method showing that it regulates the hormones in Your body in a way to facilitate muscle Growth and the burning of fat.

4. Squeeze in workouts, if you can do 15 minutes each day, perhaps just two excercises per workout, you'll make world of a difference. Many People working one or more fulltime jobs barely have time for anything. But the difference between no workout and a short (but intense) 15 minute workout is giant, whereas taking out an hour or two for a long workout is usually much less effective than a Shorter (perhaps 30 minute) workouts spread throughout the week.

I hope this helps someone :), stay fit.

Thanks, I'm sure that will be

Thanks, I'm sure that will be helpful for some!

I kind of don't really have the time or inclination to do "exercise" on top of everything else. So what I do is just cycle to get around, get to work etc. That way I save money, keep fit and save time as well.

Sprints won't really help you

Sprints won't really help you build leg strength, unless you're sprinting against some kind of resistance. Hill sprints are slightly better. But without a barbell you're always going to find it difficult to build lower body strength efficiently, or at all.

good thread. over the years

good thread.
over the years i've found enough weights being thrown out by others to make up a small but servicable set of my own. i had to buy the bars.
i walk everywhere (again, now that my 4-month misery of fasciitis has gone away) and use the stairs at work.
the floor is your friend: push ups but also ab crunches, squats, leg lifts, etc.
and i bought one of these:

$10 about.

On a similar theme, via the

On a similar theme, via the ultra-left website Ultra-com:

The method that we follow has a simple outline: Lift Weights, Read Marx, Tear Shit Up.
[....]
In order to prepare for an unknown future we have to build a flexible skillset. At the core of this flexibility will be basic factors of physical and mental strength. In the same way that one does not simply train a single muscle group when lifting, the point here is not to specialize in any one field but to build multivalent capabilities on a strong and flexible foundation. Weight lifting is meditation, capable of focusing emotions, intellect and body.

Lift weights, then, means more than just strength training. It means gaining practice in skills as diverse as martial arts, graphic design and childcare. It means: challenge yourself. The gravitational pull of activism is one of the greatest dangers we face as young people who have begun to realize that everything around us is completely fucked. As soon as one starts to perceive the horrors embedded in everyday life, the “left” attempts to latch on like a parasite, rejuvenating itself with fresh blood and immobilizing its host. Lift weights means ripping out the parasite. It means rejecting this culture of weakness and refusing to become the token of someone else’s patronizing politics. Remember: Strong people are harder to kill.

Quote: Lift weights means

Lift weights means ripping out the parasite. It means rejecting this culture of weakness and refusing to become the token of someone else’s patronizing politics. Remember: Strong people are harder to kill.

This reads like some ubermensch fantasy.

Best exercise activities I

Best exercise activities I have found for cheap are
Calisthenics / bodyweight exercises
Running
Skipping (jumping rope)
the first two being used by militaries worldwide for centuries for optimum fitness

So while I'm quite partial to

So while I'm quite partial to hitting the weight myself, I think threads like this - focusing on wider cultural activities - are great. Thanks for writing it up, Rommon.

Get a dog, you absolutely

Get a dog, you absolutely have to go out and get exercise, unless you get one of those silly dogs that don't need running, like a shih zhu, in which case you'll be too busy dying of embarrassment to go anywhere.

Rommon wrote: 3. Food. Eggs:

Rommon

3. Food.
Eggs: Eat a lot of eggs, lots of protein, lots of healthy fats (fat is good for you, especially monosaturated fats which are necessary for the Production of the male hormone), eggs will build muscle like nothing else.

It's a common misconception that a high protein diet is required to gain muscle. In fact, too much protein, especially protein from animal products as it's harder for the body to digest, can have all sorts of deleterious consequences for ones health. Also eggs have a lot of cholesterol which is linked to increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Rommon

Canned Mackerel: A really good Source of protein as well as omega 3 Oils and vitamin D, usually you can get it rather cheap.

Fish is the most healthy meat to eat, at least in small quantities, but the problem with most canned foods is that they typically contain a lot of added salt which can contribute to hypertension. This may not be too much of a problem for a younger person but as one but as one gets older it most certainly is. If your going to eat fish and can't afford fresh then your better off buying it frozen (unsalted) and either baking it or broiling it (in water) yourself.

Rommon

Of course it goes without saying that one should eat as many vegetables as one can, and avoid sugar and processed Food as much as one can..

Excellent advice. To which I would add that foods high in complex carbohydrates, - potatoes,oats,rice,whole grains,beans, lentils, etc. should form the bulk of ones diet. Also don't forget the fresh fruits. Also a handful of nuts (almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts) every day is a good idea as well.

Also, avoid eating vegetable oils as they are loaded with fat, and don't believe the hype about the health benefits of consuming olive oil, it like all vegetable oils is loaded with fat and offers few nutrients in return. Olive oil, as well as canola and coconut oils, are however great for topical use on the skin. I lost a lot of excess body fat just by eliminating olive oil and other vegetable oils from my regular diet.

By the way, this is why local

By the way, this is why local politics is extremely important, when I lived in a "ghetto" area there were no bar parks Close by, none at all, now that I live in a nicer area there are literally 3 I can jog to ... It makes a huge difference. Luckily during that time I owned a pullup bar and a trx ... enough to keep (at least my upper body) pretty strong.

When libertarians and other market fundamentalists talk about "lifestyle Choices" as the cause of a lack of Health in poor communities, they're simply talking nonsense, living in a fantasy world.

As Sike pointed out fresh Food is of course healthier than canned Food, and frozen Food is also healthier, but it requires time ... something most poor People don't have a lot of.

At my work now I have a gym in the building I can use, I have 3 parks With bars Close by; if you're poor, in a poor neighborhood, Things because a Whole lot more difficult.

You want better communities? healthier communities? stronger families? Don't go out and lecture the poor on "Choices", as though they never thought of that before ... build Public parks, build bar parks, build play grounds, build urban farm gardens, raise wages so that People can have a little extra time to actually live.

Khawaga

This reads like some ubermensch fantasy.

Yeah, it's a little wierd, no need to ideologize it, it's just staying in shape, and a doing so even if you're poor.

Sike

It's a common misconception that a high protein diet is required to gain muscle. In fact, too much protein, especially protein from animal products as it's harder for the body to digest, can have all sorts of deleterious consequences for ones health. Also eggs have a lot of cholesterol which is linked to increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Cholesterol doens't cause heart disease, diabetes and so on by itself, it's usually in tandum With a bad lifestyle.

Cholesterol is necessary for testosterone Production.

the studies are pretty Clear about protein and hypertrophy, it's necessary, not like 5 grams a KG, but a good amount.

Fish is the most healthy meat to eat, at least in small quantities, but the problem with most canned foods is that they typically contain a lot of added salt which can contribute to hypertension. This may not be too much of a problem for a younger person but as one but as one gets older it most certainly is. If your going to eat fish and can't afford fresh then your better off buying it frozen (unsalted) and either baking it or broiling it (in water) yourself.

Absolutely. it's better to buy frozen than canned.

But there is nothing unhealthy about meat.