No gym? No problem!

One of the key principles of Resilient Fitness is mixing things up — trying different exercise to hit body parts a different way, keep joints balanced, maintain healthy connective tissue and simply keep things interesting.  I admit that I was first introduced to the concept with P90X where Tony Horton uses the term “muscle confusion” and promotes it as a way to accelerate fitness gains by preventing adaptation. Of course, after several 90 day sessions, even P90X starts to get monotonous (ab ripper X — 30 times over 12 weeks, ugh!!).  Having a full retinue of exercises in your fitness toolkit ensures that you never get bored.  It can also help you identify weak spots while giving you the means to address them.

I’m always on the lookout for new and creative exercises, and therefore I was pretty excited to stumble across You Are Your Own Gym  — an exercise book/program billed as “the bible of bodyweight exercises”.    The author, Mark Lauren, is a special operations physical trainer who was tasked with developing exercise programs that special ops forces could use to maintain peak “mission ready” fitness no matter where they were based.  He has applied many of the same principles in You Are Your Own Gym, assembling a comprehensive collection of exercises that can be done anywhere without equipment.  To be honest, I actually did not purchase Mark’s book.  I’m sure it has useful insights and an interesting perspective on building a fitness and nutrition program, but what really got me excited about You Are Your Own Gym is the mobile app — which I did purchase from the Google Play store for $1.99.

The You Are Your Own Gym app is a bargain.  It includes over 200 different body weight exercises organized by muscle or by muscle groups (Push, Pull, Legs, Core and Whole Body), and each exercise has detailed text and pictures explaining what to do.  You can even install the extra YAYOG Video Pack for free if you want to see the exercises in motion.  The app includes several features in the “Start Working Out” section — enabling you to follow preset workouts as part of the four different You Are Your Own Gym 10 week programs or to build your own workout.   The app will guide you through each workout, timing sets and rest periods and allowing you to record the number of reps so that you can track your progress over time.   The other day, I tried one of the “Quick Workouts” (another feature) — opting for the intermediate circuit with 10 sets.  This consisted of four exercises — squats, pushups, swimmers and mountain climbers, each completed as 30 second tabatas (20s workout, 10s rest).  It was a killer full-body routine!

Even if you are not interested in following the pre-set workouts in You Are Your Own Gym, it’s a great app because of the many different exercise ideas that it provides.  Let’s say you are traveling, and you need a quick workout that hits your core and legs.  With the app on your phone, it’s easy to find exercises that will do the job, not require any equipment and can be done in your hotel room.   And of course, you can do the exercises at home as well.  You Are Your Own Gym is an excellent addition to your fitness toolkit and a great way to add variety to any fitness routine.