Hellobee Boards

Do you work out at home or a gym?

I don't currently work out regularly, but I have in the past and plan to get back into it soon. I have a cardio machine at home (stair master) and a small collection of stuff that make me happy to not get a gym membership. I have a set of 8 and 10 dumb bell weights, leg weights that I can strap onto my calves for doing legs lifts on the floor, a mat for doing exercise on the floor and an Abflex which I like for sit ups.

I have routine that alternates between upper and lower body of different things I do with the weights to tone arms, chest, back, shoulders, butt, legs, and stomach. So on a given day, I could spend an hour or so doing cardio plus toning. And I like that I have everything at home because I can do as little as 10-20 minutes or as long as 1 hour and 20 minutes and don't have to go anywhere.

My "ideal" would be to work out 4-5 times per week and alternate the weights for upper (arms/back/chest) and lower (legs/butt) which would mean I do each section 2 - 3 times per week.

@californiadreams: I liked to play Jillian on on my laptop (after you've done it a few times, you kind of memorize the order of things, and I just used it for quick reminders and to keep on pace), and then watched something trashy on the tv.

But following since I've pretty much fallen out of the habit.

I've done New Rules of Lifting for Women. It's a weightlifting program, I saw awesome results with it. It does require quite a bit of equipment, so easiest to do with a gym membership. Recently, DH and I started P90X3 and it's going really well. I like that it's easy to do at home and I'm probably going to cancel my gym membership to save the bucks and stick with this instead. It's 30 min/day, 6 days/week.

@KelLeeLeee: ooh i like body pump too! Lifting weights is really intimidating to me at the gm, so mi like having an instructor (in real life or in a video) to show me what to do and to force me to do enough reps and not quit. Peer pressure and all that jazz

I do zumba once a week, 2 or 3 other times at the gym I either swim and lift weights and do floor abwork, or I do the elliptical and use wt machines!

I really like to do FitnessBlender.com videos at home (which are all free -- they post them on YouTube). Like @Sapphiresun: I turn the workout videos low on my phone and watch tv at the same time. They have a really wide variety of videos, some using free weights, which is the kind of weight lifting I do. The machines at the gym intimidate me I like Jillian, too, but the thing I like best about Fitness Blender is their videos range on length from five minutes to over an hour. Sometimes while I'm waiting for my H to shower or something I'll just pop on a couple five minute videos instead of just sitting around.

@fussygal: don't be scared! You don't even need to use weights if you don't want to!

@fussygal: I was scared the first time too but I decided to just jump in! Find someone who looks newish too and friendly when you get there and they can help you get equipment. Mostly you just need a bar and two light weights for the first time. Once you do it once it will be much less intimidating the next time!

Over the summer I was at the gym 5x a week, three weight-training days and two cardio days. With school starting I'm aiming for three. Not as much as I would like but it's better than nothing - and it will be two days of weights and one day of cardio.

I wanted to start weights too but wasn't sure how. I had pretty much always just done cardio and hated it. But now that I've done weights all summer, I love it. Way more than cardio. But I know I have to do both to see results. So I started weights by doing a body pump class. I started with the smallest amount of weights to get a feel for things and in just three months I've more than doubled my weights. After a few weeks of that, my gym ran a personal training session and I bought four sessions. We met once a week, and each week he came up with a full body weight-training routine for me, and now I cycle through those, and it's plateau proof because I can gradually increase weights as I see improvement.

The cardio I did each week ranged from a boot camp class to tabata - basically whichever class worked with my schedule. For mornings I couldn't make it to the gym, I did a quick 1 mile run, and usually incorporated a little HIIT stuff like jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers, step ups, etc for a half hour total.

I'm also more active in the summer too - we do a family bike ride at least once a week. Last Sunday we biked 12 miles! Taking walks and running after a toddler, taking him to the beach - it all adds up too! I'm proud of where I've come since April and can definitely see and feel the results.

@fussygal: I don't regret the money spent on personal training! I gained so much knowledge. The biggest worry for me learning to do weights was learning to do it properly. You hear about so many injuries that could be so easily avoided if you learn proper form from the get-go - so I didn't even let myself make a mistake by starting with training right away. When I did start my body pump class, I let the instructor know before class that I didn't know what I was doing and she had one of the more experienced class-goers team up with me and it was great cause she helped me a ton during the class. I bet you'd love body pump! I love the accountability of classes too - when it gets hard, I can't just walk out you know? Good luck!!