What I learned, so far, Using My Total Gym for Strength Training

I have been using my Total Gym, first very sporadically, and now with more consistency, to meet my, very general, health and fitness goals.

My main goals are to:

• To Feel Stronger, more Energetic
• Develope, or maintain, Bone Density
• Looking better, as in losing weight, shaping up, would not hurt one bit either

 As the Total Gym is a Strength Training device that uses your own weight, and the incline of its sliding board, by lifting weights.

Here is what I have learned, so far:

1. Consistency is possible!

For me the big breakthrough for achieving consistency in my exercises was:

• Leave it set up all day or night, whenever you aim to exercise
• Then do the exercises you plan when ever you have to waist a bit
• Do not give up if you only get the exercise once or twice on a given week, just do your best to do more the next week.

 2. Never do the same exercises two days in a row. Even if you feel ok when you are doing them, you might well end up like I did, feeling like you had been hit by a truck, by the third day.

Besides, there is no reason to!

I have not counted the numerous exercises this home gym comes with, but I can tell you there are plenty for various parts of your body.

So far, since my above mentioned faux pas, have tried to not only do: 

example Ab exercises, every other day, Back and Chest exercises on days I am not working my Abs.

However:

I have been doing alternating Leg exercises each day I workout

Also, 

tomorrow I will try to do a different Ab Exercise that I have not been doing on Ab Exercise day.

We’ll see how this goes…

3. For Women

If you start doing back, chest, compound as well as possibly arm and shoulder, ( I am not really sure about those two), exercises regularly with a Total Gym:

• Check your bra band and strap adjustment almost right away, and often!
• If you bra band starts creeping up your back, during your normal activities, not just exercise, it might be too big already. Try smaller band size bras if you notice this happening.
• If your straps can go up a bit, try to move them past the part were the hardware of the adjustment slide is out of contact with the bony part of you shoulders as soon as you can. The skin there does not enjoy protracted contact with hardware!

I think that is it. With these simple rules and the exercises I have mentioned in my Friday Inches off Achieve and various posts I have gone from a woman with:

10/5/11 The Starting point:               Waist 39 inches                          Gut 44 inches

To my current

7/13/12 Bust 42  Underbust 32.25 Waist 33  Belly Button 34.5   Gut 39.25  Hips 38

The reason there are these additional Underbust and belly button measurements is that at the beginning, I had nearly no waist to speak of, and as it became longer, I added those. I added the hip measurement out of curiosity.

Anyway, it has taken a while to get any sort of consistency at all, and for me I can be happy with a three day a week workout because it is better than noting and worth the effort.

I think the Total Gym is great because I can just do a few exercises while I am waiting  for a pot of water to boil, a page to load, our security program to do its updates, and soon each days exercises are done!

Then you can always break it down and stow it under the bed at the end of the day, or night!

When you consider you can try the Total Gym for just a buck, it is worth it to:

• Plan a chunk of time when things will have a steady schedule at home, like after summer vacations
• And Give it a try!

 Currently this link takes you to discount models you can try for a buck, and yes, the shipping is free.
 Total Gym® Official Store Endorsed by Chuck Norris & Christie Brinkley. Take our 30 Day In-Home Trial for only $1 and get FREE Shipping!
The shipping is fast too, at least it was when I brought mine last spring! Try it and enjoy feeling and looking better soon!
Anne Hunter

Taking it a little easier this week, a 1.25 inch loss this week

I say that, but believe some of this could just be water weight…

I try to take  care to measure 1^st thing Friday am when I awake, before I start drinking water or tea, but today, I forgot it was Friday…

Here is this Friday’s Perspective:

10/5/11 The Starting point:                Waist 39 inches                          Gut 44 inches

7/6/12: Bust 42     Under-bust 32        Waist 33    Belly Button 35.5     Gut 38.5       Hips 38.5

7/13/12 Bust 42  Under-bust 32.25 Waist 33  Belly Button 34.5   Gut 39.25    Hips 38

Just 3 days of exercise, possibly to day and tomorrow, but that remains to be seen.

I am not exercising on the weekends at all lately so…

Even so, it seemed to have lost:

• 1 inch at the belly button
• .5 at my hips
• gaining .25 at the underbust.

Water Weight or not, I have Lost Enough to have to Replace Apparel

My three pairs of light cotton shorts, as they are now falling off me, unless I wear a shapewear style tank top…Which I am not apt to do when it is hot enough to wear shorts.

So far I have turned 2 pairs of jeans I have not been wearing into cutoffs!

However, I will need more…

Also, I have been wearing a 34 inch bra band size. Lately I have been steadily shorting the straps with their adjustments. The adjustment hardware is right up to the top of the cups.

Even with all the sweat, (we do not have central air), my bras are starting to creep up my back..,

Besides, the underbust measurement has been nearer to 32 than 34 for a while now.

Hopefully that will wait until fall…

It is worth it though, just because I feel so much better!

Sure I still get tired, but a feel less dragged down throughout the day, like I am standing all the way up. It also feels like, if I had a chance, I could ice skate or something I really feel like doing, for hours on end. Perhaps that is why it is called Strength Training?

It great to feel more energetic and stronger while doing mostly work and chores!  
Anne Hunter

Exercised 4+ times this week, bit of fat intake reduction

a bit better results!

This week this post is in lieu of the Friday Inches Off Report, (to your right), becuse I cannot seem to access that page to give it this update today.

7/6/12:   Bust 42      Under bust 32 Waist 33 Belly Button 35.5   Gut 38.5 Hips 38.5
6/29/12: Bust 41.75 Under bust 32 Waist 35 Belly Button 34.75 Gut 39    Hips 38.5

However, I may have dieted sort of, a bit, this week. It being too hot for me to figure out what to eat that was light and cool enough; I took to eating cereal, with skim milk, 2xs a day and chicken chunks for supper, with duck sauce, and pepper!

