If you had to pick one......

[Javamama]

HI,
I had a question. If you had to buy one piece of exercise equipment, which one would be the best? I want to burn calories and tone up at the same time. I have to admit, I really hate to exercise, but I know I could lose faster if I did. I would appreciate your replys. thanks.
Angie :yay:

[DarkLotus]

Squat rack is my answer, I can't imagine not having one. You want something that you are actually going to do, so maybe a video of some sort to start with till the exercise bug bites ya! Some simple dumbbells will do, you don't have to have fancy equipment! ;)

[Hobbes]

HI,
I had a question. If you had to buy one piece of exercise equipment, which one would be the best? I want to burn calories and tone up at the same time. I have to admit, I really hate to exercise, but I know I could lose faster if I did. I would appreciate your replys. thanks.
Angie :yay:


Well, to burn calories and tone at the same time, I would look at cardio equipment like an elliptical machine or a stationary bike with the "moving arms"

I agree that an exercise video that has you use hand weights is an excellent alternative if you don't want to invest in this type of equipment.

[Jezebel]

Having said that, I would personally recommend going for some free weights equipment, adjustable dumbells if you are short on space but preferably the whole shebang with bench and olympic weights(and yes... a squat rack!) Weight training is THE best form of exercise for"toning" (which is really building muscle and losing fat)as you build muscle your body composition becomes more geared towards being metabolically active, which means you burn more calories while at rest... which can mean less body fat( as long as you burn more calories than you take in over all) free weights make your connective tissue develop strength as the same rate as your muscles, meaning less susceptability to injury than if you were using machines, free weights also have functional applications unlike machines. So if you decided to take up another excercise it will be easier and burn more calories because of your increased muscle and strength....and you won't bulk up unless you want to... just have a look at body building magazines and the HYOOGE amount of supplement ads to help bulk up.... if it were easy they wouldn't exist! so.... in conclusion
Free weights = more strength+ higher metabolism
and MANY other benefits..... not elliptical trainer can do that for you!( i like to lift weights!) :agree:

[Hobbes]

in conclusion
Free weights = more strength+ higher metabolism
and MANY other benefits..... not elliptical trainer can do that for you!( i like to lift weights!) :agree:

I agree wholeheartedly. I weight train as well as use a stationary bike. Each has its benefits. The greatest benefit to a cardio machine is the fat loss. Free weights will not raise your heart rate and sustain it at the needed levels as efficiently as cardio. 45 minutes a day on the bike or elliptical will melt the fat away faster. Of course, this is my opinion and is based solely on my own experiences and those whom I know.

The most important thing is what Jezebel said in her subject line: Get something that you will use and enjoy otherwise its a lost cause. Try both and see which one you enjoy most. Better yet, do both and reap all of the benefits. You won't be sorry.

[Coolcat]

I think the way to go if you were to buy a machine would be with a soloflex or bow flex type machine. They work off of resistance so you can get the same type of workout as you would with free weights and it may take up less space and easier to use.

It also makes me think about isometric/kinetic exercises which are good too. If you don't want to sink a bunch of money into machines.. consider doing "tai bo" or "abs of steel" type tapes. No machines required and u can do it at home.

Good luck.

[Meg_S]

Go free weights! If I could trade in my bench though for a squat rack I would. I'm female and would like to have a bench in the high hundreds one day.. but there is no way it's going over 200 so I don't need a massive machine for it. I actually prefer pushups to bench press and use a weighted backpack if I need it. To work you back dumbells and a chinup bar in the doorway will do it all - not thousands of dollars on a lat pulldown. I don't have a squat rack so to get more bang for the buck (meaning harder work without the danger of a heavy bar on me in my appartment) I do one leg squats with a dumbell or weighted backpack. There is a LOT you can do without machines.

That said, I'm really interested in a rowing machine! Only the decent ones are pretty pricey.

