NY city probably is one of those rare exceptions to these kind of things; I can't imagine another place in this country where this is true. Sounds like you its too expensive to even eat there. Of course running, pull ups, push ups and body weight squats are still options.

Even prisoners confined to cells with NO equipment find a way to stay in excellent shape.

A Completely Criminal Exercise Program

Our entire home gym fits in an 8x6 foot area.

Power rack with chin up bar
Olympic bar + 255 lbs of plates
Adjustable dipping handles
Plate tree
Dumbbells from 5 to 50
Vertical dumbbell rack
Adjustable Olympic dumbbell handles
Stability ball (the wife uses it for wall squats)
Misc elastic bands, grip training equipoment, stopwatch, round timer, chalk, etc.

Your home gym look pretty familiar to me. I have a little more room. I have a crappy smith machine on the side that I mostly use as a cable machine.

But, you make the point that what you have is really actually a deluxe version of a home gym.

BTW...very nice set of dumbbells!

Thanks. About half of the equipment was purchased used for less than half the new cost. All of the new purchases were good deals at the time. We plan to put a 600 sq ft training studio in the next house, but that's a few years down the road.

I also have a Nautilus 2nd Gen 4-way neck machine, but that's in the garage in parts. I plan to refurbish it eventually. Going to strip and powder coat the frame, replace the chains and sprockets with kevlar and pulleys, replace the bushings with sealed bearings, etc.

My neck is one of the the few areas I have been genetically blessed with, it is 19", no neck machine for me. I would get a calve machine however if I thought it would work. lol

My neck was injured in a car wreck a few years back (father in law ran a red light while I was in the back seat and got hit in the side) and I used a 4-way neck machine in rehabbing it. Right now I'm doing manually resisted work with it, but the machine seems to do a better job of keeping my neck functioning properly. Without regular neck work my neck starts to stiffen up on the left side

Namaste,

I, like Cathy, also live in the Northeast and can relate to her experience. We have a family of six. Because I work in the "Alternative Health" field, we have always purchased certain products that are strictly organic (mainly eggs, milk, butter, meat, strawberries, & spinach). Since omitting almost all refined sugars/refined foods from my families diet as well, we are spending even more money on groceries. I'm very grateful we can afford this; however, we still have a budget to adhere to, so we have had to do some shifting of what takes priority regarding our finances - and high quality food is a priority! In the long run though, it's worth it. And I'm happy my kids like the food I'm eating, too - it's so good for them!

All in all, I think there needs to be a restructure, so to speak, of how food is priced. I think it's awful that chips can sold 2 for $5/$4, however, a pack of 3 peppers (1 red, 1 orange, and 1 yellow) is the same price, or usually more. It's criminal!!!! It needs to change!!!!

I don't know how you folks who are paying boo-koo bucks for apartments in big cities can do it. I looked at moving to San Francisco, I would work at the highest step of the pay scale for their city school district. About $75,000 a year. (I also looked at Ketchum Sun Valley, same pay, same predicament...) I couldn't live in that city on that. So hats off to you.

I think Drew brought up an excellent point when he displayed his bodyweight workout. In reality you can push up, sit up and deep knee bend your way to a pretty good physique. Cardio machines are nifty, but you can get the same thing (if not better) from a jump rope in an extremely limited amount of space. Start with 100 skips a night, go from there.

If you can't do pull ups (not sure if I can right now) use a step stool to position yourself into the "up" position and lower yourself down.

T.

shit man all you need is some carpet space, or a rug if it's hardwood. My approx. 6x6 space of carpet in my room is killer, perfect for push ups and sit ups. I have a few loose weight plates, from 5-10, but i only use the 10, using it to curl, stomach resistance, etc.
I've got a weight bar, but i'm really looking into getting like a 10-20 pound dumbbell for curls and various lifts.

That and some running shoes is all i need.

The only thing I would add to that is a chinning bar. Floor-only routines tend to be too heavy on pushing movements, and it is important to balance pushing against back movements.