Home Gym Machines Vs Gym Memberships
If you are a follower of all the top weight loss blogs, one thing that you will always notice is lots of them use home gym machines as an aid for fat loss. Home gyms are becoming more and more popular because the quality is getting better and the prices are going down. Why pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds for expensive gym memberships when the only piece of equipment that you use when you get in is possibly the weights or the cardio equipment. I was a member of a gym for many years. In fact my gym membership was fantastic because you paid one fee and everything was thrown in. Swimming was free, all the exercise classes were free such as boxercise and spinning. You got free use of the saunas and steam rooms.
This was fantastic but have guess what were the only pieces of equipment I used all the time I was going there. It was the weights and exercise bike. So with this in my mind I thought I could buy all the equipment I use for the price of one to two years gym memership and that’s what I did. One of the main reasons why I didn’t use all the other stuff in the gym. Was because I simply didn’t have the time. Let’s say I went to the gym did a one hour gym session, then did a one hour spin class. After that I went for a swim and to finish it off I relaxed in the sauna for 30 minutes. Whilst this sounds fantastic it just wasn’t relistic because of the hectic life that I lead.
When I first started training at the gym I was like a kid in a candy store and used everything because I was thinking I’m paying for it so why not get your monies worth out of it. But I quickly realised that I was spending hours and hours in the gym, which meant other aspects in my life were suffering. Don’t get me wrong working out in a nice warm or air conditioned gym is much better than working out in my home gym which is a 16ft x 10 ft wooden shed in my back garden. But what I like most about my home gym machines are they do exactly the same job as the expensive gym membership, if not better. Because I haven’t got the distractions that I had, whilst I was going to a commercial gym. What I like most about training at home is I can be in and out of the gym in less than an hour. Which is the ultimate reason why I would choose my home gym machines over any expensive gym membership any day of the week.
My First Kettle bell Workout
I’ve just completed my first kettle bell workout and it went really well, the sweat was absolutely pumping off me even after five minutes into my workout. But this was probably down to the fantastic weather we have been having over the last few days. I’m loving the nice weather and it certainly gives you the motivation to want to look the best that you can. But when you are not use to the hot weather like most people from the UK. It does make training much harder and a bit more uncomfortable.
I train in a 16ft x 10ft wooden shed and as you can imagine it can get a little stuffy in there. But I really did enjoy my first kettle bell workout. At the moment I’m limited with what I can do because I only have one kettlebell at each different weight and quite a few of the exercises are done with two kettlebells of the same weight. Today’s workout was cardiovascular because I was mostly training with the 20 kg kettlebell for a couple of minutes at a time.
The best exercise I found was the figure of 8, basically all you need to do is pass the kettlebell through your legs making a figure of eight. Even using the 20 kg kettlebell it does get very tiring fairly quickly. But its fantastic at training your core and that is a part of my body that is wanting some serious work at the moment. My arms, chest and shoulders are looking good, its just the mid section that is lacking in muscle tone at the moment. Not to worry though this will get better has I build muscle and lower my body fat percentage. Which is really my ultimate goal at the moment. This weight loss blog is more about fat loss than weight loss at the moment.
So glad I purchased my russian kettlebells they are a fantastic addition to any one’s home gym. The only downside to it is my gym is looking rather cluttered at the moment. I’ve recently purchased a fantastic incline bench which is fantastic for training your biceps using the incline bench dumbbell curl exercise. But this means I’ve got a flat bench just sat there doing nothing except taking up valuable space in my home gym. I really do need to get rid of it asap, so when I get a minute I will be throwing it up on eBay.
My Russian Kettle Bells
Since the biggest loser started in the UK about 4 weeks ago I have been a massive fan and haven’t missed an episode of this years series so far. Some of the contestants are shifting some big numbers every week. What I have noticed is the contestants are constantly training with russian kettle bells. And the expert trainers on the show are telling us that training with kettlebells is one of the biggest fat burners you can do. A one hour session can burn off around 1500 calories, when I heard this I said to myself I’ve just got to get myself some russian kettle bells.
So the first place I looked was eBay, boy was I in for a stock they do not come cheap your looking at a few hundred quid for just a few kettlebells. So I narrowed my search down and found a guy who lives about 10 miles from me selling a set of four kettlebells a 16kg, 20kg, 24kg and 32kg plus the Kettlebell Bible book which will come in very handy. Because to be perfectly honest with you I know nothing about training with kettlebells. I was lucky enough to win the russian kettle bells and picked them up the same night. Here’s a picture showing you the four kettlebells and the training book.
I haven’t got round to using them yet, but I’ve been reading the book and I have found a few different kettlebell exercises that I think I can easily add into my workout program. The problem with my workout program at the moment is core exercises. Not many of the exercises I do hit the core, and your core is were the majority of your power comes from. To be honest my core is looking a little bit flabby at the moment so I really need to start hitting it hard.
This week diet wise has been another shocker I’m afraid, I managed to lose 4.4 pounds last week. But I will be very surprised if when I step onto my body fat scales in the morning for this weeks weekly weigh in that I haven’t regained all the weight and more. Not only have I been bad diet wise but my workouts have also suffered I just haven’t had the energy all week to train hard like I usually do. I’ve got less than 6 weeks to go till I go to vegas and at this rate I’m going to be going there looking worst than I do now. I’m going to write down a plan and stick to it, by writing it all down this should help to keep me motivated on this long and slow body fat reduction journey.
