Five Superb Health And Fitness Activities You Don’t Need An Expensive Gym Membership For

Are you one of these people who begrudge paying a large proportion of your hard earned cash to one of the big national chains of gymnasiums? Maybe you don’t like having to pay for a full year in advance (even if you want to stop going after a month), or you don’t enjoy the fact that the facilities always tend to be very busy when you call in after work. Alternatively it could be that your situation at home means that you would not be able to get your money’s worth from your membership which puts you off.

The good news is however, that you don’t have to be a member of an exclusive club in order to vastly and radically transform your levels of fitness and health. Furthermore, you can do plenty of things even in the comfort of your own home that will help you become fitter, stronger and healthier.

Listed below are five excellent health and fitness activities that you can do without having to fork our a fortune for expensive gym club membership. Some of these are completely free, others there may be a small charge, but all of these items can help as part of a healthy fitness regime and cost only a fraction of that expensive membership!

1. Hit the Games Consoles!

Are you fed up watching your son play FIFA with his friends, or your husband blasting foes into oblivion on Call of Duty, then kick them off the console for an hour and load up one of the many excellent fitness games that are available for consoles such as the Xbox360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

There are a wide variety of games available, including games such as the Just Dance series, which allow you to dance along vigorously to a wide range of top musical hits. Other notable games include Wii Fit, which will not only take your measurements and improve your posture awareness using a Wii Fit Board, but will introduce you to a whole host of fun to play games that make keeping fit great fun.

Games manufacturers have discovered that the new generation of consoles is the perfect vehicle to get people up and active and enjoying fitness like never before, so book yourself an hour or two on the console, get your sweatpants on and enjoy yourself!

2. Strap on the iPod, grab the dog and take a walk!

After filming his series about visiting all the states in America, the genial Stephen Fry admitted that he took a look at himself in the mirror and cried at how large he had become. Using nothing more complex than an iPod, a selection of good audio books and the power of his own two feet, Stephen went on a healthy eating and exercise drive that saw him walk miles each day around the streets of London, while listening to the books on his iPod.

In the space of a few months, Stephen had shed several stone and was as svelt as he had been for many a year, causing Top Gear wag Jeremy Clarkson to remark “Where’s the other half of you?” When Fry appeared on the popular television show.

Walking is a superb activity to increase fitness and it can be done anywhere, and at any time. Follow Stephen’s lead and take an iPod, or grab a dog to accompany you on your trip and you’ll soon start to feel the benefit.

3. Grab your goggles for a swim!

Swimming is one of the best activities any person can do to keep fit. The natural buoyancy of the water makes it ideal for those people who may suffer on land doing exercise, to complete a wide variety of different things in the water. Swimming lengths is a great way to keep feet and can be a great social activity if you get the family involved with you.

Even if you find swimming a little dull, many leisure centres offer cheap water aerobics classes which allow you the chance to take to the water for a bit of aerobic exercise and then enjoy a relaxing swim afterwards.

4. Smack that shuttlecock in a game of mixed doubles Badminton!

If you are a competitive spirit and enjoy a game against another person or pairing, then one game you should definitely try is badminton. The small court belies a game that is fast, frantic and immense fun, especially when played in a doubles format.

So get your husband involved and head down to the local leisure centre and book a court to play. Racquets and other equipment can be hired if you do not have your own and badminton has the happy knack of being one of the sports that is slow enough even for beginners to pick up, but which develops into a faster, more cerebral and physically demanding game the better you get.

5. Get Jiggy With it at A Zumba class!

It has long been known that dancing was an excellent form of exercise, although watching your dad on the dancefloor at your cousins wedding may try to persuade you otherwise! Dance classes have been popular for many years and one of the most popular modern forms of dancing is Zumba.

This fusion of samba dancing and aerobics has gained huge popularity across the world given the fact that it appeals to both the dancer in the individual, as well as offering sustained results in terms of physical fitness, flexibility and aerobic capacity. Zumba instructors are now dotted all around the globe and there will almost certainly be an instructor somewhere locally that runs classes, often several times a week, that are well attended and give you the chance to experience this fast, frantic form of exercise.

So why spend hundreds of pounds a year to run on a treadmill, lift weights and have a shower? Save your money and use your initiative to try out these fun fitness activities for a lot less and you’ll still reap the physical benefits of all the exercise too!