Archive for the “Workout At Home” Category

There is not much more humbling experience for you physically than moving.

When you exercise whether it is running or weights or going for a bike ride or swimming you always usually know how tired you will be after an hour or two or exercise. Moving is a bit different and the guys that are movers are different still.

Today we had movers in that helped us to move our furniture in a move that seems to have been taking far too long already. Two skinny guys show up in a big truck and after a bit of conversation they tell me that I can help them move. I haul furniture with one guy while the other guys packs everything up correctly in the truck.

This is when I broke my first sweat of the day. Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote a while back about the Wii Fit coming out and then again later about how incredibly popular Wii Fit seems to be. Well I heard a rumor last night about the local supermarket getting Wii Fits to put on sale this morning and I was third in line and had my New Wii Fit hooked up by 7:30 this morning.

Wii Fit First Impressions

Well I put the batteries (included) into the Wii Board and started the initial sign-in. I chose my Mii that I have been using on the Wii and it sucked in my birthdate, weighed me, asked me how tall I am and what year I was born and then after a couple quick balance tests gave me some results.

I was not too happy with the results. I am in real life 41 and at 6 feet tall I weigh 193 so the Wii Fit told me that I was overweight by BMI standards and had a Wii Fit age of 52….a bit of a kick to my ego. Read the rest of this entry »

Well after all of the dragged out hype the Wii Fit has finally been released, it came out yesterday. I have not made it to a store to get it or even see the box but of all place Business Week has a review of Wii Fit. I like one of the quotes from the article:

Wii Fit’s major downside is its lack of tact. The company decided, in the name of being useful, not to pull any punches. If you’re overweight or obese, Wii Fit will tell you so. (Gamers 330 lb. and heavier need not apply, as that’s the game’s official weight limit.) But some of the game’s messaging seems overly harsh. I, for one, wasn’t too pleased when the Wii Fit told me my balance was “weak” and that in some poses it considers me a yoga “novice.” And, forums have been abuzz in recent weeks with parents concerned the game could damage their children’s self-esteem.

What is wrong with this? The self esteem of a child should not be based on weak balance or even weight issues. We see this a lot in society and it is not at all fair, the last thing I would want to see is a diet for an 8 year old kid….geez let them eat good food instead. Read the rest of this entry »

Well Summer is here, or at least close to being here and the summer driving season has started in earnest by now. I have always loved how people in North America that are satisfied at being strangers in their own city will start up conversations with strangers at a campground so easily when on vacation.

Anyway, one of the real challenges for most people is the lack of exercise on a car trip. You pack up the car on Friday night, drive to the next hotel or campground and don’t move until you are there. Then you get out of the car and are stiff. There are a few ways to avoid this and I hope you take advantage of them. I found and edited a bit this article by Mike Strawbridge on car exercises that you can do while on the road.

Exercises to do while driving

Tummy toner – Sit up straight in the seat in a normal driving position. Breathe in deeply into your lower abdomen. Now instead of exhaling, push the air up to your chest, filling your upper lungs. Now slowly exhale. You will feel your posture improve and get a big rush of energy by doing this exercise. Don’t be surprised if you have to readjust your mirrors due to a higher seating position. Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa over at Workout Mommy sent me a quick email after I commented about my lack of knowledge about an exercise called Mountain Climbers.

Mountain Climbers are an exercise that you do from almost a pushup position and kick you legs in and out. I could never describe it well but Workout Mommy has a quick 2 minute video where you can learn exactly how to do this great cardio exercise. Best of all you can do these Mountain Climbers in your house easily and they will help build your core strength as well as really improve your flexibility.

Stretching in the morning for many people, exercising the first thing in the morning is convenient. It may or may not be the most welcome time, but it is convenient. Some people are morning people like me, ready to dash out into daily living with oomph. Many more people are very slow getting going in the morning and need a few minutes to really wake up. Nothing can or should be done about the way we wake up.

The thought of indulging in a few exercises upon awaking is enough to discourage almost anyone. But try them a few times and perhaps you will see a difference. stretching exercises can be profitable.

Why stretching in the morning?

When we sleep and therefore let our muscles sleep, blood tends to collect in the internal organs, or “splanchnic circulation.” Very little blood is needed in the muscles, or “peripheral circulation.” If on waking there is no noticeable muscular activity, blood very slowly leaves the splanchnic pool, resulting in sluggish circulation to the brain and muscles. The person wakes up groggy, listless, and without energy. Read the rest of this entry »

The Vancouver Province has an article on what tools are best for home exercising. the list consists of medicine ball, stretching tubing, heart rate monitor and a couple more.

