Who uses the gym??

Up until today, I have used the road in front of my house as my exercise machine.  I walk every morning.  However, our new neighbor has a boxer bulldog that hates my guts!  Sad but today I joined a gym.  Yes, I have let the new bully run me out of the street!   So, who uses the gym?  I understand the treadmill, eliptical, and stair climber.  What do I need to use to help tone down the batwings?  Might as well get my money's worth. LOL  I will take any suggestions.

I use a gym and I love it.  My gym offered a complementary training session to show you how to use the equipment.  If they don't though just ask one of the floor trainers to show you how to use a machine to work your triceps.  It's not going to get rid of the extra skin, but at least it will tone the muscle underneath.  I find that the classes help push me past what I would normally do on my own and help me get a better workout!  Enjoy the gym! 

Thanks.  I am a little nervous about working out in front of people though.

Don't worry about that.  Most people are in their own little world and don't notice you at all.  At least you are working out and doing something healthy for your body!

Don't be nervous.  People are at the gym doing thier own thing and most don't notice others.  Yes there are nimrods everywhere but if anything most people will admire you for being in the gym working on improving your life.

Also for the treadmill go to a running specialty store and get fitted correctly for shoes.

*raises hand*

But only since a few weeks though. I try to go at least 3 times a week and I do cardio and strentgh training every time. The batwings will ebenfit from a good upper body strength work out; your gym instructor can help you set up a good program. I egenrally do an hour of intense cardio and after that 20-30 mins of strength. The one time upper, the pother time lower body.

If your gym has group lessons, I highly recommend Bodypump (weight on music, GREAT for toning and some light muscle build) and ZUMBA (latin dancing, just FUN) and perhaps Spinning if you are fit and like to ride a bike. Just try all the lessons out and you'll find one you like.

If your gym offers swimming options, those are very nice too, for toning.

Have fun, the gym can open up a world of new possibilites!

I don't think my gym offers the classes but I will be asking.  I'd probably look like an injured duck trying to do aerobics or anything like that anyway. LOL 

haha I love that you call them bat wings.  Mine are so bad.  I just bought one of those shaker weights from bed bath and beyond (its an as seen on tv thing) and it works so good.  Im looking into a gym now.

I spend a fair amount of time in the gym training.

Just a few thoughts.

Although you may understand how to use a treadmill, stair climber or eliptical doesn't mean you are optimizing your time on it and getting the most benefit.  When doing cardio you need to get your heart rate up to a point where you burn additional calories, the higher your heart rate the more you will burn.  Start easy on any of these and then each week try to go a bit more.  You can target distance or speed and as you increase your time will increase as well.  Remember your body becomes efficient at preforming repedative tasks so while jumping on the treadmill and walking for 30 minutes will burn x calories now in a few weeks it will become better at it so you will eventually start to burn less calories.

Your batwings; sad to say that contrary to popular belief there are no exercises to prevent you from developing loose skindepeneding on a number of factors like age, weight, time at max weight and genetics you will or won't have a fair amount of loose skin.  That being said there are things you can do to I guess hide lose skin.  The main thing is weight training, this will help you build lean muscle mass and fill in some of the places that used to be fat, mainly arms and some leg areas.  For your bat wings you may want to focus on your Biceps, Triceps and shoulder areas.  Don't worry about bulking up like the hulk for most women it is near impossible but don't be afraid to go heavy.  Again your body will become efficient at what you do so you need to change things, eventually you will outgrow that 3pound dumbell and you will have to move up in weight.

While machines are good free weights will give you the most benefit so you may want to invest in acouple training sessions so you can have someone help you with proper form and such.

Now for the Bad News and the Good News.

Good news!
Muscle burns more calories than fat.
Muscle will increase your RMR.
Both of these mean that your body will burn more calories. Also during your rapid weight loss phase a portion of what you lose is going to be muscle so by constantly working on adding muscle you will prevent some of this loss.

Bad news!
The scale moving down will decrease in speed but your inches probably won't.  By adding muscle the speed of your loss will likely slow to some degree this isn't a bad thing in that you are slowly adding muscle which over the long run will increase your health and make you body more efficient at burning calories.
It takes time and commitment.  You won't gain 5 pounds of muscle in a month regardless of what people will say when you post "I work out every day and I gained 5 pounds this month"  Unless you are at the gym hours a day working like a freak your muscle gain will be slow but it will happen another reason you need to go heavier at somepoint. 

Also a pet peeve of many is that Muscle weighs more than Fat.  Muscle and fat weigh exactly the same.  The difference is that muscle is more dense so you can pack more of it into a set space than you can fat.  So in theory you can weigh 20 pounds more than someone and be the same size or smaller, and probably look healthier. 

Good Luck!

Great post! You should write for Men's Health!