INTRODUCTION
The reason that some people get put off and stay away from fitness is that they think it is expensive. They hear and see these videos of bodybuilders eating 5-8 meals a day, training twice a day and think that they can’t do that because it’s way too expensive. However, fitness and health aren’t expensive, only as expensive as you want them to be. We are going to go over some of our top tips on how you can do fitness for less. Get fit and also save money in the long term.
We are going to break down our fitness for less tips into a few categories. “Workout tips” and “Nutrition Tips” and lastly some “Other Tips” that we find might help you. So we will cover both aspects of fitness (Workouts and Diets) and tell you how you can do fitness for less, much, much less! So let us start with the workout tips first.
WORKOUT TIPS
If you are working out from home, you don’t need to go full one gym set up. Weights can be expensive to invest in. We highly recommend you build up over time. Start small and invest when you can afford it. However, there are a few things you can do so that you don’t need as many weights. The first one is to invest in some good quality resistance bands. Not those cheap rubber ones you see floating around, Get a set of good quality bands. This will open up a whole catalogue of exercises that you can do. It will also allow you to progress and increase volume.
We also recommend investing in a Weighted vest. If you are only doing bodyweight workouts, you can add a weighted vest to increase your body weight, adding more resistance and increasing volume. This is a very easy and cheap way to add resistance to bodyweight exercises.
What about the Gym?
If you do want to go down the home gym route, or even just get a few bits and bobs we highly recommend looking into the second-hand market. Websites like Facebook Marketplace and eBay are great to get your hands on some second-hand dumbbells and barbells. There is always equipment for sale and finding cheap deals isn’t that hard. A simple way to do fitness for less.
Now, if you do have a gym membership there are a few things you can do to save money on this. The first one is to look at what kind of membership you have. A lot of Sports centres and commercial gyms have multiple memberships. The usuals tend to be Peak and Off-Peak. Peak being when it is busiest and off-peak means when it is the quietest. Now, if you can get to the gym on off-peak hours, sometimes the membership price might be lower. So it is worth looking into.
Another thing to look into is the perks you get with your membership. Are you paying for access to a spa or a swimming pool that you don’t use? See if you can reduce your membership to just the gym. The cost will come down. The last thing you could do is check out family packages. Some gyms of discount on group memberships. If you are going with a friend or family member see if you could save a bit by joining the joint membership.
NUTRITION TIPS
As far as nutrition goes there is a lot of things you can do to save money. The first and biggest one that is going to make a difference is to change your supermarket. Find a cheaper shop, buy off-brand products. My biggest saving comes from buying brand oats. A box of Quaker Oats is around £3, however, I can buy a 1kg bag of Aldi own brand oats for around 0.90p. That’s a huge saving. Plus they have better macros as well. This goes with rice and pasta. Alongside this, if you can buy in bulk. If they have a good offer in buy a few bags or tins. If you see that their bags of rice are on offer, grab a few bags at a low cost. Will save you money in the long run.
If you are really on a budget then look at your diet and meal plan. Could you save money anywhere? Swapping out foods for cheaper options? For example, I love bagels, however, if I wanted to save some money I would swap them out for bread or a cheaper alternative. You can always find cheaper cuts of meat, cheaper carbs and fats. Buying frozen veg will save you having to keep buying fresh veg, which can get pricey.
If you are after cheap but good quality meats. We recommend going to your local butcher and building a relationship with them. You will be surprised at how affordable good quality meat is. You can also get good deals on sites such as Muscle Foods. They do amazing offers so keeping an eye on their site and waiting for a deal can save you lots of money.
OTHER TIPS
Checking online for discount codes to your shops will save you lots of money as well. After some protein? Look around for a discount code. If you check out the membership area of our app, you will find a list of discount codes for loads of popular and well-known shops. These are discount codes we have found all over the net and is constantly being updated so new codes will be added when we come across or find them, If you have a discount code that you want us to include, send us an email and we will add it to the list.
The last thing you can do to do fitness for less is to buy fewer things. Biggest savings? Workout clothing! We all know it is lovely getting new gym clothes but even with discount codes, the expenses can build up. As with eh equipment, look on websites like Facebook and Depop, I have got some amazing gym clothes from Depop (As well as gym Shoes and trainers!)
CONCLUSION
Hopefully, this will give you some ideas on how to do fitness for less. Fitness doesn’t have to be expensive and there are ways to bring the cost right down. Using bodyweight and some cheap dumbbells you can perform so many workouts and make so much progress. No need to overcomplicate it at all. Dieting isn’t expensive either. Losing weight? Eating less isn’t more expensive, you just need to make the right decision! If you have any tips on how to do fitness for less then let us know! We would love to hear them.
If you are after purchasing some supplements make sure you check out the Members Area on our app. We have loads of discount codes that we find online which will help you find money. These codes are always being updated and we are always on the hunt for more.
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.