Home Workouts That Work - Stay Home, Save Money, Get Fit

My wife and I did the "Body For Life" challenge in 1999. At the time, I was 46 years old and had never really worked out consistently my whole life. I made a decision after seeing a video testimonial of countless success stories that this was something I could do...and would do.

For me, everything else in my life seemed to be moving along perfectly. My business success was progressing, my marriage seemed to be better than ever and I was happy...except for one thing: I did not feel good about the way I looked. I was sort of "pear" shaped and although I was not extremely overweight, I was flabby and did not look that good in a swimsuit.

My wife and I decided to do the program together and once we got started we were committed. After 12 weeks I looked completely different and I was forever sold on embracing this new lifestyle forever.

Since then we have been members of three different gyms. Recently, however, about a year and a half ago, we decided to set up our own small workout area at home. Because of our schedules, we had to travel to the gym separately each day to work out. With everything else in our lives that was going on we just did not get to spend enough time together. Our decision to workout at home was not to save money. It was to be able to spend more time together.

Working out at home requires very little equipment. We started with an adjustable weight bench we found at a garage sale for 5 bucks. We already had a good treadmill so our cardio equipment was there. We then purchased some dumbells. We got a small set at first and then slowly added to it.

The only place we really had room to set up our equipment was in the garage. We went to a "feed store", you know, where you buy stuff for your horses and chickens. They had these rubber mats called "stall mats" that are made from recycled rubber. A 4'x6' mat was only about 40 bucks so we bought 3 of them and those make up our gym floor. They work really well. They are very strong and durable and cushion the dumbells dropping on the floor.

Since starting our home workouts we have added a few elastic bands, exercise balls and other miscellaneous items. We can do virtually anything we need to do to stay in top physical shape and we never have to leave the house.

If you are on a low budget and don't have the money to spend on gym memberships, or just want to stay home to avoid the "meat market" atmosphere of the gym, try setting up a home workout area. It's easy to do.