I was wondering what kind of exercises someone like me could do if I didn't have the time, or money to spend on going to a gym? I know that I'm not the only one with this question as I believe many people want to start working out during their teenage-adult years, yet are too busy with school/jobs. I was hoping if anyone knows any good exercises/programs to keep you fit/toned, maybe within 30 minutes to an hour, 3-4 times a week?
I think three or four sessions a week and half hour to an hour a session is a solid base. But what do you want to do? Running, aerobics, yoga, weights? Tony Horton of P90X has a book out titled Bring It. His famous P90X I think recommends six times week which is heavy going IMHO. I work out three and four times a week. I don't have a gym membership. Most of what I do is dumbbell work, some barbell. And some just body weight work. Dumbbells if you want to get into weights are a pretty good value for the money, maybe a weight bench would be worth it too. But that might not be the direction you want. Getting active is good though. Now what do you want to do? Ryder13
Get yourself a pullup bar that goes in a doorway. Do pullups and chin ups. Then hit the floor and do pushups after that do some air squats and a few minutes of wall sits. If the pushups become too easy prop your feet up on something. Then head outside and run. If you can spend a few hundred dollars, go on craigslist and try to find a bench with weights. Then find a good home workout routine for what you have available.
I would recommend to do simple things as a beginner an then work your way up. I would get an aerobics step and I would do some exercises on that for at least 15 minutes. I would then go up against the wall and do a squat and hold it in place for a minute and then rest and then repeat. I would then do some crunches for about 30 minutes repeatedly. I would end the whole workout with just running or jogging in place. This routine has personally worked for me so here I am hoping it will work for you as well! Good luck!
Be careful with those pull up bars, they are not very secure. Go on Youtube and you will see countless fails where the bar has collapsed. Squats, press ups, lunges, sprints, tyre flipping/dragging/hitting etc.
I recommend doing pushups. Also recommend getting a fitness ball. They are really effective when using them for pushups. I don't think they cost a lot. Maybe $10 at a Walmart.
I want to give you a suggestion that I use part of the time, sandbag training. You can invest a few dollars in getting a sandbag training setup that allows you to create a wide variety of workouts that target every muscle in your body and can provide a tremendous cardio workout. You vary the weight of the bag by inserting or removing small bags of sand. The moving bags of sand create extra tension and physical challenges that you do not get with traditional free weights. I am not going to go into a lot of detail in this short answer, but you should take a few minutes to check out some of the cool videos on YouTube showing sandbag training. It can be very addictive and a great way to get very fit, very quickly.