So perhaps, for me anyway, who was just previously eating bologna and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, perhaps that is dieting…You can read about my typical diet here if you want to.

I consider the bust fluctuation negligible Getting the waist, belly button, and especially gut measurements down are my main concerns.

I did the Ab and Leg exercises Monday, Wednesday and going through them today, Friday.

I did the other Leg, Back, Chest, Core and Compound ones Tuesday and Thursday.
I finally got the back ones up to 2Xs in one week!
For future health reasons, for me, this is another big concern, or at least could be.
I did add a few more repetitions of some of the exercises, and went up a level setting of my Total Gym on others.

I hope to have this blog more organized in the near future.
However, as it is, I am having quite a time of it fitting everything else in.
I will try!
Anne Hunter

How little has changed, with just 3 days of up to 7 exercises a week

So last week, again I only managed to exercise 3 days, two ab and leg days and one leg, back and chest days and if you look at the Friday Inches Off report, (link to your right), for 6/22 there is little change. What change there was may be water weight for all I know…

It appears that somehow, I will have to squeeze in a fourth day of exercise a week to enjoy much more improvement.

On the bright side: Perhaps this means once I get to the shape I want to be in, 3 days a week of 6 and 7 exercises a week might be enough to maintain it! Or not. Remains to be seen.

Speaking of Seen; I notice my upper arms are flabby, and I do not like it. Will have to work in some arm exercises too…

So here it is Tuesday, time to resume exercise, with the usual Way too much to do other wise and a lack of motivation…

Nothing to do but get on with it!

I guess that is going to happen to all of us from time to time…

How little it took to loose 3.75 inches between this and last Friday AM

If you check out the 6/15 Inches Off Friday report, whose link is to your right, you can see that I lost 3 inches off my bust, .25 inches off my underbust and .75 inches off my gut. However, I gained .25 back on the hips.

Considering I only exercised three time this week, this if great!

I did my, now standard, 3 Abs,3 Leg Exercises, Tue. and Thur. However, I did up to reps from 30 to 40 on the Kneeling Plank Presses, Twist Squats and Toe out Squats.

So far, not counting today or tomorrow, and I doubt both at this point, I only got around to doing the newer Legs, Core, Chest and Back exercises on Wed.

My diet changed a bit:

From

• peanut butter and honey sandwiches
• and pizza
• Plenty of Bacon this Sunday morning

to

• Bologna and cheese sandwiches, on whole wheat
• with skim milk

Like most weeks for me include

• a Wendy’s Double Baconator, at least one a week
• chicken nuggets, Weaver frozen, with duck sauce, at least two times a week. 

See, I really do not adjust my diet to loose weight!

It’s working! I now have more pants that fit nicely, and tops. Looks like I will have to buy smaller bras though, which is fine with me. Maybe not my budget at just this moment, but I am ok with it anyway.

A Video showing some of the Exercises I just posted about

Here is a video I found that shows some of the exercises I just posted about having started earlier in the day!

Here is, approximately where these exercises, I mostly posted about earlier today, are in this video:

• Seated Chest Press :34 to :51
• Seated Chest Fly:52 to 1:07
• Surfer, Compound exercise, 1:48 to 2:10

And one I do on my Abs day:

Kneeling Plank Press starts at 1:33 of this video

Just for continuity sake, the Ab Crunch Exercise Video again:

OK!

Maybe I can get them all in this same post, so I can just Show you what I am talking about!
Anne Hunter

Finally adding Back, Compound, Chest and more Legs Exercises

Having learned that doing the same exercises, while weight lifting, which is what you are doing with Total Gym IS, is hard on your body, exhausting and Stupid. After all, you can do many different exercises on a Total Gym. No, I have not counted.

Besides, I meant to get around to toning up my back and chest! I believe Compound means overall toning, but I am not sure…

I hope to be able to provide some videos of some of these so they are not just words:

These are the exercises I aim to do on those days when I am not doing my, now normal, 3 each Abs and Leg exercises:

Legs: More Squats

Two more leg exercises, this time using Total Gym’s “toe bar” rather than their “squat stand” at the end of the glide-board.

Like the squat or bend exercises I do on the ab days, these too are bends, or squats, except the sprinter squats.

The  Feet in “V” squat seems to really work the inner thighs, if you have your heels where they are suppose to be during the exercise.

The Toe Bar Squat might work the same muscles as the other squats I do on ab days, but so far, no complaints from my legs about being over worked.

I did 30, all at once, with the Total Gym set at Level 6. I guess they are not too hard. This is also how I do the Toe Out and Twist squats on my Ab exercise days; 30 at a time, at level 6.

Back, Chest more Legs and a Compound Exercise

For the Surfer, a Compound exercise, the two Chest and One of the Two Back exercises, I had to bring the glide-board down to level 2. The last back exercise, I had to bring it all the way down to level 1!

I did 3 sets of 10:

Surfer exercisesSeated Chest PressesSeated Chest Flys and Kneeling Row, back exercises at level 2

Then did 3 sets of 10 Swimmer back exercises at level 1

That was yesterday, woke up feeling fine today.

Actually did these, while having a bout of my painful shoulder problem. It felt the same before, during and after these exercises! My shoulder surprised me by (finally!), feeling fine this morning!

There are shoulder exercises for Total Gym. It is likey I will avoid them for now.

I believe I can confront these on a regular basis!

So now my plan is to do;

• Ab + Leg workout 3 days a week
• Back, Chest, Legs and a Compound exercises 3 days a week

We will see:

• How long I can be consistent with this
• How Consistent
• What the results are

Anne Hunter