I do not have much at home. I have the following

Some weights - to put on my bars. 5 and 10 pound weights and quite a few of them. My short bars are stacked with weights and long bar has about 60 pounds on it at all times without having to change weights. Read the rest of this entry »

With kids in the house and priorities everywhere I decided that this year the only way that I would be able to get weight workouts in would be to keep them short and increase the intensity. Here were my thoughts on the perfect workout for me.

I am not 20 anymore so I knew that I had to be realistic about my goals

I need a quick workout

I wanted to do my whole body in one day

I wanted to be able to recover from weight workouts but still be able to do cardio on a lot of the exercise days of the week

I ended up coming up with a quick 25 minute workout that would be as hard as I could and feel a little wiped for an hour or so but still have my evenings free to spend with my wife and kids. So here is what I came up with: Circuit training with weights in about 20 minutes.

Warmup, 5 minutes of cardio, eighter a bike with some light weights or the elliptical machine

1. Warmup set of really light bench press, shoulder press, and one armed bent over rows across my bench.

2. A long set of the following

10 reps Bench press
10 reps each of alternating front laterals (front of shoulders), side laterals (side of shoulders) and bent over rear laterals (back of shoulders)
10 reps one armed bent over row across bench for each arm
10 bicep curls
10 tricep extensions
10 squats
25 each of crunches and leg lifts

This is one long set that takes about 7 or 8 minutes and each exercise is done to exhaustion. I am really winded at the end and it took a bit to figure out how much weight each exercise should use so that I was done at 10 reps or so

3. repeat step two

4. stretch a bit, and I am done

This workout has worked really well for me, it is quick and hits every muscle group, actually each muscle group is really hit hard and I a, pretty shaky by the end of the workout. I do this workout three times a week on alternating days and it does not really cut into my schedule much. Of course this is only one kind of workout, you would want to change things up exercise and rep-wise and probably change to a longer workout at times during the year to really shock the muscles on a regular basis.

I know lots of people have talked in the last year about using a Wii for getting exercise but I sat on the sidelines, sad because I had no Nintendo Wii.

Well this has all changed now since I got a Nintendo Wii yesterday for the kids for Christmas. I am not sure if the Wii is really going to be a fitness machine but I am really excited about Christmas morning and trying this thing out.

I just ran across a site for a Wii workout called Wii Healthy. The site has a workout program that i will have to try and see how well it works.

Really the Wii looks like more fun than exercise but if you are moving then you are getting exercise right? Well I am sure we will soon se a bunch more Wii related “get in shape” type articles so it will again be fun to see since I can actually take part.

Now in response to everything that Nintendo has heard and seen about response to the Wii. Nintendo has come out with an actual fitness program called Wii Fit. The idea behind Wii Fit is that you get a board around 18 inches or so wide and do certain exercises on this and see yourself (or a reasonable facsimile of yourself) on the screen. You can also track your results as can everyone else in the family. I can imagine this whole idea scaling out where you can have fitness contests with other people online. Very exciting to be sure. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week was a really cold week up here in Calgary. I rode to work once and the temperature other than that has been dropping to around -20 which is a bit too cold for me. I hummed and hawed about my exercise and even though I should transition immediately to indoor training I was a little slow. Last night I finally worked out indoors.

I got home from work, changed into shorts and popped in a DVD of the Survivorman TV show. I hit the exercise bike for 26 minutes and then my elliptical trainer for another few minutes and then relished the fact that my indoor workout was a great way to keep myself in shape.

Even though I ride my bike almost everyday from about March to October or November I really am not sure how good that workout is. I try to ride quickly but the breeze and the fact that I am moving stops the sweat from really building up on my skin and clothes so it is really hard to judge the workout.

When you are training indoors you can definitely feel how hard you are working out. Last night when I was on the exercise bike I could really feel how hard I was working and my next workout on the elliptical trainer will be a lot more difficult in that it will work my arms well. After having a few workouts indoors I am sure that my body will be sore again. Everytime that you change you workout you get sore because you are working the muscles differently then you did before.

Of course when I wrote the last articles about this subject I talked a lot about the weights in my basement and how you need to have those too. The strength training that you do will add a lot of calories burned, mix up your workouts and actually help you lose fat. Did you know that a pound of extra muscle that you put on will force your body to burn an extra 50 calories a day? This can add up really quickly.

What do you think? Are your workouts tough enough? Are you working out indoors or hoping to just wait until spring comes back?