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 our third month using the Total Gym XLS! Here are today’s measurements:

My measurements weren’t great because I missed half the month exercising due to being under the weather. Fortunately, I’m back to my more normal exercise routine now, which I’m especially grateful for with it being the thick of the holiday season and Thanksgiving week! It’s going to be a rough week schedule and food wise, so it’s a huge, huge help to have the gym come to me. No holiday closures when the gym lives in your home!

How do you get your exercise in during the holidays? If you’re looking for some ideas, check out the video for a quick exercise I demonstrate on the XLS that you can do while wearing a dress!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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.

Neither Jai or I were feeling too fabulous last week – I took the whole week off using the Total Gym XLS and he used it for just a couple of days out of the week. The 3 to 4 hours of sleep and feeling sick was just killing me and making it really hard to function. Thank goodness I’m feeling better and have enough energy to re-join the human race now! I was up to working out last night and should be good to go for the rest of the week.

Fortunately, taking close to 2 weeks off didn’t set my progress back too much:

And I’ll tell you what – getting back into my workout routine after being under the weather is way easier with the Total Gym. Jumping on the XLS for a few minutes after being sickly is way, way more doable for than me than the idea driving to the gym or going for a jog!

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.

Today is our 70th day with the Total Gym XLS! Here’s how we’re doing:

I’m thankful that both our measurements are still on track this week. I was a little concerned for my own progress, because I have not been feeling well at all. I’ve got some kind of head/sinus cold trying to take hold and I’ve had a hard time getting any sleep; last week, I kept falling asleep at midnight and waking up automatically for the day at 4 AM. Every day. Yuck! I’ve pretty much been just dragging myself around to get what I need to done, so I only worked out twice last week. The Mayo Clinic has some sound advice about exercising while sick, with one of the messages being “Let your body be your guide”. So this week, I did just that. And happily, it hadn’t set my progress back any, so hopefully I’ll be feeling a lot better in a day or two. The lack of sleep is the worst part, so I’ll feel a lot more eager to workout when I’m not surviving on a couple of hours of sleep!

I’m curious: Do you work out when you’re under the weather?

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 our 9th week using the Total Gym XLS:

I spent last week wrapping up a lot of monster projects, and it feels good. My schedule has been a lot more manageable over the last few days which makes it possible to take much better care of myself – not just in terms of exercise, but also in terms of overall rest and morale. As a business owner, it’s hard to set those boundaries because there is always “More to do” – it’s easy on paper to say that you should just draw an arbitrary line in the sand and always quit work at X o’clock, but this is a huge challenge in social media because the very nature of this work is that it is time-sensitive and often you have to quickly jump on opportunities. One important point I’ve taken home over the last few years is that the business approach this field is different in many ways from my traditional journalism background, so it’s important not to weigh myself down with business practices that are no longer practical – I think it’s important to know when to quickly toss aside “The old model” because everything is changing so rapidly. I think we’re all doing our best to figure out the best ways to achieve work-life balance during this transition phase – and that goes for everyone in the modern world, not just those working in social media! – so it’s important to just do our best and go with it as we forge our path and feel out the best way forward.

So for someone like me, the Total Gym is such a lifesaver because of its flexibility. It’s there as much or as little as I need it – the other night, I started a pot of water boiling on the stove, loaded up the washing machine, and then hopped on the XLS – which is located in the room between the kitchen and laundry room – to do a set of squats and crunches. When the water boiled, I was done with my mini-workout! It’s great being able to work on this machine spontaneously, since my big challenge working in this field is how erratic my schedule can be. It’s constantly changing, so the flexibility of being able to workout whenever it’s convenient that day really helps immensely. Jai loves to get on this all through the day – he’ll walk by it and decide to hop on for a few minutes to work on a muscle group. I was cracking up on Halloween when I looked over and saw this:

I don’t think there’s any better testament to the ease of using this at anytime than seeing someone decide to work out in their Halloween costume! I had to take a picture because it was entertaining me so much. (He said, “I’m practicing rowing the boat!”)

In terms of physical gains this week, I’m pleased that I’m feeling comfortable doing leg/lower body workouts now. I think back to when I was sitting in a wheelchair after dislocating my knees and feel so grateful that it’s beginning to seem like a more distant memory. I’m definitely ready to put that awful time far, far behind me! For Jai, he mentioned that lifting heavy items is feeling easier. Onwards to week 10!

