Fitness Friday: Home Gym Setup

Hey guys,

So today is the start of a new series on The Broke Girl Blog, one that is probably overdue but I just wasn’t ready to pursue it yet. It’s funny how you can come up with any excuse possible to not focus on your fitness a bit, and I think I’ve come up with them all.

Here’s the thing, the totally honest thing: I’m an average human. Not fit, not deeply overweight, but somewhere in between. These days, though, it’s inching towards the overweight category. I know my mom is somewhere groaning, disagreeing with this but she’s bias and my work clothes (which mostly no longer fit) do not have any particular bias towards me. They just are the size they are, the size that’s being changed is my body.

A decade ago, I was fit. I had an eight-pack and probably pretty low body fat with that in consideration. I could run, swim, jump… do whatever I wanted. When I left competitive swimming and cheerleading, I became very sedentary and spent a lot of time sitting to study and at work. Naturally, I packed on the pounds. Roughly five years ago, I started training for strength and power as a result of a professional position I wanted to have. During that time, the weight I gained transformed into a lot of muscle, far bulkier than I had ever had before. But I was strong, and I felt great about myself.

Today, the bulk stayed but the muscle faded away due to lack of regular training. I still have a lot of strength and am only 5-10 pounds heavier, but when you consider how my body composition has changed, it’s been a drastic transformation. My knees and hip regularly hurt, I’m often out of breath and I just feel crummy.

So, I’m on a bit of a mission. Not to lose weight, but to modify my lifestyle in a way that is healthier, and I know I’ll lose weight as a byproduct of that. I’m going to (finally) take my doctor’s advice and work out regularly. In my home gym! My parents were so nice and got me these rainbow mats so I could convert a portion of my garage to a workout space for weights, and my sister gifted me her stepper (she got a Treadclimber and no longer uses it). My dad even helped me tune up my bicycle so that I can ride it short distances rather than drive (ok he did it, but I did learn a few things while he was at it!).

Currently, my home gym has some dumbbells, a speed rope, ankle weights, a training band, a stepper and a kettlebell. It’s a start, and I’ll be chronicling my progress here because I feel like I can’t be the only person who feels this way and wants to improve. I’m nervous and excited because wanting to work out and be healthier is one thing and announcing it is another. I hope this isn’t dull as heck to follow along with, and to start I’ll be doing these posts twice a month on Fridays. I’m going to ease into working out again, since I’m great at working five days in a row and then not again for six months.

Do you have a health or fitness goal that you’re trying to achieve? I’d love to hear about it either in the comments or on Twitter (@thebrokebloggr).

Have a great weekend!