Who here works out? What do you think about...

glemay

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some opinions here regarding working out, like weights and what not. I used to have a gym membership, stuck with it for about a year. I think my membership was about $40 a month. I found it to be somewhat expensive for what it was, but oh well, I saw some improvment which was great.

Well now I want to get back into it, start working out again. Thing is, I'm wondering if I should get another gym membership or buy some equipment for home. What do you guys think?

If I go the gym membership route then I have no further questions. However, if I go the home gym route, should I look at getting a complete home gym machine thing, or maybe a good bench with some barbells or something?

I should mention that we already have a treadmill and elliptical, so the weights are the only other peice I am missing I think.

Thanks,

Gerry

treitz3

Nothing anybody says in this thread will make any difference unless you personally get up and use the equipment. Gym or home gym.

Working out can also include so many daily activities that have been put off. Be like the commercial. "Just do it!"

VR3

I sit alot

danger boy

Gerry, in all honesty... i highly suggest you get a personal trainer at your gym for a couple months.. like two or three. they can give you a great personal workout regime that will help you reach your goals better than you could alone. I know tons of people do it on their own.. and I admire them. but for me the personal trainer kept me on track. I would work out with them twice a week.. then the rest of the week do the routine they tought me. it really worked.

just a suggestion, but seriously think about it. Far to many of us try to go it alone, and have trouble succeding .

good luck.

acsubie

after graduating the police academy i pruchased a gym membership but shortly after just got bored, well 1 1/2 year passed and i could definitely notice i was not in the best of shape anymore, luckily our dept has a small sized gym, best of all we are allowed to use it on duty during our 45 minute meal break, so im basically getting paid to work out and i still can grab a bite to eat during one of my (2) 15 minute breaks.....i've lost about 15 pounds since august and gain some muscle

either way you go, like mentioned..motivation is the key!

hearingimpared

The guy in front of me who is doing **** flexing exercises.:eek::D

glemay

That's so true, lol. But the good thing is I have been working out. Cardio is really all I get seeing as we have a treadmill and elliptical. However, I want to get back into the weights, put on a little muscle. I'm not trying to get huge, lol, just nicely cut I guess is how I would describe it. So I know I will use the equipment. The question I need to answer is do I go to a gym for the weights or buy the stuff for at home.

Wow, theres been a couple more responses as I was writing this, lol

glemay

Danger boy,

I know what you mean about trying it out with a trainer. Thing is, when I was a member at the gym, I had a trainer work with me, and well, he didn't really provide me with much information I didnt already know. It's a small gym. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

beardog03

I work out...
I pump my brakes everyday !!

Sami

If you want to put on some muscle then definitely a gym membership. If you decide to go with home equipment, a bench and a set of dumbbells is the best option. You'll have to get creative though unless you have a lot of space to put a whole setup into.

mantis

Again it depends on what your trying to do.

If you want a full body workout, life change and the path to better yourself, look into Martial arts. Chinese martial arts . Japanese arts also have this. Most of todays Mix martial arts or UFC style have no spirit, great workout but no spirit.

Again it depends on what your looking for. Home gyms are nice like Bow flex. Awesome workout and compact.

Dan

tommyboy

I wouldn't workout at home if I were you. Typically, a home gym might be used for a month or two, then the laziness sets in. I know this could happen when going to a gym so it is important to sign up with friends and make a set schedule with them (or use personal training). This will motivate you to keep going. Also, your muscles will get used to repetitive movements of a home gym which = no progress. Gyms give you many more options on workout techniques.

Sherardp

+1 for the personal trainer, being that you been out of the game for awhile you dont wanna rush back into it. Make gradual progress and you'll be back to benching 500 lbs in no time.

BaggedLancer

I agree with others in this thread. I had a great home gym, elliptical, tredmill, bench w/ over 300 pounds of weight, smaller dumbbell bench, and one of those Weider all in one machines. i NEVER used the damn thing. My laziness was ridiculous. I sold all the equipment on craigslist(except the tredmill) and used the money for a 2 year membership to a gym back in june. Now, since June, I go to the gym 4-6 days a week, have lost 33ish pounds, and added 140 pounds onto my max bench.

Go with the gym membership, the hope equipment is never as good and you'll always find yourself doing something else other than using it. And those times you get the urge to use the home gym, you'll use it for 5 minutes then say to yourself "I think I'm going to lie down now and rest until this urge goes away" or something similiar.

MrNightly

Looking to get cut? Check out this guy... I've been on his program for months now, and it works wonders!!! No need to drop ton's of money on weights, and just a little personal dedication and motivation and you'll be in all the pain you could dream of! Trust me... you will!

http://www.rosstraining.com/

The forum on his site is freakin' awesome as well... everything you will need to get in tip top physical conditioning shape. They don't really focus on looks, that just comes with condition! Great place to get your learn on.

