You truly don't need a gym to get in shape. Just having your body, and using your own body weight, is enough. Don't believe me when I say that working out without a gym is possible? Well, keep reading!
Do You Need a Gym to Work Out?
Some people will argue that you have to go to the gym and use weights to work out, because your own body weight doesn't provide enough resistance or overload to build muscle.
This is definitely not true for people just beginning their fitness journey. For you, bodyweight exercises are definitely enough to shock your muscles! That's because, for muscle growth, you should be able to do at least three sets of 10 reps, while still being significantly challenged.
For most people, exercising using your own body weight will check all those boxes.
If you still think that body weight exercises without a gym or equipment aren't going to get you any muscles…then you should keep this study in mind…
The researchers of this study had two groups of people. One of the groups did three sets of 10 reps with a heavy weight, and the other group did three sets of 30 reps, with a light weight.
Now, based on what you know about fitness and what other people may have told you….you might believe that the group with the heavier weight would have gained more muscle.
But, guess what, they actually didn't gain more muscle because they WEREN'T taxing their muscles more! The results of the study showed that doing low reps/high weight and doing high reps/low weight is just as good for muscle growth, as long as you truly do work your muscles to exhaustion!
Other Benefits of Going "Gym-Less"
So now that you know that using your own body weight (and also the strategy of doing lots of lightweight reps), are effective ways of building muscle, is there any other reason why you might want to stay at home rather than go to the gym?
Well, of course, you avoid the potential issue of running into annoying people at the gym, like I talk about in this blog post, How to Deal With CREEPY Guys at the Gym!
But there are many OTHER advantages to working out without a gym!
You avoid the risk of hurting yourself by using equipment incorrectly, and you can also modify bodyweight workouts however you want. (A good example of a modified bodyweight workout is a pushup. If you can't do a pushup, maybe you can do a knee pushup, or a pushup from a surface like a countertop.)
Plus, there are so many fun bodyweight workouts you can do! It doesn't have to be planks and burpees.
For example, Transform:20, a Beachbody program, lets you use the Beachbody Step, so you can do lots of fun step exercises that are also bodyweight exercises. With this workout, you're doing bodyweight and cardio at the same time. In my opinion, that's more fun anyway!