Weekly Challenge (Sep. 20-Sep. 26, 2010)

So how did you do making your vision board from last week's challenge? I have to admit, I haven't finished mine yet. I was a bit preoccupied worrying about my injury and the half-marathon, but I did manage to cut out a few pictures and quotes from my huge magazine collection. I hope to finish mine this next week. If any of you finished your vision board, I would LOVE to see it!

This week's challenge is going to focus on fitness again. The challenge has to do with weight-training. For a long time in my fitness journey I concentrated solely on cardio activities. I figured they gave me the best calorie-burning "bang for my buck" so I did it ALL THE TIME!! I still do a lot of cardio activities (hello, running?!?!?) because I enjoy it and it keeps my heart and mind healthy and alert. But it wasn't until I got serious about weight-training that I started to see some real changes in my body. I have more muscle definition than I ever have before and I like seeing the toned muscles starting to shine through. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely still a work in progress, but I really like the changes that have come my way both physically and mentally from the challenging work of weight lifting.

The benefits of weight-training are hard to deny...fat loss, increased energy, stronger bones, greater muscle definition, just to name a few. Of course it's a great calorie-burner too, especially the aftereffects. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn from just sitting on the couch!

So this week's challenge will have to be personal to where you are at in your weight lifting journey...for some of you, it will be to start to lift, for others it will be to lift more. But decide this week to make weight training an integral part of your workout routine. It will pay off big for you if you're consistent with it. One of the best resources that I have found for some good exercises and programs to start or continue weight-training is this book...

Image found here.

I have several books about weight-training, but this is by far my favorite. It's great for giving detailed pictures and progressions of various moves and it provides lots of different exercises for each body part. It even has some programs designed in it for you to take the guesswork out of what you should be doing. It's also nice because it has exercises you can do whether you workout at home or at a gym. I think it's definitely worth the investment to pick this book up. You can find it here for a pretty good price.

Talking Point: What do you enjoy about weight-training? What is your favorite go-to move or area you enjoy working the most?

There's no place like home

I have belonged to many commercial gyms in my life (Gold's Gym in Provo, 24 Hour Fitness in both Houston and Katy, Texas, Gold's Gym in Bryan, Texas and now Gold's Gym again in Hagerstown.) I really love belonging to a gym because they have such great equipment and I enjoy taking the variety of classes that are always offered too.

But I also really like having the ability to workout from home if the need arises. On those days when I am short on time, have a sick child, or am snowed in (like this past winter!!), I like having the ability to go down into our unfinished basement to get in a good sweat session.

Here is what our home-gym currently looks like (we have collected various fitness paraphernalia throughout the years)...

Our weight bench.

We picked this up at a yard sale this summer. It also came with 250 lbs of weights. Yard sales and Craigslist are great places to pick up inexpensive and barely-used fitness items

One of our newest purchases, a Bosu balance trainer (you can get a great stability workout with this and it helps to make traditional exercises like squats, lunges, planks and push-ups even tougher!)

Our only piece of cardio equipment so far...a stationary bike. This is usually where I warm-up and cool-down.

Our tiny TV corner. I have a few workout DVDs that I enjoy doing at times. Right now it is mostly used to play music while I workout to my own routines, but I hope to add P90X and/or Insanity to my DVD collection for this winter!!

Last but not least, our collection of weights. We have 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 lbs dumbbells,

two ab balls (8 and 10 lbs) and two kettlebells (10 and 15 lbs). We also have a stability disk, some perfect push-up stands and a pull-up bar that needs to get hung up eventually!

We also purchased some foam flooring to make the concrete a bit more comfortable to work out on. I really do love my home gym and hope to be able to add on to it soon. My goal is to be able to do personal training sessions from my own home someday. A girl can dream!!

Talking Point: What kind of equipment do you have at home to workout with? Any favorite workout DVDs?