And the funny thing is, as inaccurate as I said the analog scale was, my official digital weight is 210.0 pounds, according to the digital scale. 
However, this scale also has a digital readout where you can input your height. It lets you input a goal weight, and it calculates your percentage of body fat, and stores the last five weigh-ins along with the date and time. It’s pretty spiffy.
OK, FWIW:
Weekly weigh-in at WW, down 3lbs this week.
Strained muscle in hip has been keeping me from running but since I’m taking some time off work I have been riding my bike a lot more - anywhere from 30min to 2+ hours.
Keeping up with normal home workout; last night included 300 pushups (sets of 50) - could have done more but it was a nice round number to stop at.
Went shopping with visiting cousin from England (all my dress pants and shirts are Offically Too Baggy so off to Macy’s), she has a good eye and I will now be dressed to kill for New Year’s Eve dinner tomorrow with friends.
I’ve found that staying with my eating habits over the holidays has not been hard; all the family get-togethers have healthy food and I tread carefully where dessert is concerned.
Way to go Fish, keep it up.
Well there’s a whole slew of muscles to work on in your torso, I’d recommend finding a good weight training book which will show you all the different groups and what exercises target what muscles.
Some things to do without weights:
Pushups will work your shoulders, triceps (back of arm) and pectorals. You can vary the effects by altering your hand placement and elevating your feet. If you’re looking to really pack on slabs of muscle you may need to move to a bench press since pushups are limited to a fraction of your bodyweight. Personally I’m into lower weight and higher repetitions, it’s worked well for me.
Pullups will work your lats (the broad muscles in the back responsible for the body-builder’s “V” taper). Changing grip width and which way your hands are facing will put different loads on your back, shoulders and biceps.
Crunches for your abdominals. There are variations to stress the different groups of abdominal muscles.
My personal experience and that of my friends has been that working out will make visible changes in your upper torso (chest, back, shoulders) even if you don’t lose weight (many guys don’t seem to have a lot of excess fat up there), however especially for your abdomen if you want the results of all those crunches to be visible you’ll need to lose some belly fat, and that means diet and aerobic exercise.
Ah, I see how this could be a bit difficult dancing or running Still, I thoroughly recommend squash as a great way to get your heart rate up. What I didn’t make very clear in my post was that you need to make a distinction between exercise that makes you hot, sweat a lot and make your heart rate go up (aeorobic exercise) and stuff that focuses on muscle stress and growth like push ups/sit ups/weights etc. The former will burn calories and (if you’re eating less than you’re using up) fat, whilst the latter won’t.
A poster said further up the thread that in your timeframe it will be easier to burn off excess fat to reveal your structure better than to work on increasing your muscles, which is a much longer process. Ideally, you should be doing one at a time, as the diet required for muscle building is different to fat burning. Still, hope some of my ramblings were useful to you in your entirely right-footed state. 
Oh, and I weighed myself at the gym and I’m actually 60.9 kg now - for someone who is 5’7 that’s starting to really scrape the barrel of what is desirable. I blame the flu I had recently - a great crash weight-loss experience but not fun or particularly sustainable. 
Hey guys, I’d like to take part in this thread, but I’ve never been to a gym before and am afraid of making a total ass out of myself when it comes to the equipment. Are gym’s staff usually helpful when it comes to this, or are you on your own (if so, I’m screwed, because I’m an idiot when it comes to anything mechanical).
Also, anything else about gym life I should know? For instance, I know it’s a good idea to wipe down the machines with a towel when done - any other nuggets like that I should keep inmind?
Hey Red Barchetta - welcome to the world of keep fit (and by virtue of that to the lobby of the body fascism society 
). You haven’t said much about your physique/weight or what you’re trying to achieve so I’ll keep what I say fairly general.
I’ve been going to gyms in the UK for five years and my advice to you would be to ask up front how much time and support the staff expect to give to new members and for established members in the form of performance reviews/workout programmes before you join anywhere. Some of them will say something meaningless about giving maximum customer support whereas others will emphasise how important they take the welfare and progress of their clients - the latter would be better than the former, even if the gym itself is a little less down market. I’ve been to gyms in the US and a fairly small and clearly independently run gym I went to had some of the friendliest and most helpful staff I’ve ever encountered. If you don’t know what you’re doing this is a must to start with.
Gym etiquette is what you would expect - don’t hog machines, wipe them down if you’re sweated on them enough to make them damp, offer to alternate sets with someone if they’re waiting to use the same machine as you, smile and be friendly to people generally etc.
For the long term the best way to get the most out of your gym is to get a gym buddy (if you don’t know anyone who can become one them think about putting a notice up in your gym, assuming they allow that) - that’s one of the most effective ways to go when you don’t feel like it, and it gives you someone to train with who can spot you and encourage you.
Finally, personal trainers are a good use of money if you’re clear what you want them for (and conversely a bad use of money if you don’t). If you have some set goals then I recommend getting a trainer once you’re settled in for maybe about 4 sessions to help define what you want to achieve, how you’ll achieve it and give you some initial help doing exercises right and pushing your limits. You should probably be at a gym around 3 months before getting a trainer so you already have some idea of what you like doing and don’t like. Don’t be afraid to make your preferences clear to them i.e. if they suggest half an hour on the treadmill as part of your programme and you hate the treadmill then ask them to put on an alternative that you do like.
I think that’s most of it in terms of gyms. There are already quite a lot of posts here about diet, little lifestyle changes you can make and some good dos and don’ts. Hope this is useful to you, and good luck in your efforts.
