Best way to start effective strength training at home?

amychantel

I am a working my mom with 3 young children. I am away from home about 10 hours a day including work and commuting, so I have limited time at home with my kids. Rather than go to the gym, I would like to incorporate strength training into my routine at home. For those of you that have done this, how did you go about it? I would like a simple, but effective, routine that is appropriate for a beginner. In addition, I am interested in optimizing results for time spent. Would you suggest free weights, DVD's, specific books, bodyweight exercises, specific web sites, etc.? I am open to all ideas/opinions. I would love to hear about anyone's success doing this at home (particularly as a beginner) and before and after pictures would be great too.

Any advise/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I have recently lost about 77 pounds. I'm 5 pounds from my original goal weight and I have some excess skin that is not so flattering, so I would definitely like to tone up. For cardio, I walk as much as possible and climb stairs at work several times throughout the day.

hilly510

Congrats on your progress!

I've been doing StrongLifts 5x5 for the past 2 months. You lift heavy weights 3 times a week. You can SEE the results quickly because at every workout session you increase your weights by 5 lbs. I've been able to finish the workouts in 20-35 minutes while giving my body adequate rest. You can do this with a standard weight bench. This type of program is truly worth the time/money/energy spent. You're not exhausted or burnt out when you finish and you see results right away.

http://s3.stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-report.pdf
The description of the workout starts on page 41. There is an endless supply of information on this program in the MFP forums.

Good luck!

amychantel

Thank you, hilly. I will check it out.

Congrats on your progress!

I've been doing StrongLifts 5x5 for the past 2 months. You lift heavy weights 3 times a week. You can SEE the results quickly because at every workout session you increase your weights by 5 lbs. I've been able to finish the workouts in 20-35 minutes while giving my body adequate rest. You can do this with a standard weight bench. This type of program is truly worth the time/money/energy spent. You're not exhausted or burnt out when you finish and you see results right away.

http://s3.stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-report.pdf
The description of the workout starts on page 41. There is an endless supply of information on this program in the MFP forums.

Good luck!

amychantel

Any other suggestions? Thanks. :-)

JenMc14

I workout in the morning while my kids are sleeping. I have a bar, rack, bench and plates. I vary my routine, I'm doing full body twice a week right now, I'm thinking of going back to a Strong Curves, using the advanced program. You could also do something like You Are Your Own gym which is progressive bodyweight training.