[Wild Vulpix]

Fact of life: I always have a good excuse not to exercise

My awesomely formulated excuse this time is that
1) It's loud
2) It's cold out
3) Can't afford a gym membership!
4) In class while the college's gym is open


Unfortunately for me, there's no way to work around #4 the gym opens at 9am (I start class at 8:40am) and closes at 2pm (my last class gets out at 2:10!! Grr!). Having no income would explain why I don't have the money for a gym membership (not to mention I'd have no way of getting there). So options 1 and 2 seem to be my only hope.

I live in Massachusetts and I'd REALLY like to avoid being outside in this time of year, please! It's cold and snowy and wet and cold!

Now... exercising at home? Oh, this is possible alright. I have all the tools. I have a couple of 5lbs weights and one 10lb one, which is enough to get me started, and I even have a couple of workout games for the Wii. So there should be no problem, right? There's always something!

My dear old daddy, who I live with in a very tiny, almost appartment-sized.... condo? (I'm not sure what you call it, but it reminds me of the homes seen in movies in the setting of London). Anyways, the point is that the tiny room I occupy is directly above the area my father sleeps. Furthermore, he works the night shift, so as soon as I get home from school, he's passed out asleep, and won't be awake until 10pm when he heads off to work. Unfortunately, that's about the same time I go to sleep.

Is anyone else in a similar situation? How do you get your exercising in without disturbing your housemates?

[patchworkpenguin]

Pushups? Crunches? Power Yoga? Pilates?

If you have room for a mat or a towel you can probably do these styles of exercise.

DVD's or books from the library could help you out with workouts. exercises and how-to's.

Hope that Helps.

[JulieJ08]

If he's asleep, do you still need to use your bedroom. If he's just gone to bed, maybe the living room or even kitchen floor will be less noisy than directly over his head?

[srmb60]

You'll find lots of good ideas here
http://www.stumptuous.com/category/training
She's smart, funny and brilliant!

[Lunalight]

I workout at home 3x a week. I have the same problem with weather. Well, sort of. I live in Florida, which means it can be unbearably hot...so maybe it's the opposite, haha. The 5 and 10 lb weights you've got are an excellent start, and are two of the essentials I use. Also, you could google 'body weight exercises.' Most use very little space and are super effective! Also, another good option is a resistance band. I don't own one myself, but they range anywhere from $6-20, and there are many exercises you can do with them. (You can google that too ) I don't know about the quiet thing, but I'm sure just using dumbells wouldn't be very loud; they don't clank like together like a barbell.

[Eliana]

Strength training can be pretty quiet, if you're not a grunter. For cardio, I'm not real sure. I work out at home and Susan's suggesting that very same page to me a few weeks ago, I am now gung-ho work at home! No gym membership for me! I'm doing walking on different terrains, walking up my back yard hill in the snow , jump rope, running around my ping pong table when there's snow on the ground, running around the cul-de-sac when it's 30 degrees or warmer out and, my favorite, running up and down the stairs. I'm not a big fan of workout videos because I adapt to them too quickly, but there are a lot of great ones out there. I'm just not sure about the noise.

Get creative. You can work around this.

[peccavi]

One thing I'd like to mention quickly - Running up and down the stairs in between classes Every little bit counts, right?