4 Tips to Building a Workout Routine Without a Gym

One of the many hurdles recently placed in front of all of us is the disruption to our routines. 

For years I’ve been getting up before the sun rises and getting to the gym before most people wake up. For me, this was a critical piece of my daily routine. I lived for the morning lifts; challenging myself early on in the day set the tone for the rest of my day at the office. On the rare occasion that I couldn’t make the gym in the morning, my day fell apart. I felt unproductive at work, was irritable (my fiancé can attest to this), and felt a lack of motivation to get things done. 

When my gym closed this spring, my entire morning routine, which I relied upon, was forced to change. I knew my fitness program would have to change, but allowing my entire morning routine to disintegrate was the biggest challenge.

It was difficult to motivate myself when my new commute to the gym was a walk down my hallway for body weight exercises. I didn’t have the space, nor could I afford expensive weight sets. I was getting irritated with my at-home workouts and hated that I wasn’t leaving the house in the morning like I used to. As a result, I started sleeping in longer each morning and losing the routine that I had worked so hard to build over the years. Additionally, I found it difficult to get motivated for work – I was losing interest in the projects I was working on and didn’t feel like myself. 

Thanks to my GORUCK Sandbag and rucksack, I fell right into my old habits – I felt reinvigorated, started getting up earlier, going to bed earlier, got more done around the house, and started delivering a better work product. Here’s four tips on how to get back in the swing of things without a gym:

  1. Develop a Schedule

Mine starts the night before, eating dinner early and getting into bed before 9 pm. I set out my clothes and plan my workout the night before. I rarely deviate from my schedule – I’m up at 4 am and leave the house at quarter to 5, and finish working out by 6 am. You don’t need to be up at 4 am, but set a schedule that works for you, and revise as necessary to fit your life. 

Prior to the pandemic, I was driving to and from my gym every morning, a 30-minute round trip commute. I didn’t realize how much I relied on that part of my schedule, so I incorporated a “new commute” into my schedule aka a five-minute walk with the sandbag over my shoulder and rucksack on my back. Losing that gym commute was originally a negative for me, but now I save 2 hours each week, not to mention the other hassles of driving, parking and paying a gym membership.

2. Stay Consistent

The key to any good routine is preparation and consistency – the less I need to think, the more likely I am to stay on track. One action can create a habit, and the few habits can evolve into a routine. 

Let’s face it – getting up at 4 am is not fun or easy; if it were, everyone would be doing it. I used to be a night owl – staying up late to get work done and not sleeping enough. Once I decided to make the change, it took me three weeks to feel comfortable waking up and working out so early, but after following this routine for 6+ years, I cannot imagine doing anything else; the hardest part for me was just getting started.

3. Track Your Progress

I can’t improve what I don’t measure, so I track everything, including my workouts, the food I eat, amount of water I drink, my weight, the quality of my sleep, and my physiological data – all with just a few apps. Tracking your progress can help you stay motivated.

4. Foster Accountability

I’ve found that having someone else (or a group) holding you accountable for showing up is key. There will be days you don’t want to get out of bed, but with someone else counting on you, turning over and going back to bed is generally not an option. This person can be local or live across the country – just find someone with a common goal and hold that person accountable, and trust they will return the favor. 

My close friends have always laughed when they heard me talk about my morning routine. But now, guys who I never imagined getting up that early are now meeting me in the park at 5 am to throw the sandbags around (and we don’t even live in the same neighborhood). We’ve got a solid group that meets every morning – and we all hold each other accountable and expect each other to be there, which makes those early mornings that much easier. I was happy to share my bag but it didn’t take long for them to see the benefits of buying their own. Not only are we getting a great workout in, we’re able to use the time before and after we workout to catch up with each other. 

If you’ve been thinking of building your routine or changing an unhealthy one, the most critical step is to take action. Try something new and build momentum each day with little changes…the hardest part is getting started!

 

About the Author

Kevin and his fiancé run a travel blog. They are taking a pause right now on travel content and diving into training.


