Fast exercise for weight loss at home using equipment

Usually clients of mine are most interested in two things... the first is weight loss, the second is tightening the muscles after weight loss.   So what is the best way to tighten and tone your body after weight loss, and are there exercises that you can do that accomplish both these goals at the same time?

YES absolutely there are more efficient ways of toning and tightening muscles while losing extra weight you'd rather you didn't have.   While you may feel that merely keeping a cardio program  (walking, running, treadmill type of activity) you will be able to perhaps lose the weight you wish to, but you are missing the essential component of resistance training that helps to develop the lean and strong shapely muscles that look and feel great.   

HOW CAN I GET THE RESISTANCE EXERCISE?

There are onbly so many ways to really strengthen and tone all the bodies muscles, and they all have to deal with some type of weight resistance or pushing/pulling and pressing a weight to create resistance, or what is preferred by trainers and most athletes these days, using your own bodyweight as resistance and leverage it against a bar or bands, or as is the case with TRX and their suspension training techniques, pivoting against a leverage point to only use your own bodyweight to do full body exercising.  

Is there any doubt that weight loss and muscle toning can be accomplished by bodyweight based exercise?  We need only to look at the ultra fit refinement and development of gymnasts and athletes that train with this methodology, and the offer some of the most fit, strong and lean body development  of anyone.  

It's odd that the best exercises are often overlooked in the arena of bodyweight training.  Pull ups of all sorts, provide exceptional exercise and strength results, which inevitably yield amazing upper body development and lean muscle, but few people can do even one pull up with their own bodyweight and that is why there are some awesome options available these days with products such as the speedfit gyms offered by SoloStrength Lifestyle Products.   These products offer a beautifully designed home and studio gym equipment, with a frame and base mat with a easy to adjust bar that you can set in different vertical heights, to play with for full body exercises that can be done by all strength and fitness levels.  A very user friendly home gym system that is fast and simple to use, and can start you off as a beginner with weight you want to lose, and build your strength while very efficiently losing weight, and toning your muscles at the same time.  You can progress the challenges of your programs so that you can continue to do more difficult exercises as you improve and keep your body strength improving and keeping your body toned and lean after losing the desired weight.

We are going to be doing some videos on our experience with the solostrength home and studio gym systems soon, and I'll be offering them to my clients as well.  I think it's an awesome home gym system solution and would be what I recommend to anyone looking to both lose weight and tone their muscles at the same time from home.

HOW TO DO ABS EXERCISES WITH A PULL UP BAR

Last post I wrote about why pull up exercises are important for fitness, and the equipment that is available today to help people learn how to build progressive strength do a full body pull up and include it in part of their regular exercise workouts.  Today's post will cover how to use a pull up bar for doing a variety of abdominal exercises, and bring out the abs we all like to see on ourselves as a sign of strength, fitness and power.

The classic abs exercise with a pull up bar involves holding the bar and hanging our legs straight down or knees bent.   In a slow and controlled movement, tighten the core muscles, and slowly raise the legs up, into a vertical crunch position.   I'd suggest starting with knees bent, and tucking the bent knees to the chest.  Displayed below is a straight leg lift, with full range taking the legs to the bar above.  For some of you ,this will be something to work towards, both for strength, and flexibility.

One of the way that we can demonstrate the total body exercise value of a pull up bar, is showing one of the main questions people have in their fitness quest...how to get abs using a pull up bar for exercise?  I found an article on ehow that demonstrates some of the basic, and some advanced exercises that use a fixed pull up bar.

Again I will mention that I like to address the progressive aspects of fitness.  Not just showing how someone who is already fit and strong, but for those of you that might be out of shape, not feeling strong, or lack the conditioning to accomplish these exercises.  Have faith that  we all can build up the strength to achieve our 10 pull up full bodyweight goals, and the way to get there, is with a progressive approach, starting where we can, and gently building up our strength and challenge until we reach our goals.

Looking above, some of us will struggle to even have the strength to be able to hold ourselves onto the bar without letting go, let along lifting our legs up.  So where can we start?

Again I'll reference one of my favourite pieces of equipment the solostrength speedfit systems.  These adjustable bodyweight chin up bars, are actually great for all essential exercise movements, but let me focus for now on how they can be used for progressive bodyweight exercise to build up your strength from where you are now, to the point of being able to accomplish these very effective abs exercises you see demonstrated above.

First, whether you are using a solostrength system as I'd recommend (safety, stable, speed, versatility it's really ideal for home or professional studio gyms and they offer a door frame mounted  pull up bar model now too), you can find Smith press machines or squat racks in commercial gyms that you can set a bar height that will work for your for these exercises also, and begin progressive movements to build up your chin up strength.

To build up your pull up strength to start, do self spotted pull ups, using your legs to spot your movements as you pull your body up.  Close grip, wide grip, practise and play with all types for strengthening and toning your entire back, arms, shoulders and abs.   As your pull up strength improves, you can progress by increasing the bar height.  I haven't found any photos of reverse leg lifts you can do on your back , but found a video here that demonstrates, it, along with the progressive movements for pull ups as well.



Let me know how you are doing , and good luck on your way to total body fitness and mastering your pull up goals!