Hi,

I have been lurking around this section of 3FC lately. I want to start doing more strength training, but I need some advice. For now, I'll have to do this at home instead of in a gym.

I have been doing some videos by Cathe Friedrich. Can anyone comment on whether she is generally a good video instructor?

I feel more comfortable having something to read to refer back to. Can anyone recommend a good book on this topic? I have seen the original BFL, BFL for Women, and weight lifting for dummies, Muscle Mechanics books. Any comments on any of these or others I should look at?

Hi TammY! Good to see you round this way!

I am a fan of BFL-Women, but also like the series of the Body Sculpting Bible and the Building her body Perfect title. I started out on a weight machine at home but then switched to all free weights on the advice of these folks, and have REALLY seen a big difference! I think you can go pretty far with a home workout and some dumbbells w/o having to go to a gym. Just have to find a routine that you feel comfortable with, and then take the plunge. It's fun getting started, and you just have to know that it's ok to feel a little overwhelmed at first.

Does Krista Smash still have that "All Dumbells All the Time" workout on her site?
www.stumptuous.com

Thanks Fran for suggesting those titles. I'm going to check and see if the library has them. It is overwhelming right now. I thought I had read that you did your workouts at home. That makes me feel better. Right now, I can't work out the logistics of getting to a gym.

Susan, Thanks for the stumptuous link. I have browsed around there before. The only problem is that when I try to do the workout, I have to see the pictures and read the instructions, or I find that I'm doing it wrong. I may need to print out some of the pages from her website.

Any other suggestions are certainly welcome!

I print stuff out or try it right here ... hey, I look goofy but form is sooo important!

What about the Body Sculpting Bible for Women by James Villepigue and Hugo Rivera.

Or Tammy? Have you surfed the DVD and Videos threads?

Hi Tammy

All of the books that Fran and SusanB suggested are great. I've read and referred to them too. I think a home gym can be just as effective as going into a club as well. Really, all I need is a bench, and four or five sets of dumbells right now and I'm good. You might want a full length mirror too and a piece of cardio equipment. If the weather is nice you have the great outdoors instead.

Good luck with all of the reading. It can seem overwhelming. Just start out with one movement or two for each muscle group. Perfect the exercise and then choose another exercise to alter your routine. After a while you will have some favorites that you will always want to do and some that you know you need to work on to improve.

Weight training really is a fun activity to incorporate into your exercise program. While it may seem like there is just so many different exercises to choose from, the exercises will become familiar to you after you read it again and again in different areas such as books, websites, forum postings. Like everything else it just takes a little research and some practice in application. Then, its all good!

Oh, real quick I also wanted to add another website that has great information on different exercises as well as demos. www.trainwithmeonline. I really like this site for new info as well as ideas for the exercise ball. I wasn't a big fan of the ball in the beginning, but I'm learning.

Hi Tammy,

I don't belong to a gym and do all my weight work at home. There are lots of tips for this type of workout in the 3FC archives. Here are some other sites that I've learned about from people here that have helped me a lot. There are even workouts described on some of these sites (Dave Draper's is great) for people who don't want to work out at a gym:

w3 spark people dot com (spark people is one word)
w3 exrx dot net
w3 collagevideo dot com
skwigg dot com ( no w3 at the front)
w3 davedraper dot com

I found out about a great magazine from Meg and/or Mel called Oxygen. It's a great fitness mag that has interesting workouts every month. The current one has a routine you can do at home although it's too advanced for me.

Beth

Thanks for all of the encouragement, ladies!

My library didn't have any of the books listed, so I'm hoping to make it to town this weekend to the bookstore to choose a book to start off with. I'm such a "book" learner that I really feel like I have to have someone lay it out in book format for me before I can grasp it. Had to do it with the food part too when I first started.

Lydia, I loved the website you suggested. It made it seem very do-able. I hadn't thought about needing a full length mirror, but that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the tip.

Cinnamon girl, Thanks for the links! I've visited some of them before, but will be looking over them all in the next few weeks. There is so much information out there. I'd like to see that magazine when I go to the bookstore too. Hopefully they will have it.

Have a great night.