Losing It with Jillian

• Doctor's Commentary
• Working Out Without a Gym
• Family Bio

Jillian's Tips for Working Out Without a Gym

Having a gym is not a requirement for getting fit. If you don't have the budget or the resource of a good local fitness facility, here are a few things you can do to get fit for free at home or in your neighborhood.

1. Use your neighborhood. Try biking around your community. Walk your dogs around your neighborhood. Find a local playground or park and go for a jog.
2. Use your furniture. Do step-ups, bench dips, and elevated push-ups off your coffee table.
3. Use canned food or bottles of water as hand weights for upper body strength exercises like bicep curls, rows, shoulder presses and tricep extensions.
4. Use your body weight to perform squats, lunges, sit-ups, jumping jacks, mountain climbers and push-ups in your living room or backyard. If you have a staircase in your house, try intervals - running up and down your stairs for cardio and lower body toning.
5. Work with yard tools. Try doing farmer carry walks with buckets of water. Use your sledgehammer on an old tire to shed calories and build overall body strength. Try using bungee cords like exercise tubing for upper body exercises like flyes, shoulder raises, curls etc.
6. Fill duffle bags up with clothes and use them like sandbags to add weights to squats or lunges.
7. You can utilize bath towels to help you stretch. Similar to a yoga strap, the towel will help you get a fuller range of motion when you do floor stretches.
8. Try hanging a broom or mop handle across the seats of two chairs to perform body rows (similar to a horizontal chin-up).
9. Do household chores. Simple chores like raking leaves, vacuuming, mowing the lawn, and even mopping your floor can all burn a ton of calories while allowing you to straighten up and multi-task.