{"id":1629,"date":"2008-02-21T05:00:49","date_gmt":"2008-02-21T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/21\/frugality-in-practice-home-based-physical-fitness\/"},"modified":"2018-11-21T19:38:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T03:38:16","slug":"frugality-in-practice-home-based-physical-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/frugality-in-practice-home-based-physical-fitness\/","title":{"rendered":"Frugality in Practice: Home-Based Physical Fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lately, I&#8217;ve been making rumblings about getting in shape again. I want to get fit slowly. The trick is figuring out how to do it. It took a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/building-a-personal-finance-library-25-of-the-best-books-about-money\/\">reading<\/a> and a lot of trial and error to take control of my finances, but I&#8217;ve finally achieved a healthy attitude toward money. Now I hope to do the same with <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.getfitslowly.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">physical fitness<\/a><\/b>. But where to start?<\/p>\n<p>One approach would be to just throw money at the problem. I&#8217;ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/ads-i-hate-east-side-athletic-club\/\">looking at fitness clubs<\/a>, for example; they offer great exercise equipment and motivational classes all in one facility. But they cost more than a frugal fellow like me wants to pay. (Yes, I&#8217;ve looked into the YMCA and local community centers &mdash; there&#8217;s nothing nearby.)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also been fighting the urge to purchase a new bicycle. The Redline 925 makes me drool, but do I really want to spend $800 on bike? What&#8217;s wrong with the bike I already own?<\/p>\n<p>I was heading for a major expenditure if I didn&#8217;t formulate a plan, so I sat down and made a list of the free or low-cost fitness alternatives at my disposal. I was surprised to discover how much exercise equipment I already own:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We purchased a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nordictrack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NordicTrack ski machine<\/a> over ten years ago. It has received very little use during its lifetime.<\/li>\n<li>I have a bare-bones weight set that I&#8217;m storing for a friend.<\/li>\n<li>Last fall, some neighbors down the street were giving away exercise equipment they no longer used. They gave me a stationary cycle and a &#8220;health-rider&#8221;, both of which I dragged up the hill to our house. They&#8217;ve sat unused in storage ever since.<\/li>\n<li>While working with my wellness coach last spring, I was fitted for (and purchased) a good pair of running shoes.<\/li>\n<li>I own two bicycles. The first is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheldonbrown.com\/volpe.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1997 Bianchi Volpe<\/a> touring bike that I purchased ten years ago. I rode it for a couple thousand miles during 1998-1999, but since then it&#8217;s been neglected. I&#8217;ve also fixed up an old mountain bike that my cousin gave me to use as a &#8220;commuter&#8221; of sorts. I use it to run errands.<\/li>\n<li>We have a variety of sports equipment: several soccer balls, baseball gloves, golf clubs, racquetball stuff, a frisbee, and a jump-rope.<\/li>\n<li>We own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B000PMGN2M\/?tag=grsorg-20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dance Dance Revolution<\/a> for the Wii.<\/li>\n<li>I have a good pair of hiking boots and miles of great trails all around.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I look at the list of fitness equipment I already have, it seems ludicrous to pay money to join a gym. <b>I already <i>have<\/i> a gym.<\/b> Sure, I don&#8217;t have a treadmill or an elliptical machine or a fancy weight set, but I have plenty to get me started. I&#8217;ve already paid for this equipment &mdash; I might as well get some use from it!<\/p>\n<p>It also seems crazy to purchase a new bike. I have <i>two<\/i> bikes! What would I do with a third that I cannot do already? Instead, I pulled my touring bike out of storage. It was in sad shape, so I paid the local bike shop a couple hundred dollars to give it an overhaul. Spending this money hurt, but if it&#8217;s enough to get me back on the road to physical fitness, it&#8217;s well worth the cost. <b>Good health pays dividends in the long run.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And you know what? It&#8217;s fantastic to be back on the road. Over the past week, I&#8217;ve put in about 40 miles. That&#8217;s not a lot, but it&#8217;s a start. It&#8217;s like saving your first $40 in an emergency fund. You save a little at a time, and eventually you have $2,000 set aside. By the end of the summer, I hope to have biked 2,000 miles. (Or more!)<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/JDbike.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"317\" alt=\"\" title=\"In 1998, at the peak of fitness.\" \/><br \/><i>I look like the biggest dork in the world. But I&#8217;m on my bike!<\/i><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>For more on this subject:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Frugal for Life: Exercise free or gym membership?<\/li>\n<li>The Simple Dollar: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpledollar.com\/investing-in-yourself-exercise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Investing in yourself through exercise<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Consumerism Commentary: 10 things your gym won&#8217;t tell you<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oh yeah &mdash; I&#8217;ve signed up at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weendure.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>We Endure<\/b><\/a>, a social training log that lets you track your progress in a variety of endurance sports (such as cycling, running, and swimming). Here&#8217;s my profile. I&#8217;ve also created a Get Fit Slowly group that you&#8217;re welcome to join (even if you don&#8217;t read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getfitslowly.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Get Fit Slowly<\/a>). The more the merrier!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lately, I&#8217;ve been making rumblings about getting in shape again. I want to get fit slowly. The trick is figuring out how to do it. It took a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/building-a-personal-finance-library-25-of-the-best-books-about-money\/\">reading<\/a> and a lot of trial and error to take control of my finances, but I&#8217;ve finally achieved a healthy attitude toward money. Now I hope to do the same with <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.getfitslowly.com\">physical fitness<\/a><\/b>. But where to start?<\/p>\n<p>One approach would be to just throw money at the problem. I&#8217;ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/ads-i-hate-east-side-athletic-club\/\">looking at fitness clubs<\/a>, for example; they offer great exercise equipment and motivational classes all in one facility. But they cost more than a frugal fellow like me wants to pay. (Yes, I&#8217;ve looked into the YMCA and local community centers &mdash; there&#8217;s nothing nearby.)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also been fighting the urge to purchase a new bicycle. The Redline 925 makes me drool, but do I really want to spend $800 on bike? What&#8217;s wrong with the bike I already own?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[476,485],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}