Maybe you don't even need a gym to get in shape

Let's say you entered 2007 in need of serious weight loss, major toning, more strength, a healthier heart. Time to spend huge sums of money, right? Time to rent a trainer, join a gym, plop a $1,000 treadmill in your basement?

Well, perhaps, but not necessarily. Throwing money at a problem doesn't always fix it. If fitness is the goal, you need motivation more than money. Start off by standing in front of a mirror. There's your motivation. There's your gym, too.

"The best weight set you could ever want is the one you're carrying around," says Jeff Tretheway, who teaches adult fitness through gymnastics at Cascade Elite Gymnastics in Mountlake Terrace. "Body-weight exercise prepares you for almost any other sport."

It's just one of several low-cost alternative paths to fitness. Here's a guide to more:

Use free stuff. When Monica Strasen, a personal trainer with Outrageously Fit Seattle, wants to shake things up, she looks for a playground. "You can use things there to do pull-ups, push-ups, dips," she says.

You don't need a treadmill to go for a run, obviously. To emphasize hamstring and gluteus maximus muscles (back of leg and butt), try using the stairs at Gas Works Park, on the north shore of Lake Union. Certified trainer Dawn Rodney takes clients there when weather permits a break from training at Urban Monkeys.

"I also use it for plyometric [bounding] exercises, to help build bone density in the hips, ankles and knees," Rodney says.

Try a new sport. If you row in the gym, why not find a rowing club and do it (duh) on the water? Take up rock climbing, on real rock. Join a master's swim team to reinforce your commitment.

Act like a kid, Strasen says. She notes increased adult interest in kickball and dodgeball leagues.

Jamie Zuncs, a 22-year-old Seattle mother, has been a gymnast for 18 years. She's a rarity in the gymnastics-based fitness classes that Tretheway teaches.

"The majority of the class are newbies," she says. "There are some people that come into the class that can't touch their toes, but if they try hard and don't feel sorry for themselves, they will get real good quick."

Tretheway says the philosophy of his class is "strength, flexibility and fun. I'm trying to get them in shape to go out and do anything else they want to do."

Create your own gym. For the price of a gym membership, you can buy a good set of dumbbells. They're versatile and can fit easily in the spare bedroom of an apartment.

You also can create resistance equipment from free stuff. Fill empty milk jugs (1 gallon equals 8 pounds) to create your own dumbbells.

Ask your local bike shop for old inner tubes. Cut out the stem, and use the tubes in place of store-bought resistance bands (they fit in a suitcase, for quick workouts on business trips).

To replicate playground equipment, Tretheway says, anyone can improvise pull-ups by lying horizontally beneath a table and using the tabletop to pull his or her torso upward. Armchairs positioned side-by-side can become parallel supports for dips. Wall squats require ... a wall.

Go back to nature. Head into the woods for a jog or hike. Bound from rock to rock while heading down a path. Climb a tree, or do tree-branch pull-ups. Do push-ups, leaning into an upright tree or downed log for beginners, with feet raised and hands on the ground for the more fit.

And don't forget your chores. Jason Kidde, a University of Utah grad student in exercise physiology, likes chopping wood or horsing large rocks around. Follow his lead, and you might get firewood or a rock wall.

Funny about that. Today, we call it exercise. They used to call it "life."

Stu Watson is a personal trainer and freelance writer living in Hood River, Ore.: stu@watsonx2.com