Home exercise equipment?

Walking 9 miles in 2 hours in 15 minutes 3 times a week is really good at getting ride of love handles and a beer belly when your pack is loaded with 55 pounds. It didn't do much for my upper body strength but, my legs are so thick now I almost need bigger blue jeans with a smaller waist.

Now, if I can just get into the habit of lifting weights to work on the rest of my body.
 
You've got lots of opinions on here, but take it from someone who is studying to be a personal trainer and has lifted weights and worked out for over 10 years; The first thing you should do is go to the doctor and make sure you're safe to start an exercise program. Start slowly when you do begin and work your way up. Free weights is the best way to go. When you work with weights you'll continue to burn calories hours after you're done working out.
 
I've been a fitness buff for the last few years of my life, and here are some of the things that I've learned, via my own exercising efforts and my endeavors to involve family and friends in exercise -

1) motivation is key. Recognizing the need to get in shape, or simply having a desire to be healthy, is a good place to start. Don't let it stop there.

2) enjoying the exercise you partake in, or the exercise benefits, goes a long way to helping you achieve your goals. I personally enjoy lifting weights. Picking 'em up, putting 'em down, and doing it again 'til I've completed the set. I simply find it fun. Crazy, eh? :o If you know of something that you truly enjoy, seek it out and make it a priority. If youre reason for exercising is to be fit or to look good, reinforce those motivations with a new set of snazzy clothes or a regular reading of your heart rate. Find what motivates you and seek to fulfill that desire.

3) have goals that you truly can accomplish. Know the end result you're trying to achieve. If your goal is to do a long hike with a heavy pack, pick mini-goals which will move you towards finishing that hike. If your goal is to have muscular, 18-inch arms, set little milestones along the way that will indicate your successful approach.

4) I like having options. I own some basic exercise equipment - weight plates, a few bars, and a sturdy bench, as well as a heavy punching bag. I also have a gym membership. Finally, I have a dog who loves walking and hiking. Between these 3 basic factors, I've got what I need to stay in shape.

Now, let's talk turkey for a moment. My gym membership costs about $30/month. I use the gym 15-22 times per month, so the money isn't wasted, in my eyes. At the gym, I can use a host of cardio machines, weight machines, and free weights. It also has a pleasant, clean pool, hot tub, sauna, and steam room, which I love.

Walking my dog costs me the price of a leash and some decent shoes, as well as the shopping time of periodically replacing those shoes. That's it, it's a pretty cost-effective exercise, with the added bonuses of a healthier, happy pet and a good relationship with him.

My backyard weight equipment is old, some of it even being from a guy at the dump who was going to throw it away! To buy it new, a decent, moderately priced weight bench would run around $150. The weight set I have, which is a smaller-diameter bar with weight plates that have smaller-diameter holes (read: non-Olympic style weights, but just as heavy!) frequently goes on sale at the local Big 5 or Sports Authority for about $110. It usually comes with a 6-foot barbell, 2 dumbells, 4 collars, and 150 pounds of plates. That means one can load up each dumbell with about 75 pounds of weight, which is fairly heavy for most lifts. So, the total cost of this basic weight set brand new would be less than $300 after tax, if one shops store sales. Shop garage sales and you can find some amazing deals! :thumbup:

Now, offset the cost of staying in shape with the cost of poor health, including hospital stays, medications, doctor visits, etc... one can't prevent all accidents and diseases, but exercise really is a great asset in warding off future problems.

My point? Make a choice to exercise and eat healthily, then find a way to stick to it. There are lots of ways to stay in shape, and lots of reasons to do so. Find out what your exercise values are, weather they be body aesthetics, activity goals, health reasons, are all of 'em, then make a plan to achieve your goals. Then, work that plan (and body!)

Good luck, I'm confident that you can do it :thumbup:
Zack
 
One more thought on the original question:

Before buying exercise equipment, go to a local gym, pay for a day or week pass, and try out everything they've got. This is a low-cost way to assess what types of exercise and equipment you likes, and that which you don't. You may even determine whether or not a gym membership is right for you.
 
Chin bar, dip bar,basketball filled with sand all kinds of push ups less then 100 bucks, running free!

There are a million ways to do body weight moves.

Today I did. Sit ups, back extensions , dips 3 rounds as a warm up.

Then I did 5 chins 10 push ups 15 air squats as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. 13 sets plus one more chin set.:)

As far as weights etc. train on your feet, just like we do things in life.Deadlift,squat, clean and jerk, pushpress.

I would buy a used olympic set, if you find you give up working out you can sell it for what you paid.

Google functional strength training.

