women over 40 - your at-home gear and workouts
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zebasschick
Posts: 909 Member
i'm a 66 year old female. over time, i found i preferred working out at home. since then, we've had a variety of exercise equipment come and go. right now, i get a nice workout with a semi-recumbent bike, an upright bike, our really awesome cable machine, 2 benches (a flat bench and a rep AB-4200 adjustable), some weights and barbells, and i just added a folding pilates reformer with a rebounder attachment. oh, and a walking pad with a 7% incline.
on some days, i ride the bikes for an hour.
on some days, i do deadlifts with a bar, then on the cable machine i do these: back extensions, crunches, bicep curls, tricep pressdowns, bench presses, oblique twists(weight, hip abductions, hip adductions, pullovers, pec flyes and some more tricep / chest exercises. i like variety.
on yet other days, i do a walk, a light bike ride and use the treadmill.
i'm figuring out where the reformer and rebounding will fit in here. and since i am working around long-term injuries, on an occasional day, i do arm pedaling.
it took me years to get back to this point. i used to mostly walk for exercise, then used resistance bands.
so, what fitness gear do you have and what are your at-home workouts? what works for your and what is a work i progress?
on some days, i ride the bikes for an hour.
on some days, i do deadlifts with a bar, then on the cable machine i do these: back extensions, crunches, bicep curls, tricep pressdowns, bench presses, oblique twists(weight, hip abductions, hip adductions, pullovers, pec flyes and some more tricep / chest exercises. i like variety.
on yet other days, i do a walk, a light bike ride and use the treadmill.
i'm figuring out where the reformer and rebounding will fit in here. and since i am working around long-term injuries, on an occasional day, i do arm pedaling.
it took me years to get back to this point. i used to mostly walk for exercise, then used resistance bands.
so, what fitness gear do you have and what are your at-home workouts? what works for your and what is a work i progress?
4
Replies
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Sounds like you have a nice set up and variety!
Whenever possible, I walk or hike outside. Indoor cardio is such a struggle for me. But, I keep a padded mat in my living room and march in place while watching TV randomly during the evenings and weekends.
I also have free weights and a yoga mat. I like variety, too, so I lift weights regularly and do a variety of yoga videos, too.
I'm working on doing at least a 30 minute yin yoga video every evening after my regular workout (whatever it may be that day) because stretching and flexibility is important.2 -
Sounds like you have a nice set up and variety!
Whenever possible, I walk or hike outside. Indoor cardio is such a struggle for me. But, I keep a padded mat in my living room and march in place while watching TV randomly during the evenings and weekends.
I also have free weights and a yoga mat. I like variety, too, so I lift weights regularly and do a variety of yoga videos, too.
I'm working on doing at least a 30 minute yin yoga video every evening after my regular workout (whatever it may be that day) because stretching and flexibility is important.
oddly enough, i prefer indoor cardio. go figure!
i just got a mat, but i haven't figured out what to do with it yet LOL
i totally agree - flexibility is so very important! i'm building mine back after injuries in knees, ankles and shoulders, and it's slow going, but i'm still working on it.
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I’ve got a little gym set up in my garage, with a cage (ie lifting rack), my barbells, bumper plates, some dumbbells and a few instruments of torture like the ab rollout wheel 🤣 my fave bit is probably my weightlifting platform, which I built with plywood, hardwood marine ply (on top, waxed) and gym matting. I do have a concept 2 rower but that’s in the house as I throw weights around and uh, they don’t always land where they should. So it’s safer indoors! Also have a little heater, my Bluetooth speaker and a dehumidifier to protect my bars 😀 and and some good gym flags on the walls! Here’s a little bit of my set up - it’s great when it’s lovely weather and I can have the doors open, less so when it’s cold, dark and wet.
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I'm 68. I've been regularly active for a bit over 20 years now, starting while overweight/obese. (Didn't lose weight until about 8 years ago.)
I prefer outdoor activity, mostly on-water rowing and riding my bike on the paved trails . . . but Winter weather here usually renders those unsafe. So, mostly indoors in Winter, and since the pandemic, mostly at home.
