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How to select gym equipment – Part 2

9 Apr

Part 2 – What you need

At this point, you made up your mind and you decided you really want to get some gym equipment for your home.

What should you get? You could get one machine for cardio exercises, such as a stationary bike, a treadmill, an elliptical or a rower. My favorite in this group is the elliptical, with the resistance wheel in the back. I shred a large part of my excess pounds on the elliptical. Later, I added a rower with water resistance. I love my rower, but I have a hard time doing any more than 10 minutes on it so I always go back to the elliptical with its various preset training programs.

Then you will need some equipment for strength training. You do not need any elaborate contraption for this. Free weights and kettle bells are perfect. You can start with a few small weights and purchase heavier weights as your performance improves.

One day last summer, while being at a park with my sons I joined them on the monkey bars and realized that for the first time in my life I could hold myself on the bars. That revelation gave a large boost to my motivation and I started looking into door frame supports to train and develop this newly found ability. After some research I opted for a more elaborate setup, a standalone pull-up station. This requires some floor space but I am pleased I got that.

Another item I love and use often is a BOSU ball. The name stands for BOth Sides Up, in reference to the multiple ways the ball can be positioned. This is a half ball, with a flat side. It looks like a stability ball cut in half. The BOSU ball is excellent to strengthen the lower back, especially when used with weights on your chest or behind your head.

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One last word of advice on buying gym equipment: there are great deals in the used marketplace. Instead of buying an entry level version brand new, for the same price and often even less you could find a commercial grade equipment.

How to select gym equipment

6 Apr
Home Basement Gymnasium and Dance Studio modern-home-gym

 

Part 1 – Should I buy gym equipment?

If you are a typical geek like me, you would rather workout at home instead of going to a gym. And chances are that you already own some equipment which is either defective or not accessible, deeply burden under boxes or used as a laundry dryer rack.

I am serious.

Think about it.

I had an elliptical which we were no longer using because the battery compartment trap door was broken. I have a friend who has a treadmill with a defective computer display. Another one has an exercise bike with a non operative resistance. I know so many people in this same situation. Buying the machine was the easiest part. Using it was already more demanding. When it needs repair or some work to be operational again, it surely seems like a chore.

You need to sort this out. Either fix it, get it fixed or get it out. As long as you have this non-operational machine you will not be able to buy any other equipment. Either your subconscious mind or your spouse will remind you that you already own some equipment which you are not using. You need to take action.

If you did not already have something that only needed to be repaired, or if you did but concluded that it is beyond repair, then you might consider buying a new machine. But hold on – do you really need a machine? For cardio, running does not require much more than a good pair of running shoes. And I am sure you can find some stairs close by if not in your house.

For weight training, look into body weight exercises. An excellent book on that topic is You are Your Own Gym, by Mark Lauren. There is also an app to complement the book.

I understand that some people do need to have some equipment anyway to find the motivation to train at home. The motivation can come from the desire to justify the expense or the space it occupies in your living room. Either way, if you do want to purchase some equipment, I have a tip for you. Look into the used marketplace. Craigslist, eBay, kijiji or your local supermarket bulletin board have plenty of deals on lightly used home gym equipment. Once installed in your home, it will not make much difference whether you bought it brand new or used, except for significant savings.

OneFitGeek Tip Number 1 – Nutrition

30 Mar

The purpose of this blog is to share what I found during my journey from being an average geek to being a fit geek. Some of my findings are obvious, common knowledge. But I also found that although many things are obvious and make sense, they will not do any good if not applied.

It is within this mindset that I will post my tips. Here is a first tip, to be filed under the Nutrition category.

When drinking water, drink ice cold water.

When drinking a protein shake in the morning, make it ice cold.

And when adding fruits to your greek yogurt, add frozen berries.

Ice cold drinks and frozen berries require more energy to be brought to your body temperature, resulting in a greater calorie expense. This is one of the tricks I have been doing and which worked great for me.

It is alright to cheat on your diet … and why you must do it

26 Mar

I have read a lot of different views about cheating on your diet. Some people have a cheat day and then they try to compensate the next day by starving . That does not sound like a good plan to me.

I also noticed that the definition of cheating varies widely.

After losing over 40 pounds and keeping it off for one year, I can tell what works for me.

I make it a rule to eat whatever I want once a week, usually on Saturdays when visiting family.
This allows me to avoid comments such as “What happened to you?”, “Are you sick?” or “You are not eating enough!”.

Having a cheat day gives your metabolism a boost. Your body knows it usually has enough and it will process the excess food without storing fat. You see a spike in your weight and then it goes away in one or two days. If your diet is too strict or if you eat too little for too long, your metabolism slows down or worst, it falls into survival mode. This is counterproductive to the benefits of your diet as you will begin to store fat again.

The above is true whether you are currently losing weight or you are into the maintenance phase.

An added benefit I found is that if you crave something during the week and you manage to hold on and resist, once you let loose and eat a lot of it you conclude it is not so good after all.

The most important part is to make planned, conscious choices. Not to lose control, overeat and declare it a cheat day after the fact.

How to survive one week at Disney without gaining weight

22 Mar

Here is a simple tip on how we spent one week at Walt Disney World without gaining weight, even indulging in some ice cream and chocolate muffins.

Sharing. That’s it.

For every meal, we ordered one plate for the two of us. We did the same for the kids.

Do not get me wrong, the food is very good, they offer several healthy options but the portions are just way too big. By sharing every meal, we were satisfied and we had room for the occasional indulgences through the day.

We also brought in some snacks such as oatmeal cookies and granola / yogurt bars.

For one week, we did not care much about our ‘diet’. Since we were walking and standing from 8 AM to 8 PM, if not later, we ended the week off without gaining weight.

In fact this was our second visit at Disney. Last year, we followed the same plan and I ended up losing 5 pounds in a week. It should be noted that back then, I was already on my way from average to fit, while this year my weight is steady.

Breaking the snacking habit

20 Mar

Here are my best tips for breaking the habit of snacking.

Delay – hold on for a while by creating a diversion

At first, when I felt the urge to snack, I would get down and do 10 push-ups. Not being in top shape, this was demanding enough to fend off the snack urge for a while.

Going for a walk also works very well for me.

Drink – drink water to fill your stomach. Black coffee and tea also do the trick.

Eat better – This one sounds general but I will explain. When you make better food choices, eat more fiber and whole foods, digestion takes longer and you feel satisfied for longer.

Mind power – This can be the most difficult tip to implement. Understand that most of the time, the urge to snack comes from habit more than from actual hunger. You have this image of cookies with coffee or tea. If you can convince yourself that you are not really hungry, then good for you. However I can tell that this does not work very well with me.

Instead, the best way I found to avoid snacks was to not get them into the house in the first place. Same holds true for the workplace.