Good afternoon chickadees!

I'm having some trouble with time management, and need some advice on exercising at home. I belong to Planet Fitness, but with my crazy schedule I don't get out of work early enough to go there afterward =/ I used Leslie Sansone's WATP for years, but I only have the VHS tapes that I purchased 6 years ago and my VCR recently crapped out on me For those of you working out at home, what is your routine and what equipment (hand weights, balancing ball, etc.) did you invest in? I'm in pretty decent shape for my size, my only problem is I'm "well-endowed" in the chest area and the Enell bra I purchased was too big so I had to mail it back..jumping jacks are out of the question for now!

Thanks in advance! Hope your weekends are going well!
-Stephy

I love the Jillian Michaels DVDs and the only things you need in order to do them are some hand weights, some resistance bands, and maybe a mat if you are going to work on a hard floor. There are some jumping jacks in there, but as Jillian says you can sub another form of cardio in their place if you need to. I also have an elliptical which I got a really good deal on after they had already had a clearance sale on that model and only had the floor model left. If you are wanting to build up a collection of DVDs and/or equipment, don't forget to keep an eye on craig's list.

Public libraries often have a decent selection of fitness DVDs that you can borrow. I love this option because I can try out DVDs before actually buying them, and while you only get them for a few weeks, it gives you a chance to mix up your routine with different DVDs. If your local library doesn't have much, you may also check their computers because they can often pull from other branches or even other library systems.

If you belong to netflix you can get fitness dvds from them also

I second the Biggest Loser and Jillian Michaels work outs. Holy Cow! They will kick your butt!!

If you have Time Warner Cable (and some other cable companies with On Demand) there is ExerciseTV On Demand - here it's channel 654 and they have tons of workouts, their brand and lots others. You can also go to ExerciseTV.tv and watch full versions of their branded workouts for free right from your computer - some are REALLY good. You can also purchase and download, but I'm all about the freebies. I only do workouts that require hand weights (I have a set of 3lbs and a set of 5lbs) and a mat. I have a stability ball but I don't care much for using it. With the OnDemand, I tend to do some of their branded workouts (tank top arms, total body pilates, etc..), some from Biggest Loser (Bob's Cardio Max), Jillian Michaels (Shred & NMTZ - although jacks are in both of those), and Kim Kardashian (I don't care for Kim, but there's a real trainer that leads the Butt one and it's a great workout). Hope that helps.

Jillian's 30 Day Shred actually made me puke once. TMI, I know, and I don't say that to scare anyone! I only mention it by way of saying 'for a 20 minute workout, it will kick your *$$' for real. I work out a lot and I'm in pretty good shape, cardiovascularly speaking, so it was a big deal that I got sick from her workout (dehydration, so it was my own fault).

Anyway, what I am trying (badly) to say is that the Biggest Loser workouts are surprisingly tough and pretty well done, and they're brief so it's not hard to fit them into any schedule. I tend to do them before work, usually 20-30 minutes early in the morning, and then I do another 45-60 minutes of cardio/strength training after work, usually spinning or circuit training. They're all available on Netflix, or if you check the library and they don't own them, be sure to ask about interlibrary loan. The library should be able to borrow them from another library system at no cost to you.

I use my Wii for most of my exercise. I have been thinking about the Jillian videos though!

Biggest Loser workouts are great and I love that they are free on my on demand.
My biggest love though is The Firm. I have the transfirmer series (blue and green box):
http://www.collagevideo.com/workout-...ies-basic-9290

Nothing melts inches off of me like the firm. It's cardio (think step aerobics, but easier to follow) and weight training.
A few years back I lost 40 lbs doing Weight Watchers. For 30 lbs I didn't drop a single size. The last 10 lbs of that I started doing the Firm and in those 10 lbs dropped 2 dress sizes in 10 workouts. Amazing. Than I got married and got pregnant and gained it all back, but that's beside the point LOL

Well, I bought the Thirty Day Shred and it really kicked my butt, even my elbows were sweating! O.O I don't really understand why I gained .4 today though, the only reason I can come up with is only getting 5 hours of sleep because my water and food were on target all day yesterday. Maybe it was from using the weights? Either way, I'm a little disappointed..but I'm trying not to focus on the number (trying being the operative word )

Off to classes for 12 hours!
-Stephy

If you are looking for something low impact, I recommend Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds. She has several DVD's at different levels. Several of them incorporate a resistance band to add strength training.

I love the Turbo Jam workouts!!! They are soooo fun and really pump you up. It tooke me a couple of weeks of doing them to get all the moves down, but talk about a really good workout! Oh, and I found them on ebay for a fraction of the cost. Also, Family Video (chain rental store) rents the workout videos for free with regular rental. Great way to try out something before you buy it.

I agree. The stuff over at Exercise TV is pretty cool. And the workouts are FREE. I just graduated from college, so its nice to have an exercise outlet that is FREE. The workouts are really tough as well. Its awesome.

I did the 30DS last night for the first time. OMG! I am sore this morning. I thought I was in pretty good shape but Jillian has kicked my butt. I have her other workouts too and will be moving on to those once I get done with 30DS.

I did Power 90 for the full 90 days before I started 30DS so I was not in bad shape to begin with. I really recommend Jillian workouts! Maybe she will get me ready for P90X...

I do the Zumba tapes, and I love love love them!

I do those for an hour T-Th-Sa, and I use the bowflex M-W-F