Hey everyone!

I hope your all having an awesome weekend.

Today my boyfriend and I joined a gym together. He already had a workout plan he followed at home, but I mentioned I wanted to start working out and a few weeks ago he said it would be nice if we joined a gym together. We went in today to check one out and we got a really good buddy plan. Where you join for $39.99 a month and you get a buddy for free. They waived the start up fee so it is $20 a month for each of use.

I used the exercise bike for 30 minutes and got in 5.5 miles. Yippie! I haven't worked out in a while.... I am hoping to work up to a good program of cardio and weight lifting. I love weight lifting actually.

Anyway- we had a nice time at the gym.

I love my DBF, he is so sweet!

man.....I need a gym that is that inexpensive. Is it a chain? We used to pay over $100 for our family membership that included tennis and raquetball.

We ended up not renewing our membership and joining a smaller gym (no tennis courts) for around half of that - but the fee to join was $250.

Sweet! I need to go ahead and use my gym membership. I need a push!

oh enjoy! i think when my membership is up i'm going to give up the gym.

I guess I should renew mine. I feel so good when I go - on the way home, I mean. I'm not sure if it's endorphins or relief that it's over.

I can't afford the gym, so I walk, just invested in ankle/wrist weights... and I'm about to dig out some of the work out videos I have that have collected dust! Next week hoping to pick one up that has 20 min work outs for the time I go back to work, as I know I'll not do an hour of the ones I have!

I have a home gym and love love love it. DH and I actually moved into the guest bedroom so I could convert the master bedroom into a workout room. I needed higher ceiling then were available in guest bedroom. In addition to my treadmill, video collection and TV/DVD I have dumbbells from 1 lb to 40 lbs, free weights and a squat rack. It takes up way to much room but boy their are so many things you can do with it. Out of all of it my favorite piece of equipment is my swiss ball.

Lorianne, I suggest you look into getting one and a book (not a video) of exercise to use it with. It's fun, makes you feel good and that adds up to actually doing the workout. If you need the names of a couple of good books let me know and I'll send you them.

I'm not Loriann but I would love some suggestions. I generally only use my ball for PT exercises.

We did the same things with our master bedroom We've got a treadmill, an elliptical which may get replaced with an exercise bike, a mini tramp, a swiss ball, a few weights, yoga stuff, and tons of DVDs. Even so I'd rather have nice weather and ride my bike!

yay tracy!! you've just inspired me to go for a run

Tracy! That's wonderful! I love going to our gym. I know for some people, having workouts at home makes them much more inspired to work out, but I find that home stuff usually gets pushed aside by all the other things I can do at home. When I walk in the door to the gym, I know I'm there to do only one thing. Plus, they have A/C and I don't, so in the summer, I'm super-motivated to go there!

Hope you enjoy the membership. And kudos to your BF for being so supportive! Working out together can be beneficial for you both!

CindiM-- I'll PM you with the names of the books that I use when I get home. I love having a home gym. I was a member of an all Women's gym for years and loved stopping on my way home from work but nothing is more fun then getting up in the morning and getting cardio in before work, in your PJ's. You feel like you just cheated.

The nice thing about the swissball, you can use the routines at home or at a gym. That is why I like the book better then a video.

A personal trainer I had for a while was going to school to become a physical therapist, he used the swissball for all kinds of stuff and he got a lot of his ideas just going to a bookstore and leafing through books. I went out and bought some of the books just so I wouldn’t forget what he taught me. There are so many pieces of equipment that can be replaced with an inexpensive swissball. You can even use it for preacher curls, back extensions, and a bench.

EofAZ,.,,. please pm me with the names of those books!!!!!! If I can use a swiss ball for a lot of things then I would love to look into it! I've always thought "what in the world would I use a ball for?": lol... guess I'm about to get my answer?

off to google it.

Sounds like you are off to a great start there! Keep it up!

Will do, mine sat unused for so long and then I spent about 3 months with that personal trainer and he just opened my eyes up on how useful they are. And they are just fun. I would much much rather do crunches off the ball then on the floor and if you sit on the ball and lean back to a 45 degree angle and hold for 15 seconds and repeat as many times as you can you will hit every muscle in your abs (believe me you WILL feel it the next day).

WARNING: My daughter was using hers to do wall squats, she was living in a mobile home at the time and couldn't find a wall that was clear of furniture and pictures so she was doing them against the back door. It hadn't latched well and opened up on her. She was so lucky she wasn't seriously hurt. So don't do squats against a door, unless it swings in and there is no danger of it swinging open.