Cardio on a second floor apartment...

Squats, lunges, crunches, leg lifts....make no noise and cost no money. You can start with 3 sets of 15 and work your way up.

Maybe a pilates DVD as well. I love me some pilates. You can check amazon and probably get one used for under $20.

how far is a gym from you?

you mention you have about an hour and a half free.
seems like plenty of time to get to a gym and get a good workout in.
plus, it would greatly open up your options of what to do.

I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO CLARIFY

THE REASON THERE IS NO JUMPING IS BECAUSE I LIVE IN A CHEAP. OLD APARTMENT. I cannot walk in the house without the walls slightly rattling. My friend who is 130lbs cannot walk in my house without the floors squeaking.
I am a full time student who spends over 12 grand a year on tuition bills and payments. I'm also a full-time worker that doesn't necessarily have a great job here. I get paid over minimum wage but it's not like I can afford to purchase a bike or treadmill and manage to fit it in a tiny barely 1-bedroom apartment.
(NOT TO MENTION A TREADMILL... WOULD DEFINITELY MAKE NOISE HERE. AEROBIC VIDEOS.. JUMPING BEING THE MAIN KEY WOULD OBVIOUSLY MAKE NOISE HERE.)

You mad bro?
There is lot's of great advice here...calm down.

Sounds more like you don't actually want to do any cardio. There must be somewhere within a few minute drive that you can go for a run or walk. And why do the stairs have to be IN your apartment? Run the ones outside. My sister and I run stairs in hotels and stuff all the time. Get a jump rope, go outside your house and jump rope for a bit. Also, if you have a regular bike, you can buy a stand that turns it into a stationary bike. There are all sorts of ways you can get exercise without a gym membership.

Squats, lunges, crunches, leg lifts....make no noise and cost no money. You can start with 3 sets of 15 and work your way up.

Maybe a pilates DVD as well. I love me some pilates. You can check amazon and probably get one used for under $20.

Squats are remarkably good at getting the heart rate up without lifiting a foot off the floor.

And OP: you could at least look around for a stationary bike, rowing machine, or something like that. Anyone who's bought a machien for at-home use knows how pricey those things can be, and nobody's saying you have to go and buy a top-dollar machine. Yard sales, newspapers, and places like craigslist are rife with people trying to get rid of fitness equipment they don't use, don't want, or have outgrown. With as much space as those items can take up, someone who wants to get rid of one may be VERY willing to negotiate the price.

The stairs you use to get up to your apartment can also be used as a stairclimber. You could run up them, walk up them, even try to sneak up them while making as little noise as possibe and get a workout. Each step is a miniature / partial-range-of-motion one-legged squat.

There is also the possibility that, given this timeframe of doing things before 10 PM, your neighbors might not mind. I once lived in an apartment where it sounded like there was an elepant living above us who might come crashing down through the ceiling at any moment. But, during the day, we heard him but we didn't really care. When we were going to bed, so was he, so the creaking floor / ceiling wasn't an issue at that point.

You need kettlebells.

You can combine your cardio and strength into one short workout (30 minutes, including warmup and cool down), and unless you're banging the weights down when you're finished, it should be fairly quiet. Believe me, if you do it right, with the heaviest weight you can use and still keep good form, you'll burn plenty. You can focus on stuff like swings, squats, presses, etc., with no jumping or bouncing at all. I do it in the early mornings in the room right next to my kid's bedroom, and she never wakes up.

The CAP kettle bells are good quality, with nice smooth handles, and you can order most of the starter-sized ones on Amazon for less than 30 bucks.

I like Greg Brookes' kettlebellsworkouts.com for good demo videos and tips for doing the exercises safely (lots of others don't do a good job of showing you how to keep your shoulders safe and protect your lower back), but he doesn't have video workouts to follow like fitness blender and such--instead he has a bunch of apps, or tabata-type workouts you can do with just a timer. I just watched all the videos and figured out how to do the exercises properly, and now I do the workouts on my own, running through the list of exercises (after a bit of twisting and vigorous toe-touching to warm up without too much noise).

Even a 15-20 minute kettlebell workout will leave me dripping with sweat and sore for the rest of the day. And I can definitely feel the post-workout burn--I'm hungrier through the day than after a morning run or swim, and I have more energy, too.

I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO CLARIFY

THE REASON THERE IS NO JUMPING IS BECAUSE I LIVE IN A CHEAP. OLD APARTMENT. I cannot walk in the house without the walls slightly rattling. My friend who is 130lbs cannot walk in my house without the floors squeaking.
I am a full time student who spends over 12 grand a year on tuition bills and payments. I'm also a full-time worker that doesn't necessarily have a great job here. I get paid over minimum wage but it's not like I can afford to purchase a bike or treadmill and manage to fit it in a tiny barely 1-bedroom apartment.
(NOT TO MENTION A TREADMILL... WOULD DEFINITELY MAKE NOISE HERE. AEROBIC VIDEOS.. JUMPING BEING THE MAIN KEY WOULD OBVIOUSLY MAKE NOISE HERE.)

You may not have much money but you can check craigslist for a used treadmill... Can you walk or run on your lunch break at school or work? Do you have stairs in your building you can run safely?

If you have a lot of weight to lose, an investment in a gym membership might be very worthwhile. Sure its $20-$30 / mo but I have saved that every month simply by lowering the amount of food I eat. SO I get a proper diet and a gym membership for free. Even MPF and all the wonderful advice and coaching is free.