Concept 2 rower, Concept 2 bike - my most-used items, but only in Winter.
Dumbbells from very light to 35 pounds, some plates and bars, too. Couple of kettlebells, 15 & 25 pounds. Body bar (18 pounds). Miscellaneous small stuff, like resistance bands, slider disks, ab roller, grip exercisers (both directions), big exercise ball, small unweighted exercise balls (mostly for massage techniques), foam rollers, weighted exercise balls (1, 4, 12 pounds). Yoga blocks, strap and mat. Swords, staffs, and hula hoop I almost never use anymore. Cheap flat/incline bench. Doorway chin-up bar. I recently bought a good-quality suspension training rig (TRX knockoff).
Usually in Winter, I do the Concept 2 Holiday Challenge (US Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve) to shift into Winter mode, then take a laziness break for a week or two, and sometime after the holidays settle in to 6 days alternating machine bike and machine row, and ideally add some strength exercise 3 days a week.
Usually it's some simple lifts with dumbbells, but sometimes I mix in kettlebell, and I'm planning to play with the suspension trainer. I mostly focus on strength exercise that works muscle groups neglected in rowing, such as upper body push. (I've accumulated some fairly notable muscle imbalances over the years of rowing . . . .)
Sometimes I do some yoga, stretching, and/or self-massage stuff with foam rollers and massage balls. Sometimes I do a set of core exercises. Routinely, all year, I do some little exercise snacks through the day, like squat-holds while waiting for the microwave, side leg raises while grinding coffee beans, one-leg balancing while waiting in lines for (whatever), etc.
The holiday challenge is 40-45 minutes times 6 days a week. The post-holiday routine usually cuts the row/bike back to more like 30-35 minutes, but adds other workouts. Bike/row is predominantly LISS/MISS. During the challenge, since it's a volume bump from the tapered-off Fall rowing schedule, I try to stick to Z3 and below (5 zone scheme) to avoid over-fatigue. For me, that's in the vicinity of 100W average for either modality. After the holidays, I may mix in some shorter but more intense rowing/biking workouts. Usually, as I get grooved into the overall Winter post-holiday routine and am not feeling over-tired, I'll start increasing the length of LISS/MISS workouts gradually, too.
If I overcome my deep distaste for being in water, I might swim a little, but that's not at home, it's at my YMCA.
I'm kind of an exercise flake, mostly seeking things that are relatively fun. Winter isn't as fun. Getting myself to do strength exercise - which I don't enjoy doing - is always a work in progress. Ditto for making myself practice swimming, a skill an on-water rower needs. (A single rowing shell is about 12 inches (31cm) at the waterline, 26 feet long. They tip over sometimes.)3 -
I have a good, big and thick floor mat and a few kettlebells. I also have a bench and some lighter barbel stuff (lost 40kg of weights in an international move). And running shoes and a race bike. I think that's all I need.3
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I have a yoga mat, a few dumbbells (1, 3, 5, 7.5, 10, and 15s), a rebounder, and a step. I do a YouTube workout every morning. Some of my favorites are kickboxing, step, or some sort of cardio aerobics fun stuff. I usually use the weight room at work for strength, but I use my dumbbells at home for accessories or when I'm away from the weight room for a while(like holidays). I try to incorporate stretching and yoga when I have time. The rebounder I use the least, but my nephews enjoy it!2
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claireychn074 wrote: »I’ve got a little gym set up in my garage, with a cage (ie lifting rack), my barbells, bumper plates, some dumbbells and a few instruments of torture like the ab rollout wheel 🤣 my fave bit is probably my weightlifting platform, which I built with plywood, hardwood marine ply (on top, waxed) and gym matting. I do have a concept 2 rower but that’s in the house as I throw weights around and uh, they don’t always land where they should. So it’s safer indoors! Also have a little heater, my Bluetooth speaker and a dehumidifier to protect my bars 😀 and and some good gym flags on the walls! Here’s a little bit of my set up - it’s great when it’s lovely weather and I can have the doors open, less so when it’s cold, dark and wet.
that is a super nice setup! what kind of rack is it?
we don't have room for a rack, so i have one of these -
it replaced a plate loaded model i used to own, and it's smaller at only 25 inches wide. i love having a stack rather than fiddling with plates, and you can get 210 pounds out of it, not just 105, which is unusual for a unit with a 210 pound stack.