Oh, and the exercise ball I bought is invaluable!! I never imagined I could do all the stuff that I do with it, and that's on top of using it as a chair at my desk.

take care,
Meg

[texascarl]

Meg nailed it. Rather than pick one piece of equipment, I'd rather suggest how to spend $70 or so on a couple of pieces of inexpensive but useful equipment. Buy some weights, a $35 vinyl barbell/dumbell set from XYZ mart is fine, or start with a few 'hex' dumbbells ~ $0.35 per lb at your nearest sporting goods store, buy more when you need 'em. Buy a good $25 'swiss exercise ball' + a $10 exercise mat. (I'd also tout a door gym in cold weather, but I work on chin-ups in the park now.) Careful shopping will get all this for $50-$75, a heckuva good investment. Put on your walking shoes and go out the door towards the nearest park or mall, you've just saved $750 on a treadmill. (I wear a daypack with 10-15 lbs & walk 30 minutes 5-7 days per week + weight lifting/pilates/gymnastics/isometrics.) I use the swiss ball as my lifting bench 80% of the time with dumbbells these days, so you can postpone buying a weight lifting bench if money is tight...you'll miss out on 'heavy bench presses' and so on, but you'll make it up with 'balance' muscle work on the ball if you do ALL the work you can do on the swiss ball. A useful trade-off. If you really dig weightlifting, spend money on olympic gear & a squat cage, benches, etc...great!
For workouts on the swiss ball I'll also tout some of the info outlined in Colleen Craig's Pilates on the Ball (link below - see if your library has a copy.) And with light weights I suggest of a lot of the 'old time' workouts from Sandow, Charles Atlas, etc available below...note, these are 'scans' so they take time to load, but spend some time looking thru the info at this great Sandow site. These old-time strong men figured a lot of this stuff out 100-120 years ago, why keep re-inventing the wheel? Lots of good isometrics were included in these old workouts, here's a link to some isometrics...98% of these require NO EQUIPMENT, how's that for a good price? Another weight lifting book that I really tout is the Men's Health Home Workout Bible...tons of good info here, if you've never lifted weights before.

I've included some links to these books I like (note-do what I do, save money & get 'em at the library) magazines & websites with more info. Choose any you like/find appropriate and enjoy.

Pilates on the Ball
http://www.pilatesontheball.com/

Sandow, Charles Atlas, etc...
http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/

Men's Health Home Workout Bible
http://www.homeworkoutbible.com/uof/homeworkoutbible/?keycode=000199

Men's Health Magazine
http://www.menshealth.com/cda/channel/0,6915,1-0-0-0,00.html

Shape Online
http://www.shapeonline.com/

Door Gym
http://www.bodytrends.com/products/gym/doorgym.htm

Isometrics
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/OBB/OBB.html

Swiss exercise balls
http://www.exertools.com/CatPage.phtml?i_PageID=52&PHPSESSID=bded402c373e27728dbae6d69fbea564

[Meg_S]

Don't know if this will come in useful, but you can put a chinup bar in your bedroom door without causing major damage by cutting a U in two small squares or rectangles of wood, say an inch thick and 4 inches squared, nail them at the SAME HEIGHT into the door frame, and stick a thick dowel cut to the width of the doorway in there, you can wrap some tape round the ends to prevent it from turning.

Right now my absolute favourite piece of exercise equipment is a four piece ladder. I have it set to be four feet high, eight feet across like a rectangle without the bottom line. You can work every muscle in your upper body, from many angles (yes I'm talking even abs) with the exception of a pressing motion for the pecs, and I can even work the hams and glutes on there.

If you're going to get dumbells.. go for the adjustable kind, as you'll very quickly out grow the set ones.
Meg

[auntrobin]

For me I have three types of equipment:
1. Running shoes
2. Dumbbells
3. Firm Tapes

[Javamama]

Hi!
Thanks for all the great advice! Now I need to get motivated! (lol)
Angie :wiggle: