Home workout exercises

G-Money

I was so fed up with WW Leopardstown yesterday that it has me considering doing some weight style exercises at home on the days that the weights room is a loitering area.

I have some dumbbells at home in the north and a barbell. Not an olympic style one, these are just ones from Argos, but still decent enough. I also have a multibench thing up home but if I'm being honest, I'm not really interested in bringing it down with me to my apartment here.

I would bring the dumbbells, plates (not sure about the barbell) but that's about it. I'm just wondering what sort of weights exercises I can do at home. I don't really want to spend a lot of money. I'd be willing to buy a bench that I can set flat, or incline, but I don't want to go buying a load of stuff, or spending a load of money.

I've seen posts here about people do exercises at home and I'm just wondering what they are?

My main goals are fat loss. I'm a 32 year old male, 5ft 10, and I weigh about 243 lbs which is just under 18 stone. I want to get down to about 11 or 12 stone. However it may need to be 11 stone to fully get rid of my belly and man boobs.

I don't intend to stop going to the gym. I'd just like to have the option of doing some stuff at home should I not want to use the weights room in WW.

Thanks.

EileenG

With that, you can do just about anything.

Squats: front squat with barbell or dumbbell squats. Hack squat with barbell behind your bum.

Deadlift; Pile on all the plates and lift heavy. You don't need a spotter or safety cage for deadlifts so go heavy. Same with stiff leg deadlifts.

Bench press. Pull over. Flies. Dumbell press.

Lats: pull back (start in bentover row position, keep your arm straight and pull the dumbbell back to your side), Bent over rows, barbell and dumbbell.

Shoulders: military press, lateral raise, front raise, reverse fly.

Arms: curls, overhead extension, kick backs, etc etc etc.

Abs: weight crunch, plank, reverse crunch (lie on bench, hold on beside head, lift lower body off bench and push feet to ceiling),

Lower back: superman, bird dog.

lunges, step-ups.

There are lots more, that should get you going.

G-Money

Thanks for all that info.

Is there anywhere I can buy a decent bench? I don't want something super fancy. Just one that I be adjusted to be flat or on an incline. I was looking at Argos and Irish Lifting and wasn't blown away by the selection.

--amadeus--

Don't ignore bodyweight excercises - you can buy a bar from Elvery's for chin ups, dips, sit ups, push ups, etc but also consider bodyweight excercises, like these (aimed at martial arts but some unusual ones I haven't seen before). Do a bit of a google and you'll be amazed what creative excercises you can find - a lot of them are called convict or prisoner workouts as its the stuff they do in thier cells without specialist equipment.

And don't neglect cardio - walk, swim, bike, whatever.

Good luck

G-Money

I don't think there's much chance of me neglecting cardio. I prefer it to weights.

Anytime I'm in the gym I always wish I didn't have to go do weights but I sort of force myself to do them as I know it will help with fat loss.

--amadeus--

Do what you enjoy doing. It's better to do 20 mins of medium benefit excercise than 5 mins of a high benefit excercise. If you hate weights then that will ultimately put you off the gym, no matter what your long term goals.

You could pick an activity that combines the two - martial arts is great for that for example. You will do cardio, stretching and flexibility and bodyweight excercises and you may find that you start hitting the weights with the more immediate goal of geting better at MA than with the longer term and less concrete goal of weight loss.

There is no "right" way to get fit and lose weight. It's about making long term lifestyle choices and activities you need to "force yourself" to do are not sustainable in teh long term. Just because you get told in here "lift, it'll build muscle and mean you burn more calories even when not excercising, it's what I did!" doesn't make that right for you. Find an excercise or activity you enjoy, make it part of your routine, keep your diet fairly clean and weight loss will look after itself.

BraziliaNZ

seriously 11 stone? I am 13 on the button right now and haven't any fat on me really, my max weight ever was a bit over 15 stone and i still had no "man boobs" or anything like that. If you were to get to 11 stone you wouldn't be far off 50% of what you are now. Others here would know more than me but that sounds totally unrealistic to me.

G-Money

I got down to 14.5 a few years ago and still had a right bit of flab to get rid of.

Khannie

grandmaster wrote: »

Anytime I'm in the gym I always wish I didn't have to go do weights but I sort of force myself to do them as I know it will help with fat loss.

I'd echo what Amadeus said. If you don't enjoy it, it'll eventually put you off going. Try to find something else that will give similar benefits.

BraziliaNZ

grandmaster wrote: »

I got down to 14.5 a few years ago and still had a right bit of flab to get rid of.

but were you fit at the time?

G-Money

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

but were you fit at the time?

I was getting fitter. At the time I had come down from 18 stone.

BraziliaNZ

well it must be quite a shock to the body to lose that much weight. Try and get it down and focus on getting fit and lifting heavier etc and you should get in decent shape.

G-Money

I should probably be clear, I don't completely hate doing weights. I much prefer cardio and I like how my muscles feel instantly bigger after doing weights. I guess I just get a bit fed up with the weights room and sort of waiting for machines and equipment. With cardio there's always so many of them, I can just grab one and get started straight away.

Less posing and standing around talking in the cardio area too

Anyone know where I can buy a decent bench? The reviews of the Argos one's are pretty bad. Just want a plain bench that I can have flat, or on an incline. It doesn't need any fancy arms or places to hold weights.

G-Money

Actually, I found a bench, cheers.

G-Money

EileenG wrote: »

With that, you can do just about anything.

Squats: front squat with barbell or dumbbell squats. Hack squat with barbell behind your bum.

Deadlift; Pile on all the plates and lift heavy. You don't need a spotter or safety cage for deadlifts so go heavy. Same with stiff leg deadlifts.

Bench press. Pull over. Flies. Dumbell press.

Lats: pull back (start in bentover row position, keep your arm straight and pull the dumbbell back to your side), Bent over rows, barbell and dumbbell.

Shoulders: military press, lateral raise, front raise, reverse fly.

Arms: curls, overhead extension, kick backs, etc etc etc.

Abs: weight crunch, plank, reverse crunch (lie on bench, hold on beside head, lift lower body off bench and push feet to ceiling),

Lower back: superman, bird dog.

lunges, step-ups.

There are lots more, that should get you going.

Would you suggest I do all of these in one programme? Or a subset?

Magic Eight Ball

Here's my home gym..

EileenG

grandmaster wrote: »

Would you suggest I do all of these in one programme? Or a subset?

Your choice. I had a great programme where I did ten exercises a day, one for each body part, but it was exhausting. I prefer doing legs one day, then chest and tri the next, followed by back and bi, etc.