<p>The gym I meet my trainer at has a couple cable machines (which I love), three treadmills, a couple ellipticals, a stair machine – and that’s it on the machine front. Everything else is free weights, medicine balls, spri balls, weighted rods, bands, rings hung from the ceiling, wobble boards, wobble foam, weight benches, stability balls, and a Smith rack along with various foam pads. I leave there much, much more tired than I ever left my “big” gym with its dozens and dozens of machines. </p>
<p>I’m thinking of dropping the big gym membership entirely, because the free weight area (which 24 Hour does have) tends to be pretty much the domain of heavy duty weight lifters, and it feels intimidating, and they don’t have a great weight selection in the “fitness” area because it is usually jammed, and they seem to have just one set of each of the weights, so if you’re looking for a 15 pound weight you could wait a while. Slowly I’m building up a weight collection at home, from thrift stores and sales, and plenty of exercise bands.</p>
<p>Our “home gym” consists of: a Precor treadmill, a recumbent bike, a 35 lb kettelbell, a set of dumbbells, some rubber tubing, and “perfect pushups” (DH loves them).</p>
<p>Ran my 5 miles, made dinner, and soaked my tired body in the tub. Life is good. :)</p>
<p>Well I took the day off today. The extent of my exercise consisted of carrying my bag around. I would guess it may weigh 15-20 pounds, but throwing it over the shoulder is no big deal ;)</p>
<p>Last night’s workout was just not very good and a lot of reasons for it. I think one was that last night was 9 days in a row… </p>
<p>The gym where I go is part of a larger tennis and swim club, which has been around for 60 years. The owners added the fitness area about 15 years ago. There are Ami machines (fancy ellipticals), stationery bikes, and treadmills. There are also various weight machines. I work with a trainer and I almost never use the weight machines. She has me work with free weights, core board, bosu, rubber bands, and the jump rope. I do lots of lunges and squats (vile) every time we meet. The gym also has spin, pilates (mat and reformer), kettlebell, TRX, yoga, and power (weights) classes. Since I started going on a regular basis, I’ve found a group of women who have similar workout routines and they provide a nice support system. Felt really great yesterday, because I got comments from 4 different people (at the gym) who asked if I was losing more weight!!! I’ve been trying to add more protein to my diet and I did break through a plateau. The comments were good motivators to keep on track.</p>
<p>Bromfield – I could not agree with you more on squats. I despise them. Unfortunately, I’ve come to the conclusion that the exercises I least like – squats and pushups – are both some of the most beneficial work I can do with my body. I guess I went way too many years (even when I was walking 5 miles 6 days a week) not bending my knees past a 90 degree angle. I also got way too much of the “don’t stick your butt out” message. Ah well, I am getting better at it even if it is still really, really hard. </p>
<p>I’m thinking that the next purchase for the home gym is going to be a full length mirror so that I can see my form for squats. I’m also on the lookout for a weight bench – I’m hoping one will show up at the used sporting goods store or on Craigslist once the great college student move out starts in a couple weeks. And I’m picking up heavier free weights as I find them for cheap – not sure what to do with the little one and two pounders (don’t laugh – after wrist surgery I really needed them) – they may need to go to a new home. And in my dreams – one of those A frame weight holders.</p>
<p>That sounds fantastic – both your gym and the compliments on your weight loss! I love that you have so many fun options in the various classes. I’m getting to the point where I’ve pretty much covered the basics one time through and now I can see that having some variety – whether it’s TRX or kettlebell or whatever – will be important to keeping things fun and challenging.</p>
<p>Yes, squats are vile. If only they weren’t so darn effective! My workouts right now have two versions of reverse lunges and those darn things are killing me.</p>
<p>Yeah. A mirror would be handy. Back before I was exiled to the basement, I could see myself in the glass doors on the fireplace, but there are times a mirror would be handy.</p>
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<p>For home use, I’ve found that a heavy duty stabilty ball works for everything I would typically do on a weight bench, but a bench would be nice to have.</p>
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<p>I’m not laughing. I started out with 3 pound pastel neoprene weights. We had 2 pounders for my wife’s wrist surgery rehab, but I went straight to the heavy iron! I remember buying a pair of 8 pounders at KMART and thinking how heavy they were. That wasn’t that long ago.</p>
<p>We have two computers in the basement: my home desktop and my son’s home desktop. I could always install a webcam on his to use as a mirror.</p>
