I remember the days growing up in the small Pacific island of Guam. With my father teaching Shotokan Karate and my wanna-be bodybuilder cousins, I remember them resorting to anything and everything they could manipulate to use as extra resistance to get fit, build muscle, and get ripped.

You had to be resourceful growing up in the island, because there were only a few health clubs to workout at.  Only the wealthy were members, while the rest of us tried to build home gyms with those crappy plastic coated weights and old school Joe Weider benches.

Most of the time we had to resort to bodyweight exercises, sprinting (in my case it was sprinting away from stray dogs in my neighborhood, LOL!), and my dad’s martial arts drills.

I was never a muscular dude.  I was extremely active burning tons of calories from the combination of playing sports (mostly basketball on the blacktop till the wee morning), working out with my friends, and hitting the beach almost everyday.  All this activity kept me ripped and in awesome condition.

Fast forward almost 15 years.  I’ve been a fitness professional for 11 years now, and in the past year and a half I’ve gotten tired of working out in a gym.  I decided to go back to my roots, and back to basics with mostly bodyweight exercises, portable equipment, sandbags, and kettlebells.  To get seriously fit, nowadays that’s all you need.

So now 95% of my workouts are done at home or at the park, with the other 5% done at the facilities that my fitness company runs our boot camps.

As I explained in my very first post, I stumbled upon a sweet spot by mixing and matching certain workout protocols that I felt were the most effective for short workouts that take 15 minutes or less to complete. And I realized that you don’t need a gym for these fast, effective workouts!

So I’d like to share four reasons why you don’t need to get fit at a gym.

1.)    Get Your Precious Time Back

Learning how to use portable equipment and effective bodyweight exercises will save you the 10-30 minutes of commute time. (For some people it’s double that).  This is wasted time that you could have been more productive either at work or at home, especially if you have kids.  That doesn’t even include the wasted time of getting caught in conversations, or the needless wait for equipment.

2.)    Avoid Energy Vampires

This refers to the negative people at the gym.  There’s this unfortunate sheep mentality of people who are slaves to misinformation from the fitness media, and the unsolicited bullcrap advice from not only other gym goers, but bad unqualified trainers.  You get enough crap gossip at work so why expose yourself to more of it at the gym?

3.)    Save Your Hard Earned Money

Most gym memberships are a waste of money, because most people don’t even use half of the resources.  Nowadays it’s about getting involved in a supportive social fitness community.  It’s predicted by many renegade fitness experts like myself that the trend in the next five years will be the explosive growth of smaller fitness studios catering to a special niche just like my friend Zach Even-Esh’s Underground Strength Gym.

4.)    Get Your Body Back With Useful Equipment

The number one piece of equipment you will ever need is your own body.  Throw in some useful portable equipment such as high quality bands, bodyweight suspension devices, sandbags, and kettlebells and you’re set for less than $500 bucks for a long, long time.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the new technology is cool, but most of the time it’s really only useful for people needing to rehab injuries.  Using more functional tools will liberate you from the dependence of useless gym equipment that has crippled you for many years and has probably robbed you of the body you’ve always dreamed of.

Take a look at old school strongman Sig Klein.  In the late 40’s & 50’s he was teaching many people how to get fit and strong with simple hand crafted dumbbells, barbells, and bodyweight exercises.  They didn’t have fancy equipment back then, but they were able to build amazing physiques and were in great shape.

Another great example are the physiques and conditioning of any gymnast.  They utilize their own bodyweight as resistance 99% of the time.  Yet, many male gymasts are known to have benched press 1.5 times their bodyweight without using the bench press as a training tool.  Makes you go Hmmm…

So if you’re the type of person who is highly motivated and dedicated enough to workout on your own, then you obviously don’t need to waste your time and money on a gym.

If you still prefer the group support and atmosphere then look into your local fitness boot camps, but make sure they deliver results.

Do the opposite of everyone else and your mind and body will love you for it.

Are you a current gym rat, but can’t stand your gym?  Did you find this post helpful?  Please let me know in the comments section.

- Rommel