Okay, I’ve decided that just running and lifting my little 20 lb weight isn’t going to give me the hot bod I see in those commercials (especially “Hot Bod” commercials). What do I need to at least get some toning?
I’m very slender, small framed, average height, run about 3 miles 3-5 times a week, and do arm curls and pushups afterward.
I’d rather not buy a gym membership since I don’t like having to drive out to a gym. I’m looking at weight sets, but they’re pretty expensive. Do I even need weights? Can I just do pushups/pullups and stuff? I don’t want to get huge, I just want to be “in shape.”
Personally, I noticed a HUGE difference in how toned I was once I started working out with weights. I joined a gym awhile ago, and was just doing mostly cardio at first. I was losing weight, but not toning. Once I started with the weights, the fat (not necessarily weight) dropped off a lot faster, and I got a lot stronger, though not at all bulkier.
There are a lot of Dopers who can give you better advice than I can, but I would think that push ups and pull ups will only tone certain parts of your arms. I found that I could target muscles more easily with weights and nautilus machines, but I’m pretty much an amateur.
I got a membership a couple of years ago, and though I don’t really pump serious iron, I have no plans on quitting.
The reasons:
o I run 25-35mi/week, and so I definitely need a place to run in cold or rainy weather. I sometimes run at night (did 8mi on Tuesday at 10pm), something that doesn’t work out so well outside.
o Pumping iron by myself is too boring for me. I need to be around all of those sweaty cut dudes who grunt as they press a pair of 150lb dumbbells (as I am pressing 50lb dumbbells).
o I ain’t buying all of that stuff and I don’t have anywhere to put it.
o If I tried to lift weights in my basement I would bonk the ceiling.
o The gym is only about two miles from my house – one of the most important factors in choosing a gym (imho).
I must admit that I never did experience any great muscular buildup – that’s probably because it takes all of my willpower and energy just to keep up the running, and there’s precious little remaining to keep me lifting. I find it all too easy to let lifting slide for several days (like this week).
Maybe you’ve outgrown the 20lb dumbells. In that case, I’d suggest looking at the new Bowflex dumbells. I’ve not tried them myself, but if I was looking to buy a set of dumbells, they would be at the top of a very short list.
So a gym is probably my best option, huh. I have to confess, I’m a little intimidated by the idea of the gym. When I was in college I’d go periodically (that’s actually a bit too generous of a term), but was always a bit cowed by the football players lifting me sized weights up with ease. Should I just get over this, or is it maybe not quite so skewed to the atheletes now that I’m out of school?
Oh, and Lord Ashtar, I looked at those. A bit pricey, but they do seem quite nice. Do they have any Wal-mart versions of those around?
Are you a woman or man, audiobottle? I used to have the same problem at my college gym, with giant football players taking over the free weights (not as much with the nautilus). Now I belong to a women’s only gym, and seem to have better access to the weights when I need them. There are a lot of athletes, but no hardcore bodybuilders that I’ve noticed.
If you’re a guy, or if this isn’t your thing, would you be open to a personal trainer? Maybe being with someone, at least for a few sessions, would help you feel less intimidated by the bodybuilders?
Ha, sorry. I’m a man, albeit a scrawny one. I think I can just get over it, since I figure they all started somewhere, right? Besides, I don’t particularly want to look like the guys curling the 100+ weights, I just want to stay in shape since I don’t really play many sports anymore.
So, it seems a gym membership is in order. Do they usually have any free trial periods or stuff like that? How do I know if it’s a “good” gym or a “bad” gym? What is important to look for?
Also, are Nautilus just as good as free weights? I remember finding the free weights to be a lot harder than the Nautilus since I had to actively maintain the balance of the weights instead of having them held in place for me. Since I’ll be going by myself, I guess Nautilus is the safer route, but I’m curious anyway.
I’ll leave the rest of the post up to the experts, but I find nautilus much easier to use than free weights. I DO use dumbells, but mostly I use the machines. It is easier for me to keep a proper form when I have guidelines. YMMV, though, so give free weights a try as well.
Sounds like you’re pretty new to this. Here’s a pretty good intro to the wonderful world of weight-lifting:
http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html
Ignore all the girly stuff, but otherwise read it back to front. Pick one of the full body beginner routines, read up on how to do the lifts themselves. Do that routine 3 times a week (with at least one rest day between each session), while eating enough protein, and you’ll be golden. When in doubt, come back and pick our brains.
Krista includes tips for affordable home gym equipment, too. Even without getting freaky and inventive, you can usually find an olympic bar, a bench or two and cheap plates at garage sales or in local classifieds. For some reason, people don’t like lugging that sort of stuff around when they move. 
Personally, I have a membership to the Y–I don’t really have much space in my apartment for weights, and even if I did, I find it a little easier to exercise when I don’t have all those distractions nearby.
I like having a membership because if I go to a place that’s dedicated to lifting, I won’t goof off, watch TV or fall for any of the other distractions of home.
I’d recommend a short term membership at first. The first place you try might turn out to be full of jerks. Of the two “good” gyms in my town, one is full of assholes and the other mostly filled with OK folks.
