How to get in shape for the least amount of money: Getting jacked on a budget
Getting in shape can be a real hassle, especially when you have no clue what you are doing. No one wants to spend all their time figuring out which method is worth it. I put this article together to help find the best way to get strong without thinning your pockets in the process.
Let’s face it, having your own trainer to help keep you motivated and on track to reach your goals would be amazing, but you don’t have an extra couple hundred to blow on a fancy gym and a personal coach. You’re reading this to learn how to get strong for the least amount of money possible. So fear not, I’m here to guide you to the best way to reach your fitness goals on a budget.
The factors that will make the difference
Like all things in life, putting in the extra effort goes a long way and exercise is no exception to the rule. There are factors you can control outside of fitness to maximize your results. I have put together a list of the ones that are most vital to supporting your fitness journey. That being said, I strongly recommend putting in the same amount of effort into these addons if you want to see any real result. Ignoring them will just result in you fighting against them yourself in trying to achieve your goals which would be a huge waste of effort and time.
Have a clear plan in mind
The most important of which is having a clear goal of what you want the outcome to be from your effort. Having these goals in mind will allow you to reverse engineer the outcome you’re looking for. That could be as simple as having an idea of how strong you would like to look, including the muscle groups you want to improve. Or It could also be having a picture of the man or woman with your dream physique so it will always be top of mind. Whatever it is you want to use it gives you direction on how to train effectively to have that be your outcome.
Working out only to lose weight is the best example of this. Many people go to the gym and get a membership that has them paying for every machine in the gym. When in reality they just need to burn more calories than they consume a day. Their whole problem is doing too much in the form of eating excess calories so they need to do something different if they want different results. This can be achieved rather cheaply, they simply need to monitor their intake of calories religiously with - my favorite app for this is Nutritionix Track. Instead of going to the gym they could just save their money on the gym membership, use it to buy some running shoes so they can get out and run. It isn’t until you really think about your goals that you are able to think about the best way to get there, that is why I consider it to be most important.
Focusing on your diet
A proper diet is vital to lose weight and to gain muscle . This is true because if your goal is to lose weight it could completely be done through consuming less calories. So if you want to lose weight, focusing on your diet should be where you start. The simple rule of thumb is to consume 500 calories less than your maintenance amount to lose weight and 500 calories more to gain weight. If you don’t know your maintenance calorie amount now would be a good time to get a food scale to track them and if you don’t already weigh yourself daily you should start.
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That is all to say that controlling your diet plays a major role in complementing what you do to get your dream physic. I didn’t know it before but I was making this mistake for much of my life. My body is very efficient when it comes to burning calories and it does help if you are very active on top of that. I simply could not hold any weight and I lacked the calories to really gain the strength I wanted to. It wasn’t until I saw this video by Alex Hormozi that I understood what I was missing, FOOD AND PROTEIN. Once I changed that I started to gain muscle for real it was almost magical the difference I made from such a small tweak. If you have tried diet after diet to either lose weight or gain muscle watch this video and only follow it to a tee, you will never take up a flash diet again.
My $100,000,000 diet…
The importance of recovery
Why We Sleep
If you want to learn more about bettering your rest. Check out the book "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker, PhD.
It's also available in audio format so check out audible or your local public library that's more your style.
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Sleep is often not really thought of when it comes to workout. Every time you push yourself to the limit you are creating little micro tears in your muscles. These tears end up healing into bigger muscles as you give them time to rest, which is why you feel sore when you exercise properly. So unless you are one of those sleepwalkers, your sleep time is your real muscles repair time. always get a good night's rest after exercise. It will keep your mind sharp and make sure you're growing's stronger as well.
Sleep is often not really thought of when it comes to workout. Every time you push yourself to the limit you are creating little micro tears in your muscles. These tears end up healing into bigger muscles as you give them time to rest, which is why you feel sore when you exercise properly. So unless you are one of those sleepwalkers, your sleep time is your real muscles repair time. always get a good night’s rest after exercise. It will keep your mind sharp and make sure you’re growing’s stronger as well.
Paths to your achieving fitness goals
To get the biggest bang for your buck you need to have a clear plan in place. By following one of these paths you will be able to form a plan that works for both your goals and budget This will make it simpler to break down what it is you should be doing when creating your workout plan.
Try out Calisthenics workouts
Calisthenics is by far the cheapest option for anyone looking to build serious muscle. The whole principle behind it is working out with just the weight of your body, allowing you to become very explosive and gain unreal body control. This may sound limiting but when you really look into it, it’s a lot more than just push up and pistol squats. The way people build serious strength with calisthenics is by working different variations of traditional workouts like pull ups and push ups to increasingly stress the muscle group it targets.
The gains come from the number of reps/sets and the difficulty of the variation of the exercise you’re capable of doing. This differs from strength training where you really just want to be in a low rep range close, lifting close to your one rep max. When your body is your only weight you have to get a little creative. Really, if you don’t have other equipment that is all you need to get strong. If you don’t believe me check out this video.
Build your own Home Gym
Making your own home gym is perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to commute to the gym just to get in shape. It makes it super convenient to wake up in the morning and get to work. The best part about it is you always have a reason to just get a little workout in. It cuts out the hassle of traveling to work out removing the friction from doing what you should.
Best part about it is you can set it up however you like. If you’re trying to lose some extra weight, make space for an exercise bike and or a treadmill. If you want to build some muscle get a squat rack and a bench. The possibilities are endless when you customize your home gym to your needs.
Back to what you came for, building serious strength on a budget. The only equipment you will need is a pair of adjustable dumbbells and an adjustable bench. With that setup you can work all of your muscle groups effectively. Your only limit will be how high your max weight is for your dumbbells set. If you invest in heavy enough weight you will have a setup that can bring from scrawny to jacked and never need replacement.
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AboveGenius Adjustable Bench
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Get a membership at local gym
The last option is going to your local commercial gym. If you go to neighborhood Planet Fitness or Fit4less you can start for as little as *$16.25 a month.
You will also have so much more options in terms of equipment making it much better if you are looking for variety and don’t have space for the machines. Keep in mind that if you’re just getting started, having all these options can lead to you wasting a lot of time just deciding what you want to do or how to do it. Always go to the gym with a plan or you will end up wasting a lot of time there not exercising.
Now that concludes my list of best ways to get jacked in on budget. I want you to know if you want to get strong, just get started. There is no best way for everyone, for you it may work best to do a little of them all. But you need to try it out to learn what works for you.
*Note: most cheap gyms have an activations fee of $50, so factor that into your decision. These prices have been given based on my location so do some research to see what you local offerings are.