weight training at home

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meleel
meleel Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I`ve read a lot of post on here saying how important weight lifting is for weight loss...I can`t afford a gym membership, so I`m wondering if there are any weight training exercises I can do at home and what size weights I should start with?

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  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Weight training is important to help maintain muscle while losing. Do you have have bar?
  • minties82
    minties82 Posts: 907 Member
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    I bought a basic squat rack, olympic bar and bumper plates. Works well for me.
  • jontucc
    jontucc Posts: 142 Member
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    I am doing strong lifts. Bought a squat rack, bench press, olympic bar and weight plates all second hand from eBay. As a beginner the Olympic bar is too heavy for me (20kg) for some of the exercises (bench press, overhead press) so I also use a lighter standard bar. I would suggest going to a store and seeing what's available. If you are doing a program like strong lifts the heavy weights go up quick so u want something that can accommodate that. From what I have read some of the cheaper squat racks may not be as safe for heavier weights.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Body weight exercises is a great place to start and Mark Lauren's book, You are Your Own Gym is a really great tool to use. No expensive equipment to buy and the guy knows his stuff. I bought the book for under $20 at Barnes and Noble and it's worth its weight in gold :#

    eta: he also has a book specific for women, called Body By You. It's a bit more laid back and is a great place to start if you're just getting started.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,368 Member
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    I started with a cheap 10 lb bar and about 60 lbs of plates. I didn't want to invest a whole lot of money in it if I wasn't going to stick with it.

    Less than a year later I upgraded to a 30 lb bar (couldn't find anything heavier than that locally) with 80 lbs of plates. By this time my SO had given me his old, long unused bench. And he bought me a power rack at Christmas. I picked up a set of adjustable dumbbells too.

    I keep hearing that you can find used weight sets cheaply on craigslist but I've never seen anything here other than ads from people looking for used weight sets.

    You can certainly start with a bar and a selection of plates and add to it as you go. I'd definitely recommend having a set of small (2.5 lb) plates so that you can increase in 5 lb increments if necessary.
  • Jessikin13
    Jessikin13 Posts: 52 Member
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    I bought the select tech weights. They're a little pricey but they're a great investment. And I do Chalean Extreme. I'm actually on my 6th round. It's amazing and if you don't want to buy weights you can do the whole program with resistance bands
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 647 Member
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    You can start out with an exercise band. Even 32oz bottles of water make good weights to start with. Don't overlook body resistance training like push ups.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
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    If you're brand new to resistance training. Start with body weight exercises like squats, lunges, pull-ups, pushups, planks, wall sits etc. use resistance bands to assist on pull-ups if you can't do one. Once those get too easy or boring look into investing in some dumbells, or if you can afford it, a barbell and a power rack. Once you have a power rack, barbell, and bench you'll never need to think about going to a gym.
  • LuckyMe2017
    LuckyMe2017 Posts: 454 Member
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    FMI-do Dumbbells work just as well?
  • pmg2000m
    pmg2000m Posts: 44 Member
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    I had a chronic illness & was housebound, so I was very out of shape & weak. I started out with just small dumbbells and an exercise ball. I would sit on the exercise ball and do bicep curls, should presses (overhead), lie back and do chest presses, and flyes. You can easily google dumbbell exercises for ideas. I started out with 5 pounds, and increased to 10. I suppose it would depend on how much of a beginner you are. I also did walking videos, like Leslie Sansone, to help me keep a good pace for a cardio workout. You can also watch her videos on youtube.

    This all got me ready to actually use the equipment at the gym once I felt well enough, and then I was strong enough to do it without being overwhelmed. Things like dumbbells and resistance bands are also small enough to put away into a closet if space is an issue.
  • amspmfp
    amspmfp Posts: 11 Member
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    Sarasmaintaining wrote: »
    Body weight exercises is a great place to start and Mark Lauren's book, You are Your Own Gym is a really great tool to use. No expensive equipment to buy and the guy knows his stuff. I bought the book for under $20 at Barnes and Noble and it's worth its weight in gold :#

    eta: he also has a book specific for women, called Body By You. It's a bit more laid back and is a great place to start if you're just getting started.

    Thanks for the pointer :smile: , I've a lot of weight to lose (23 lbs down, probably about 70+ more to go) and understand it will be beneficial to start resistance training . In the past , the most I ever used a gym was walking an hour on the treadmill (on the day I signed up with the gym). I never did any resistance work- and clueless how to start.
    Anyways, just got the book and app from iTunes - I like the concept so far (theoretically at this point).


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