I am just getting started on my weight loss plan and I am trying to incorporate strength training with cardio, I know I need the cardio to lose body fat, I particularly hate my back. Rolls. Need I say more? Any at home sort of exercises I can do to start toning this up??? I have resistance bands and a few small dumbbells...

Thanks


*10/17/2009...Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the great advice!

Hi! I am actually heading to the store in a few to buy a few smaller dumbbells so I cant start toning at home some! =)

This is a website with quite a few pictures of exercises you can do at home! exercise.about.com/cs/exerciseworkouts/l/bltotalworkout.htm

I was going to look at some of the videos while at the store too because I saw one the other day that looked pretty promising. But theres lots of free stuff online if you google! =)

Good luck!

I like Jillian Michaels DVDs. They kill you. She uses weights with cardio.

I watched one of Jillian Michaels exercise routines on demand and holy crap! Haha, she'll kick your butt!! But toning with cardio is really good, especially if you don't want to bulk up. And that's exactly what her videos do!

Walk!!!

Excercise doesn't need to punish you! You just need to keep active!

Don't work so hard you burn yourself out! That doesn't help you.
Whatever you do, make sure it is something you can do consistently. It doesn't hurt if you actually enjoy what you're doing, either!

You are learning to treat your body respectfully when it comes to feeding it: please do the same when it comes to exercise.

Me too. The workouts I do, some are Jillian's, all incorporate cardio/weight intervals which I am loving

Count me as another vote for Jillian. Since you are just starting you could get her beginning DVDs. We are the same height and I started at the weight you are starting at. Her beginner DVDs were hard for me, but not so hard I couldn't do them. There are some of the exercises on them that are still quite tough for me, but it is a pleasant challenging kind of tough and not an omg I'm gonna die before I can ever do this kind of tough.

My first Jillian DVD: Biggest Loser workout. Not the best editing job ever, but a GREAT workout for my beginning level. And Bob and whats-her-face are on there too. It builds up over weeks. Hard and fun!

Well here is my advice... I'm not a brave soul, I was/am fat and out of shape... I couldn't start out with something I knew I couldn't physically do. I started out with a bunch of Walk Away the Pounds videos, I got some from my mom who is the worlds biggest exercise drop out, and I bought some dirt cheap off of ebay. They work, I see results and I dont' have to kill myself to get there.

I also like the good old Richard Simmons Sweatin to the Oldies, it's definately a challenge for me at times, but I just do the best I can.

For some people a gym membership is out of the question so look for alternitives at home. We hunted yard sales all summer long and have built up a small home gym. Hubby has a weight bench and lots of free weights now, I have or maybe I should say we have because he uses it too... an all in one home gym, you know the kind of thing with all different machines in one and you can adjust the weight on it. We are still looking for a treadmill and an eliptical but nothing beats getting out and going for a walk.

As far as how I "train", I try to do cardio for at least a half hour every day.. but I built up to that, starting at 15 minutes every other day then going to 15 minutes a day to 30m one day and 15 the next. I do weight training twice a week right now because the gym stuff is at the house we are buying and not at the one we are living in, but soon I will do that 3 times a week.

Sorry I wrote a novel, but hope it helps some. Good luck and have fun, if you have fun with it you will be more likely to stick with it.

An overall weight training program will help you. You don't need a lot of weights and can even use resistance bands for a lot of stuff. Body weight exercises such as pushups (you can modify), squats, lunges, etc are great.

I'd recommend reading over Stumptuous which has a lot of good info:
http://www.stumptuous.com/

Also, Body for Life and the New Rules of Lifting for Women are 2 really good books you can check out from the library and really they require some weights but it is pretty basic.

I'd recommend the Biggest Loser Power Sculpt DVD, if you can get your hands on it. It's a good intro to basic strength training, and the fact that you can add on segments in 10 minute increments as the basic workout gets easy is really nice. Of course you can always push your weights up too when things get too easy.

Findingfawn: If you are looking for things like ellipticals watch wal-mart and places like that too. I got my elliptical at wal-mart for $70 because they were replacing that model with a slightly updated one (I don't need all the fancy stuff) and I bought the "floor model". At my wal-mart the floor model is not like buying the floor model in some places, they keep them up on a high platform about 4 feet off the ground so that there aren't people on them all day playing with them. The only things wrong were that it was dusty and it had no manual (it's not that hard to figure out the simpler machines and this one is one of those). So I got a perfectly good machine for about 1/4 price and since it was the floor model it was even pre-assembled. I saw a treadmill on sale for similar reasons recently for $125, unfortunately we do not currently have room for both an elliptical and a treadmill. Don't forget things like craigslist too.