Being able to lose weight without going to a gym is something that would make life much more convenient for you. You don't have to worry about purchasing a gym membership, driving to a gym, or exercising with people you don't know at all and who could make you feel uncomfortable or outclassed. Don't worry, though, it is a possibility. All of the equipment that a gym offers, while useful, is not required for you to lose weight and to get into shape. In fact, if you are willing to sacrifice just one or two exercises in place of ones that are focused more on losing weight than on building muscle, you may find the gym to be completely unnecessary.
Before you do anything, draw up a plan of what you want to do for a workout each day. A schedule will help remind you of what you're doing during the day, it can be pretty difficult to try to remember it all, and if you can't remember which muscle groups you're supposed to train and when, your exercise routine will be disrupted and less effective. Starting out with a plan will also eliminate any confusion that you have as far as which exercises to start with goes, so you'll more likely get the most out of your workout if you have a game plan.
Once you have a schedule drawn up, find some space to exercise in. Granted, if you plan on running a lot, you can't expect to find a track hidden in your basement, but try to find a free room that you can use. Again, this is all in the interest of getting things out of the way before they can take up time that is better spent exercising. You should have enough space to stand, lie down, and comfortably move in without bumping into any objects.
Running is an exercise that requires almost no equipment but that will make you lose weight weekly. All you need to start a seven mile run is a pair of shoes (some shorts, if you want to be picky) and some water in you, and off you go. You can run through your neighborhood, through a park, in a city, on a track, or through a course in the woods, and the treadmill in the gym isn't useful. Granted, if you don't have one of those fancy watches that keeps track of your heart rate and pace, the treadmill might be useful for recording such statistics, but if you're simply concerned with losing weight, you do not need the treadmill. Besides, running on a treadmill is boring, running through the woods or through another scenic landscape almost never is.
Push-ups and sit-ups can also be done at home with little or no equipment. Sit-ups are simple exercises and are very effective when done properly, and they require no more than a space of floor that is as long as you are tall and as wide as you are wide. All you have to do afterwards is lie on your back, bend your knees so you can put your feet flat against the floor, cross your arms over your chest, and pull yourself up with your abdominal muscles while trying to lift your legs at the same time. You will feel your core burn as you attempt to finish two or three complete sets of thirty sit-ups or more, one of the signs that you are burning calories. What's the other sign? Why, it's the sweat that's falling like rain that shows you that the fat is burning!
Push-ups are useful too because they are simple exercises with a few variations. For example, the most basic, common, and well-known form of push-up requires nothing more than for you to spread your arms about shoulder width apart, lie on your stomach on the floor, and push up. This works your pectoral muscles in addition to some arm muscles without using any equipment, however, this isn't the only way to do push-ups. For a variation that works on your triceps, lie down as you would for a normal push-up, but bring your hands together to form a triangle under your chest. Now try pushing up. If you aren't used to working your triceps, this will likely hurt a lot, and don't be surprised or worried if you can only do half as many "triangles" as you can do regular push-ups.
If you can get a hold of some hand weights or dumbbells to keep in your house, use them to work on your arms. Often times, people will in fact travel to a gym just to use the free weights, if you have a set at home, then the problem is solved. Be sure to not lift more than your maximum, and to start with, go for more repetitions of less weight, and gradually increase the weight while decreasing the repetitions per set. Also, try getting a medicine ball, it can help you do sit-ups, enhancing the pressure on your core. You can also toss it with a friend to make your workout a little more fun. You can use your basement as your own gym!
As you can see, there really is no heavy equipment required for any of these exercises. All you need is a solid plan and some time on your hands, and you can start exercising without having to go any farther than you can run. Just make sure that you do the most work you can each day and exercise in a comfortable environment, don't exercise near the television if it bothers you, but there's nothing wrong with listening to some music to pump yourself up. You really don't need to be in a noisy, crowded gym when you are able to do exercises at home. Don't slack off on your workout just because you don't have a trainer to keep you in check or a gym membership to live up to, but get yourself motivated to work out as much as possible. The gym can be very unnecessary and excessive when compared to your own home.
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