What makes a “Good” gym? One where people are there to work out, not so that they can socialize, troll for dates, or say, “I go to the gym every day.” Now, you’ll have folks like that wherever you go, but there are much fewer of them at a real gym.
Get over feeling outclassed. I’m only 5’5" and will never be like Mr. Incredible at my gym who gets entire weight sets caught in his clothes without noticing. But I’ve definately benefitted from the workouts.
Get a session or two with a trainer just to set up a routine for yourself and to learn the proper lifting techniques. Try printing out a daily checklist for your workout so that you can maintain a consistent routine.
I’m like Badbadrubberpiggy. I prefer nautilus style machines although I use free weights for a few exercises. The machines are generally safer to use, but you still have to use proper techniques to keep from hurting yourself.
IME most buffed-out bodybuilder types are nice enough folks. They don’t stomp around the gym saying “Get out of my way, pipsqueak”, or threatening bystanders like Bluto in the old Popeye cartoons.
Definitely I would join a gym. In addition to being near your home or work, check to see if they’re open early so you can work out in the morning. Working out in the morning before work really helps you to be consistant, for a couple of important reasons. First, there’s little to no risk of your being sidetract by work that early, forcing you to miss your workout. Second, you’ve got to take a shower in the morning anyway, so why not work out beforehand anyway?
Another thing to look for is whether you can rent a permanent locker. Being able to keep your gym shoes, shampoo, etc. means you have a lot less to lug around. You can even keep a couple of days’ worth of clothing to change into after working out, and then you don’t have to sort those out before leaving in the morning. All this falls under the heading of smoothing the way from any potential obstacles that might prevent you working out.
There aren’t any cheaper versions of which I’m aware.
I wouldn’t worry about being intimidated at the gym. At my gym, of the 100-150 people in the place, there are usually 2-6 really big guys lifting huge amounts of weight. Most everyone else is doing reasonable weights. Besides, if you put on some headphones, you can just ignore our, I mean their, grunts and screams.
Before you join a gym some things to consider:
-Do you have a 9-5 M-F job? If you do and you intend to workout after work or the weekends you may want to check how busy the gym is. Working out in a crowded gym is no fun.
-Even if the savings look tempting I would never sign a contract longer than a year. I just know way too many people who have quit going to their gyms and are still paying $60+ a month and will be for the next two years.
-Machines vs. freeweights. Use both. Change up often. Theres probably half a dozen shoulder exercises that can be done with free weights and half a dozen machines for shoulder exercises. You can’t do them all in one day so rotate them and vary them. I find when the gym is busy that it’s hard to get access to the free weights so I do machines on those days. On slow times I’ll hit the free weights when they’re not so busy.
Don’t just do Nautilus though. Dumbbells are beneficial exactly because they do require you to pay more attention to balance and form; by doing so you also involve a variety of smaller muscles that help the big ones do their work; these are called “stabilizer muscles” in gym parlance. That’s what people are working on when you see them on those giant balls, or working with light weights on one of those wobbly platforms.
You should, however, expect to lift a lot less in dumbells than you do on a machine. For instance, on a seated bench press machine, I can lift almost 1.5 times the amount of weight I would lift using dumbbells on a slightly inclined bench.
My job is actually part of the problem. I have an hour commute both ways, so even though it’s 9-5 (or to beat traffic, I’ll do 8-4 sometimes), it’s hard to go in the morning and after work is my running days. Now that I think about it, though, somebody said to take a day rest. Would a day rest spent running still count as rest?
And $60 a month? How much are gyms anyway?
I pay $32 a month at the YMCA but I think I get a discount for being in college.
I pay less than $30 a month but that’s because of a long term membership. I know one place that asked for $50 a month with a minimum of 1 year. Screw that I thought.
I pay $40 for my Y membership, with no discount. It’s a good deal, imo.
If audio shops around, he could probably find a place for cheaper. Just make sure to give the fine print on the contract the hairy eyeball first before signing anything.
There’s a certain point where it becomes cheaper just to buy the damn weights yourself.
I’m not a free weights only purist, but there are some serious issues with machines that make me think that they’re generally inappropriate.
First, as you noticed, the machine does the stabilization work. That means that while you’ll get better at lifting the weight on the machine, the strength you develop there isn’t going to carry over outside of the gym as well as the strength you’d get from free weight lifting. That’s because the human body has two pretty much distinct muscular systems. One consists of the big muscles that everyone knows and loves and is used for motion. The other consists of a bunch of little muscles and is used for stabilization. Machines train the first but not the second, so while you’d get better at lifting more weight, you would not get better at controlling it.
The second and more serious issue with machines is that they allow you no freedom of movement. Here’s the problem in a nutshell:
You can read all about that here (part 2).
Oh, and there are el cheapo adjustable dumbbells out there. You do have to adjust the weights manually, but if that’s too much effort, I gotta wonder what exactly you’re hoping to get out of this.
I have no Y, sadly. At $30-60 a month, though, that weight system Lord Ashtar linked to is looking better and better. It may be more up front, but cheaper in the long run. Can I get the same kind of workout I’d get in a gym from weights at home?