Who has a home gym? Any tips to share? (Warning: long!)

[Longhorn]

This is the one I have from smoothfitness.com:



We also got our elliptical there, both ordered online just from the descriptions. We're very happy with both, which we've had for about two years. We put them together ourselves and the home gym was quite a process made more enjoyable by watching the Spurs win the NBA championship at the same time. :)

I thought I'd share a couple of things I've learned about using the home gym. One of the biggest drawbacks, in my opinion, is that the weights are ten pounds each so if you want to increase or decrease weight, you can only do it ten pounds at a time. Yet the books I bought suggested changing by 2.5 pounds on upper exercises and 5 pounds on lower. So I did a search for "home gym accessories" and found an online store that sells 2.5- and 5-pound weights that are sort of U-shaped like this



and designed to be placed on the top of the stack. They work great! The Body for Life workout has you increase the weight each set while decreasing the number of reps. With these additional weights, I can easily go from 20 to 22.5 to 25 to 27.5 pounds.

Another thing I noticed is that over time, the weight stack starts hanging up on the upper regions of the two rods on which they slide. So I keep a can of WD-40 handy and just spray the rods. It's also a good idea to check the tightness of the bolts, especially the ones holding the weights. Once I was doing leg presses and the whole stack just dropped! I was never in any danger but that was startling and ended my session until my husband could come home and reattach the cable.

My home gym came with a little poster illustrating a few exercises but that was it! So I ordered some books from Amazon that specifically include home gym exercises. Of course, not all home gyms are the same but I've found it pretty easy to adapt exercises to my gym once I see which muscles are being worked and how. I also recommend the site I mentioned in another post: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exername.php. You can sort for exercises by machine, muscle group, or "compound or isolation" (whatever that means!) and then see both directions and photos to explain how to do the exercise.

We bought the leg press attachment for our machine but all you can do with it are presses and calf raises. For variety, I wanted to do standing calf raises so I ordered a weight belt from the same place where I got the accessory weights and my husband made a board that is approximately 3"x3"x18". I stand on the board on my toes and attach the weight belt to the lower pulley and put it around my waist. Then I just raise up and down on my toes to work my calf muscles.

When I do the inner/outer thigh kicks that involve standing sideways on one leg and pulling the lower cable out with the other, I had a little trouble with balance so I used a crutch from when my son broke his ankle. As I got better at it, I didn't need the crutch.

The Body for Life workout involves resting one minute between each set and two minutes between muscle groups so I have a stopwatch and I record the weights and reps data on Body for Life forms that I downloaded from the site. I keep the forms on a clipboard that has a pen attached with a chain. We have an old dorm-sized refrigerator in the room stocked with bottled water.

So you see, I really have NO EXCUSES for not getting in there and working out, which I'm going to do RIGHT NOW!

Please share your advice and tips -- anything that helps increase performance and reduce the obstacles to a good workout!

[Poiuyt]

1. compound vs isolation

Hi Longhorn -

An isolation exercise only works one muscle and you are only bending one joint, eg- leg extensions. A compound move works more than one muscle, eg- squats.

Most of my workouts these days are centered around my Concept 2 rowing machine. It simulates Olympic style rowing (crew). I used to be a runner, but it seemed like I was injured more than not. I also have a set of free weights, some dumbells, a bench, and a pullup bar. I also made my own lat pulldown machine with a couple of pullies, some weights and a rope. I hate having to go somewhere to workout. I like to just go down to my basement and get started.

You might want to check out the book, "Home Workout Bible," by Lou Schuler and Michael Mejia.

[flvegan]

2. Nice setup! Couple things:

1. The leg attachment looks like you can do hamstring curls as well (knees against the top pad, curl lower leg back and up...as if you were using your heel to kick your own butt);

2. The WD40 is a good idea, BUT, when applying, spray it on a rag or towel and wipe the poles. In time, the sliding of the weight will cause some of the oil to "pool" in between the weights, and they can stick together;

3. I like the calf raise idea. Very novel;

4. Stay with it. Sounds like you're off to a good start!

[Longhorn]

3. Thanks!

Yes, I do hamstring curls just as you describe. It's the leg press machine on the side that is set up for leg presses and calf raises. I can't think of any other way to use it.

Thanks for the tip about spraying. I'll bring up a roll of paper towels to avoid that problem.

[midnight armadillo]

4. Don't forget a jump rope

A jump rope and a pullup bar will add quite a bit to your workout variety, and they cost nearly nothing.

I'm looking forward to springtime so I can pull the ole jump rope out of the closet...no room in my apartment for it :-)

[BamaGirl]

5. I need to find some of those little add on weights. I can't

believe I've never seen those before lol. I have a Weider Home Gym, (but usually stick to free weights). Like this one,



I also have free weights (2,3,4,8,10,12, and 15 lbs), a treadmill, and a heavy bag. I love the bag and recommend them to everyone.