Vision 6200 HRT Elliptical Trainer

Our Elliptical Trainer is the main cardio gym equipment I use. I find compared to the bikes it lets me burn calories quicker and as I'm not a jogger it is preferable to a treadmill.

We bought ours in Australia, works fine, is fairly stable, has good programs and is quiet. The Sprint 8 program is a good 20 minute pre-set High Intensity Interval training program and it has plenty of other options. Vision Fitness has now replaced the 6200 with the X6200.

June 11th 2010 Daily Update

Came home from the office at the end of another week. I'll need to do some work this weekend to catch up on email however there will be time for exercise.

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat, Raisins, Ground Flaxseed
Lunch: Salad and tuna with balsamic vinegar
Dinner: home made Lentil soup and 2 slices of wholegrain bread
Snacks during the day were a few unsalted Almonds and dried apricots
One scoop of whey protein in a water bottle for the evening exercise

Today was predominantly a cardio/aerobic day while watching NCIS

back hyper-extensions
pathetic attempt at the hula.. have a few more bruises..
20 minutes interval training on the elliptical
30 minutes interval training on the recumbent bike
30 minutes gentle training/cool down on the elliptical
brief set of abdominal exercises
stretching calf muscles on the foam roller

582 calories burnt on the machines (8050 month to date)

Ready for a couple of big days this weekend..

June 10th 2010 Daily Update

Morning meetings so no exercise before heading into the office. Came home and did a mix of strength training and cardio.

Ab-crunches
back extensions
push ups
dumb bells for biceps, triceps etc
squats

20 minutes interval training on the elliptical
30 minutes interval training on the recumbent bike
30 minutes fast pace but low resistance on the elliptical

855 calories burnt on the machines (7468 month to date)

June 9th 2010 Daily Update and Stamina Ab/Hyper Bench update

Came home to find Amazon had delivered the Stamina Ab / Hyper Bench. Took less than an hour to assemble and seems pretty well made for the price. Did a few back hyper extensions and ab crunches and it feels good.

Today was predominantly a cardio/aerobic day

back hyper-extensions and ab crunches on the new bench
20 minutes interval training on the elliptical
30 minutes interval training on the recumbent bike
30 minutes gentle training/cool down on the elliptical

630 calories burnt on the machines (6613 month to date)

June 1st->8th 2010 Daily Update

Just started the blog so a big of catch up before moving to possibly more frequent updates. June has started off well with some form of exercise every day except the 3rd June when I had a 10 hour drive from Toronto back to home. Always good to have a break from the exercise every week or two to help the body recover so I don't mind. Summary below

1st June - 702 cals at the hotel gym
2nd June - 673 cals at the hotel gym
3rd June - 0 cals - driving home
4th June - 623 cals at home
5th June - 1029 cals at home - good session over the weekend
6th June - 1247 cals - good session over the weekend
7th June - 918 cals
8th June - 791 cals

month to date is 5983 cals.. a good start!

Bought and/or ordered a few items during the week back from Toronto.. posts to follow however as a summary:

• couple of hula hoops - large and heavy ones to help work the core and abs
  
• a foam roller from my local Sports Authority to help with stretching and massaging the muscles
  
• Perfect Push up V2 from my local sports authority... they really work!
  
• Body-Solid G4I Iso-Flex Home Gym... pretty expensive but comes highly recommended... should arrive soon
  

Stamina Ab / Hyper Bench

May 2010 was a success on the exercise front so I can treat myself to some new equipment. The hotel gym in Hilton Toronto was pretty good with a wide variety of equipment and has given me some ideas of what I want for the home gym.

I spend a lot of time sitting in a chair and have some lower back stiffness and pain so I'm looking to strengthen the back muscles. The gym had a good Hyper Extension piece of equipment that I used with good results even in the few days we were there.

My ideal selection for home would be the Body Solid 45° Hyper Extension (GHYP345)



However one of the comprises of a home gym is typically space and I don't have the room to have the number of individual pieces of equipment I'd like. After some research I settled instead on something that fulfills a number of roles.. back extensions, ab crunches and as a stable platform for using dumb bells. So welcome to the Stamina Ab / Hyper Bench courtesy of Amazon. The bench is multi-purpose, can fold away, has good reviews and is half the price.

My Approach

Losing weight comes down to simple maths.. calories burnt by the body needs to be greater than calories taken into the body.. sounds so simple!

Getting fit comes down to pushing the body, mind and spirit to exceed itself through aerobic and mental exercises... You can have a very muscled body but still be unfit...

My approach is to tackle both of these..

Increasing the calories my body burns. This will be achieved through:

• specific exercises (i.e. the gym, cycling etc!)
• considering my day-to-day life (taking stairs instead of elevators, ensuring I get off my chair in the office and stroll around every hour etc)
  
• physiological changes (increasing my muscle mass, drinking more cold water etc)

Calories being taken in. I'll moderate and be aware of the calories I put into my body (i.e. food and drink).. I won't use the word 'diet' as that has negative connotations and people may relate this to starving, giving up all the fun stuff etc... although there will be some tough decisions being made just to get me moving in the right direction quickly.

Getting fit. Through a mix of exercises that will change as I begin to expand our home gym. There are a couple of commercial gyms near me however I've decided this time around to take a different approach and set up a gym at home.. Why.... well a few reasons.

The gym is near the office, so many office people will be there... For me gymming is a personal commitment and personal time. I like the gym environment and there will be some challenges at home due to more limited equipment and the different environment. However I'd rather not be pushing myself hard in a gym and find myself surrounded by colleagues..

Our set up at home means I can watch whatever TV, movies, music I like and I can tie my regime into watching programs I enjoy rather than having to share a few TVs with many people and end up watching programs that do not encourage or motivate me.

I would like my wife to share this journey, and it will be easier for us to do this from home.

So my decisions are made.. there will need to be some additional money spent on equipment to provide me some of the tools and equipment I need, however the cost is minimal compared to the benefits... How much money does the average person spend on eating out, drinking, smoking a year... I don't know but my budget for exercising will be less than $5000.