Best home workout equipment, activity tracker, and scale?

samuelsson

Heylo all! I have started a home workout regimen and am slowly converting my living room/sun room areas into my personal training center. This eliminates all possible excuses for not getting in at least SOME exercise every day! (No more "but it's raining outside...let's watch "Firefly"!" or "the gym is so far awaaaaaaay".)

I need your help. What are your best recommendations for home workout equipment / activity trackers / scale? I have a dual-action stationary bike, a set of dumbbells, and resistance bands. That's it.

Let the recommendations roll!

JRadd14

Do you have an exercise ball? So many things it can be used for... You can sit on it when doing upper body weight work. You can lay on it with feet down to do bench presses and flies. Various ab work can be done on the ball... AND you can use it for wall squats, etc.

jacksonpt

What are your goals? That will determine the equipment you need.

Activity trackers... do you want something for general lifestyle stuff, or for workouts/exercise? The recommendation here will largely depend on what you're doing and what you want to monitor/track.

Scale... I think most off-the-shelf consumer scales are pretty much the same. Pick one, use it exclusively and consistently. Then remember that it's not about the actual number on the scale, it's about how that number changes over time.

cadaverousbones

I had a pilates kit that came with resistance bands and weights, and an exercise ball. I would definitely get an exercise ball I also love yoga so I have 2 yoga mats and a set of yoga blocks & a handful of yoga dvds. I also have a 3lbs weighted hula hoop for exercise that I purchased from Amazon, and a mini elliptical trainer from amazon that was fairly cheap. I don't have a lot of space for the larger equipment. I also like to go out for walks/runs in the neighborhood and hikes in the foothills around town!

samuelsson

Thanks for the recommendations thus far!

Okay, so my total weight loss goal is 77 lbs. I also want to increase strength in my legs (I have bad knees) and improve muscle tone. Right now I am still on crutches following a major knee surgery, so I need to adapt exercises to accommodate my recovery for the next month. At the end of August, though, I'll be cleared for more energetic activities.

@cadaversoubon and @JRadd14: what brand of ball / other equipment do you like best?

@jacksonpt: an activity tracker for workouts/exercise. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

jacksonpt

Okay, so my total weight loss goal is 77 lbs. I also want to increase strength in my legs (I have bad knees) and improve muscle tone. Right now I am still on crutches following a major knee surgery, so I need to adapt exercises to accommodate my recovery for the next month. At the end of August, though, I'll be cleared for more energetic activities.

You already have dumbbells... so assuming they are appropriately heavy, I'd add a flat bench and start with that. At some point you may want to add a barbell, plates, and a way to use them (half rack or similar), but dumbbells and a bench is a solid starting point.

@jacksonpt: an activity tracker for workouts/exercise. Do you have any suggestions?

Not yet... what kind of exercises? For steady state cardio, I'd suggest an HRM - anything from Polar, Garmin or Suunto should be good. They aren't guaranteed accurate, but are as accurate as anything else, and probably more consistent than websites, machines, etc.

For anything other than steady state cardio, I suggest ballparking it. Something like 5 cals per minute and going from there. There's no good way to estimate things like lifting, classes, circuits, etc.

Thanks!
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AnnieMitten

I highly recommend wello.com! With Wello, you can work out with a fitness professional live over two way video. I think it provides the best home workout because you get to exercise live with a real trainer! Having a trainer exercising with you is really motivating and it keeps you accountable. Also, you don't need any equipment -- just a few feet of space. This means you don't need to transform you living room into a gym Heres a link to the website: https://www.wello.com/?main

cdahl383

1.) set of dumbbells with a decent range of weight
2.) flat bench or better yet, adjustable bench
3.) bike, treadmill, elliptical, or whatever type of cardio machine you like best

As you progress you might want to look into getting a power rack to do heavier compound lifts like deadlifts, squats, bench press, pullups, etc. Depends on budget, space, and goals.

I track my calories on a spreadsheet I made in Excel. It works for me, but isn't all that exciting. I track calories and protein each day.

I just use a basic digital scale for my weight. It's pretty consistent and I just weigh myself weekly every Saturday morning after using the bathroom and before eating/drinking.

A digital food scale is nice for measuring your food portions out as well if you really want to track your calories well. I've found that to be very helpful as well.

LukeRex2

Nice to go through this thread. I am happy to have such useful place for me.
It really good to have such suggestion. It is really helpful to developed healthy habits which may make us strong and healthy.!
I think we must use food scales on regular basis to calculate calories so that we can measure our progress.

MissGamerGirl

I hear a lot of good things about the FitBit Flex.

I use the C210k app on my phone for my runs. I also use workout DVDs, mainly just a yoga DVD and Jillian Michael's DVDs (which I use dumbbells for).

The scale I have is from Target and it's one of the Weight Watchers ones with a digital reading. It is amazingly accurate. I also have the Weight Watchers food scale to weigh my food.

janesmith1

Scale - this is going to be important. Contrary to all the good reviews of the #1 scale on amazon, (aka the Eat Smart scale), it does not take accurate digital readings. It relies on your last weight and won't move down until you've reached so many 10ths of a pound. So that one is garbage. Most of the cheap scales are just like this.

I would get a Soehnle (German designed scale) or better yet a Withings scale. Either of those two brands.

Robide

I've recently invested in a turbo trainer so I can cycle inside on my bike when the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful!

Honestly, a great bit of kit. Lets you get the best use out of your own bike, and with adjustable resistance, you can go as hard or as lightly as you like.

I also love using the fitness program on my Xbox One and Kinect when I don't get down to the gym.

Other things I have are some grips for push ups, and a pull up bar, which again gets used A LOT!

LukeRex2

I am very much curious about my health and always keep searching helpful stuff which may assist me in any way to get healthy. recently i was searching about food scales and i found something very useful here. http://www.myscalestore.com/food-scales/portion-control-scales/
I was quite happy to find that one and hoping now to have even better. If any one of you also have some better stuff then do share..!

librarydogmom

Tanita digital scale ... very nice, weighs in tenths of a pound, http://www.amazon.com/Tanita-BF679W-Scale-Monitor-Water/dp/B0009V1YPK

If you meant a food scale, then Oxo Good Grips digital is great, http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/OXO-Good-Grips-reg-11-LB-Food-Scale/120843?Keyword=Oxo+kitchen+scale