To the people who workout at home.....

A) What equipment do you use?

-Olympic weight sets (bar & bumpers)
-Adjustable Dumbbells
-Kettlebells
-Squat Stands
-Spin Bike
-GHD
-Heavy/Speed Bags
-Torque F1 Cable Machine

Yes, I literally have a full gym in my house. I've been slowly adding to it for the past 8 years, plus I also do Personal Training out of my home.

Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc?

No.

How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg?

Depends on the lift, but anywhere from 75% of my Bodyweight to over 150% of my Bodyweight

I would prefer to tone, so I am thinking lighter weights but more reps.

Toning is the absence of fat and the presence of muscle. You need to LIFT HEAVY to gain muscle. All you'll do with lighter weights with more reps is spin your wheels and get nowhere. Calorie deficit is how you lose fat.

D) How long do you workout for?

My lifting sessions usually last 60-70 minutes, cardio 20-30 minutes.

E) How many times a week?

6 days/week

A) What equipment do you use?

I do a bodyweight strength routine (http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/start-bodyweight-basic-routine.html) plus a couple dumbbell exercises (one arm rows and overhead presses.) For the pullups, I made a bar by looping ratchet straps over the beams in our basement and threading a pipe through them. I use the treadmill sometimes but prefer running outside.

Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc?

I do the 20 minutes Winsor pilates routine (found on Youtube) as a warm up on strength days.

C) How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg?

For rows I use 24# (~11 kg) and for OHPs I use two 15# (~7 kg) dumbbells. Once I get up to 3 sets of 8 reps I up the weight.

D) How long do you workout for?

My strength workout takes 25-35 minutes plus 20 minutes pilates plus stretching. Running is however long it takes to go 2-3.5 miles plus stretching. On any day, I'd say I'm exercising for an hour to hour and 15 minutes.

E) How many times a week?

6. Three days strength, three days running.

if you're pressed for space for a bench and barbell, you should look into kettle bells. very versatile weights.

A) What equipment do you use? 5 pound hand weights

Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc? I use Latin Dance Fitness on YouTube.

C) How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg? 5 pounds.

I would prefer to tone, so I am thinking lighter weights but more reps.

D) How long do you workout for? 20-30

E) How many times a week? I run two days, take one day off, run two days, etc. I lift weights T/Th/Sat, do my Latin dance M/W/F

A) What equipment do you use? Elliptical, endless jogging paths in my community, squat rack, barbells, bench, Olympic weights, Olympic bar, curling bar

Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc? No.

C) How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg? Stronglifts got me up to 65 lbs for everything except deadlift. Deadlift was 105 lbs. Deloaded, about to start again.

I would prefer to tone, so I am thinking lighter weights but more reps. THIS IS A MYTH. Toning? There is no such thing.

D) How long do you workout for? Walking: 30-90 mins, Elliptical: 15 mins - 45 mins, Strength: 20-40 mins

E) How many times a week? Walking/Elliptical: 2-3X/week. Strength will be 2X a week. Was doing 3X per week but my knees were not pleased.

Equipment: small dumbbells (2, 3, and 5 lbs), small kettlebell (10 lbs), resistance bands, jump rope, aerobic step, pilates ball, yoga mat/blocks/strap, and my foam roller (I love my foam roller)

DVDs: a variety of Jillian Michaels, Beachbody, and Ballet Beautiful DVDs mixed with a large number of FitnessBlender videos

How Heavy: still working on building up strength, max 10 lbs per hand, don't do barbell yet

How Long: anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours at a time, depends on the day and what I want to accomplish

Times per week: every day. once a week is flexibility day (yoga/pilates/stretching blend) and once a week is C25k, the rest involves some form of strength training and/or some type of cardio

gonna be moving soon/changing jobs and will have time and money for a gym membership, which is exciting since there's a pool and an arena at the gym I'm looking at, which means swimming and skating again, not to mention the chance to try out some more strength training, but I still plan on keeping up with the majority of my home workouts (no feeling self-conscious, I get to try a wide variety of activities, plus if I wake up and want to do kickboxing in my pjs I can

A) What equipment do you use?
Equipment that i use on a regular basis: A squat rack, barbell, and weights (several sets each of 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 14.8 and 25 lb weights and a set of fractionals) and adjustable dumbbells that go up to 52.5lbs each. I also use a bar in the basement to do partial bodyweight chinups & pullups from. It works ok for now but i think i will soon outgrow it & want to buy a pullup/dip station. (I have a pullup bar but despite checking the measurements carefully before buying, it doesn't fit any of the doorframes in my house. grrrr)

I also have a few yoga/exercise mats, a stability ball, a high step, a rebounder, a bosu ball, a high stepper machine, rowing machine, recumbent bike & a glider. I have been slacking on cardio for a few months so they are collecting dust, but i hope to start getting some cardio in again soon.

Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc?
a couple years ago i bought P90x and Insanity, but did not care for them so i sold them on amazon. I have some other videos downloaded on my computer (30DS and a few by Jari Love) but i do not use them anymore. If i were to use videos again i would probably go with fitnessblender.com. I like that they have a lot of free routines and there is no music in the background so you can play your own tunes while working out.

C) How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg?
It varies depending on the lift. Basically for the main lifts i aim to go as heavy as possible. Once i can execute all reps with good form i will increase the weight. I used to increase by 5lbs each time for most lifts, but after a few months i had to drop it to 2.5 lbs. Eventually even that got to be too much for some lifts (OHP & bench press) so currently i am only able to increase by 1-1.5 lbs at a time.........On the accessory lifts i go a bit lighter (what i would consider to be medium/heavy weights) and do higher reps.

"I would prefer to tone, so I am thinking lighter weights but more reps."---IMO you should lift heavier weight/fewer reps. I did that lighter weight/higher rep thing for a few years and had so-so results. Using heavier weight and doing fewer reps is really working. I am very pleased with how my body (especially my thighs, butt & tummy) is looking smaller, tighter and much less jiggly. If that is the result you are looking for then heavy lifting is what you want to do.

D) How long do you workout for? / E) How many times a week?

When i first started heavy lifting i did StrongLifts 5x5 which is a full body workout 3x's a week. Each session took me about 45-50 mins to complete. Then for about 2 months i was adding accessory work to the program and my workouts were running 100-120 mins each. I burned out pretty quick trying to keep up with that volume and found that i was not able to squat 3x's a week anymore, so recently i switched to an upper/lower split which is four days a week. Each session is taking about 60 mins to complete.

A) What equipment do you use? mat, adjustable kettlebell (it's small, getting more later), adjustable dumbbells, weighted vest, ankle/wrist weights, swiss ball/physio ball, aerobics step.

Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc? Fitness blender. I'm currently following program #1, and I've got the others as well. I highly recommend them, even if you don't buy the program. It's all free, and a huge selection of videos.
I do have some Jillian Michaels videos, but I find they get repetitive very quickly. They're okay once in a while.

C) How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg? Depends on the exercise. The heaviest I can go for some is 6 kg, others I need 1 or 2 (getting stronger, but not strong yet)

I like the feeling of lifting heavy weights, and seeing the difference in my strength.

D) How long do you workout for? Varies widely, from 45-90 minutes (the longer days are usually split into two sessions)

E) How many times a week? Between 5 and 7 days, the seventh day is usually a light walk and stretching day.

A) Precor elliptical, power rack, resistance bands, bench, exercise balls, medicine balls, dumbbells, foam roller, Olympic bar, curl bar, power rack has a pull up bar

I don't use dvds but I have them.

C) I'm squatting 120 lbs but my husband lifts much more than that. We need to buy more plates for him. I think we have like 200 lbs in weights. We have dumbbells that go up to 50 lbs each.

D) Until I finish. LIke 45 to 60 minutes for weights, not including cardio

E) 3 to 4

I love working out at home. Now I don't have any excuses not to work out.

A) What equipment do you use?

Power cage, bench, three barbells (luxury), two paris of dumbbells, a miscellany of weights, and a weight belt. Everything but the bench and power cage came from the garage sales and charity shops. My wife uses the dumbbells, mostly, but also a big rubber ball thing.


Do you use any dvds, insanity, 30 day challenges etc?

I read books and magazines out of the library in order to get ideas for changing things up every three months or so (something I've been convinced is important). My wife, however, has been working with variations out of _10 Years Thinner_ for two or three years.


C) How heavy do you lift if you use weights... ie what kg? I would prefer to tone, so I am thinking lighter weights but more reps.

I won't touch the whole "there's no such thing as toning but not putting on muscle" thing here. And you probably don't care how much a 47 year-old man squats and presses. But I will note that my wife - who is quite toned - uses weights between 10lbs (arms) and 70lbs (compound lifts).


D) How long do you workout for?

Me: 25 - 25 min. My wife: 20 - 30 min. And because the gym is our shed, travel time is about 45 s each way.


E) How many times a week?

Me: 2 - 3 times. My wife: 3 - 4 times.