Good Luck
 
Don't count on body weight exercises for long term muscle or strength gains, unless you like the monotony of many many reptitions. Someone just beginning an exercise program is likely to see results and feel sore, but once your strength gets to a certain point it's going to take progressively heavier wieghts to achieve gains. I do hundreds of push-ups (strict form and all that, in sets of course) on the days I don't go to the gym and rarely do I get sore like I would have from going to the gym.
I wouldn't opt for the "Total Gym" etiher- it looks like there is no way to add weight to it, other than your own.
Definitely invest an a dumbell set, one where you can add weight to them. Stay away from any set weight dumbells- you will find adjustable weight dumbells to be far more versatile.
I know this isn't quite one of the options you mentioned in your original post, but a YMCA or other gym membership would be ideal. My good freind has a Bowflex, and I've never had a workout on it that makes me feel like I do the day after a good workout at the gym, with free weights.
Even though cardio is way more important than a lot the people who hang out regularly in the weight room want to admit, I wouldn't recommend spending the jack for a treadmill, stairclimber, etc. They'll burn calories but you can't get the muscles and strength like you would with weights or a machine.
Sooo.. to answer your question. If you can only work out at home, get an adjustable weight dumbell set, and a "universal" machine of some sort. A Bowflex can be adequate, but the resistance is not that great, especially if you want to do heavy squats and deadlifts, and even for benchpressing. I'm skeptical of their "250" pounds of resistance. I know I can do things on the Bowflex that I'd have a hell of a time doing with 250 pounds of free weights at the gym.
OK, enough rambling on for now.
 
I use an XF-7000 from Explosive Fitness. It's an adjustable seat and bars hooked up to a force-plate that allow you to perform static-contraction training (isometrics meets progressive resistance). You can do the same exercises with bodyweight, barbells, or other machines, but you push or pull against the machine as hard as you can in a mechanically strong position (usually an inch or two before lockout, but never lockout itself) and the force-plate measures how much force you're exerting.

I've added more strength and muscle using this than when using other methods of training, but that's probably just because the novelty is motivating (no one else is doing it; the poundages in the strong range are ego-gratifying; the apparent gains in lean mass after years of not really gaining are nice), but it's like every other weight-lifting machine in that you only get what you put in.
 
Jedi_Knife said:
I'm skeptical of their "250" pounds of resistance. I know I can do things on the Bowflex that I'd have a hell of a time doing with 250 pounds of free weights at the gym.
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I think the Bowflex is set up so that you don't get the full resistance at the start of the rep; that it increases as you reach full extension. Kind of like how starting a bench press in a power cage with the support pins set 6" above your chest would let you lift more than your normal weight.
 
Jedi_Knife said:
Don't count on body weight exercises for long term muscle or strength gains, unless you like the monotony of many many reptitions.
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While that may be true to some extent, try doing one arm bodyweight exercises, such as one arm chins and one arm handstand pushups. Those offer more "safe" resistance than many free weights of the same amount. In addition to this, you can perform isometrics such as holding the top position of a chin for 30 seconds or a minute.
 
Edonis said:
While that may be true to some extent, try doing one arm bodyweight exercises, such as one arm chins and one arm handstand pushups. Those offer more "safe" resistance than many free weights of the same amount. In addition to this, you can perform isometrics such as holding the top position of a chin for 30 seconds or a minute.
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I guess exercises work differently for different people/body types? Sometimes at lunch I'll go to the boiler room at work where there's a chinup bar, and by my third set I can't manage another single rep (usually around 10 per set on a good day). I just don't get the soreness the next couple of days like I can get doing a back workout at the gym, with dumbell rows and barbell deadlifts, lat pulldowns, etc.
I've tried a variation of the single armed pull up (grabbing my supporting wrist with my free hand). I have to admit that it is a fierce workout for your gripping strength but I can't manage but one or maybe two IIRC. Definitely a callus builder (calluses are cool!).
To me, the one armed handstand pushups don't seem that safe, and I can walk on my hands for a decent distance, but I don't trust my strength that much!
I'm definitely not bashing anyone's technique, please don't think that. I will do all kinds of different things just to keep from "getting too comfortable" with any routine. Over the years I guess we get a good idea of the things that work best for us and that's when our techniques get really individualized.
 
Jedi- I didn't think that you were bashing anyones technique at all. I just prefer bodyweight exercises as they force your body to work together as a unit as opposed to some of the "isolation" exercises. The other thing that I don't like about using weights is it causes some people to do "mirror" workouts in which they only work certain muscles to look good in a mirror.
 
Edonis said:
Jedi- I didn't think that you were bashing anyones technique at all. I just prefer bodyweight exercises as they force your body to work together as a unit as opposed to some of the "isolation" exercises. The other thing that I don't like about using weights is it causes some people to do "mirror" workouts in which they only work certain muscles to look good in a mirror.
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I'm definitely with you on the muscle groups. I have a book about martial arts workouts and it discusses "nerve group recruitment" and how you have to lift with your body or at least various parts together as opposed to trying to isolate them. Somehow your nerve groups develop with your muscles and provide more power? Also, I have definitely noticed a lotof people who lift regularly have a terrible time with shoulder and knee injuries- something I bet you would rarley get with body weight exercises, and something I think about more often as I get older.
 
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