You can get a good workout anywhere in the world, at any time of day, at absolutely no cost. The secret is to practice minimalist fitness. You don’t need fancy fitness equipment, expensive gym membership, or even much open space. All you need is yourself.

Minimalist fitness is working out with absolutely no equipment. This spartan fitness program lets you:

• Workout anywhere in the world, at any time
• Save $360+ each year (it’s free)
• Avoid wasting electricity
• Save space and declutter your house
• Avoid producing noise

Like the rest of society, I once thought that in order to get a decent workout, I needed to spend thousands of dollars on specialized equipment. My inner voice kept prodding me to buy more stuff. My natural reflex was to reach for my wallet before I reached for my sneakers. Want to run? Buy a treadmill. Climb stairs? Buy a stair machine, never mind the real stairs you already have. Push-ups? You can’t do those without a push-up bar. Professional athletes might need expensive stationary bicycles, ellipticals, rowing machines, and weight benches, but I certainly didn’t.

Now that I’m a Greenimalist, I practice these workout routines instead:

• Walking
• Running
• Push-ups
• Crunches
• Stretches

When I’m indoors, and there’s limited space, I just run in place.

From an energy standpoint, fitness equipment makes no sense. Modern society is overweight largely because we eat processed food and drive cars, activities which waste oil. When we eventually burn off that extra fat by exercising, we power treadmills, which waste even more energy. The average treadmill uses 1500W of power, the same amount of power that a hairdryer or toaster oven uses. Casual jogging on a treadmill might waste as much energy as leaving a widescreen TV turned on for 5 hours. Over the course of a year, a treadmill can increase your energy bill by over $200 (1).

There is also the direct cost of purchasing the equipment itself. A high-quality machine can easily cost a thousand dollars. Even if you’re sharing equipment at a gym, $30 a month membership translates to $360 each year.

Most importantly, a minimalist workout will encourage you to exercise more often. People often backslide from exercise programs because getting to the gym takes too much effort. However, unlike a gym, a minimalist fitness program can work anywhere, at any time of the day. When outdoors, you can run on a trail, and when at home or at the office, you can pace indoors or do stretches. It’s totally flexible.

Minimalist fitness is fun because, like other forms of minimalism, it’s all about distilling down to the very basics. And when it comes to exercise, you really are all that you need.

Does minimalist exercise fit your life?

1. TreeHugger says that treadmills use 1500W of power. Michael Bluejay reports the average widescreen television uses somewhere between 260-340W, so I assume it uses around 300W. An hour of jogging uses 1500W * 1hr = 1500W*hr of energy. A widescreen TV left on for 5hrs uses 300W*5hr = 1500W*hr of energy.