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5 comments

  1. PedsElite says:

    A Lot of the work so far has focused on the bodybuilding communities of North America, Northern Europe and Australia.
    It is clear that AAS use is a worldwide issue, with research rising from low–middle income nations around the globe in addition to
    industrialised high-income states. Evidence from the Uk indicates that there are as many AAS users over forty years of age as there are those underneath the
    age of 25 years [31]. It is well established that AAS
    use is not restricted to men and while rates amongst girls are much decrease [203], the complexities of therapy and care are undoubtedly a lot greater [23, 204, 205].

    The unwanted side effects of anabolic steroid use can differ
    from person to person. In most international locations,
    together with the US, possessing, shopping for, promoting, or using anabolic steroids with
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    guidelines to find out the specifics, and you will find
    some nations are fairly lenient or even permissive of steroid
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    I am a muscular guy with a lot attention and recognition for my physique.
    I began with very little and always put 110% into the health club
    to get to the place I am now. From anabolic steroids to SARMs
    to peptides and ancillary medicine, I’ve carried out it in some unspecified
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    put via a machine that magically detects each substance.

    Oral steroids will price you between $50 and $100 for a bottle of 100 capsules.

    You will find that a lot of bodybuilders will comply with two months on, one-month off-cycle sample.

    It additionally offers you with the opportunity to stay emotionally
    and mentally refreshed. It is extremely essential to grasp that a steroid cycle
    won’t work in isolation.
    Cypionate has a half-life of approximately 8
    days, whereas Enanthate and Propionate have a brief elimination half-life of about four.5 days.
    For instance, Testosterone Undecanoate has a long half-life
    of over 20 days, and Phenylpropionate has a short half-life of lower than three days.
    And with that, I ought to add that every little thing you read here is predicated on my
    analysis and expertise.
    Coincidentally, Dr. Ziegler, in his later days, suffered from coronary heart illness, ultimately dying
    from a coronary heart attack in 1983. He attributed the harm to his coronary heart as the outcomes of his
    personal experimental steroid use (when creating Dianabol).
    This is why bodybuilders eat copious amounts of
    protein in an attempt to shift this nitrogen stability into a
    optimistic state for as lengthy as attainable. Nevertheless, this effect from consuming protein is very gentle in comparison with Dianabol’s
    impact on nitrogen retention, which is more efficacious (4).
    However, in 1990, 32 years after it came to market, Dianabol was
    banned by the FDA following the Anabolic Steroids Control Act.
    It turned unlawful within the US for non-medicinal
    reasons, due to a model new understanding of the steroid’s potential to
    trigger extreme unwanted effects. As Dianabol was now broadly out there in the US, medical doctors were prescribing it to successfully deal with
    sufferers affected by hypogonadism (when a man’s testes fail to perform adequately, leading to testosterone deficiency).

    Nonetheless, research recommend that such elevations in blood pressure usually are not as severe from testosterone in comparability with
    stronger anabolic steroids. Thus, testosterone is the least cardiotoxic steroid
    in our experience. Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are artificial
    derivatives of testosterone used to increase muscle mass and improve athletic efficiency.
    Their effects span muscular, cardiovascular, endocrine, and psychological methods, typically with
    each vital advantages and serious adverse penalties.

    EQ has much less estrogenic activity than Dianabol,
    but all testosterone-derived steroids can lead to
    the event of water retention. Testosterone derivatives are typically favored extra for
    bulking cycles quite than slicing cycles the place fluid retention is undesirable.
    A few stories in the literature have linked AAS use to focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)
    (169–171). FSGS is a histopathological finding marked by glomerular lesions, mediated by numerous insults directed to,
    or inherent within, the podocytes (172). Herlitz et al.

    were the first to present a case sequence of nine sufferers who developed FSGS after extended AAS use
    (169). A tenth affected person described of their publication had no discrete lesions of segmental
    sclerosis however did have glomerulomegaly.

    References:

    PedsElite

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