How to Access Free Fitness: Exercise on a Budget

Exercise is prohibitively expensive, yet it should be accessible to everyone for free. This includes public spaces for outdoor activities, access to training resources such as gyms, and group fitness classes. Multiple health crises are ongoing in this country, and a populace that exercises regularly could mitigate many of these issues, ultimately saving our nation considerable amounts on healthcare. Furthermore, regular exercise leads to increased energy, strength, and stronger immune systems.

Accessibility to fitness resources isn’t just about gym access and free personal training. The time required to work out and take care of one's health is a significant luxury—it shouldn’t be, but it is. Most Americans are time-poor and have little energy for activities outside of work. When they do have free time, they're often drained and prefer to relax and unwind with their families. I strongly believe there should be compensated fitness time integrated into everyone's lives. This could be economically viable and even beneficial due to decreased health costs.

All this is well within our budget, but our government prefers to fund atrocities and genocides.

While this may seem like delusions of grandeur, I hope for a future where this doesn't seem outrageous at all, but is rather the norm. Until then, I have a little trick I’d like to share for how to search for free or cheap fitness classes and gym access in your area. This is most effective in metropolitan areas. I'm writing from New York City, where the options are plentiful due to the density of opportunities here.

This involves downloading the MindBody app. Download here.

Sign up for an account in the intuitive fashion. This app is used by many fitness studios, gyms, and self-care services such as massages and hair salons, to book classes or appointments. You can search for classes or services by keyword. Enter your zip code (or use your current location) and select a radius to search within. Then, switch to class names and type in the word "free" and scroll down to see the various options. You may also want to search for the phrases "complimentary" and "community," as community classes are often free, pay-as-you-wish, or much cheaper than the alternatives. You can also search for a specific teacher through this class tab. Here are some images of this below using different search terms (scroll through images using arrows) . To search for a specific teacher, type in their name where I’ve typed in the search terms. Make sure the “classes” tab is selected. Otherwise, you are searching for business names only.

There is also an app called ClassPass, which offers free trials to new users. Download here. Make sure you cancel your trial before the next billing cycle to avoid charges. This app allows you to use universal credits toward a diverse range of health and fitness services. Another mostly metropolitan-only option, which is much more niche, is getting a CorePower trial membership, which varies in length depending on the time of year. CorePower is a hot yoga studio with an emphasis on intensity and rigor. They have different class structures though. One free week is the current offer, but around New Year's Day, I’ve seen them offer a free month. Check out their offer here. If you’re interested in yoga but do not want an intense, heated class, New Yorkers can check out free outdoor classes in Bryant Park. The information can be found here, and it runs throughout the summer.

Also, see my previous article on how to get free food. Although many of these tips have diminished in effectiveness or value post-pandemic, there still remain some affordable options as well as really good deals. Many deals and offers from the good old days are no longer viable for businesses to extend. Thanks for reading and check back for more frugality tips and other nonsense.