10 Ways to Skip the Gym and Get a Fullbody Workout

Looking to skip the gym and get an effective total body workout? Below are ten tips from the pros to get you out of that sweatshirt and beach ready!

1. Outdoor Cardio Meltdown

Who needs a treadmill?  Grab a towel and a timer and head outside with this 10-15-20 Cardio Meltdown Routine created by Lindsay Ferrer of EQUINOX New York City:

10 Long Jumps: do a long jump the length of your matt or towel then shuffle back to start position.

10 Pushups: kneeling or full depending on your fitness level.

15 Sumo Squats: stand up with your feet wider than your hips and toes slightly turned out as you sit back into a squat.

15 Burpees: start with a jump, then a squat down, the place your hands on the floor on your matt and jump out into a plank position.   Next jump your feet back towards your hands and pop into a standing position.

20 Bicycles Crunches: Lie on your back and bend both knees into your chest, hands clasped behind your head.  Find a focal point to the left and right of your body.  Look at those two focal points as you twist and crunch to each side, reaching your right elbow to your left knee and vice versa.

20 Mountain Climbers: Start in plank position and alternate driving your knees into chest, keeping your hips flat and parallel to the ground.

Make sure you time yourself performing the full meltdown and try to beat your best time with your next workout!

2. Stand-Up Paddle-board

Stand-up paddle boarding(SUP) is an amazing way to tone your whole body without feeling like you’re exercising(Because its fun but not easy.)  Standing on an oversized long board, you use a paddle to navigate across flat, calm waters.  Don’t be fooled by how easy it looks, SUP requires the use of your entire body with emphasis on core stability and control.  Former pro surfer Jodi Nelson describes it as “hiking on water”, making it a great choice for anyone who wants to add water to their workout routine within having to swim in it!

3. HIIT the Court

Have a basketabll or volley ball court nearby?  Make it a person gym with this HIIT-High Intensity Interval Training program from Andrea Metcalfe, celebrity fitness trainer and host of Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

“This workout burns major calories and is what I did while training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro because it increases maximum aerobic capacity,” Metcalf says.

How it works: Use the outline of a basketball or similar sized court to perform the three fat burning drills below.

Sprints(5): Sprint from one end of the court to the other, running forward and then jogging back backwards.  Repeat five times total.

Lateral Hops (30): Jump over and then back along the full court line facing forward the whole time.  Do hops total 1-2 lengths of the court.

Side Shuffles(6): Do side shuffles the full distance of the court and back, repeat six times.

The entire workout should take about fifteen minutes and will have you sweating like crazy!

4. Fitness Scavenger Hunt

“Going for a fitness scavenger hunt is a great way to get outside and break your routine,” says Tanner Martty of LEAF Lifestyle in Santa Monica California.

How it works: First map out your routine, it could be a path your typically use for walking or jogging.  Next list 5-10 body weight exercises like pushups, burpees, squat jumps, etc.  Finally next to each move mark a landmark you’ll see along your path like a park bench, red light, or car.

To start head out on your route and every time you see one of your four landmarks do ten reps of the corresponding move.  In addition to a great workout it will also keep your mind in the present moment and off other things like work and the office!

5. Play Ball!

Who needs a gym full of equipment when you can get a total body workout just by using a variety of balls outside?  Gather up a bunch of balls, basketball, soccer, football, swissballs, whatever you have, then use drills using them as weights or cones.

Try this drill: Set two balls next to each other on the ground and then place the third ball about ten feet away.  Starting on the side with two balls pick one up and run, slide, or even dribble it between your feet to the other side.  Once you get there, switch balls, leaving one you had and picking the one that was already there.  Continue moving the balls back and forth until you’ve moved the ball each ten times.

Get creative and make a whole circuit in your back yard, you can even add things like lunges and pushups to increase intensity and variety!

6. CrossFit On-the-Road

Take your CrossFit workout outside with any of these Crossfit on the Road Workouts using very little equipment!

Workout-1 (5 Rounds)

5Pushups

10Situps

15Squats

Workout-2 (5 Rounds)

10 Burpees

20 Bench Pushups

30 Pushups

40 Squats

50 Lunges

Check out the full list at CrossFitOneWorld.com

7. Sailing or Rowing Classes

Sailing and rowing classes are affordable and an awesome change of pace.  Sailing is a total body workout that helps build upper-body muscular endurance, agility, coordination, and flexibility, and can burn around 200 calories.

8. Trapeze

Take your workout to new heights with trapeze workouts.  Try a private lesson or enroll in a class to experience this total body endorphin-inducing workout that can burn up to 500 calories per hour.  Not to mention controlling your body while hanging off a bar in midair is also one serious ab workout!

9. Trail Running

Want to boost your calorie burn without having to run longer?  Try trail running!  Thanks to the textured uneven terrain your body has to work harder with every step, making trail running more intense than pounding the pavement.  Both aerobic and anaerobic systems are being used during your run unlike steady state fitness level training on the pavement or treadmill!

10. Volunteering

The number of calories burned shouldn’t always be the focus of your workout.  You can get active outside and give back to your community at the same time!

“Walking dogs for a local shelter or cleaning up a nearby park in the neighborhood are all great calorie burners and a nice way to give back,” Says Jaime Kenworkthy of J’aime Fitness, LLC in Philadelphia.  To find great opporutnites wherever you go visit VolunteerMatch.org.

For the original article visit ShapeMagazine