I was wondering what you guys thought of the total gym. When I first saw the info.mershal on TV I thought great another piece of crap. Then a friend of mine got one and I tryed it out and I knew I needed to get one. It is a very smooth and sturdy piece of equipment that folds away. I like the idea of useing your own body weight as resistance.

A friend of mine has one. I've tried it; I don't like it.

For getting in shape, theres no quick fix. Normal exersices like push ups, pull ups work just fine

However , in you want something more, then train like pro athletes do...and they don´t use any of those crap machines.

The "Total gym" works your muscles well, I tried it, however, it's too damn expensive. Some knock-offs out there might be worth looking into.

I like the idea that you can do inverted Pull-ups on the Total Gym... I was thinking of constructing a frame that you could roll a seat up and down it and put a Pull-Up bar at the top and handles at the bottom for Hand Stand Push-Ups. I have access to a welder, and I think designing this workout machine would be simple.


Just as someone else mentioned, you can get a good work out from Calisthetic exercises, such as push-ups and Hindu Squats. However, it's hard to progress with those exercises, you need more resistance, such as weights, strands/bands or increase the inversion of your body to add more body weight to a specific muscle group. You have to progress in your work out or you will actually start losing your gains and become discouraged. Calisthetic exercises are the foundation exercises to strengthen your tendons for adding more resistance. Once you start adding resistance, keep doing your calisthetic exercises regularly so you can still move your body weight in any direction, with ease.

While I'm on the subject...

Here is my work out philosophy.

1) Train with over-all body Calisthetic Exercises, they are your Foundation.

2) Next phase is to add resistance with weight lifting; but don't stop doing a simple Calisthetic routine because it will help you keep your muscle gains, flexibility, endurance and lung power. Use a Calisthetics routine as a warm-up for weight lifting.

3) Phase 3 involves Compound Weight Lifting exercises such as Power Cleans & Clean and Jerks. Add a few basic Compound Lifts with your weight lifting days.


The secret to achieving these goals is to start slowly, make sure you have a strong foundation before moving onto the next phase. For example; Do 2 sets of 8 Push-ups 3 days a week and add 1 rep every week. So, your progression schedule would look like this...

Week 1 - 2 Sets / 8 Reps of Pushups
Week 2 - 2 Sets / 9 Reps of Pushups
Week 3 - 2 Sets / 10 Reps of Pushups

You wouldn’t do just 1 exercise per work out, of course, this is just a suggestion on how to progress slowly and safely to gain small achievable goals. For my Calisthetic Work-out Routine, I do, Hindu-Squats, Hindu Push-ups, Bear Runs, Crab Walks and Back Bridging. I feel these 5 exersices work almost my entire body.

Also, keep in mind that if you don't stick to a program and you take some time off, then you must start from the beginning or lower the weight, reps, and sets. You can't expect to physically be as strong after 6 months of no training, you should start from phase 1 again.

Famous strong men from 100 yrs ago trained their bodies to perfection with small attainable goals that would keep them motivated. They NEVER trained so hard that their bodies were way too sore to get out of bed the next day, over training doesn’t help you progress at all.

Anyways, sorry for rambling, I'm just reminded of my own workout.

I'm off to my Garage Gym.


Peace!


Phases ®

I like your point of adding one extra each week, Phases. Indeed I do this myself, but instead add one or two or if my body can cope five extra each time I train that particular exercise, I find that I progress faster. It is quite suprising how quickly you progress. I went from doing 30 press ups at a time to doing 100 in a couple of months (This was way back when I was 15).

A suggestion I have for your routine is to do five sets instead of 2 or 3. This really helps me at the moment. The fifth set becomes mental training. What this mainly achieves is develop a higher endurence level and you know 100% that the weights or reps you do is easy for your body.

Question everything, Know nothing.

As far as I'm aware of, body weight exercises like pushups and situps develop muscular endurance.

If you want REAL strength, you need to use progressive resistance. That means adding weight on, at a progressive rate.

Since I'm more into developing strength than muscular endurance, something like the "total gym" doesn't interest me. I'm more into the good 'ol barbell and bench. The only body weight exercise I do is pullups (my favourite body weight exercise), however I add weight when I do them so it's not really body weight exercising.

---------------
jiyasa
naz
http://nazforum.vze.com
http://nazworkshop.vze.com

Hello again; One of the really good benefits of the total gym is it's a great way to not lift to heavy for injured body parts, and you will never really lose that much strength as long as you continue lifting in some capacity. I can see why people are skeptical though as I was too. Just don't let being cheap cloud your judgement.

You can find these at a garage sale or second hand store for as little as $50, so price shouldn't be a major concern.

I have had mine for almost four years now, and still use it 2-3 times per week. There are some unique things you can do things on it that you can't do at even the best equipped gym, but the coolest thing about it is how it folds up and takes almost no space.

If anything ever happened to mine, I would buy another one, without hesitation.

-Lawrence

The total gym is great.

Id rather have the Bow-Flex

Phases ®

I hear the bowflex is expensive. Really expensive.

I have a bowflex and I really don't think it works. I can bench press 310 pounds on the bowflex about 8 times, while on a regular bench and bar bell I max out at 240. So either the bowflex doesn't offer the resistance it says it does, or else free weights have some extreme effect on my mental state.