The reason a gym is nice: You can change up your routine. You get to look at people. Gets you out of the house where you wont be distracted (I.e Elliptical becomes a coat rack) Good luck!!

You want to have an excuses making contest? I doubt you will win. I have more excuses to not bother and there are people with more on their plate then me.

I saw someone suggest you exercise earlier and do homework later.

Whatever you decide to do, if you switch exercise and homework i.e. if you exercise earlier in the day, it is less likely that your neighbours will notice it and/or complain, since there is more background noise during that time - everyone is coming home, making dinner, etc. as opposed to later in the day when people are preparing to go to sleep.

I feel you misunderstood the recommendation.

So, I live in an area that is not good for running (big busy streets, not safe back streets)
I work from 8am-5:30pm every day, with an hour worth of commute daily. I come home to dinner, relaxing for about 10-15 minutes, and then starting on homework.

Now with that... that leaves me about 1 1/2 hours left of my day before needing to sleep. I also live in a second floor apartment so I'd feel bad doing jumping jacks at around 8-9pm.

Garbing the relevant data here... it sounds like you could get up, go to work, come home, have dinner, WORK OUT then do homework. This is really the only time of day where the previous recommendation is in a time of day where the neighbors are less likely to notice or be disrupted by the noise because 5 a.m. sure as heck doesn't qualify. I am not even sure why you would have thought that other than to be able to discount the idea.

The outside stairs also sounds like a great idea to me. That is where my stairs are and I would totally use them if I didn't feel safe wandering around my neighborhood and mine are out in the open, not interior to any portion of my building at all.

Yoga is a great workout. I don't do it, cause I am lucky if I can stand on both feet without falling over, but that doesn't change the fact that despite it's minimal movement, it really works the body. Because of its minimal movement it should also be minimally disruptive to your neighbors.

Someone also suggested that you walk on your breaks at work. That is exactly what I do. Given my own personal time limitations, my 15 minute breaks at work are the perfect time to get a walk in. Bad weather? I walk around in the building. Good weather? I take a walk outside. Between my two breaks and my lunch (when I have time after eating) I can get in at least 30 minutes of walking a weekday.

"Squats, lunges, crunches, leg lifts....make no noise and cost no money. You can start with 3 sets of 15 and work your way up.

Maybe a pilates DVD as well. I love me some pilates. You can check amazon and probably get one used for under $20."

I get the tough schedule of work and school. I really do. I had to find time at lunch to walk. There are also lots of videos that don't require jumping. If you can't afford the videos, go to the library. You can check them out. You may want to look up kettle bell workouts as well. There are plenty of them on youtube. Look for weights and kettle bells. It is amazing what you can find in yards sales and pawn shops for practically nothing.

I'm saying this as nicely as possible...all I can read are excuses in your posts.

Agreed. Say you don't like fitness websites, yet joined one. Got great advice, yet had an excuse each time why you can't do this workout, or that workout. Wrote a very passive aggressive post as well in response to the great suggestions you got.

I am a graduate student. I work. I go to the gym when I'm exhausted. I do crunches and leg lifts in my living room during commercials. I wake up early to go for walks or to work out sometimes. I pay an arm and a leg to go to school just like you. My schoolwork is important. My job is important. But my health is important too. I make time for this, no excuses.

If you want it, make it happen.
But if you are going to tell people off in this thread, and have an excuse every time someone tries to help you, I'd suggest you find what works for you on your own.

And if noise is such an issue, have a conversation with your neighbors and tell them when you want to work out so they're aware to expect noise.

Problem solved.

Look at you, being all logical and stuff... You know the forums don't have time for that.

I have the same situation and a noise nazi for a neighbor downstairs so I bought a hula hoop and it has changed my life! I've never loved doing anything as much as I love my hoop. I've lost 85 pounds twirling my hips in my livingroom right above the warden's head! The trick to getting started is finding the right size but I'd be happy to help you if you find what you need. Send me a PM if you have an interest.

If you're willing to put out the money, there's treadmill mats you can buy. Depending on what kind of cardio you do and how much space you use will mean how many you need to buy. They're mats you set under a treadmill and it supposedly helps with the sound.

I FEEL LIKE I NEED TO CLARIFY

THE REASON THERE IS NO JUMPING IS BECAUSE I LIVE IN A CHEAP. OLD APARTMENT. I cannot walk in the house without the walls slightly rattling. My friend who is 130lbs cannot walk in my house without the floors squeaking.
I am a full time student who spends over 12 grand a year on tuition bills and payments. I'm also a full-time worker that doesn't necessarily have a great job here. I get paid over minimum wage but it's not like I can afford to purchase a bike or treadmill and manage to fit it in a tiny barely 1-bedroom apartment.
(NOT TO MENTION A TREADMILL... WOULD DEFINITELY MAKE NOISE HERE. AEROBIC VIDEOS.. JUMPING BEING THE MAIN KEY WOULD OBVIOUSLY MAKE NOISE HERE.)

Walk at Home DVDs (already mentioned) are LOW IMPACT with zero choreography. What that means is you can do them on a carpeted surface or a yoga mat. If you can march in place without annoying the neighbors...this would work. There are other moves (occasional high impact) but you can modify these out easily. You can up the intensity with lots of arm movements and some light hand weights.

Videos would be available at Target, Wal-Mart.....on-line (YouTube) and your local library.


http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=walkat+home

Try a kickboxing DVD - mostly punches, uppercuts, upper body, and lower body is kicking and other things that don't involved jumping around.