What's the best machines?

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AntYoungs
AntYoungs Posts: 4
in Fitness and Exercise
I am about 2 weeks into my weight loss program, i'm a very strong willed all or nothing person and i'm dedicated to this cause! I want to know if my machines are the right things for me...

I do about 15 minutes on the cross-trainer working fairly hard, about 15 minutes on the bike at fairly hard pace and about 5/10 minutes of heavy inclined walking at a quick pace and then the last minute of flat out running, by that point i'm sweating buckets.

I will then move onto doing leg curl, leg presses etc to build some extra muscle on my legs, saying that 7 years of Rugby didn't hurt. I'll then move onto doing some free weights of medium weight for my size and strengh and do X amount on them and ALOT on the chest press to try and tighten my chest a bit more.

I'm 22.1stone and am still fairly active, I want to lose about 3 stone to start with. Along with my fully cut down strict as you like diet do you reckon i'm going about it the right way. I gym it every second day of the week regardless.

Any thing else I could do that would help, I have an abs trainer at home that I try but I really don't feel comfortable on it for some reason.

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  • 951heather
    951heather Posts: 75 Member
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    Elliptical
  • thenebean9
    thenebean9 Posts: 216
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    the best thing is to cross train - so make sure you have a good variety of workouts. Walking, running, zumba, biking, weight training, resistance training, and interval training are all great ways to lose weight! Not only does the variety help with weight loss, but it keeps things interesting! Best of luck to you! :)
  • AntYoungs
    AntYoungs Posts: 4
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    Elliptical

    Yeah that's what I call the cross trainer at the gym, it's splattered on the side of the machine.

    I do a varied work out I just want to make sure i'm hitting the right things really to lose weight and "look the part" a bit more.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    If you're doing cardio and weights on the same day I suggest you so a short warm up, 5 minutes, on the treadmill or elliptical and then do your weights. You'll have more energy and will be able to lift more. After you're done go back and do at least 30 minutes of cardio.

    Just know that you aren't really going to be building much, if any muscle at this point. It's difficult to build muscle anyway, but almost impossible to do with a calorie deficit. To build muscle you need to eat in excess of your maintenance calories, with a high percentage of those excess cals being from protein. But, you will burn fat!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    biking and treadmill are better than the elliptical as the doing the elliptical (the motion) is not used in any other activity it will not help you perform other activities better, other than you would be in better cardiovascular shape. Biking and jogging and running are much more natural movements for humans and the increase in fitness from those can be transfer into real life situations.

    I am not knocking the elliptical as it is good to cross train and give the running and biking motions a rest but it will not improve you athleticism the way the others would.
  • AntYoungs
    AntYoungs Posts: 4
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    Well i'm not concentrating on building muscle yet anyway that'll come at a later date, I'm mainly more concerned about losing my belly :)

    But yeah I do the cross trainer first as it seems to burn the most calories and gets me juice so to speak to get going. I do the weights after my cardio then do about 5 minutes on the bike which allows me to rest my arms etc so I think it's all going ok, just need to weigh myself Monday for my fortnightly weigh in. BEGGING for a big result lol.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    Sounds fairly good to me.

    The one thing I would ask is why you are doing so much chest work? It's a relatively small muscle group in comparison to say your back. For overall strength, shape etc then consider devoting more of your available time to your back work.

    As for the ab machine I think they are pretty much overrated and you will engage your core just fine during your big lifts etc. You don't have to do any direct ab work if you don't want to (remember good abs are predominantly about lowering bf%) but some crunches / sidebends tacked on at the end of your routine won't hurt that much.
  • dietingsucks58
    dietingsucks58 Posts: 1
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    Nordic Trak Ski Machine gives you max low impact total body workout , Burns calories up.
  • feathers1981
    feathers1981 Posts: 69 Member
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    It's a difficult one to call as it depends how hard you are working out on each. The best way is to buy yourself a heart rate strap (if you can sync it with the gym machines, if not you can just get yourslef an inexpensive heart rate watch and starp for less than £30) and see which works makes you heart rate higher (i.e. which makes you work harder).

    If you google you should be able to find some information about the heart rate zones you should be training in though.

    I have to say that when I go to the gym to work out I always do a mix, it stops me getting bored and I think that it helps your body not get used to one type of exercise which means you are more likely to keep losing weight by doing it.

    x
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Well i'm not concentrating on building muscle yet anyway that'll come at a later date, I'm mainly more concerned about losing my belly :)

    But yeah I do the cross trainer first as it seems to burn the most calories and gets me juice so to speak to get going. I do the weights after my cardio then do about 5 minutes on the bike which allows me to rest my arms etc so I think it's all going ok, just need to weigh myself Monday for my fortnightly weigh in. BEGGING for a big result lol.

    You should still lift weights so you don't lose muscle as you lose weight.

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