<p>My wife still uses the one and two pound weights. She gets a much better workout when she’s cooking as we have heavy copper and stainless pots and pans.</p>
<p>Rest one minute and repeat the six minute set
Rest one minute and repeat for a third set</p>
<p>Twenty minutes. First set is kinda fun. Second set is OK. Third set gets pretty tough. I thought about a fourth set, but not for very long…</p>
<p>Grazing on a big dinner salad tonight. Spring mix, granny smith apple, vidalia onion, proscuitto ham slices, shaved parmeggiano regianno cheese, walnuts, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. If I’m still hungry after all that, I’ll call Dominos for a pizza!</p>
<p>push presses and kettlebell swings back to back is pretty intense. I would definitely be panting like a dog.</p>
<p>I bumped the swings up five pounds today. 35 pounds felt really good. That’s about right for me. It even felt like my form was pretty good. Still working on the Dan John’s “hard swings” where you snap the hips at the bottom to get the weight going forward, stab it to a stop at the top, and fire the lats to propel it down. It is really tiring.</p>
<p>I also got a new mini-band and a 20" exercise band in the mail today. In addition, I bought “Never Let Go” by Dan John. I look forward to some reading material…</p>
<p>Stretching, floorwork and weights at home. My knees didn’t fell up to a run.</p>
<p>I had a look at a burpee video. I can’t do them at home as we have a false ceiling in the basement and it’s way too low to do any kind of jumping. I might try them at the YMCA.</p>
<p>Yep. With a low ceiling, you have to do a modified burpee and not raise your arms up overhead. And, trust me, setting new world’s records for vertical leap is not usually a worry when doing burpees! It’s hard to even muster the energy to get off the ground.</p>
<p>I can do full burpees in my unfinished basement, but I have to be careful not to do them under a light fixture and bulb!</p>
<p>Of course, the great thing about burpees is that they can be done everywhere:</p>
<p>We have two areas. One where I can put my hand into the ceiling by just reaching up and the other that is just above my outstretched hand. I can’t do the military press in the area with the lower ceiling and can just barely do them in the other part. I can get a lot of privacy (except for the security cameras) in our aerobics/fitness room. It has a cushioned floor too which is probably a lot better than our basement (concrete) for jumping around.</p>
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<p>I have a jump serve in tennis and hitting a lot of serves can be pretty tiring, even for the pros.</p>
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<p>The video that I saw had a very high ceiling with rings mounted. So after you jump up, you grab the rings pull your self up into a position that you’d use on a dip machine.</p>
<p>Definitely. I do burpees either on carpet or on my “yoga mat” when I’m doing them in the basement or outside on the deck.</p>
<p>Speaking of outside, I’ve just about had it with this weather. This week’s 41 degrees with a steady 25 to 30 mph wind whipping felt so cold and raw. Sheesh. It’s about time for warm day, a little hint of spring, a nice walk in the park. We need some of that global warming!</p>
<p>In Denver visiting WildChild. I went to hot yoga here. Altitude made it even harder. At one point the instructor announced, “If you are breathing, you are still alive!”</p>
<p>MOfWC, awseome! Do you have any tips on good running spots in Denver? I will be going there soon and will try to run a bit to see if my body can handle running at 6,000 ft above where I normally run. :)</p>
<p>How ‘bout if you are bent over, panting like an ol’ wore-out mongrel dog? That’s what the ol’ (formerly) fat guy is doing. Just finished the Friday edition of New Rules of Lifting for Abs. I took a cue from Wednesday, when I realized I was killing myself on these strength supersets – trying to do too many, too hard, too fast, with too little rest. So I scaled both of them back today. Instead of ten exercises, one starting every minute, on the minute, for ten minutes, I went with eight exercises, one starting every minute & fifteen seconds. These things are so hard (most of them get my heart rate above 90%) that I was just gasping for air and hanging on for dear life. This way, I can actually do the full sets with decent form. Still demanding, still panting, still sweating buckets, but I don’t feel like it’s a forced march.</p>
<p>My little crazy core segment was a little easier today. Carry a 50 lb DB up two flights of stairs, do ValSlide alligator walks, carry the DB back down two flights of stairs. Carry two 30 lb DBs (one shoulder, one waist) up 2 flights, more alligator walks, carry them back down 2 flights. All this assymetrical loading stuff works the love handle region like crazy just to stay upright. Every exercise today was assymmetrical except for dumbbell bench press, chin ups, and squat jumps with two 30 lb DBs at the shoulders. If you had told me a year ago I’d be jumping up in the air with two 30 lb DBs, I’d have said your were out of your ever lovin’ mind…:)</p>