Last month was so much better for Jai and I from a health standpoint. Knock on wood, flu season is over, and just in time for the weather warming up and creating the perfect setting for getting more active. We’ve been able to use our Total Gym XLS a bunch and really benefiting – Jai has been doing a wide variety of strength training exercises, while I’ve been really focusing on ab workouts. I can feel my core strength developing along with my knee strength, and I can see overall muscle tone improvements, so I’m feeling great! Check out our video to hear more on what we’ve been working on and the results we’ve been getting.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to give you a Total Gym XLS, so last week I filmed a video to let you know what’s been going on: Namely, being sick non-stop since December! Thankfully, we’re both feeling a lot better and knocking on wood that we won’t catch any more bugs for a while. We’ve been so thankful to have the XLS around this last month as we started our special “Couples Challenge” with our favorite food plan, and it feels great. I’ll be keeping you posted each month on how our fitness goals are coming – we have a little catching up to do after sickness kept interrupting our workouts for so long, but I can already feel my core strength coming back as I’ve been focusing on my abs a lot. I’m excited for this spring and summer!

On a side note, I’m always telling you how convenient Total Gym is – and case in point, right after I finished this video, I did a workout in that exact same dress. I love not having to change into special gym clothes, since I’m in the privacy of my own home! 😉

Did flu season impact your fitness goals this year?

We received a complimentary Total Gym XLS for the purposes of this series; this post also contains affiliate links. This article is an account of our personal experience only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any medical condition. Always consult with physician before embarking on any fitness program.

Here’s our measurements for week 21:

This last week was a brutal one for me – I’m still sick, and I’ve been having the worst insomnia for over a month. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I went to the doctor last week. Things are slowly starting to improve and I hope I’ll be able to kick this cold soon. Everyone around here is getting hammered with the cold and flu, so I think it’s just an especially bad year for it. I haven’t been exercising at all, because I have chest congestion and coughing fits don’t lend themselves well to working up a sweat.

Jai, however, is flu-free and has been getting some great workouts! He’s been using the 6-8 Minute Workout DVD, and has been commenting on what a good workout it is. It’s pretty amazing how a targeted routine can work your muscles so well in a short period of time! It’s been especially easy to follow the DVD since we moved our Total Gym XLS into the living room temporarily, so it’s been right next to the TV – we’ve been doing some construction projects in a room adjacent to our “Exercise room”, so we just emptied it out temporarily while we completed those minor renovations.

We had originally planned to wrap up our Total Gym series at the end of January, but we’ve been loving the feedback and encouragement we’ve been getting and enjoying the chance to share our journey, so we’ve decided to extend the series – we’re going to continue sharing a monthly Total Gym XLS video and our measurement results right here on Beeb-Log through the end of summer 2014, so we can continue to update you on our progress, favorite exercises, and more!

If you have a question or exercise you’d like to request us to demo, leave it in the comments below and we’ll include it in our next video update in February!

This was our first week back in action after getting sick over the holidays – here’s our measurements:

Since I’d been out of commission for a couple of weeks, I had a plan for easing back into my workouts. I spent two days picking out 3 or 4 cards and just doing those; then I did Day 1 of the 6-8 Minute Workout DVD. It’s a 5-day program, so I’m going to follow that this week and then start doing some other DVDs and longer workouts next week. This is a great way to scale back up my workouts without doing too much all at once; if there’s anything my stair machine knee injury taught me, it’s that you should not overdo it when you’re exercising. The great thing about the 8 minute workout is that while it may be brief, it’s intense – you’d be surprised what a good workout I’ve gotten just following that short routine!

This week, we also discovered yet another benefit to having a gym in our home. We had very stormy weather last week, and on Saturday night the power went out for maybe half an hour. While we waited for the power to come back on, Jai decided to do a workout on the Total Gym by flashlight instead of just sitting in the dark. I found it very entertaining that he was working out during the power outage! 😉

We received a complimentary Total Gym XLS for the purposes of this series; this post also contains affiliate links. This article is an account of our personal experience only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any medical condition. Always consult with physician before embarking on any fitness program.

As I mentioned yesterday, Jai and I both got sick before Christmas and it was one of the worst colds I’ve had in a long time. Usually, when I get a cold, it hits its peak and then slowly starts to let up, so I feel a little bit better every day – but not this one. This cold stayed at the same intensity and just did not get any better, and it just kept going and going for about 2 1/2 weeks. I took an unprecedented amount of sick time off work (for me) and although I did continue to work out on the Total Gym XLS when the cold first started, I soon gave that up. I’ve had a bad cough/chest congestion, and moving around just made me feel worse in that regards so I opted to let myself rest and recover. Jai also got a lot of achey muscle pain with his cold, so we’ve just been a mess overall. 😉 Now that my cough has finally let up, I started working out again yesterday, and it feels so good, physically and mentally!

So with our sickness hiatus in mind, here are our measurements after about 2 1/2 weeks off:

New Year’s is typically the time when people are making resolutions and getting started with a new fitness routine, so if this is something you’re working on, I’d love to hear all about it!

We received a complimentary Total Gym XLS for the purposes of this series; this post also contains affiliate links. This article is an account of our personal experience only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any medical condition. Always consult with physician before embarking on any fitness program.

It’s week 14 with the Total Gym XLS:

This week, I’ve been really digging in to the stack of DVDs that came with our XLS. I’ve really been enjoying the AbCrunch Workout With Rob Glick, which is the the companion piece to the AbCrunch attachment. It’s a short DVD, so it would be easy to do if you were time crunched for ab crunches (Har har), but it’s a killer workout. I have done it twice in the last week and my abs are so sore – in a good way – that it hurts to laugh! Jai was also impressed with how much of a workout this gave him.

I’ve been combining the AbCrunch with other ab and upper body exercises from the deck of workout cards and working out for about an hour. On “Alternating” days, I’ve been having fun looking at some of the other DVDs: Last night I did part of the upper body portion of the 5-Day Advanced Program, and last week I had a look at the GRAVITYPilates Infused Core. The Pilates DVD works your legs a lot, so I ended up shelving it for later since I didn’t want to put too much strain on my knees; I already did some kneeling AbCruch exercises earlier in the week, so it’s important that I don’t push it too much, since my knees do still get sore easily from working out and I have no desire to re-injure myself by going too hard. This makes it more challenging to get a full body workout in, and I have to get creative to think of how I can alternate muscle groups each day, but that’s totally OK!

I’ve been fighting to make more time in my schedule to take care of myself, which is why I’m enjoying spending more time using the Total Gym. This hour of working out includes my warm-up and cool-down stretches, flipping through the DVDs, adjusting the machine, and so forth. I worked out like this for several days last week, with one day being a quick and simple workout as I didn’t have as much time, and two days off. It’s so awesome being able to modify my workout routine around what’s going on, rather than having to say, “Oh, I guess I can’t do weights today because the gym closed before I could get there.”

What has your workout routine been like this week?