Gym Equipment

[SAS]

Stuck between two pieces of equipment. I know it's a long shot as I doubt many of you go to a Gym, but might know someone who does

1) Bike, with moveable handle bars. Works upper / Lower body

2) Elliptical Walker. Suppose to work whole body and combines actions of jogging, cycling, stair climbing, and skiing?


Question is how good are elliptical walkers? And is it better to get the bike instead?

Before anyone says it, I have a real bike, but with the shit weather don't have a chance to use it much :|

 

[Embattle]

Elliptical Walkers often require a lot of concentration to get the maximum benefit out of but then you tend to lose focus on breathing etc, they're a nice idea but don't tend to work that well.

Get the bike then do push ups for your chest, tricep dips(can be done with a chair/stairs) and a set of dumbbells.....TUG and TDC should prove useful here

 

[Perplex]

Bikes are pretty much shite. I bike to and from the gym daily, and I use that as my warm up and warm down sessions.

X-Trainers (eliptical walkers) are by far the best all-rounder int he gym, with the possible exception of running (treadmill) with weighted arms.

I basically now work a 30 min x-trainer session a day at the start of my session, on about 85% resitance. Equates to about 1500 calories burned an hour, and it helps to tone upper body if that's what you need.

Truth be known however, you need to vary your workout. I use the x-trainer daily, but I pick one other peice of cardio equip. daily too. Rowing, bikes, stepper, treadmill etc. Adds some variety

 

[Embattle]

Bikes are fine but you have to push yourself real hard

Its much better to use a bike, rower, treadmill and then after one of them work the individual parts of your body.

I only ever used an x-trainer as a muscle warmup

 

[Perplex]

X-trainers are the best all round cardio workout. Bikes are shite. Trust me, I know. And aye, obviously warm up before you're off bulking Problem is my average daily gym session is approaching 2.5 hours now which is a total arse. 60mins cardio, 45 - 60 mins weights, 30 mins sauna + turk steam room + spa.

 

[Embattle]

So do I thanks Perplex

Thats way too long, the boss of the gym I used to go to always said to me that I never needed to spend much more than 1 hour working out.

10 minute warm up then 40 mins weights and then a 10 min cool down. Although I did different parts of my body on different days and mixed this up with pyramid based weight training.

 

[SAS]

2.5 hours !

So far I have/do:

- dumbells (for building up muscle on arms + shoulder areas).
- rowing machine for the heart, circulation, and general toning?
- Stomach crunches + situps (might increase the number I do).

The bike / walker will be for general toning involving the legs, so from what you say perplex I'll probably go for one of those .

Swapping between the walker + rowing each day and with teh weights should be good for a all round work out in the week.

 

[~Lazarus~]

One of the best gym workouts I did was the Circuit 2000

If you select the right excercises it should do EVERYTHING for you.

e.g.

20 situps
20 bench presses
20 crunches

and so on

Add up all the reps and your circuit finishes when you get to 2000

I always find it better to use loose weights - hate machines

 

[Embattle]

Smith machines are very good as they keep you stable when doing squats, bench press, forcep extensions etc.

 

[Perplex]

well, free-weights are much better for you anyway. Machines have a limited range of motion, and hence target very specific muscles and little else.

Free-weights however also excercise your stabiliser muscles (the muscles you use to keep your arm in one place and not falling off side to side for example. Your balance muscles) and hence is a much better muscular workout.

 

[Embattle]

Smith machines also allow you a certain level of safety as you can bring special lock out bars up.

 

[SAS]

Perplex you want to be my personal trainer? Sort me out a workout session?

 

[Embattle]

We might get Wij to sort you out, he has a different workout for you

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by Perplex
Problem is my average daily gym session is approaching 2.5 hours now which is a total arse.

WOW !

You must really need it !!!!!

 

[Perplex]

Originally posted by Embattle
Thats way too long, the boss of the gym I used to go to always said to me that I never needed to spend much more than 1 hour working out.

10 minute warm up then 40 mins weights and then a 10 min cool down. Although I did different parts of my body on different days and mixed this up with pyramid based weight training.

