Low cost training ideas, diets and such.

[Tom Yum]

I started this thread as a way for po' folks or $$$ conscious folks (or both) to train effectively and get the nutrition they need while stretching their dollar to the limits. I am not a personal trainer, so do your homework and get your doc's advice before going forward in such a program.

Training
Bodyweight excercises are the king of low-cost, effective training methods. The benefit of using bodyweight excercises (calisthenics, plyometrics and others) is that you can build a base level of muscular strength, a heaping level of muscular endurance and keep your heart rate up, challenging your cardiovascular fitness.

In addition, most bodyweight excercises use several muscle groups - making efficient use of your workout time.

Here are some excercises:

Pushups - shoulders, triceps, chest, lats.
Handstand pushups (or modified shoulder pushups) - hit the shoulders and triceps.
Pullups - hit the upperback, lats, biceps, forearms.
chinups (palms facing you) - hit the biceps, forearms and rear delts.
divebombers - hit the shoulders, middleback and upperback.
situps - abs
leg raises - lower abs.
flutter kicks - lower abs, hip flexors
hello dollies - same thing
8-count body builders - work your entire body.
burpees - work your entire body.
swimmers - work your lower back and shoulders
bodyweight squats - work your legs and butt.
star jumps - legs.
jumping jacks - calves, shoulders.
step-ups - work both the quads and hamstrings.
mountain climbers - work the entire leg.



Routines
You can modify the workout to focus on banging out several sets of one excercise for maximum reps, with 30-45 seconds of rest between sets then move onto the next excercise. This builds base strength in the muscles excercised while improving on your muscular endurance (your ability to move under natural resistance over a period of time).

You can do a circuit, where you go through 6-12 excercises doing as many reps as possible with no rest until all excercises are complete. This challenges your cardiovascular system, while working your muscular endurance throughout your entire body.

You can do pyramids with one excercise, for several sets. For example, do 20 pushups, rest, do 30 pushups, rest, do 40 pushups etc. This focuses solely on muscular endurance.


Diet
If you have to cook it and its considered healthy, its cheap.

Look at your produce section: bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, squash etc. You can find recipes online on how to cook these things if you're not too handy in the kitchen.

Tunafish = cheap.
Chicken breasts = sort of cheap.
eggs = cheap.
plain oatmeal = cheap.

Yeah its a pain in the ass to have to prepare and cook your food, rather than unwrap and toss into the microwave - but the additional time spent cooking is an investment in your health, and that's ireplacable.

[medicals]

hey TOm

pretty good article and suggestions for me who is in really low budget... are u trainer, do u do personal training btw?

thanks again
charlene

[Tom Yum]

Thanks, but most of this information is stuff that I've picked up from others or learned by trial and error.

[Blue Wave Gym]

For resistance training you can also use: cinder blocks, a bucket(s) filled with sand or gravel, sand bags( for resistance training and grappeling training ect.)
or buy a heavy duty resistance band from a store or online at
lifeline fitness
check out their chest expander it can work your entire body chest, back, shoulders, arms legs with one product.

[GQchris]

I paid $7.99 for some Gourmet beef jerky today and I must say that the price was worth it! Let's just say it was a Flavor explosion and so tender...

[Tom Yum]

I paid $7.99 for some Gourmet beef jerky today and I must say that the price was worth it! Let's just say it was a Flavor explosion and so tender...

Beef Jerky has quite a bit of salt in it, as a preservative. Too much salt isn't healthy.

[GQchris]

Beef Jerky has quite a bit of salt in it, as a preservative. Too much salt isn't healthy.

True, but the amount of roadwork I do weekly and sweating I can pretty much get away with it.

[dredd1990]

i live by some woods, granted im 17, and u all might not have woods near you, but on my daily workout routine, i usually run thru the woods, and there are some older, split wood and wood blocks and heavy branches weighing anywhere from 50-130 pounds approx. i use these to workout, i put on some gloves and then usually carry the logs while running, or i simply lay flat and benchpress them. a double for this is that it callouses your hands and builds indurance depending on how you lift. there are all sorts of things around you that u can use, if your a college student and u keep a decently hefty backpack, while your sitting in class listening to a lecture, work your biceps a bit, pump that backpack yanno? or, if your just sitting around the house, take a thick book, lay on your back while watching t.v. and do single handed bench presses with it, anything that weighs 10+ will help with either endurance or burst strength. ANYTHING! if you live near a junkyard or you have old tires from your car, take the tire mounts, and hold one in each hand, and shrug your shoulder while using them, this helps the shoulder and neck muscles, you can also find a heavy iron bar or a long, slender, but heavy object, and toss in the air and catch it repeatedly, this helps work your wrists, and hand grip. if there is an old trampoline anywhere, take soem of the prings from the sides that hold the nylon onto the metal frame, find something round, like the tire mount, and hook the springs to the tire mount's edges and hook your fingers into the other sides springs, and then just close your hand, this is cheap, easy resistance training that builds MAJOR hand strength, i have used all these methods before and i know they all work. if you want to work on calf strength, hold something heavy, and jump very lightly and on your tip toes. or just move from flat footed to your tiptoes repeatedly. or, if u want to work your entire leg at once, find something u can hold yourself up with, and then do squats, with just your body weight with one leg at a time, much like a knee bend, i hold my body in a bent knee position and rest my leg on one knee, then just squat, do this many times. i often proceed until it hurts to stand.... it hurts the next day, but wow, does it work! these are my methods, i have others as well, if you have questions message me ^-^ than ks!
~Strick~

[kanik]

Y'all want nutrition facts and health things? This site is great, most stuff stated on it is pretty cheap, and the guy who runs it is a friggen legend, funniest guy. Its a site mainly for martial arts tricks (tricking) and the articles are hell worth it. http://www.trickstutorials.com/index...tent/nutrition