Best strength exercise?: Ive been on a... - Weight Loss Support

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Best strength exercise?

geeemann profile image
4 Replies

Ive been on a health drive since the start of January, and have managed to lose a little over 3.5 stone. Ive done this by calorie counting (using myfitnesspal) and getting on my crosstrainer. I do 30mins on the crosstrainer in the morning, a 4mph walk at lunchtime and another 30mins on the crosstrainer in the evening.

My concern however is that all the exercise I am doing is of a cardiovascular nature, and I havnt a clue what I should be doing for strength training. I would plan to cut each of the crosstrainer sessions down to 15 mins each, with the remainder of the time on strength training, but what do I do? Back in January I was a 16 stone total exercise beginner, so I feel proud to have got this far, but as I am losing the weight I need to take it up a notch. Any strength training would have to be suitable for my living room, as I have absolutely no interest in going to a gym, and preferably wont cost much. Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

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geeemann
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4 Replies

Hi geeemann,

Well done indeed on the weight loss!

As for the exercise thing perhaps you could get a Bullworker X5 on ebay, or somewhere similar, and do isotonic/isometric execise on that. I know they're rather a 'blast from the past' but they do permit you to exercise all the major muscle groups.

And you can certainly do that in your living room - you only need a bit of floor space and a chair and you can do the full gamut of exercises on it. (The abs ones are very effective).

There are various other similar gadgets available, but most of the cheaper ones aren't great and the better ones are pretty expensive, but look around on the web.

Good luck with your weight loss journey.

bunblebeaz profile image
bunblebeaz

Hi,

The nhs website has a short 10 minute or so strength and flex programme that you can follow at home.

If you want to build muscle, there are places that you can buy home weights from, and you can do a lot of weightlifting exercises at home (try Argos).

You could also try doing the same exercises eg bicep curls with a bottle of water, or tin of beans etc if you don't have the money for weights.

geeemann profile image
geeemann

Thanks everyone for the support. Bullworker sounds interesting, and I have found a number on Ebay at not much money. I will have a look at the NHS site for the exercise programmes. I'm not wanting to end up with loads of muscles, but I do need to try and build up a little, and try and target some of the fat loss,

I should have started a blog, at the start of my journey, but was thinking of starting one now to detail what I have done to get me to this stage. If I would have to point the finger at one thing, but with the risk of sounding like some kind of salesperson, I would say the key to my weight loss has been Myfitnesspal, it just makes keeping an eye on calories etc so easy, and its FREE!!

eechristmas profile image
eechristmas

I would suggest just getting a few free weights or kettle bells and medicine balls. Then there's a whole host of exercises you can do at home. The best muscles to train for weight loss are in the legs, as they're the largest muscle groups and easier to build up and will burn the most calories.

A beginner strength program could be as simple as 3 sets of 15 reps each of crunches, push ups (start out doing 'box' push ups if you can't do real ones - youtube.com/watch?v=3K8T3JS..., and squats.

Then branch out and do standing leg lifts, planks, walking lunges while holding kettle bells, etc. Hold a medicine ball as you do your crunches and push it in different directions on each crunch - through the legs, straight up, to each side. Get a pair of ankle weights for your leg lifts.

You can create your own personal home strength training plan. Do a google search for strength exercise how-to guides!

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