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I'm 68. I've been regularly active for a bit over 20 years now, starting while overweight/obese. (Didn't lose weight until about 8 years ago.)
I prefer outdoor activity, mostly on-water rowing and riding my bike on the paved trails . . . but Winter weather here usually renders those unsafe. So, mostly indoors in Winter, and since the pandemic, mostly at home.
Concept 2 rower, Concept 2 bike - my most-used items, but only in Winter.
Dumbbells from very light to 35 pounds, some plates and bars, too. Couple of kettlebells, 15 & 25 pounds. Body bar (18 pounds). Miscellaneous small stuff, like resistance bands, slider disks, ab roller, grip exercisers (both directions), big exercise ball, small unweighted exercise balls (mostly for massage techniques), foam rollers, weighted exercise balls (1, 4, 12 pounds). Yoga blocks, strap and mat. Swords, staffs, and hula hoop I almost never use anymore. Cheap flat/incline bench. Doorway chin-up bar. I recently bought a good-quality suspension training rig (TRX knockoff).
Usually in Winter, I do the Concept 2 Holiday Challenge (US Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve) to shift into Winter mode, then take a laziness break for a week or two, and sometime after the holidays settle in to 6 days alternating machine bike and machine row, and ideally add some strength exercise 3 days a week.
Usually it's some simple lifts with dumbbells, but sometimes I mix in kettlebell, and I'm planning to play with the suspension trainer. I mostly focus on strength exercise that works muscle groups neglected in rowing, such as upper body push. (I've accumulated some fairly notable muscle imbalances over the years of rowing . . . .)
Sometimes I do some yoga, stretching, and/or self-massage stuff with foam rollers and massage balls. Sometimes I do a set of core exercises. Routinely, all year, I do some little exercise snacks through the day, like squat-holds while waiting for the microwave, side leg raises while grinding coffee beans, one-leg balancing while waiting in lines for (whatever), etc.
The holiday challenge is 40-45 minutes times 6 days a week. The post-holiday routine usually cuts the row/bike back to more like 30-35 minutes, but adds other workouts. Bike/row is predominantly LISS/MISS. During the challenge, since it's a volume bump from the tapered-off Fall rowing schedule, I try to stick to Z3 and below (5 zone scheme) to avoid over-fatigue. For me, that's in the vicinity of 100W average for either modality. After the holidays, I may mix in some shorter but more intense rowing/biking workouts. Usually, as I get grooved into the overall Winter post-holiday routine and am not feeling over-tired, I'll start increasing the length of LISS/MISS workouts gradually, too.
If I overcome my deep distaste for being in water, I might swim a little, but that's not at home, it's at my YMCA.
I'm kind of an exercise flake, mostly seeking things that are relatively fun. Winter isn't as fun. Getting myself to do strength exercise - which I don't enjoy doing - is always a work in progress. Ditto for making myself practice swimming, a skill an on-water rower needs. (A single rowing shell is about 12 inches (31cm) at the waterline, 26 feet long. They tip over sometimes.)
when i think of you, i think of your boat rowing (does one call it a boat) and your concept 2 rower. i'm curious - do the bike and the rower work similar muscles or do you hit different groups?
why not do exercise that's fun? i love strength training, so i really want to do it, and i look forward to it. which makes it less like work and more fun.
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Yoga mat for floor work is great for over 60s.
Flexibility and core strenght can be easily worked on with just a mat zebasschick.
Some excellent instructional videos on YouTube.3 -
zebasschick wrote: »I'm 68. I've been regularly active for a bit over 20 years now, starting while overweight/obese. (Didn't lose weight until about 8 years ago.)
