Growing Strength and Stamina Outside the Gym

Tilda_P
Tilda_P Posts: 30 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am a 24 year old gal whose life goal is to follow in my mother's footsteps. She is a fit, strong, farm woman who went from being over 200 lbs and really out of shape to buying and owning her own farm and routinely tossing around 50-100 lbs like it's a pillow. I talk to her about her strength and how inspirational she has been to me and she is very supportive of my decision to get in shape.

I've lost the first 50 lbs through just diet alone, but I'm at the point where summer is calling me and the idea of being able to head home some weekend and surprise my mom with a mom/daughter hike out in the country or helping her clean the coop (which is rather labor intensive) is really gnawing at me.

So my question is, without a gym how do I maximize both my stamina and strength? I don't want to be one of those lithe, toned overly tan gym babes who can't actually hold their own outside of a pilates class. I want to be able to flip a tire, climb a rope, hike a few miles in rough terrain, wrangle a cow :)

Any thoughts or resources would be really appreciated as I am starting off very weak and with pretty much no stamina D:

Replies

  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    For stamina, CV work is going to help, for strength, some form of resistance training is what you're after.

    As you're starting from a low baseline and you don't have access to a gym then you could do a combination of running and bodyweight resistance training. That'll get you some way towards where you want to be, without any major investment.

    As far as running is concerned, there are several ways to get into it, and plenty of advice in threads on here.

    As far as resistance is concerned, there are several options, personally I prefer You Are Your Own Gym, but there are others, such as Convict Conditioning.

    As you're looking at functional strength, once you've built some basic capacity you'll be able to contribute on the farm, and that in itself will help your development.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    You don't need a gym.

    Cardio - C25K is program that teaches you how to run. Even walking briskly could be challenging at first. If you can't walk outside, look for some walking DVDs. You don't even need decent weather.

    Strength - body weight exercises will be challenging at first (squats, push ups, planks). Tons of on-line resources here.

    Here are videos....links to various free sites.

    http://www.totallyfreeworkouts.com/

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