ROSIE - Improvised Training

I saw this great piece on BBC News 24 the other day about how the army have incorporated an "improvised training" section into their physical training programme, mostly for when they are out in the field and do not have access to gyms.

Basically they are talking about using pieces of equipment such as rucksacks, gerry cans, rocks, ropes and anything (heavy, I suppose!) they can get their hands on to train with in the desert environment.

This is such a great subject to advertise to the general public. There are SO many excuses that people give not to exercise and I can say without question that the most popular are:

- I don't have time to go to the gym
- The gym is too expensive
- The gym is too far
- I don't have a gym near me

Excuses ALL associated with gyms & memberships. This shows how heavily people rely on the gym to keep fit, get fit, maintain fitness, lose weight or whatever they use exercise for.

But there are SO many ways to exercise. It doesn't have to be expensive, snazzy, fashionable or anything else - exercise is exercise and that's all it boils down to. I went on an expedition to Venezuela many years ago - the best training we did was climbing stairs with a rucksack filled with sand. Wow. I got SO fit it was incredible.

Bear it mind next time you think "oh, I can't get to the gym, I'll give my exercise a miss for today/this week - whatever". Press ups, lunges, squats, the stairs, some bottles of water, a small child - anything will do.

Following on from this, I will be blogging later this week in more detail about things you can do to improvise if all else fails.