Enjoy.

Strong Bad

tommyboy wrote: »

I wouldn't workout at home if I were you. Typically, a home gym might be used for a month or two, then the laziness sets in. I know this could happen when going to a gym so it is important to sign up with friends and make a set schedule with them (or use personal training). This will motivate you to keep going. Also, your muscles will get used to repetitive movements of a home gym which = no progress. Gyms give you many more options on workout techniques.

Gotta go with this one.

Too many distractions and excuses to NOT workout while at home. Had a friend who had a small set of weights for home. He would start his workout and as soon as the phone rang, workout over! Knock at the door and it's a friend, workout over. Girlfriend decides to drop by...workout never gets started.

Nothing in my opinion, beats going to a good gym. The amount of equipment available and the atmosphere is well worth it. People are there to workout and if you're not, get out!

Also, don't go by what the scale says. Go by how your clothes fit and how the fit changes over time. Strength training is the heart and soul of exercise! Build muscle, regulate your diet and the fat will come off.

John

audiobliss

MrNightly wrote: »

Looking to get cut? Check out this guy... I've been on his program for months now, and it works wonders!!! No need to drop ton's of money on weights, and just a little personal dedication and motivation and you'll be in all the pain you could dream of! Trust me... you will!

http://www.rosstraining.com/

The forum on his site is freakin' awesome as well... everything you will need to get in tip top physical conditioning shape. They don't really focus on looks, that just comes with condition! Great place to get your learn on.

Enjoy.

Wow, I looked at the two videos he posted on his main page, and he skeered me off! :eek:



I think this is how you should work out!!

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:D

Jstas

tommyboy wrote: »

Also, your muscles will get used to repetitive movements of a home gym which = no progress.

OK, now I got a friend who is a physical therapist and what he has told me contradicts that statement pretty much completely. I was told that the problem with weights is that they only exercise a specific muscle or limited group of muscles which is why there are so many different exercises to do on the gyms. But no matter what, they are all repetitive and you gain both strength and size through that repetition. By saying that your muscles get used to the repetition is kind of misleading.

The more you exercise, the more you build strength. When that happens, your muscles have grown and strengthened enough to meet the requirements of the work you are doing in your exercise routine. When that happens, you need to increase the resistance or number of repetitions to increase the work load and force your muscles to do more work or a longer period of work or both. Granted, mixing up your exercises with the weights will spread the work out and let you focus on a wider range of muscles which will give you a longer period in your current routine before your body acclimates to that work load. But the repetition is absolutely necessary, especially with weights.



Personally, I don't touch weights. I don't have alot of time to devote to exercising multiple muscle groups so I go with what my doctor told me and I do the high impact aerobic stuff like push-ups, pull-ups and cycling and such. You exercise large groups of muscles, you'll burn calories like they are going out of style and you don't have to worry about "looks" because your body will proportion itself effectively if you are doing the exercises correctly. The only problem I have is that my repetitions are way up in the several hundred range. But I can still get the whole routine done in about a half hour to an hour depending on how much I feel like doing. I can watch a favorite show or something while I'm at it cause all I gotta do is count. The time literally flies by and if you are just looking to lose weight, 20 minutes a day is all you really need.

I'm 5 foot 7 and 163 pounds as of this morning. I'm down from 173. I lost weight because I slacked off on the exercising through October cause I was moving and dealing with some personal problems. I'm back to exercising and the weight is coming back on slowly. I am down to a 30 inch waist though and I can't wear any of my pants without a belt anymore or they fall off. That's a good thing!

MacLeod

Ive done both. I started out lifting in a gym and after 2 years I bought a bunch of weights and racks and worked out at home for over 4 years and had really good results but I dont have a problem motivating myself to lift.

Ive been back in the gym now for a little over 10 years and while I enjoyed lifting at home, I wouldnt go back to it and I dont really recommend it.

For one - since youre paying for it, youre more likely to use it.

Two - once you drive to the gym and get in there, youre more likely to do a complete workout because, hell youre already there - might as well lift.

Three - seeing good lifters in the gym with you working out will motivate you to lift more.

You dont necessarily need a personal trainers especially if youve lifted before. When youre starting out all you need is the basic heavy multijoint movements. Bench press, deadlifts, T-bar rows, press behind the neck, barbell curls and most importantly SQUATS!

Start out with these basic movements and constantly try to get stronger with each workout and you will see results. Id recommend squats on Monday, bench, close grip bench and press behind the neck on Wednesday and then deadlifts, T-bar (or bent over rows) and barbell curls on Friday.

You wont look like Arnold with this routine but it will build you a good solid and strong base to work from. These are the exercises I started working out with and I eventually worked up to where I was squatting 600 lbs and benching 425.