I prefer outdoor activity, mostly on-water rowing and riding my bike on the paved trails . . . but Winter weather here usually renders those unsafe. So, mostly indoors in Winter, and since the pandemic, mostly at home.
Concept 2 rower, Concept 2 bike - my most-used items, but only in Winter.
Dumbbells from very light to 35 pounds, some plates and bars, too. Couple of kettlebells, 15 & 25 pounds. Body bar (18 pounds). Miscellaneous small stuff, like resistance bands, slider disks, ab roller, grip exercisers (both directions), big exercise ball, small unweighted exercise balls (mostly for massage techniques), foam rollers, weighted exercise balls (1, 4, 12 pounds). Yoga blocks, strap and mat. Swords, staffs, and hula hoop I almost never use anymore. Cheap flat/incline bench. Doorway chin-up bar. I recently bought a good-quality suspension training rig (TRX knockoff).
Usually in Winter, I do the Concept 2 Holiday Challenge (US Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve) to shift into Winter mode, then take a laziness break for a week or two, and sometime after the holidays settle in to 6 days alternating machine bike and machine row, and ideally add some strength exercise 3 days a week.
Usually it's some simple lifts with dumbbells, but sometimes I mix in kettlebell, and I'm planning to play with the suspension trainer. I mostly focus on strength exercise that works muscle groups neglected in rowing, such as upper body push. (I've accumulated some fairly notable muscle imbalances over the years of rowing . . . .)
Sometimes I do some yoga, stretching, and/or self-massage stuff with foam rollers and massage balls. Sometimes I do a set of core exercises. Routinely, all year, I do some little exercise snacks through the day, like squat-holds while waiting for the microwave, side leg raises while grinding coffee beans, one-leg balancing while waiting in lines for (whatever), etc.
The holiday challenge is 40-45 minutes times 6 days a week. The post-holiday routine usually cuts the row/bike back to more like 30-35 minutes, but adds other workouts. Bike/row is predominantly LISS/MISS. During the challenge, since it's a volume bump from the tapered-off Fall rowing schedule, I try to stick to Z3 and below (5 zone scheme) to avoid over-fatigue. For me, that's in the vicinity of 100W average for either modality. After the holidays, I may mix in some shorter but more intense rowing/biking workouts. Usually, as I get grooved into the overall Winter post-holiday routine and am not feeling over-tired, I'll start increasing the length of LISS/MISS workouts gradually, too.
If I overcome my deep distaste for being in water, I might swim a little, but that's not at home, it's at my YMCA.
I'm kind of an exercise flake, mostly seeking things that are relatively fun. Winter isn't as fun. Getting myself to do strength exercise - which I don't enjoy doing - is always a work in progress. Ditto for making myself practice swimming, a skill an on-water rower needs. (A single rowing shell is about 12 inches (31cm) at the waterline, 26 feet long. They tip over sometimes.)
when i think of you, i think of your boat rowing (does one call it a boat) and your concept 2 rower. i'm curious - do the bike and the rower work similar muscles or do you hit different groups?
why not do exercise that's fun? i love strength training, so i really want to do it, and i look forward to it. which makes it less like work and more fun.
Uh oh, you asked me a rowing question. I'll try to be brief, probably fail.
Yes, we call them boats or shells, probably boats more often.
It's weird to us rowers that so many people think rowing is primarily an upper body exercise. It's not. Similar to a classic rowing machine, the boat has a sliding seat and one's feet are strapped into the boat. (Most boats have attached shoes.)
There are a couple of boat photos in the spoiler to illustrate.This is my single sitting at the dock, empty. You can see the rails/sliding seat, and the foot plate where feet strap in.
This is me sitting in bow seat of my double at the dock. You can see the seat rails under my legs, and see that this boat has shoes attached to to the boat that we put our feet in while rowing.
Both bike and rower get power from legs. For cycling, legs are most of the power. For rowing, legs are 60% or so of the power. The leg muscles used are similar, though it matters whether the cyclist uses clipped-in shoes (I don't) to use a wider range of muscles in the stroke.
