The great news is you don’t!!

If you want to build a buff physique or like to train in a group environment, then a gym may be a good option for you.

However for general health, fitness and overall wellbeing, you can achieve and maintain this by simply using your body weight and minimal equipment.

To begin with one of the most underutilised methods of staying healthy is the simple act of walking daily.

Walking has some many benefits to health, however very few individuals move enough throughout the day.

Walking benefits your cardiovascular health, assists with balance and general strengthening in the muscles utilised for gait and also is beneficial for the mind assisting with clarity and management of depression.

Other cardiovascular exercise can include jogging, running, bike riding, swimming and playing general recreational activities with others such as frisbee, backyard cricket, soccer, just to name a few.

Any activity that elevates your heart rate can be considered a cardiovascular exercise, you could go dancing with friends one day, take a walk another, ride to work the next.

NEAT and incidental exercises can also be utilised throughout the day to incorporate extra usage of calories throughout your day.

This can be as simple as standing more often, taking the stairs, fidgeting, parking slightly further away and other small things that can accumulate into extra work for the body.

The other key activity that can be implemented just about anywhere is body weighted exercises.

These include basic exercises such as squats, lunges, push up’s, tricep dips, step up and plyometric exercise, such as jumping and explosive moves.

To maintain overall general health, focus on the big muscle groups such as the quadriceps, gluteal, back, core and chest as these will help with balance, strength, mobility as well as increasing your overall metabolic rate.

In some instances it is useful to have minimal equipment available to assist with enhancing the exercise or for safety.

For example, and older person with balance issues may benefit from having a chair or a solid item to hold onto for confidence and to prevent falls.

For others who want to increase the intensity of their workout, stairs, bars, rails and hills can all be implemented to add extra intensity or target specific areas of the body.