What is your favorite exercise and does it work?

My favorite exercise is cycling. I began commuting to work on my bike about 3-5 days a week, and ride about 18 miles a day. For strength training I like kettlebells and basic calisthenics. I'd like to lift more, but I don't have the time to spend in the gym right now as I am out of the house 12 hours a day as it is. If I took on a weight training routine in addition to my bike commute and a demanding job, I'd have to sacrifice other aspects of my life, like eating and sleeping, LOL!

Running and lifting. I love both and they have helped me to lose 25 lbs. so far. Good luck!

I am just getting back into the fitness scene after many years. I did 20yrs in the Armed Forces and kept relatively fit but since leaving the mandatory exercise life I think I rebelled and purposely did no form of additional fitness. I have always enjoyed walking and tend to walk fast normally, but even lost out on that when I started driving OTR trucks. Last year I found a Golds Gym compact step machine that fitted nicely in my truck under the bunk so I have been able to do some exercising at the end of the day if I wasn't completely exhausted!! Now that I am taking my health seriously again I am getting out of the truck and walking whenever I can, as well as using the little stepper at night/morning depending on my schedule.
So what is your story??

I think exercise is great but for weight loss it's all about calories. I've been a runner and weight lifter for over 30 years and still gained weight and it piled on more in my 30's 40's and almost into my 50's before I took control of it. I became obese even while I ran and lifted. I probably can't say this enough, you can't out exercise too many calories. It's why I don't eat back my exercise calories. I love running and lifting, and practiced martial arts for 10 year, and have been a backpacker and hiker all my life, and do a lot of outdoor work at home, clearing brush, cutting and stacking firewood. I'm super active yet I still got fat. I kept running marathon after marathon thinking that the next one and the training for it would help. Nope. I didn't binge eat, I didn't pig out, I didn't sit around watching TV and eating, it didn't seemed like I ate too much, I thought something was wrong. Turns out I had a low thyroid and adrenal fatigue but once the doctor helped me get that under control it was not a magic pill, I still had to hunker down and eat less for 2 years to lose the 60 lbs. Now I'm maintaining and I still have to eat less than others around me because I'm small. HINT: If you are short you are small, and it means the eat more mantra around here is less likely to work.

Anyway, I LOVE running and I LOVE weight lifting. I have arthritis in my hips (I'm 52) and I hope to keep doing these activities until the end of my days if I can.

Exercise is for making your lean body mass pretty (especially lifting weights) for when the fat is gone. Losing fat with no muscle is ugly and cardio alone will not make you pretty. You cannot out exercise too many calories.


Lifting weights is KEY. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am.

Start lifting now, lift heavy and change it up often, find a lot of weight routines with free weights, make it fun, embrace it, make it part of your life. Only 3 days a week is all it would take. Crank up your tunes and learn to love it, because your body will love it and it will make your quality of life better in many ways, especially when you get older like me.

Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

If you are female you don't have the hormones to get big naturally. I lift heavy and I'm still really tiny. My lean body mass is only 104 lbs and that is fairly heavy for a 5'1" female, and quite a bit of this is due to my having very dense bones from 30 years of lifting, not all muscle, and I'm still quite tiny.

My muscles really are not that big, but they show a lot of definition because I'm quite lean. If I gained some fat then I would have a softer more toned look (which is OKAY too!). Then if I gained more fat I would look bulky and hefty like I did most of my life until last year. YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER YOU WANT. Lean and ripped, soft and toned, or hefty, it all depends on how much fat you leave on your body. Calories are the only thing that changes fat. Exercise is for changing or maintaining your lean body mass only. Lifting weights will give you the best bang for your buck for shaping your body. I finally changed my shape by putting lifting first and cardio 2nd. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

Walking.. Yes :laugh:

I hate exercises that make you feel like you're exercising. I like doing the Xbox Kinect Zumba. I never get tired of it. And wearing a heart monitor will motivate you to burn those calories because it can actually tell you how much your consuming. Happy workout!:drinker:

once i started doing deadlifts my physique noticably changed entirely.

Running and lifting. I love both and they have helped me to lose 25 lbs. so far. Good luck!

This ^ I've only been allowed to jog for the last week (postpartum clearance from my OB, just had a baby 5 weeks ago) and lift weights with a 15 lb maximum allowance. It works. I've lost 2.4 pounds in the last week. I've lost 35 lbs in the last 5 weeks, which is a lot I know and I know that pattern will not continue--damn--but I am eating right, exercising, breastfeeding on-demand and lifting weights. It totally works for me! :0)

Walking....but without changing your diet nothing will work to get the fat off...at least that is what I have found. 70% of weightloss is diet!!

I lover running ! And I got very fast results ..

Swimming and cycling! I don't feel stressed out from these activities but they're still great exercise. :bigsmile:

My ultimate favourite for Cardio is Basketball. A 60 minute match is unrivaled in busrst energy and burn and its such an intense sport you dont notice how hard it is until afterwards! also there is a pride thing that keeps you going so you dont let the team down.

My ultimate strength training is pullups. Its just something i love now! I do it every single day just because i love them, sometimes i'll be driving home and i'll get excited about going to do pullups! haha, how sad.

I really enjoy cycling. I lost 23lbs (down from 180 to 157lbs) from late january to late march. I put on an average of 1.5 hours of slow cycling in every day. However, I'm an avid cyclist and prefer that to most other sports.

I also run, but I haven't been able to see the benefit as much. I'm now running around an hour every day.