Systems

I have a few years in this subject so I'll say my opinion.

Gym membership, especially if it’s a larger gym. I've been a member of various for years from the old defunct "gold’s gym" to some private clubs to "24 hour fitness" to "LA fitness", at one point in my college days considered professional body building but didn’t want to get into the roids (although I was aquesed of using roids in high school my senior year but the only good stuff I ever took was Creatine). I was benching 305 when I was 17 in high school and squat 405. You can pretty much guarantee that you will always have top of the line machines to work out on. The selection is the key and shaking up your exercises and switch it up a lot when you start to plateau. It’s always best to use free weights and you can usually get a huge selection at a gym. Besides that, I quite enjoyed being able to sit back on the treadmill for an hour in the back of the room and watch all the ladies work out

Now, if I could just get my fat arss back to the gym now

But you may be in my situation now where work and family dont allow daily trips to work out and in that case, I say a small gym in the house with cardio and some free weights and benches is much better then nothing.

Fireman32

I have a free gym in my apartment complex. It's not great by any means but they have some treadmills and a epilictical and the standard weight machines. I just have to get off my **** to make it there more then once a week. I walk the dog about 5 miles a day though.

Face

The only way I could see myself going back to a gym is if I used a personal trainer or had a training partner.

I've joined a few gyms over the year and never was really consistent with it if I went on my own.

The only routine I've kept up with is doing push ups, pull ups, heavy bag, and jogging on my own. Except for the jogging and heavy bag, I could still do things around the house between sets, so it was easier for me to find time to them. At one time I was doing push ups in sets of 40 and doing 500-600 reps in a session.

Now I'm all banged up and can't do one without hearing crunching, tearing, and popping.

Mantis's suggestion of signing up for martial arts was also a great idea. I did that for a few years while I had time.

As for hitting a platou, I would usually hit them quickly and had to change my routine often when trying to put size on. As mentioned before, increasing reps is another way around this, which is why I did such a large amount of push ups.

glemay

Well, I'll be honest, most of this is not what I wanted to hear, lol. I guess I will think about it before I rush into it. I still like the idea of being able to work out at home. I do agree with the fact that once you are at the gym, you will go through with the workout, but I think the same could be done at home, along with a few more distractions.

Gonna have to talk with my family, see what they think.

BaggedLancer

Best motivation at the gym is all the "scenery" you get to look at. Get a gym membership.

nms

I never really understood the gym thing, especially if you live on the outer suburbs like my family does. It's a half hour drive just to get to the gym, so you automatically add an hour to your workout just in transit sitting on your butt. To me, this would give me more excuses not to go, because of time limitations. This may not apply if you live closer to a gym or city.

My preferred method of exercising is biking. You can go right from your house, the workout can be any length and intensity you need, and you can put together a nearly infinite different workouts by varying the route and intensity. Plus, there is no sensation like weaving through urban traffic on a bike. The rush is incredible.

Now granted, this only works your legs and aerobics.

glemay

I don't know, maybe it's just me. But it seems that I'm spending alot of money just for that gym membership instead of spending it on the equipment. Maybe I've got it wrong, and so far it looks that way, seeing as everyone is opposed to the idea of working out at home...

dorokusai

I usually hang a 10lb weight from my nether region while surfing Club Polk and do clenches. I'm up to 75 before I start bleeding.

Systems

dorokusai wrote: »

I usually hang a 10lb weight from my nether region while surfing Club Polk and do clenches. I'm up to 75 before I start bleeding.

LOL!!!!

ohskigod

mantis wrote: »

Again it depends on what your trying to do.

If you want a full body workout, life change and the path to better yourself, look into Martial arts. Chinese martial arts . Japanese arts also have this. Most of todays Mix martial arts or UFC style have no spirit, great workout but no spirit.

I'll plus one this. I get bored working out fast, but have been doing Krav Maga (an Israeli Martial Art) for about a year and 2 months with no signs of stopping. I;m a big guy, but I dropped about 20 lbs. while thats not alot for working out for a year, I'm in MUCH better shape now than when I started. also added alot of muscle without touching a weight.

dorokusai

Oh it's on now Lou....I'm going to greet you at the next Polkfest with a spinning back fist and a hatchet chop to your neck....well, whatever that mass is that is attached to your head/shoulders.

glemay

You know, I'm thinking about it, and I'm gonna have to agree, for now anyway. I think the gym membership is the way to go. We'll see what I decide in the next few days. Gonna go back to the gym, check the place out, and gonna head over the the fitness shop and see what they have to offer. But seeing as I have become accustomed to what you find in a gym, I don't think I will be happy with what I would end up buying for the house.

I think I will end up getting the gym membership for the weights and keep the cardio at home. And then as soon as it's nice out again, which won't be for awhile, I will be back outside.

Gerry