Remember that you’re at a gym, that’s the first step to getting where you want to be. Just by being there you’re making a bigger step towards improvement than most people do.
– IG
The second step being actually returning there after you’ve initially registered (having a gym membership card in your wallet isn’t enough to make you fit, you have to actually go).
Checking in…
Bought us a treadmill for Chirstmas, since we’re entering the rainiest part of the year. May return it today for a better model. That’s OK, getting its 200+ pounds back onto the bed of my pickup will bve workout in and of itself.
Something’s been wrong with my foot for a while, so I need to to a podiatrist this week to see what’s up.
Personal trainers are also a good thing if you’re just starting to work out, because you’ll be motivated to go since you have an appointment to keep with the trainer, and because you’ll have at least one person you know at the gym. You’re much more likely to go to the gym if you know the people there so you’ve got someone to chat with – it can take a while for that to happen, but starting with a personal trainer helps.
In addition to asking the staff — remember, it’s their job to get you to keep coming back, that’s how they make money — you might also want to look here for some general tips on exercises adapted from the Dummies books. That might give you enough information on its own, but if not, you could at least sound like you know what you’re talking about when you talk to a trainer.
Avoid Bally Total Fitness at all cost, as well as any other fitness club that demands a 2-3 year membership the minute you walk in the door.
Speaking of which, what’s the usual price range for a club? I was looking at 24 Hour Fitness, but they want **$149 ** for three months. While I have little basis for comparison, that seems like an excessive amount. I know there was a club back home in the NW that charged, I believe, $10-15 per month.
So what’s the average going rate?
Damn. $149 for three months? You could buy a decent starting weight bench for that amount.
Haha, exactly. Glad to hear that I’m not out of line. I can’t understand how they got so popular though at the price…
I’m paying $31.03 Canadian a month at my fitness club. And they just renovated the place (the décor used to look like the inside of a bad 1980s science-fiction porn movie). Of course, classes and trainers and such are often extra. The only thing I really wish the club had is a pool.
Oh. Hi. I’m jumping into the gym thread.
I’ve been going off and on to the gym since last summer. (During the fall, I was working on a house-construction site during the weekends, so I got my exercise there). I have noticed a difference: I’m stronger and have more endurance.
The other thing that’s made a difference is that I’m eating about 50% better: my trainer is also a raw-foodist chef and he has introduced me to The Art Of The Smoothie. And, I’m taking a liquid vitamin supplement. This had been interesting in that it banished my drowsiness and gave me more energy. The maker claims that North Americans in general tend to be undernourished in terms of micronutrients, and that pill-form supplements often are not taken into the body efficiently.
But I want to go to the next level and lose the spare tire I’ve had since approximately 1994. I’m 176 cm (5’-9"-ish) and 90 kilos (around 200 pounds): I can definitely stand to lose some kilos.
I like how the google syndication at the bottom of this thread is asking me “hate your belly fat?” and “want to lose your belly fat?”. No, I’m sexually aroused by the idea of being obese - what do you think Sherlock? :rolleyes:
I just committed a cardinal sin and had chinese food for dinner - complete with noodles. Fuck loads of noodles.
Red Barchetta - regarding gym fees, it really does depend on where your gym is, what services it provides and the level/quality of the equipment. I belong to two gyms currently (there’s a reason for this), one of which is attached to my squash club which is part of the club’s overall membership (£33.50 a month) and the other which is a Cannons whose monthly fee is normally £70 a month (I get 6 months free membership with my health insurance and they have a pool/sauna/steam/jacuzzi, so I thought why the hell not).
The former gym is a small, grubby room with some basic weights, a tiny space to stretch/do abs and pushups etc and has machines that actually require you to heft weights onto them to increase what you’re lifting. The latter is everything you’d expect in a young professionals’ gym, complete with an indoor pool, up to the minute machines, flat screen TVs facing the aerobic machines, a massive stretch area, about 4 exercise classes a night and as many complimentary towels as you want to use whilst you’re there.
If all I wanted to do was lift dumb bells and maybe do a small amount of cardio and I don’t mind having to wait a while to use each machine because it gets crowded in the evenings, then my squash gym has everything I need. If I want to pamper myself, work out in a pleasant atmosphere on sophisticated machines that never have queues, check out young and attractive men, and also have a nice swim and jacuzzi afterwards then the latter is better. I imagine most gyms that are add ons (school/college/work gyms) would be like my squash gym, whereas most corporate “healthy living” gyms are like Cannons, it’s all about what you’re willing and able to pay for.
However you should resist any attempt to get you to sign up for a year’s membership with no ability to cancel, no matter how great the gym is (or how low the fees are). There’s just no need for that. Ever.
OK, I’m in too.
I’m at 87kg and want to be at 80 by the summer. I quit drinking alcohol completely in September and am planning on keeping that going for awhile. I’ll be starting a swimming class next week that is put on by the local triathalon group. I’ve done it before and it is a blast - 1 hour goes by like nothing. I hope to swim at least 2 mornings per week too. And like Dinsdale, I will start a morning pushup and crunch routine…tomorrow! Yeah, that’s the ticket. Probably 20 and 50 to start.
I’ll also start a low-carb diet for the next couple of months to kick-start the weight loss. Then I’ll move into a healthier eating routine of only complex carbs and eating at regular times of the day (not 1 meal at 10pm as I have been doing for months).
I’m gonna look sexy this summer, dammit! Make all the women jealous of my wife!
-Tcat