Maintaining muscle mass without a gym
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So I've been a regular gym goer for a couple years now. I'm still bloody skinny but compared to the rake with a potbelly that I can be without regular exercise I am pretty happy where I am at.
I relocate to Oz 3 weeks from now and as I am still job hunting I won't want to commit to a gym straight away. So basically I need some ideas on how to maintain for the first few weeks until I'm settled. I'm bringing a chin up bar with me which also has holds for short dips and different pressup variations to in theory work chest and shoulders. As for legs I'm going to maintain some longish runs plus lunges and 1 legged squats.
Any other ideas out there for good gym-free exercises?
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You've pretty much answered your own question there dude in my experience. I've recently added stair sprints as well which is good for the heart, Vo2 max and leg tone. Try clap push ups and if possible add weight to the chins/dips either with a pack or weights around the belt. My previously easy to reach weights are buried in a garage so haven't done them in ages but those others on a regular basis seem to be doing the trick.
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A lot of the local parks now have activity centres installed - so you run around the edge of the park and there is a chinup bar, dip rack, horizontal ladder, etc.
Find one of those and you're set like a jelly.
Oh and sprints - wish I could do sprints
but do a few 25/50/100m sprints on the local oval and you'll be fine. Better than jogging. -
Plenty of videos about urban workouts. Double ups are god for the upper body!
@MN5 Steep hill sprints or stair bounds are brilliant for generating power and leg speed. Big fan of those.
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lots of good ideas here already. Check out some youtube vids on training outside of the gym too, there will be a heap of good stuff. If you can find parks/playgrounds with gear like NTA was talking about you'll be sweet as I reckon. Those set ups are primo!
If you can pick up a cheap set of dumbbells or KB's around 14-20kg or so there are heaps of things you could do.
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@antipodean said in Maintaining muscle mass without a gym:
Plenty of videos about urban workouts. Double ups are god for the upper body!
@MN5 Steep hill sprints or stair bounds are brilliant for generating power and leg speed. Big fan of those.
I tried 10 sets of (42) stairs at the local train station this afternoon. First time trying something like that, Completely buggered afterwards. I guess I know why Titch did not call me up for the Olympics.
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@antipodean said in Maintaining muscle mass without a gym:
Plenty of videos about urban workouts. Double ups are god for the upper body!
@MN5 Steep hill sprints or stair bounds are brilliant for generating power and leg speed. Big fan of those.
I'm pretty bottom heavy so find a lot of that shit comes naturally to me and I enjoy it far more than other leg exercises.
Also throw in broad jumps, those are great value.
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I had a ~3km route I used as a speed session and about two thirds of the route was a steep hill about 50m long. If I wasn't making good time I'd do repetitions on the hill which made the last 800m home hellish.
Repetitions makes it sound special - after about six I was done.
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Some good tips, cheers!
Rocky, good to hear that the pressup placement works well, the chinup bar I have has a few different hand holds for that purpose also noticed there are some pressup boards at the gym now.
Parks/playgrounds seem like a great idea, but can be a little frowned upon when kids are playing. From memory they were even discussing a law in London a few years back about preventing unaccompanied men from being allowed on childrens playgrounds, not sure how far it got though.
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I presume you have a suitcase or bag. Fill it up with heavy stuff and use it for rows and curls.
