By Lisa Neff

Contributing writer

Pump.

Breathe.

Curl.

Breathe.

Jump.

Breathe.

Pedal.

Breathe.

The gym routine has become a way of life for many urbanites over the last two decades.

But surveys show that a good number of people still find membership fees beyond their reach. And, among those who do work out at the club, a majority also likes to work out at home. A survey from the International Health, Racquet and Sports Association found that 67 percent of people with gym memberships also own home exercise equipment. Call them double lifters.

One of the cheapest forms of home exercise is the video workout and one of the best we’ve come across is the nine-minute “Combat Endurance Workout” from Fred Nicklaus. This totally unpretentious workout is intended to promote core body strength. Nicklaus modeled the training program on that used to turn Special Forces soldiers into tanks and, after a couple of workouts, you’ll believe the claim that the routine helped a 68-year-old women set aside her walker, added 30 yards to a man’s golf drive and helped a woman shed enough weight to easily slip into snug jeans. The slim DVD case also takes up little room—perfect for the studio dweller on a budget. www.combatendurancetraining.com

For desk jockeys, the four-minute workouts on the “No Excuse Workout” DVDs from the Healthy Back Institute can deliver better results than 30 minutes of traditional exercise. It’s not the time, it’s the training in exercise that’s most important. The two-DVD set contains 20 short, intense workouts, each four-minutes long and broken into eight sets of 20 seconds of intense exercise and 10 seconds of rest. A favorite—the “Swing Crunch,” four minutes of building abs and boosting energy. losethebackpain.com

Take the Pilates Body Band Challenge with Ana Caban’s new line of training products. Wonder what kind of workout you can get with a DVD and a Bodyband in which you mostly sit and stretch? Refreshing. Muscle-building. Energizing. www.gaiam.com

Lifting: Diet all you want, but you won’t define the body without working the muscles. Working with free weights can be a low-cost, low-profile way to target, tone and build muscle. TKO’s “Secure Dumbbell System” is perhaps the most advanced locking system on the market today. Gym-style dumbbells are assembled using different sizes of weights on a round shaft handle and secured with a bolt on the ends that, after months of usage, tend to come loose. TKO SDS dumbbells combine one-piece cast heads with steel inserts, pinned and press fitted onto a squared off handle. A special thread lock or weld is used to secure the head. www.tkogear.com

Jumping: If you don’t live above someone with sensitive ears or on a flimsy floor, jumping rope can be an invigorating happy home exercise. The rope is a simple tool to work muscle groups and build cardio health and endurance. Try a cotton rope to cut the noise or a leather rope for speed. www.combatsports.com

For those with quiet neighbors below, try the no-equipment-needed jumping jack — in stocking feet. You’ll feel like a kid.

Cycling: Through the Internet, the Expresso bike simulates the experience of biking outdoors with 30 virtual courses, from city streets and meandering country roads to steep alpine trails. The resistance and level of difficulty will vary depending on the course or terrain selected. Engineered from the ground up, the bike offers fitness enthusiasts a unique and motivating workout experience that can be custom designed to individual skills and desired levels of difficulty. The bike features advanced steering and shifting mechanisms, a Web-based workout tracker, virtual riding “pacers” and even a built in TV-tuning system. www.expresso.net

Rolling: The DynaMax Core Trainer weighs just over three pounds and delivers about 220 pounds of weight resistance. The “trainer” is an inertial exercise machine designed for police officers and pro athletes to maximize core resistance and increase upper body strength through isometric exercise.

Use the Flex-Gym Rocker to tighten and tone abs, inner and outer thighs, and quads while gently stretching and massaging the back muscles with five stationary rollers. The rocker, which is compact enough to store on a shelf or in a closet, is great for strengthening muscles to ease lower back pain, increasingly one of the most common complaints of Americans. www.sharperimage.com

Replenishing: PowerBar’s Refuel Electrolytes Drink need not take any room in the refrigerator. The drink comes in a granular form for mixing with water to keep athletes hydrated with fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat.

Resting: Boost energy, manage stress, build muscle, lose fat and improve performance. That’s the promise that comes with “Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook,” a bestselling guide intended to help the fitness conscious make the right choices in the supermarket, restaurant, drive-through and kitchen. www.humankinetics.com

Chart progress in a change-of-lifestyle routine with the “Get Healthy & Fit Fitness and Nutrition Journal.” Journaling isn’t a new concept in workouts—people have probably been tracking their bodybuilding efforts since they found that stone left marks on caves. But this is a journal that meets all needs—progress charts, workout logs, nutrition logs by the week. www.gethealthyandfit.com