Ok, I recently convinced DH to “invest” in a good weight machine. A number of years ago we purchased a two hundred dollar elastic band machine from Walmart. We each worked out on it a few times and then it sat, unused, for quite a while. It was small, it seemed flimsy, it just didn’t work for us.

A year ago, we purchased an elliptical trainer. This time we did not skimp on price and while we did abandon it for a few months, this year we both decided that it was time to hop back onto that thing a few times a week. The best thing about this elliptical is that it has many training routines that vary the resitance and difficulty, making it hard to get totally bored. My gripe with the elliptical is that it feels like all I am doing is walking. I have tried reading, and it simply means that I don’t get the upper body workout. Watching TV really only works if there is something on that I want to watch. Otherwise I am checking my minutes too often.

Anyways, back to the weight machine. We purchased a Body Solid G4I. DH did the research and felt he agreed with the reviews that said that the weight stack was a much better option than a bow type system.

After it arrived, it took us two nights to set up. There were few written instructions, plenty of illustrations, and many little parts that we guessed on (some screws weren’t hex head). Luckily, the screws, nuts, and washers were all bagged seperately for each step, making it much easier to sort them all out. We did have to back up several times when we discovered that we should have laid a cable in before the pulleys.

He completed his first workout on it last night while I worked on the elliptical.

Tonight, I used it. All I can say is…ouch. I definately was able to work most of the exercises to the point where the muscle I was working was exhausted. I will also say that there were a few exercises that I could barely even do since when we set the weight stack, the directions seem to indicate that we add a non-removable pin so that the first two weights are always engaged. The cable system allowed the weights to move extremely smoothly, really allowing for the full use of the weights throught the entire range of motion. The only problem was that the first oomph to get the weights going was quite hard. I’m guessing that the cables need to be broken in.

I’ll keep “all of you loyal readers” updated (hey, I’m not kidding myself…the list doesn’t even include my mother!)