Crossfit is expensive. There's kind of no way around that: it's more than a gym membership, but probably less than a daily vanilla latte habit times 30. I tend to think that most people could make cutbacks to coffee drinks and weekend Budweiser's if they really wanted to join, but I also understand that there are a lot of people who simply can't afford the bucks.
I think that part of the reason that Crossfit is so addictive is the people: the cheers, the encouragement, the inspiration of fitter, faster, and more agile peers. But: if you have no money, or there's no Crossfit in your area, you can still do many of my favorite exercises in the comfort of your own home. Comfort is relative, actually. You'll likely be pouring sweat and cursing your wobbling legs and careening heart, but trust me, every single one of these is 10 million times more interesting than schlepping to the beat of another Jillian Michael's workout in your sweaty livingroom.
Each of these can be a workout on their own (100 wall balls will kill you dead and make you feel like seventeen million bucks five minutes later) - or you can combine them in any pattern. Just keep track of your time, each time you do these. You'll be amazed at how quickly you progress.
1. Double Unders
This is regular skipping rope on crack, laced with sadism. It's skipping times 2, flailing and frustration. But what a fantastic workout. It took me several months to get the hang of these and I still need to take a step in between. See how many double unders you can do in twenty minutes, stopping to gasp for breath only sporadically, and then go in, get in an Epsom salt bath, and congratulate yourself for being such a basass. Here's a fantastic tutorial.
2. Box Jumps
I use the word "favorite" loosely here - but these are one of my better Crossfit exercise moves, probably because I'm really tall. But also because they don't take much skill. As long as your knees are good, you can give 'er. At the gym we use 20 inch pre-fabricated boxes, but you can use your stairs, a tree stump, anything solid and of comfortable jumping height. Start with one minute of these (as many as possible in 60 seconds) - and progress to intervals. These knock you out fast but are so awesome for butt, thighs, and cardio (I have a butt for the first time since becoming a Mom. I fully credit box jumps.) Here's a few variations.
3. Wall Balls
They sound benign, don't they? Almost delicious: rum balls, coconut balls, wall balls. But they're not delicious, really, until they're done. They might be my favorite Crossfit exercise and you can do them on the side of the elementary school portable, on the side of your house when your husband makes you angry, at a shopping centre if you feel like being the centre of Parking Lot attention. There is a Crossfit workout of the day that employs 150 of these, in a row. I recommend maybe you start with 15. If you have a heavy ball, fantastic. If not, you can buy a medicine ball at your sporting good store for a couple bucks. It's money well spent, promise. Here's a video of people doing Wall Balls, all in a row.
4. Kettlebell Swings
You can use a dumb bell for these if you can't afford a Kettlebell. Use a weight you're comfortable with and do as many as you can before you fatigue. You can build up into rounds of 20 or more. This dude doesn't bring it all the way over his head like we do at my Crossfit, but it's still a damned good workout. I bet you'd give your neighbours a good start if they saw you doing this angrily in your driveway. But if I were your neighbour I'd totally come over and watch and cheer you on and then ask if we could be friends.
5. Burpees
These are as offensive as their name and probably my least favorite of the 5 exercises here but they provide a pretty full body workout when you don't have a lot of space (do this in the back of a plane if you really need to!) Burpees.
How about you guys? What are your fave low-budget exercises?
** These are all much more tolerable with Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, or some other angry band yowling loudly in the background.
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