Budget constraints

Miss Haribo here again

I thought I’d follow on from Emilie’s “Healthonomics” blog of a few weeks back. Exercise really is a great investment, but as she pointed out gym membership can be pretty expensive if you don’t go that often. And it’s too easy to fall into the alternative of couch surfing, especially when it’s cold outside and the idea of going and exercising outside doesn’t exactly fill you with joy. So what can you do instead?

Running clubs:
This is probably the cheapest exercise you can do.
Both Nike and Sweaty Betty run free running clubs around London. Swetty Betty also does yoga and pilates classes.
The Serpentine running club costs only £25 a year and has coached and social running sessions every day.

Use technology:
I’m not a DVD fan (although I do love my Pussycat dolls workout which I picked up for £2.99) so you’ll have to look through Emilie’s blogs for recommendations.
However, the new generation of fitness games for consoles like the Wii are really good. I like the “my fitness coach” series as they don’t work out much more than a DVD but, unlike a DVD, you get a different workout each time. I’m also a sucker for graphs and progress rewards, which playing on your computer can give you.

But by far the best workout tool I’ve seen is for the iphone and is by Nike. It’s called Nike Training Club. It’s free and is like having your own personal trainer. All the exercises come with video that shoes you how to do it, and you can choose to set yourself different goal such as building strength, or working your butt.
Plus you get rewards, but I’ll talk about the motivational power of rewards later.........