Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with workout and home

How can I find some great exercise DVDs?

mintchip — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:57:10 -0800

How can I find some great exercise DVDs? I'd like to get some exercise and yoga DVDs for use at home. My weight is fine; I just want to tone up a lot, especially my legs. I'm picky, though. I have a bad back so I can't do crunches or pilates-type moves. As a runner, my knees are too sensitive for a lot of squat moves. I can't be jumping around a lot because the noise will disturb my neighbors. Finally, I want a challenging pace and I want to feel THE BURN the next day.

There are a million DVDs out there, and it's hard to compare one to the next. Sometimes I will read reviews on Amazon, but it is still pretty hard to tell if a particular title will appeal to you. Sometimes the description is misleading, or you buy it and realize that the instructor is annoying or the pace is too slow.

First of all, I'm looking for recommendations for specific DVDs you'd recommend. Also, for tips for HOW to find the best workout DVDs. In other words, web sites that have great summaries of different titles?

Help me work out, in.

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:35:01 -0800

How do you make a home-based workout work for you? When I go to the gym, I pretty much only use the elliptical (an adjustable incline type so I get butt-work) and a mat for crunches or leg lifts. I think when I move out of this teeny apartment, I would like to buy my own elliptical, as it would pay for itself in a few years.

What are some strategies for guaranteeing good home workouts? How do you minimize distractions, stay comfortable (I'm used to a lot of air flow, and I workout sweaty hard) or keep the honeymoon going with in-home fitness routines?

I think one thing I'd like to do is have a small tv in the same area so I can do dance video workouts there some of the time, too.

Help me design a home push/pull routine

sirion — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:27:22 -0800

Help me design a good home push-pull workout with minimal equipment. Goals: Mass and definition I'm trying to get a good weight-training workout set up in my new apartment, but have fairly limited moneys to invest in it. As such, I'm planning on getting some adjustable dumbbells, maybe a balance ball, and if I can find a used workout bench, that too (suggestions on cheap equipment appreciated).

My current push/pull is as follows: (basically all upper body, as I have shitty knees. Will be walking/biking quite a bit, so not too worried about leg atrophy) Please feel free to comment, and then help me find replacement exercises that will be effective at home.

Push (8-12 reps, 2-3 sets)
-Incline bench press (any good replacements when lacking an incline bench)
-Barbell Pull-overs (tried this with dumbbells, which works, though it's fairly taxing on the wrists)
-Assisted Dips (I guess chair dips or reverse incline bench press?)
-Fly Machine (How many variants on dumbbell flys can I do?)
-Dumbbell bench press(works fine at home)
-Dumbbell fly(works fine at home)
-Shoulder press(works fine at home)
-Side raises(works fine at home)
-Front raises (works fine at home)
-Barbell skullcrushers
-Cable pushdown
-Situps
(Anything missing from a full upper body push routine?)

Pull
-Assisted Pull-ups (how do I replace this, as I need 100 lbs of assistance to do 8-12 reps x 3)
-T-Bar Row (Replace with 1-arm row?)
-Lateral Puil-down (Still not sure what to do)
-Cable row (More 1-arm rows?)
-Reverse Fly Machine (Could use some dumbbell versions of this.)
-Reverse curls (works fine at home)
-Hammer curls (How do I better isolate my biceps? When using a bicep bench, I can only curl about half the weight, so I'm clearly using a decent amount of back in my current form)
-Back extensions

For various reasons I need to work out in my apartment

bytewrite — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:15:58 -0800

For various reasons I need to work out in my apartment… I have no real work out experience to speak of. Someone gave me an old Gazelle Glider. Is using that worth my time? I don't have any of the videos that come with it. Other than that I don’t have anything. The main goal of this exercise is to loose weight. Primarily I want to loose weight in my torso (man boobs starting to appear, stomach, love handles, also got some double chin action starting to happen). So my question is what exercises should I do to target those areas most effectively? Is there a piece(s) of equipment I should get to help with those areas? Should I buy an aerobics or other style of work out DVD?

Help me get buff without going to the gym

teem — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 05:52:40 -0800

I want to get buff. At home. I'm 20, male, and I'd like to build muscle mass (particularly upper body), but I can't afford to go to a gym. I don't mind making a few not-too-big investments to get me started -- dumbbells and the like -- but my income is a little unpredictable and I can't reliably set aside money to pay for regular gym membership. Right now I'm pretty slim, and moderately fit, so it's just about building and maintaining muscle bulk.

Any recommendations of exercises that can be done at home would be very much appreciated. I'm not trying to get huge, I'm just starting from nothing and would like to get... something. If there was one area in particular that I'd like to work on it would be turning my very rectangular torso into more of an upside-down triangle shape (lats? is that about lats?). You can probably tell that I'm a complete newbie, so I can guarantee that no tips would be considered too simplistic for me to take note of. So far all I've got is basic push ups.

Any general muscle-building advice would be great, too. I've heard things ranging from, "exercise moderately every day to maintain results" to, "leave a few days between heavy workouts to allow your muscles to repair bigger than before". What works? What doesn't?

Diet, lifestyle, and any other considerations would also be useful.

Sort of related: I've tried doing sit ups, but even a few make me feel extremely nauseous long before any fatigue or muscle tiredness sets in. Am I doing something wrong?