Gyms - what do you do there?

[maz]

Id like to hear from people who actually go and use a gym what exactly they do there?
What ercises techniques/routines do you do

TIA

[BellyBelly]

Hey Maz

I have committed myself to at least 3 times a week, I generally go 3 times sometimes 4.

Two of those days I do cardio only, but have just started venturing into the weights afterwards, to do the odd machine or two that I am comfy using on my own. Once a week I have my personal trainer for 30 and do cardio - get there and do 10 mins cardio warm-up, 30 min training, 30 more cardio.

I wanted to succeed at the gym, not bomb out because it was too hard etc. So I started very gently and even though I only do one PT session a week, I noticed definition very quickly, before anything else changed.

PT obviously is weights and strengthening which I enjoy doing.

For cardio I started at 30 mins (treadmill), low incline and speed (well not low low but lower - fast walk pace) and as I felt like it was easier, I would up the ante - around once a week. So I would make the workout longer, faster, steeper incline etc. But now I have been going three months I like to have a workout where I feel like I am not going to make it, but do, and I feel bloody fantastic after. I think the slow buildup was the best thing I did though. I havent lost much weight at all, but my shape is changing and I am noticing lots more definition. Its probably muscle putting on weight, I was sedentary since I was preg with Marisa as I had back probs from the car accident. But yeah, I love going now, focus on the good feeling after and I go just before lunch, because then I feel like eating something really healthy - don't crave junk AT ALL after a workout. Been so much happier - today I had to drag my sorry arse to the gym, had a bad night and really low morning, but went to the gym anyway, to see if it would pick me up. It was brilliant. Im tired now, but not feeling depressed like this morning, which is a rarer occurrence now!

[Pandora]

I do a mix of cardio and weights I have a few months worth of training sessions written down too - I will see if I can find my training diary

[Willow]

I've been going for a few months now. I TRY to get there three times a week. I'd love to go more but with the three littlies at home and DH training 3 nights a week (he does muay thai) it's just not possible.

I started out doing cardio stuff and a bit of light weights, a routine they made up for me when I joined. I got sick of that very quickly so now I mainly do classes. Generally I do cardio on Mondays (treadmill, bike, elliptical etc) a few of the weights machines and some crunches and bridges and stuff. At the moment I'm doing PT on Mondays but have only booked 10 sessions cause that's all I can afford right now. Gotta say...not loving the PT. Not getting from it what I thought I would.

Wednesday nights I do a class - usually Fat Burner, so high cardio stuff. It's a cross between old school aerobics and step. Atm our instructor is out with an injury so we've been mixing the classes up. I've done RPM twice (cycle class) and the last two weeks I've done Cross Training class - which is kinda like a PT class, bootcamp kinda stuff. I HATE it, but it pushes me.

Saturday or Sunday mornings I do a Body Pump class. Never thought I'd do something like this but I really enjoy it.

Once my PT sessions are done I'm probably going to do Body Combat on a Monday. I'm not a fan from what I remember of doing it years ago. but need something that's going to give me a good workout.

I haven't been a member of a gym since I got married. Back then I never did classes, I always just used the cardio machines and stuff myself. Now, I can't handle that, I find it really boring and leave feeling like I've done nothing. I find doing classes and PT pushes me harder than I would push myself.

[Muffy]

I do alot on the treadmil (kills me though)
Also weights, situps and push ups...

[maz]

thank you all so so much

Kelly - what you described was the exact reason Ive wanted to do it. Im sick of feeling yucky and need to release more positive vibes from within for me bless ya cotton sox woman

Im trying to work out if I can start before im fixed or after as I have to be very careful with what kinds of exercise I do so I dont 'rip' the last few months apart.

Does anyone do any swimming at the gym?

[Phteven]

In Sydney I belonged to an aquatic center. It had an attached gym but I just used it to swim laps.
I'm much happier swimming laps than working out on the land. I usually set a time goal and do as many laps as I can in the time I have. Usually I swam for an hour but if I was pushed for time I did 30 minutes and if I had lots of time I swam 90 minutes and hit the spa for a while afterwards.

Swimming is much easier on the body than other exercises and it works most of your muscle groups as well as providing a great cardio workout.
If you swim you'll start out with the old men doing breast-stroke in the sow lane and need a break between each lap but in a month or so you'll move up a lane and reduce the amount of time you spend resting.
Keep a bottle of water at one end of the pool - lots of people seem to forget that you need to rehydrate when you swim even though you can't feel the sweat.