Weight loss - Weight bench or exercise bike?

Drake5

Drake5

Drake5

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12 Dec 2005
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I am currently trying to lose some weight. I have altered my diet and I am doing dumbell exercises every day (1 muscle group a day).

I want to step it up a little bit now but I only have a small budget of about £150.00.

I'm not sure if to get a York weight bench that comes with 40KG worth of weights or to get an exercise bike.

What would be best?
 
Zefan said:
This, really.

Dumbell excercises/40KG of BB weights will be pretty useless for any serious lifting. Even if you can only lift that at the moment you will grow out of it very, very quickly.
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But I don't want 'serious' lifting, I just want it to help me in losing weight.

I'm REALLY not game for joining a gym yet, I'm a begginer so maybe in a year or so but not quite yet.
 
I'm hearing so much of a conflict in opinion here... I thought lifting weights with a healthy diet would make you lose weight...

At the moment I'm just doing basic dumbell exercises, with 1 muscle group a day. 3 different exercises @ 15 reps.

Cheers
 
This is my current dumbwell workout plan.

Monday Leg (5 Sets Of Each)
beginner squats
lunges


Wednesday (Shoulder 3 sets of each at 15 reps)
overhead press
lat raises
front raises


Thursday Arms (3 sets of each at 15 reps)
some form of curl
some form of tricep exercise

Friday Chest (3 sets of 15 reps)
dumbell press (lying on floor)
press ups
dumbell fly (lying on floor)

Saturday Back (3 sets of 15 reps)
dumbell rows
dumbell deadlifts


Why is everyone so against getting an exercise bike...? It'll be the exact same as normal bike and will burn calories and be a good source for cardio exercise. I fail to see why I shouldn't get one.
 
Skipping rope is a great idea. I'll get one of those on order now. How should I be doing it though? Every day? In what sort of routine? Just keep going until I can't go anymore or?

I don't fully understand the 2nd part of the stuff you linked but I will have a proper look into it.

Cheers
 
TheJackal said:
An exercise bike will only work your legs and heart. You want something that works more of your body like a cross trainer or even a rowing machine. You dont say how overweight your are or how much you want to lose.
Just eat healthy low fat food, keep doing cardio type exercise and the weight will slowly fall off.
You do know the best way would be to get into some kind of regular sport like swimming, squash, badminton, football etc
Training is always so much easier and beneficial if you are doing it for a reason other than "looking good".
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I'm quite over weight. 5FT 6 @ 13 stone 5. I have lost a little bit of weight since I started my routine 4 weeks ago or so and I have CERTAINLY noticed more muscle gains.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
boxing routine, 3 minutes of fast and slow skipping (change it up), but really push yourself in the last 15 seconds of the "round", 1 minute rest, then do it again.

do this for as long as you can last, the first time you do it, i will be surprised if you can last 3 rounds tbh, there is a reason why boxer's still skip in this day and age, even though they can afford to plow millions into any home gym setup.

skipping imo, is one of the best cardio you can do, because it is basically free (£2 for a rope), the rope i linked to is the type you want, leather ones are a waste of money, it should last you 3-6 months depending on how often you do it (use masking tape on handles they are the first part to go), then buy another one when it is completely gone for another £2. rinse and repeat.

the tubes i linked to can be used to work any muscle in the body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzyCtzAF8F0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdlA1YBsdnI

those are the first 2 i found, on a random search of youtube, might be better examples out there
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That sounds great, I will certainly give it a try! Should I be doing it every day? :)

Jay794 said:
Quite overweight? I'm 5ft 6 and I weigh 16 lol
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Well when I look in the mirror I certainly see someone who is quite overweight! Feels horrible.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
cardio you can do everyday, but i would slowly build it up, it also depends on how long your doing it for, if it's longer than 1 hour then i would say just do it every other day, but if its around half an hour or less than do it every day.

you can take day's off when your not up to it, but consistency will be key, it's best not to miss any session, especially at the start so you programme your mind into a routine.

skipping is brutal, the better you get at it, the faster you go, then you can add "special moves" double skip's, etc, where you jump higher and move your arms faster to get 2 rotations in 1 jump, these advanced moves will take time to master, those professional boxer's make them look easy on youtube but these guys in most cases have been skipping regularly since they were in nappies, that's what it takes to be a world class boxer, you need to have started from a very young age.

i would say do as many "rounds" as you can, until your dripping with sweat and can do no more, until you build up to 30 mins, then when you hit the 30 min mark, start going faster and doing more advanced moves, etc.
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Really appreciate the advice you've given me so far Sonny. Please could you see above my weight workout routine? You suggested this to me maybe 2 months ago, should I carry on doing the same exercises?

I look forward to getting stuck in with the skipping thing. :D
 
I'm not doing anything heavy at all but then again I don't have much strength lol.

The weight set I have is 20kg but I'm doing NOWHERE near that fully yet... Most exercises I only use 5KG on each dumbbell, I know it's hardly anything but to be honest I have DEFINITELY noticed a difference in muscle definition. Especially my shoulders/traps/bi's. That's something I am certain of.

My diet isn't spot on perfect, probably to many carbs but I have cut out all junk food and other crap.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
you are what you eat, diet is going to be key for bodyfat loss, keep a food diary over the next week if you can, then post it up for use to dissect, that will be the best way to reach your goal imo.

theres no point you busing your behind skipping, if your going to continue eating rubbish, your basically just undoing all your good work.

also 5kg dumbells is nothing, you need to be upping the weight every session.
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But sometimes with weights heavier than that I struggle to do 15 reps, doesn't that mean it'd do NOTHING at all for me? I will keep a food log of everything I eat over the next week and post it up here. Don't be to harsh on me though! :p Constructive criticism is always welcome. :)
 
Could someone clarify this - If I'm doing weights and I step up the weight but really struggling with pushing out 15 reps what am I supposed to do? Just do as many as I can and hope I improve as I go on?
 
icecold said:
The weights will only work if they're difficult, you're body will only be forced to adapt if the reps you aim for are a serious struggle. 15 reps is fairly arbitrary anyway, 10-12 would be fine too.
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So I really need to be giving it my all coming up to the last of the reps? Makes sense... I'll be sure to step up the weights from now on. But what happens when I get 10kg on each dumbbell and it becomes a breeze? Buy bigger weights?
 
icecold said:
That would be when you need to decide whether more weight would actually be worth it. Considering that when squatting and deadlifting you could probably do 40kg with a proper bar now, and with good training hit 100kg on both within a year, are cheap DB weights a wise investment? Unfortunately, the exercises where you'd use more weight are the ones that are better for fat loss (and everything else...).
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I'm not sure what you are saying, when I hit 20kg with my weights and can do it easily, I should get heavier weights and change my routine?
 
So it seems like I shouldn't be doing dumbell exercises at all if it's not going to help me lose weight unless I have really heavy ones. :S
 
icecold said:
It depends. For the time being if you can get yourself gasping for air with what you've got then great. I really don't want to discourage you from doing weights completely, maybe look into doing complexes. For these I use as little as 30-40kg (not a willy waving statement, but compared to what I normally use this is small) and I'm completely destroyed by the end of it.

Read here: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...cardio_four_complexes_for_a_shredded_physique
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But even with the light weights I've been using so far I have noticed a visible difference in terms of gaining muscle all around my body... They don't make me gasp for air by any means though....
 
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