Welcome to the Get Fake Guys, quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield. I'm the Get Fake Guy, and in today's episode, I'm going to tell you why you may want to consider not going to the gym and give you a few cool alternatives I've been playing around with instead.

So I recently read this article on Bloomberg.com called Walt Whitman is not impressed by your expensive gym membership. Now I'll link to this article. If you just go to quick and dirty tips.com,

look for the show notes for this episode, which is entitled, Why You Should Quit Going to the Gym.

Now, the article details how way back in

1858, the American poet Walt Whitman wrote a series of newspaper columns on the topic of manly,

health, and training. One such column discussed avoiding the gym and shows how much of a big believer

in outdoors exercise that Whitman was instead. He says places of training and all for gymnastics

exercises should be in the open air upon the turf or sand is best. Sellers and low-roofed

attics are to be condemned, especially the former. He also encouraged learning and practicing

body weight exercises that one could do anytime, any place. For example, to toss a stone in the air

from one hand and catch it in the other hand as you walk along for half an hour or an hour at a

stretch, to throw forward the arms with vigorous motion and then extend them or lift them upward,

to pummel some imaginary foe with stroke after stroke from a doubled fist, to take very

long strides rapidly forward,

and then more slowly and carefully backward, to clap the palms of the hands on the hips and

simply jump straight up, down two or three minutes at a time, to spring over a fence and then back

again and again. These and dozens more of simple contrivances are at hand for everyone, all good and conducive to

manly health, dexterity and development, and for many preferable to the organized gymnasium,

because they are not restricted to place or time. Wow, what a man after my own heart.

You know, I've certainly written a comprehensive article in the past about how you can use

what's called the natural movement, movement, like crawling, lunging, caring, swimming, hiking, and all manner of outdoor

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