Fitness Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive. How 3 Real People Stay Fit for Free

Forget the excuse that it costs too much to exercise. These three people, all members of the Start TODAY community, stay active without being locked into pricey gym memberships, paying for app subscriptions or buying fancy home equipment.

They’re lacing up their walking shoes and heading out the door, searching YouTube for video workouts, dancing with their grandchildren and even digging out years-old workout equipment.

Here, they share the low- and no-cost exercise routines that work for them.

Carol Wells

Workout routine: Stretching, walking, workout videos, dancing with her grandchildren

Carol Wells, 62, watches her 2-year-old grandson twice a week. So, for part of her exercise routine, the two of them dance together. “I found Bee Gees videos — I grew up with the Bee Gees — and he absolutely loves them. I love the fact that he likes it, too. And it makes it so much easier for me to get my exercise in,” she says.

Moving to music, with her grandson or with videos, is a key part of making exercise fun for Wells, especially when the winter weather near her Effingham, Ill., home keeps her indoors.

She has a routine she follows as often as she can, where she mixes bursts of activity in throughout her day. “I try to get in three workouts a day, and I definitely get in at least two,” she says.

Here’s how Wells fits in movement without spending a lot of money:

• Stretching: She starts her days with 10 minutes of stretching, following a YouTube video.

• Morning walk or workout: After stretching, she’s out the door for a one- to two-mile walk if the weather cooperates. In winter, more often than not, she needs to exercise indoors, so she puts on a walking video from eitherYes2Next or Leslie Sansone to get some steps in. “I do 15 to 30 minutes at a time, and I really enjoy that,” she says.

• Afternoon walk or workout: She aims for another activity session in the afternoon. That could be dancing with her grandson or working out to another video, possibly one that includes some low-impact, bodyweight strength training. She doesn’t lift weights because of arthritis in her shoulders and elbows. If the weather is nice, she walks in her neighborhood or in a nearby park, “Walking is my favorite thing. It’s the best kind of exercise for me. I love nature, and I’m an amateur photographer, so I love taking pictures of birds, flowers and the sky,” she says. She aims to get in four to five miles a day.

• Evening workout: After dinner, she exercises again. She’ll search online for workout topics, such as “Zumba to ABBA,” or workouts with Fleetwood Mac music. She finds a lot of workouts she likes through Keep on Moving.

Kathleen Wilkins

Workout routine: Walking, YouTube workout videos, using “vintage” equipment she’s had forever

Kathleen Wilkins, 66, likes to get her exercise in close to home. “I don’t want to get in the car and drive somewhere,” she says. She’s joined gyms in the past, but she always stopped going after a few visits, and then she was locked into the payments for months.

So, she’s built a routine around lots of walking, workout videos and simple home equipment.

Wilkins has been retired for just over a year, so she can fit plenty of walking into her schedule. She walks the roads of her 55-plus mobile home community in Thousand Oaks, Calif., several times a day, covering about two miles each time, and five to six miles per day.

She walks after breakfast with a neighbor, and sometimes again before lunch. After lunch, she walks with another neighbor who uses a wheelchair, and she takes charge of that neighbor’s dog. “She’s a French-mix bulldog, so she gives me a resistance workout,” Wilkins says.

Wilkins can finish her two-mile walks in 30 to 35 minutes, though she sometimes slows her pace to match her walking partners’ or stops to chat with people she hasn’t seen in a while. She doesn’t mind taking her time: “A mile is a mile. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to get there, or how fast you’re going.” Plus, she likes getting to know her neighbors and using her walks as a time to socialize.

To add strength training and more cardio to her routine, three mornings a week, Wilkins and a group of neighbors exercise together in their community clubhouse. They choose from different Paul Eugene YouTube workout videos that run 30 to 45 minutes.

Rounding out her fitness schedule, she recently dusted off two old pieces of workout equipment she’s had forever — an ab roller and a rotational disk. They help her build core strength and stability.

Judy Wentz

Workout routine: Daily walks, workout videos, stationary biking, resistance bands, hand weights

Judy Wentz, 58, exercises to manage the pain she has from fibromyalgia, which forced her to retire about four years ago. “I’m working on my health now, more than anything. If I keep moving around, the pain doesn’t have time to catch up with me. When I go to bed at night, sometimes it hits me. But I work through it,” she says.

Fibromyalgia means she needs to keep her workouts low impact. She usually begins her day with either a walking workout video or 20 to 30 minutes on her stationary bike. “If I’m having a really bad day, I’ll do chair exercises to start,” she says.

Wentz and her husband walk together every day, regardless of the weather. “Walking helps me mentally and physically,” she says. She likes to walk to a destination, like an Italian ice shop, a downtown restaurant for lunch or simply to her hometown post office in Bedford, Penn.

When she first started walking, she could only make it to the end of her driveway, or maybe half a block. Now, most days, she walks a total of five to seven miles. And she’s kept up a walking streak for 1,322 days in a row.

Along with walking, she likes a range of home workouts. She’s tried Silver Sneakers at the gym and at a senior center, but she prefers more variety. “I get bored if I’m doing the same thing all the time,” she says. “I’m always trying to find something new and exciting.”

She does strength training at least twice a week and cardio two to three times a week, adding her favorite workouts to a calendar she’s set up for herself. “Each week is different,” she says.

Some of the free workouts she’s tried include:

• Metro Physical Therapy on YouTube: “I used to really struggle with that, but now I can breeze through it.”
• Walking videos that include strength training
• Tai Chi, which she admits wasn’t her favorite
• Zumba
• Yes to Next video workouts
• Resistance band and dumbbell workouts. “Five-pound weights used to be so heavy, and now they’re like nothing,” she says.

She also attends a support group called Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS).

Her workouts and lifestyle changes have helped her lose weight, and she’s been off diabetes medication for two years: “I’ve never had this much energy in my life. I can’t even keep up with myself some days.”

To find support and connect with other like-minded people on their fitness journey, join the Start TODAY Facebook group!