Why I Threw Away My Gym Membership

By: Emily Lyman via Books for Better Living

You can throw away your gym membership.

[Get] rapid results by working out just thirty minutes a day, four times a week.

These are the promises offered by You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises by Mark Lauren and Joshua Clark, along with others, such as "ingeniously simple" and "do-anywhere program."

I don't know about you, but I've never had a lot of faith in workout books and programs. Not because they don't work, but because I'm the type of person that flakes out. They either require too much of a time commitment or I get bored - or any other excuse I can think of to justify watching So You Think You Can Dance instead of going to the gym.

Enter this book. I started its 10-week basic program four weeks ago, and I threw out my gym membership yesterday. Well, I let it expire, not to be renewed. The four workout programs in You Are Your Own Gym are made up of exercises that use your body weight - no gym equipment, free weights or gizmos - to build muscle, burn fat and develop balance and stability. I've become a YOYOG believer. Here's why:


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  • The program takes only 30 minutes a day, four days a week. Say goodbye to the gym commute.

  • I saw results after the first week.


  • I can do it in whatever outfit I want, including barefoot since I don't like wearing shoes in the house.

  • No free weights are involved, but the authors offer many ways to make a body weight exercise harder.

  • I have everything I need in my apartment. I've had to rig up a few things but nothing unsafe or too difficult.


  • Once I'm done I feel the same way I did when I worked out at the gym for over an hour.

  • The program only has one day a week of core-specific exercises yet my abs are flatter than they've ever been.


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  • There's no cardio so I don't upset my downstairs neighbor.

  • My knees don't creak anymore, and lunges no longer cause me pain.

  • The exercises, number of reps and number of sets change every two weeks so I don't get bored.

  • I can easily do the program while traveling.

Quite simply, this book has changed the way I look at exercise. I'm not going to tell you to throw out your gym membership right now, but I do recommend trying this program. Give it a week and see what you think.

For more information, visit marklauren.com.

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