Of course, both can be great for cardiovascular fitness.
In theory, rowing is a "full body exercise" that "uses 86% of the muscles in the body" . . . which is true, but misleading. Rowing is unbalanced, all lower body push and upper body pull. (I have that imbalance wired in my body at this point, after 23 years rowing lots. Not a good thing.)
There are two kinds of rowing, sculling (two oars per person) and sweep (one oar per person). Sculling is linear and right-left symmetric. Sweeping uses torso rotation, but only to one side (depending on which side the oar is on). I do both, but far more sculling.
Rowing does a good job working a lot of leg muscles in the linear push direction. (Anyone who uses the foot-straps to pull themselves up the slide is doing it wrong.
)
It also engages core and uses the power of primarily glutes and low back to swing the body open after most of the leg power is done - second greatest contribution to total power is that swing, since those are still big muscles. It's a swing from the hip joint, straight spine, core engaged - not bending the back. I feel like I've gotten some good linear core strength from that.
Last bit of power is arms and back, but keeping shoulders down, so more lats not traps. So, lats, delts, biceps, triceps.
If you think about it, the rowing motion (machine or boat) when sculling (two oars) is somewhat like a horizontal deadlift motion with some added motion at the arms end of the stroke. One is moving body weight, water resistance, and a share of the boat weight (all of it, in a single) - that's the resistance. The faster you go (technique being equal), the more power/strength is needed, so in that sense it's a slightly progressive strength challenge, but of course that develops slowly (slower than lifting, by far).
Sweep rowers get some obliques work, too - one-sided unless they're what we rowers call "bisweptual" (they can switch and row either port or starboard side on different outings).
There's just a small bit of balance/lateral core strength involved, too: The boats are skinny and tippy, especially the racing singles. It takes some core strength 360 degrees to balance the boat, somewhat similar (but different ) to balancing a bike.
Since I sadly don't enjoy lifting, I don't do much of it - to my detriment; it's not what I'd recommend at all. Most of any modest development of muscle mass I have is from the rowing, not from lifting.
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Well……I’ve got stuff at home, but am much more likely to work out in a gym setting.
My favorite thing is wierd. We ran flooring up one wall in our extra room. That means if I want to do legs up the wall, practice handstand, or do anything else that involves putting feet or hands on a wall, well, it’s flooring. No harm done. It was fantastic during the Lockdown.
I’ve got a hula hoop and a Bosu, but never use them.
Ditto for a small weight bench and an adjustable dumbell set. They’re there for the “next” lockdown, so I won’t be caught with my pants down next time.
I got a stationery bike right as lockdown ended. The guys at the shop convinced me to get a recumbent instead of a spin, and I’m so grateful they did. I enjoy it and do it a couple of times a week, when I can’t work enough classes in.
I love my cruiser bike and often ride it to the gym or grocery store.
I have four Gaiam Sol XL mats I keep in constant rotation.
Another wierd favorite is a medium height stepladder I keep in the garage. Perfect for draping and drying mats following a hot class.
And any minute now I’ve got a rebounder being delivered. Can’t wait to try it. Crossing fingers it won’t be relegated to Bosu status.
Oh, and final thing….. the bike/walking trail about 300 yards from the house. Probably the most used fitness tool in my arsenal.1 -
springlering62 wrote: »Well……I’ve got stuff at home, but am much more likely to work out in a gym setting.
My favorite thing is wierd. We ran flooring up one wall in our extra room. That means if I want to do legs up the wall, practice handstand, or do anything else that involves putting feet or hands on a wall, well, it’s flooring. No harm done. It was fantastic during the Lockdown.
I’ve got a hula hoop and a Bosu, but never use them.
Ditto for a small weight bench and an adjustable dumbell set. They’re there for the “next” lockdown, so I won’t be caught with my pants down next time.
I got a stationery bike right as lockdown ended. The guys at the shop convinced me to get a recumbent instead of a spin, and I’m so grateful they did. I enjoy it and do it a couple of times a week, when I can’t work enough classes in.
I love my cruiser bike and often ride it to the gym or grocery store.
