Hey, i pulled my gym membership a few months ago because it was just too expensive,i loved weight training but now- its a little bit hard without the weights

i was just wondering if you girls had any ideas on alternate exercises that might have the same effect but with no weights? i mean all i can think of is strentgh sort of exercises- push ups crunches lunges ect- but they dont have the same effect right??

Go online (oh yeah...you're here!) and google crossfit. You can find loads of great bodyweight workouts. In addition, stretchy band, filled milk jugs and other household items ARE weights!

Sorry for the very short repoly- gotta get to work! I'm sure others will chime in.

Mel

You can absolutely get a good workout and build muscle doing these and other body weight exercises.

Look at a book called New Rules of Lifting for Women (your local library might have it) which has a lot of body weight exercises. And like Mel says, resistance bands (there's a "stickied" thread above with some workouts) and also household materials. Check out stumptuous . com She has some suggestions for using things around your house.

There's lots to be done without actual dumbbells, or if you want to use them, try Craig's list or Freecycle or used sporting goods stores and get a few for home.

Tarryn, I do my resistance training completely at home, and I do not use any "weights" at all. I use resistance bands and body weight exercises. The kind of resistance bands I use can be purchased at a lot of fitness equipment stores. They have handles and come with a door attachment. A lot of them come with suggested exercises as well. I use them mainly for upper body work like bicep curls, rowing, chest presses, triceps, shoulder circles, etc. There are also a lot of sites on the internet that give suggestions for using them. As for body weight exercises, I do push-ups (I started with wall push-ups), crunches and bicycle crunches, three types of leg lifts, lunges, squats and a couple of back exercises.

The bands are fairly inexpensive, but you will want to "play" with them in the store if you can, to make sure you get a resistance level that is going to work well for you -- I use two different ones during my workout, depending on the muscle I am working at the time.

Tarryn,

Bodyweight exercises can be a lot of fun! It's funny I usually feel so much stronger when I'm doing those than when doing weights. Well, with the exception of a backsquat. Something about pulling your body up above in a chin up or dips or a series of pushups where your form is perfect is a very cool experience. I also wanted to suggest this forum: http://www.bodyweightculture.com/ There appears to be some interesting bodyweight exercises there. I also find that searching www.youtube.com is another way to find specific types of exercises for a program. Good luck and have fun with it.

Wow thankyou guys so much for your help, i did not even think about resistance bands!! yeh i just feel so all over the place with my at home work out (push ups ect) im just so lost and have no proper routine which i feel like is working so i will definately look into all this stuff and work myself out!(no pun intended..hehe)

There are a lot of good DVD workouts that use resistance bands too - check out collagevideo to watch snipets. I love using DVDs because they give me so many new ideas of ways to use my bands.

A trainer I used to work with told me that bodyweight exercises are actually ideal.

I found on youtube by entering in exercise while traveling some great exercises to do without weights or bands at hotels. Pushups, tricep kickbacks, crunches, and some using my carryon as a weight. I saved it on my iphone so I can do this on my next trip too.

as mel said get a milk bottle 4/6 pint or what ever fill it with sand/dirt/gravel whatever until you get the desired weight. this is good because if it starts light you can just fill it up a bit more to make it heavier.

secondly if you can afford the outlay get some small kettlebells and do some work outs with them the best dvd's are a guy called pavel touline (spelling is wrong perhaps someone can help)

these are HARD! but they will push your training into the stratosphere

I just read this on a website and thought I'd post it here.
You can get an excellent workout with bodyweight.
Now this guy is well... a guy, but if you do the work, you should get good results.
Do each of the following for 1 minute each:
pushups
sit ups
jumping jacks
pushups
squats
jumping jacks
squats

His motto is: if you're fat and weak, it's your fault!!

www.wildmantraining.com

You might want to checkout the Om Gym. It so versatile for body weight exercises as well as stretching.

I know this thread is a little older now, but I'm wondering if you can tell me where I should go to buy resistance bands? Is it OK to buy them at a store like Target, or must I go to a fitness store? (I live in the middle of nowhere, so I'd have to drive to closer to the Seattle area to find a real fitness store). The "Resistance Band" sticky gives a link to a type of band, but it's a dead link.....booo!

So can someone either reassure me that "big box store" bands would be OK, or point me to a place online where I can purchase with confidence? I don't want a cheapie band that's going to break and smack me in the face!

They're fine.

In response to my question about Target resistance bands, Maria Maria answered:

Well, I did go down and look for them yesterday. The shelves were very picked over, I'm guessing from the New Year's Resolution crowd. There was one set that had the package torn and taped back together, and then another that looked really cheap (for $35). As I was standing and looking at them, a friendly lady came down the aisle and said (with a smile), "Isn't it sad how we always look at this stuff, buy it, and then never use it?" I channeled my inner 3FC pals and replied, "Today is a new day, we'll start over!" She snorted and said, "Yeah, I always say that" and walked off.

Wow.

I didn't end up buying the equipment at Target, but another poster (in another thread) posted a link to some bands that she has, so I ordered them when I got home. I don't really know if posting a link is OK. I ordered the "Go Fit Ultimate Pro Gym" set. And guess what, Target Lady--I will USE them!