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.

We’ve been using our Total Gym XLS for two months now – wow! Here are our measurements from today, compared with our measurements from day one:

Jai has been building muscle in his chest and arms, which is his goal, while losing inches in the waist and thighs – he’s doing great! I’ve been losing on my arms and chest and pretty much holding steady on the lower measurements, which makes sense to me, since I have been primarily been doing arm-based exercises with the XLS. In the last few weeks, I’ve started doing more lower body workouts as I feel more comfortable with it and can do quite a bit of leg exercises now without hearing my knees pop and crunch constantly, so as always, slow and steady wins the race with gently getting my healed knees used to their full athletic capability again.

Given what a stressful, hectic month this has been and that we’ve been on the go constantly, I’m pretty impressed with what we’re continuing to get out of the Total Gym. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t be happy to be getting these kinds of results from such a small time investment. We’ve had the unit for two months, and in October I’ve been using the XLS for an average of maybe 30-40 minutes 3-4 days a week. (I used it 5 days a week in September, when I wasn’t going out of town every weekend…) It’s nice to know that you can still hold steady and make progress when months are as overwhelming as this one!

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 our seventh week with the Total Gym XLS! Measurement time:

This was a rough week; not with the Total Gym, but with everything else. Our schedule with both work and personal commitments has been really punishing and taking good care of ourselves has been a challenge. I made it through the weekend with about 3 hours of sleep, working hard to take care of everything that had to happen, and the lack of sleep has been brutal. When I can’t get to bed until 4 AM, it makes it difficult to work out because I can’t bear to stay awake any longer, especially when I have to get back up at 9 AM – you know what I mean? I hate to even say it because it sounds like I’m just whining, but there’s no avoiding the topic of my schedule since I’m being honest about my fitness journey and quest for better health. Clearly, surviving on a couple of hours of sleep is not anywhere to be found on a list of “Healthy things to do”! 😉

I’ve actually been fighting very hard to reclaim my schedule this month, although you wouldn’t know that by how overbooked I still am! But I’ve been turning down a lot of things and cutting out a lot of stuff – many of this month’s projects are just prior commitments or unavoidable loose ends related to our home renovations that I just had to get through and make the best of. Doing a total DIY renovation is a big challenge at the best of times, and since Jai and I work so many hours each week, the only way we’ve ever been able to make progress on our home improvements is just by creating the time to do it out of thin air – hence, all these late nights!

Although neither Jai or I got to use the XLS as much as we wanted to – I worked out 3 days last week, and Jai did roughly the same – I still had my small wins with it. I’ve been doing crunches on the Total Gym with my legs held up in the air, and I think back to 2012 when I was still having trouble walking and feel so grateful for how far I’ve come. I’m also noticing that some of the exercises are getting a little too “Easy” so I’m thinking I might boost the XLS up to Level 3 for some exercises and Level 2 for others, depending on how challenging they are to me. One thing that is wonderful about having a gym in the home like this is that my idea of a “Bad week” now is only working out 3 times – as opposed to a “Bad week” just a few months ago that would involve zero exercise. By having this in my home, I’m still able to at least hold steady when things get really bad and keep it from going completely out of control – right after my hell weekend was over, I was right back on the Total Gym Monday night. I can’t tell you how many times in the past a “Bad week” has turned into a “Bad month” where I end up skipping the gym for weeks and weeks, so I feel that this definitely helps me to avoid those huge “Two steps forward, two steps back” cycles. Also, I’m noticing that my back is less prone going out when I’m stuck working in front of a computer for long periods of time, and I suspect that this is because I’m able to be more active during these hectic periods and keep everything from seizing up. So while this may not have been the greatest week ever, it’s certainly not the worst.

How do you keep active (and sane) when you’re overbooked?

We’ve been using the Total Gym XLS for 6 weeks now. Here is our progress from last week:

Last week was a blur between the cat-astrophes and late night in Portland. I can quite confidently say that there is no way I would have time to visit my local gym right now, so I am very thankful to have a quick solution in the home. The more we use the XLS, the more we see its versatility. Jai told me this morning that he thought there were a few exercises he wouldn’t be able to replicate on this – he’s more into building muscle and I’m more into toning, so we have slightly different goals and approaches, although there’s a lot of overlap – but he discovered yesterday that he could do those very exercises just by modifying his posture and kneeling on the board rather than sitting. Unlike other home workout equipment that I’ve used, such as dumbbells or ab rollers, this gives me the ability to work every muscle group the way I would at the gym, on one piece of equipment.