I have four Gaiam Sol XL mats I keep in constant rotation.
Another wierd favorite is a medium height stepladder I keep in the garage. Perfect for draping and drying mats following a hot class.
And any minute now I’ve got a rebounder being delivered. Can’t wait to try it. Crossing fingers it won’t be relegated to Bosu status.
Oh, and final thing….. the bike/walking trail about 300 yards from the house. Probably the most used fitness tool in my arsenal.
flooring up the wall - how clever!
can't wait to hear what you think of the rebounder!
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I’ve got a full squat rack cage from Mirafit, which also includes the pull up bar, huge safety arms for squats and I’ve got a rack on the side for all my bars. I do like your pulley system though, and that’s on my shopping list at some point if I can fit it in. Half of my garage is actually my lifting platform (it’s 245cm x 245cm), and I keep that space totally free so I can dump the bar safely and get out of the way if I miss a lift. That happens more than I’d like to admit.zebasschick wrote: »claireychn074 wrote: »I’ve got a little gym set up in my garage, with a cage (ie lifting rack), my barbells, bumper plates, some dumbbells and a few instruments of torture like the ab rollout wheel 🤣 my fave bit is probably my weightlifting platform, which I built with plywood, hardwood marine ply (on top, waxed) and gym matting. I do have a concept 2 rower but that’s in the house as I throw weights around and uh, they don’t always land where they should. So it’s safer indoors! Also have a little heater, my Bluetooth speaker and a dehumidifier to protect my bars 😀 and and some good gym flags on the walls! Here’s a little bit of my set up - it’s great when it’s lovely weather and I can have the doors open, less so when it’s cold, dark and wet.
that is a super nice setup! what kind of rack is it?
we don't have room for a rack, so i have one of these -
it replaced a plate loaded model i used to own, and it's smaller at only 25 inches wide. i love having a stack rather than fiddling with plates, and you can get 210 pounds out of it, not just 105, which is unusual for a unit with a 210 pound stack.
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claireychn074 wrote: »I’ve got a full squat rack cage from Mirafit, which also includes the pull up bar, huge safety arms for squats and I’ve got a rack on the side for all my bars. I do like your pulley system though, and that’s on my shopping list at some point if I can fit it in. Half of my garage is actually my lifting platform (it’s 245cm x 245cm), and I keep that space totally free so I can dump the bar safely and get out of the way if I miss a lift. That happens more than I’d like to admit.
that's so nice!
we live in a 900 square foot condo and have a 1 car garage that we keep a car in, so finding a 25 inch (63.5 cm) wide machine was very handy. my husband has a bowflex and a squat rack that he takes apart and tucks away when not in use LOL we have so much fitness equipment, basses, guitars and amps in different rooms, so we sometimes wish we could have dedicated home gym room or garage like yours!
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I have a treadmill, mats, air mat, dumbbells (various weights), kettle bell, and exercise ball.
But mostly I run now (30 miles a week). I’m almost 58.1 -
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Rebounder arrived late last night. It’s pouring outside today. Guess I’ll be trying that sucker out after my volunteer gig at the museum!
Where oh where am I going to put it? 9’ ceiling in yoga/radio room with ceiling fan. Worried I’ll bop my head on the ceiling?
This may call for backing car out of the garage? How bouncy are these things?0 -
not that bouncy, but the cheaper ones seem to be bouncier. i never hit our 9 foot ceiling when i used a $40 rebounder, but i feel with enough enthusiasm, it could be done. if you have to set it up directly under the ceiling fan, all bets are off. can you use it not under the ceiling fan?0
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It’s become a great excuse to clean the hellhole that is the garage and storage room right now. Mainly my fault because I have a huge collection in storage cupboards boxes and bins, but also his because he insists on keeping a couple of now dry-rotted spare tires for our pair of odd little cars, and also on buying air filters in quantity, that come in boxes THIS big.
If we can clear space in front of one of the odd little cars, there’ll be plenty of room for the rebounder, and lotsa headroom.1 -
keep us posted!0
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