What's Your Excuse for Not Going to the Gym?

Too tired, not enough money to join, too self-conscious, traumatic childhood experiences in gym class...drank too much cheep wine the night before...I'm looking at you Charles Shaw...

There are literally a million excuses one could come up with for not going to the gym... Here's some excuses a certain prissy friend gave to me... and Oh, yes... I am judging you missy...hardcore! lol

Bad hair day? Wear a hat or just chop it off like I did, it'll always look funky fun.
Socks don't match? Seriously who cares, wear a pair of pants.
Shoes don't match? How in the world is that even possible??! You lost a shoe??
Clothes don't match shoes? Ok, Seriously! Stop being such a girl you're going to a place where you sweat like a pig not the cotillion.

Truthfully there are no excuses for being lazy and not making it to the gym! Even if you're having a bad hair day or don't have enough money to join a gym, live to0 far from a gym or are too self conscience to work out in front of other people... a lot of exercises can be done at home with out worrying about whether or not people are staring at your pony tail or spending a dime on exercise equipment.

Here's something I never thought to use as a piece for work out equipment...

A paper plate... no i'm not kidding.

Paper plates can be used on carpeted surfaces to reduce the friction/resistance and as a result you'll be using a lot more muscle to hold yourself stable. You can use paper plates to work out hips/thighs/legs and arms here's an example from about.com:



A push up can be modified with plates by simply placing both hands on the plates and as you lower your body push one hand straight up away from you, then on the next push up do the same with the opposite hand.

A plain old chair can be used for tricep dips:



What about cardio? Simple exercises like high knees (or running in place but the goal is to get your knee up to hip level), jumping jacks (you can also add a squat to this when you jump your legs out lower your body to a squat), mountain climbers (these can also be done with paper plates to make it a bit harder ;)), squats, lunges etc.

What about your core? There's a whole variety of sit up exercises that can be done to target every area of your abs... here's a 15 minute Abs work out from Sparkpeople.com! One of my favorite is circle crunches or "around the world" crunches. You will feel these working every corner of your abs! Team Six Pack here I come!



If you want to spend a little bit on some exercise equipment here's what I have lying around my house and what I used this evening to get my work out in because a certain someone was Ms. Lazy Bones all morning and afternoon:


Some El Cheapo dumbells.... most retailers sell a light weight set for about $12.00. I even saw them for sale at target so you can pick a set up anywhere.

With these I did chest flies, Russian Twists, lunges (both letting the free weights hang and using them to twist and work my abs.), and Push ups with a row.





Resistance bands, again these are also El Cheapo... about $12-13.00

with these I did standing chest flies and rows, I also used them the help stretch my hamstrings at the end of my work out.








Indoor bike trainer... these can be pricey... first you need a regular old bike to hook up to it, second the trainers are about $130-400.00 or more depending on the model. Fortunately this one didn't cost me a penny because my sister aka the twi-hater is obsessed with bikes and owns several and she got one of these for x-mas a few years ago :)

However don't let the cost deter you. These are great because in the cold months you can turn any bike into a stationary bike and work out in your house then fold it up and put the trainer away and the bike back down the basement, unlike that treadmill laying around your house that is now used as fancy laundry storage system. I spent about 45 minutes on this bad boy tonight.


So even my typical excuses this time of year for not working out because it's cold outside and I don't have a shuffle anymore for work out music aren't valid. As I said there are no excuses because A) I can (and you can) work out at home with little or no equipment and B) I stole the sisters ipod mini for music...shh don't tell ;)
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