I've been going to Curve's since January. First of all I have a slight handicapp. It is like an ataxia, my balance is off and I limp, one leg longer than the other. Anyway, I've lost five inches at Curves, but it is all in the arms, bust and lower leg. I have lost absolutely nothing on my stomach and butt. So I talked to the gal last week and only two machines out of nine are for butt and stomach. I've toned some muscles and it seems to help me walk better, but I need to loose weight and I need to loose inches on my butt and stomach! I gained about ten pounds this year not eating right, and boy did it add on the pounds.

What would you suggest for me to do at home? I can walk pretty good, I'm always afraid of falling cause I shuffle my feet so bad. I don't mind walking, but what other in house excercises would you recommend?

Thanks for reading!


BamBam

The Body Sculpting Body for Women has the exercises broken down by body part. You can do them at a local gym. It also might be a good idea to have a couple personal training sessions at a regular gym.

At home, you might try Pilates DVD's, they're mainly for the core (center part of your body).

Thats cool that you got results. I never saw results when I was going to Curves, so I decided to quit and do something else. I am not sure if you are comfortable with the stationary bike, but that might be a suggestions. I think, and this is what I found out for myself, you might need to up your cardio. For me curves was not enough cardio, however, the strength training part was helpful. Do you have a local pool you could swim or do water aerobics in? These exercises might be a good choice, they are low impact and they are a source of cardio.

I think once you incorporate more cardio you will probably see results. I like to do lunges holding 5 pound weights, this will eventualy tone the butt! For the stomach, which is my weakness, any type of crunches or even a pilates video would work. I have a pilates video for my abs, butt and thighs that really helps and I get a good work out with low impact. Hope this helps.

Unfortuately, you can't target weight loss. But you can work on muscle strength and tone. Doing pilates is great for working on the core muscles which helps support your body in everything you do. There is also a lot of work on flexibility. Yoga may be helpful too.

However, if your main goal is to lose weight overall, then maybe use a cardio machine. A recumbent bike may be a good investment for home workouts. It would be more comfortable than using a regular exercise bike and easier to use than an elliptical trainer if you have trouble with balance and gait.

Michelle

You really can't spot reduce. But weight gain around the waist is associated with a pre-diabetic condition called Syndrome X or hyperinsulinemia or metabolic syndrome. I would suggest trying a healthy low carb diet, lots of veggies, meat, maybe a little fruit, avoid starches and sugars.

Congrats on the 5"!

There's no way to reduce fat in one spot. You just have to keep doing cardio. Unfortunately, the butt and stomach is often the last place to lost fat

Have you had your % body fat tested? That might be useful for you. Since you're doing some weights, you are likely building muscle. Muscle does weigh more than fat so the % fat can be more of a confidence booster than overall weight. The other issue is that if you build muscle in your stomach/butt and lose just a little bit of fat, you may not notice because the muscle is bigger so there's no net loss in inches. But I wouldn't stop doing weights. Muscle also burns calories all the time while fat burns nothing so as you increase muscle your metabolism will increase and the weight loss will become easier.

There are some great suggestions here. I would like to second the suggestion of weight training. I would suggest using free weights. With machines, you are locked into a specific range of motion. Free weights allow you to move the way your body is designed, and may even lead to an improvement in balance. Also, as previously stated, adding muscle increases your metabolism, but it takes energy to feed muscle. This will, in turn, reduce fat. You may also want to try interval training. Instead of long, drawn out cardio, you alternate periods of intense bursts of exercise (30 second sprint, for example), with longer recovery periods (90 second jog), for about 20 minutes total. The best part is that you can use almost any form of cardio exercise and start at a level that is suitable for you. Interval training has the same cardiovascular and fat burning effects as steady state cardio, without burning away too much muscle (as steady state has a tendency to do).
Coltrane

Thank you so much for the responses. I have a lot to think about here. I am going to borrow my girlfriends Pilates DVD and see what that is all about.

I do not swim (fear of water) and I have a hard time running with my ataxia. I have a stationary bike (it's older than the hills, but it will do for now). I'm gonna look into getting a health rider and some free weights. I have some three pounders, and I would like to get something a little bit heavier to work with to. I will continue working out at Curves because that does help better my ataxia by strengthening muscles.

This is an awesome board, thanks again for all your responses.


BamBam

BamBam,
That sounds like a good plan. Don't fear the heavy weights. Use compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and lunges. They will give you the most bang for your buck. Until you can get heavier weights, you could work with just your body weight to promote strength and balance.
My wife started doing pilates a couple years ago, and did not see any results. She then started lifting using compound exercises, and she lost fat and gained muscle much quicker.
Coltrane

Do not discount Pilates though. You won't see the same "results" as weight training and cardio, but it is very, very good for developing your core strength and flexibility which in turn supports proper spinal aligment...it will ensure that you perform other exercise and activities safely and effectively.

Michelle