A friend shared this link to a news article about women who climbed mountains wearing long skirts. It has some pretty cool pictures including this one:
I like the photo a lot, mostly because it reminds me that women were doing cool fitness things more than 100 years ago, and they did them with basic equipment.
It occurred to me that we invest a lot in equipment when perhaps we don’t need too. My favourite workaround to kettlebells is to fill empty detergent bottles with water. Later, when I get more ambitious, I can fill the bottles with sand to increase the weight. I have also recycled a broom handle to help me with certain back stretches.
What is your favourite workaround for home-based gym equipment? Let us know in the comments.
MarthaFitat55 lives in St. John’s.
HI Martha– great post and I love the picture! Here’s my very low-tech suggestion: the lowly towel. Especially when I’m traveling, I use a towel for a hamstring stretch on the bed, a shoulder stretch behind my back, and a forward fold stretch sitting down on the floor or bed (looping towel around feet for stability and choice of how deep a stretch I want). I have a yoga strap at home (because I love me some gear), but a towel works as well for 90% of what I use it for.
Not so much a workaround, as a take things as you find them (which is, I think, in the same category)–I like to hop up flights of stairs on one leg as a strength, balance and agility exercise. No gym required (and not really for indoors, where it can make a lot of noise and where stairs are often narrower than outdoor public steps).