Jai moved the incline level up to 6 last week, which is the maximum incline, while I’ve been working on Level 2. I think it’s pretty cool that we can both challenge ourselves with the same piece of equipment and adjust it quickly for our individual needs!

Do you work out with your significant other? How do your routines differ?

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.

Can you believe that we’ve had our Total Gym XLS for over a month now? Here are mine and Jai’s measurements for the last week:

Another great week with the XLS! I moved the incline up to Level 2 last night, so it’s neat to feel myself getting better and stronger with the exercises. I’m noticing a difference in my body tone and can see the beginning of improvement in my arms and waist particularly. It’s a little surprising to me how much I’ve been getting out relatively so little time – I’m spending a lot less time working out now that I have the Total Gym versus a brick-and-mortar gym membership, since it’s a much more efficient use of time, but I’m still seeing the benefits. I think having the Total Gym in my house helps me be more consistent, since I can do a little bit every day rather than a few intense workouts when I have bigger chunks of time available. For example, on days when I’m really toast and I really don’t want to exercise, the fact that I know I only have to spend 2 minutes on the Total Gym is enough encouragement for me to go through with it – especially since I don’t have to do any special preparations, wear special clothes, drive anywhere, put on makeup, or whatever. And surprise surprise, once I actually start doing the exercises, I usually feel good enough doing it that I want to continue for a few more minutes than I thought.

One thing that continues to impress me about this unit is the versatility and seemingly unlimited amount of workouts that can be done on it. I was concerned that a home gym setup would get old quickly because we might be limited in what we could do, but the Total Gym has so many options that Jai and I have barely even begun to scratch the surface. So far, we’ve been following the workout cards and watched part of the introductory DVD – I haven’t even looked at the entire deck of cards or the 6 other DVDs I received with the XLS. I’ve been getting SUCH a good workout just from these basic moves that I wanted to continue enjoying them and really get my form down well. Now that I’ve had a month to build confidence with the unit, I’ve also been able to start integrating more leg workouts on it – and that’s the great thing about this: You can adjust it to what your comfort level and physical capabilities are.

If you’re curious to see some examples of the kind of techniques illustrated on the workout cards that come with the unit, you can click here to download a sample workout PDF.

Have you had any fitness wins this week?

Jai and I have been using our Total Gym XLS for 28 days now – check out our results for month 1:

I’m already starting to see some muscle definition in my arms and increases in strength – considering that I’ve been taking it slow this month as I learn my way around the machine and get used to working out again after a long break, I think that’s pretty awesome! Jai is really loving the Total Gym as well, and has been slowly taking up the resistance to make his workouts more challenging. His goal is to build more muscle and my goal is to trim down and tone, so the unit is totally versatile for whatever workout you’re going for!

Having a machine in the comfort of my own home has been even more of a time-saver than I could have imagined. I’m actually spending less time working out but still seeing results – even though I’ve been down for the count the last 2 weeks and my workouts have been more sporadic. In my last update, I talked about how I got a bug that mercifully passed through quickly, and then last Friday I started getting a flare-up of esophageal spasms that lasted through Monday. When I get an attack like this, it causes intense chest and muscle pain, which working out would have exacerbated, so I took a break. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to have set my progress back too much and now I’m feeling much better!

In fact, I hope this would be an encouragement to anyone reading this, because Jai and I aren’t personal trainers or fitness gurus; we’re just real people living real life. We work like crazy, we have tons of commitments and not enough time for them all, and we get sick and have to take days off. And yet, here is a solution that is working for us amidst the chaos. I truly love being able to hop on the gym at the end of the day, when I’m cleaning up the kitchen in my PJs and getting ready to take a shower and head to bed. It makes my life so much easier and makes it actually feasible to do something to take care of myself, because let’s be real, I’m not going to get dressed and go for a run at 1 AM. Our local gym isn’t even open that late! But I can do a quick workout in the privacy of my own home, and I don’t have to wear special clothes or find my car keys. And after the first big storm of the season hit our area early in the year, am I ever glad that I will have a way to exercise in my warm, comfortable house – that will certainly eliminate a big excuse not to workout as we delve into the holiday season!