What is everyone's favorite and least favorite thing to do when you strength train? Me personally, I love Love LOVE to do leg presses. My least favorite would have to be leg extensions.

Anyone else?

Hi Libby,

My favorite upper body exercise is probably the dumbell fly. I get such a great stretch in the chest area from it and I can BREATHE..... It's kind of like a relaxation set within my routine without taking a real break.

My least favorite is the dumbell bent over row. The position just feels awkward and I'm always trying to check to make sure my back is flat. I had been instructed to "look up" while I'm doing this exercise. This places me in the uncomfortable situation of possibly making eye contact with whoever is using the equipment that is right in front of me as I squint, grunt and struggle through my last four reps. Not so nice...But I still do them.

Favourites: I have lots... squats, lunges, walking lunges, one legged squats, anything done with a Bosu ball...

Least Favourites: push ups, because I can't do a lot of them, suprisingly... and unassisted pull-ups because I can't do them at all

Lat row...with really heavy weight...feels good on my back and tricep dips...least favorite...squats with overhead press...they are boring...and dont feel bad Ilene...I cant do a pull up either...cant seem to lift my own rear end with my arm strength....

I can't remember the name of the thing I like, but I lie flat on my back on a bench (or bridge myself on one of the balls), hold my arms together straight up (holding a weight in my hands), slowly lower my arms over my head, and then slowly bring them back up. I like it because it really stretches out my stomach muscles, which feels good.

As for what I hate the most, my trainer has had me do a reverse fly in a push-up position (only one arm at a time, obviously), usually with my feet elevated. It is so f-ing hard it isn't even funny. It's the only exercise he's asked me to do where I just flat out told him I couldn't do it and made him give me a lower weight. Even with the lower weight, I could hardly do any at all.

There are also a lot of torturous exercises on the Roman chair (sometimes call the captain's chair) that I really have a hard time with.

- Barbara

my fave: walking lunges- the motion of walking makes boring old lunges fun somehow.

least fave: most ab work but especially the pilates "hundred". Which is why it's the very first exercise I do.

I love leg presses though my knee is not loving them lately.

The first leg press I ever did was on an old Universal set. I went to a gym that had all the nautilus and good equipment on the co-ed side but had a few small rooms for women only and they had "old" equipment in there but it was great stuff...the old roman chairs and the multistation universal...well the leg press was cool too....it was a board that you basically shimmied under and the weight stack was to the side with pins so you could change the weights. You were on your back on the floor and you pressed the board up. It was the best leg press I've ever used and I have searched this country...literally...for one. Eventually they redid the gym and got rid of all that equipment...I wish I had bought it.

Anyway, I still love leg presses more than anything. I hate tricep curls because I never feel like I "get" the right position of the chair or whatever. I just feel like a big idiot with tricep curls.

I like dumbbell plies the best and I always think of Mel perched on 2 elevations when she does them and think, "someday." I'm happy just trying for now to get to a 90 degree bend. My least favorite was the overhead db raise (the one described above I think), but now that Meg told me I can lie all the way on the bench and stop playing twister, I might like it more! So that would leave lunges as my least favorite, they are knee wreckers for me, and so until I drop more weight, that's off my list.

I'll second the lat pulldowns! They just make me feel so dang good, and really make me thing about my posture. And surprisingly, I like the dumbbell bent over rows!

Don't like: push-ups, can't do them either! And I'm so not fond of ab work. One thing I like about taking classes, is doing ab work with everyone else and music, and in one class with the lights out!

Me too on the leg presses-even before I started weight training I've always had strong legs, so they feel great and I don't feel like such a wimp.
I DO however feel like a wimp doing the machine that works shoulders/obliques-my upper body is seriously weak! A pullup? I'd give myself a hernia if I dared even try!

I like all leg workouts but gosh those front dumbbell raises ouch but I need it
badly.

I am not a fan of reverse crunches and don't think my form is great on them.

Like chest press, should work, things with a body bar for resistance.

Hmmmm hands down my least fav is bicep curls with dumbells - my wrists hate them.

FAV is a tie between the calf press and the tricep press. Before I took my 9 month hiatus from good common sense, I also loved straight leg dead lifts, but the back is too weak for that right now and the booty is too wide. I might scare someone.

Tiki.