Nah, 2.5 hours for me is fine physically tbh, it's just a big chunk of my day gone that causes the irritation. I never ache post workout, I give muscle groups up to 3 days to recover, and I never get bored at the gym (the other major concern of long work out regimes) due to the lovely eye-candy (usually in C to D cup flavours )

I need to do a lot of cardio work for my CV fitness, and I also have a rotating muscle workout which I have to do due to endorphine addiction (switches daily between back/glutes - arms/shoulders - chest/obs/abs)

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Perplex


Nah, 2.5 hours for me is fine physically tbh, it's just a big chunk of my day gone that causes the irritation. I never ache post workout, I give muscle groups up to 3 days to recover, and I never get bored at the gym (the other major concern of long work out regimes) due to the lovely eye-candy (usually in C to D cup flavours )

So can I but as the boss said it does nothing for me since my body just tends to suck it up, he said I personally get more benefit from a shorter workout but a lot harder rapid type program. Then again the important thing to realise is that there are people who require longer workouts, or spend more time watching the eye-candy when they should be working out

Cardio wise I was always alright since I cycled every where often clocking up 40 miles a week

 

[Perplex]

Originally posted by SAS
Perplex you want to be my personal trainer? Sort me out a workout session?

It'd be my pleasure, but there's actually someone on IRC who would be much more suitable Pop into q2.uk and have a chat with hexa

 

[Perplex]

Originally posted by Embattle

Then again the important thing to realise is that there are people who require longer workouts, or spend more time watching the eye-candy when they should be working out

Cardio wise I was always alright since I cycled every where often clocking up 40 miles a week

lol, we all work differently otherwise we'd all be similar which would become incredibly boring and hey, don't play the innocent with me Mr.Emb. I know you oggle

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Perplex


lol, we all work differently otherwise we'd all be similar which would become incredibly boring and hey, don't play the innocent with me Mr.Emb. I know you oggle

FFS I hope we aren't all the same, couldn't deal with another one of you

Erm.....well my work out partner for some time was a New Zealand woman who was working at the club

PS she was over 6" and had blonde hair

 

[SAS]

Erm.....well my work out partner for some time was a New Zealand woman who was working at the club

lucky bastard

 

[Will]

Gyms bore me. Take up a proper sport, like rock climbing - works for me, and gets you out and about.

Plus, you can say 'Gnarly, dude' when you fall off

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by ItchyTrigaFinga
Gyms bore me. Take up a proper sport, like rock climbing - works for me, and gets you out and about.

Plus, you can say 'Gnarly, dude' when you fall off

my thoughts exactly
I've got a good bike too [imo] and I use it regardless of the weather, clocking ~100 miles per week.
Only time I go indoors is when it's snowing

 

[DAN200]

uh.. i rarely leave the house.

 

[old.Kez]

Originally posted by ItchyTrigaFinga
Plus, you can say 'Gnarly, dude' when you fall off

Really? I think I'd be too busy shouting "shit fuck I'm dead" - Each to their own I suppose.

Incidently (as I can't be arsed to look) someone tell me how much I should be looking at (price wise, obv.) for a decent set of weighty bell thingies (I'm not really awake, leave it) considering I already do pressups & situps daily (namely because I appear to have a beer gut that no-one else can see, heh)

 

[old.^S0LIDUS^]

Originally posted by SAS
Question is how good are elliptical walkers? And is it better to get the bike instead?

Bikes are useless, the rowing machines are better, and they work almost every muscle on your body whilst improving stamina. At the moment, i do around 4000/5000 meters on them whenever i use it at 'Hunters' gym, and they kill you

 

[old.^S0LIDUS^]

Pics

In fact, here is the exact model i use

 

[SAS]

How many Km should someone be aiming for on a rowing machine?

Just had a look and I only do 1km :} 4 times a week (this crap?)

 

[Perplex]

Depends on your goal. CV burst fitness, muscle tone, CV endurance fitness etc

 

[Embattle]

If you feel like your working out then its fine but if your wimping out then you need to do more. Try and keep up 30+ strokes a minute.

 

[DApea!]

There's nothing wrong with spending 2.5 hours in the gym, no regular in my gym spends less than 2 hours at any time, yesterday I was in the gym for 3.5 hours (Sundays are cool), most of it is taken up by CV machines, ie, Rowing machine: 30 mins beginning, 30 mins at the end, running: 30 mins.

Thats already two hours!, then you have the stair-master (15 mins), bikes (15).

This leaves me in the end with about 45 minuites solid in the middle of those, for mulscle building.

Don't forget your energy drink, I have half a can before i start, then the other half after rowing+running, and one after i finish the whole session. (Lucazade Sport!).

My regime:
Tuesday
Thursday
Saturday (Just 2 hours in the pool, swimming)
Sunday (Longest session of the week)

I do have to take my own free-weights into the gym though, as they don't have them (Theft), although they have compensated by having nearly every machine known to man!