I have an exciting announcement to share with you this afternoon: Over the next three months, Jai and I will be serving as brand ambassadors for Total Gym! We’ve received a Total Gym XLS to review and keep, and will be chronicling our experience and progress through posts, photos and videos. So what inspired us to take on this challenge?

I used to be very adamant about maintaining a gym membership rather than working out at home. At previous times in my life, this worked best for me because it gave me a nice transition in my work day – working at home, it was great to shift gears by getting out of the house and out of “Work mode” by hitting the gym and working out tension. When I returned to my home, I felt ready to start other tasks and start winding down my day. I always thought that working out at home would be impossible, because I imagined getting interrupted constantly by people knocking on the door, phone calls, and the like.

But my feelings on this changed with my schedule. At the beginning of the year, I was going to the gym almost every day, but it wasn’t easy because I couldn’t get into a groove with the timing on it. This has been a crucial year for my business and I’ve been working very long hours, not to mention all the other things I have to deal with outside of my job. The only time that really worked for me to go was in the late afternoon or evening, and so I’d find myself rushing to the gym around 7 PM, getting home late and feeling extra hungry for dinner – by the time I got home, showered and settled in, I’d end up getting to bed later than I wanted to; and I don’t get a lot of sleep as it is. This wasn’t working, but it was the only time I had to do it, since I work in the mornings and it’s just not feasible for me to get away and hit the gym because I am too busy early in the day. Not only do I have time-sensitive work tasks that consume my morning, but I’m also more of a morning person than an evening person, so I’d rather do my workouts after the day is over when I’ve exhausted all my brainpower, rather than schedule my work for a time when I can’t think as clearly.

These scheduling challenges also made it more difficult for Jai, who has his own work schedule and needs, because we usually tried to hit the gym together. Between trying to coordinate, getting myself together, and getting out the door, it was becoming really hard to make it work. Not to mention, we’re focusing our time and resources on the business right now, so the gym had become out of our budget.

I knew there had to be an alternative we could do at home, and while we tried various things, neither Jai or I could find a routine that worked. I tried following fitness videos on YouTube, but it didn’t provide enough structure and it seemed like a scavenger hunt getting workouts that I could follow and would work with my physical needs, since there are certain exercises I need to avoid or ease back into following the aftermath of my knee injury. Also, while I have a small pair of dumbbells and an abroller, that’s about it for gym equipment; doing weights is an important part of my fitness routine, so I needed a way to reproduce this. Jai had been doing some running, but we both needed something that would work indoors, since Seaside has notoriously lousy weather!

So when I attended FitBloggin’ in June, I marked down the Total Gym Demo session “How Total Gym Can Change Your Life” on my itinerary of things to check out. A personal trainer walked me through a slew of exercises on the machine, and I was really impressed by the versatility of what it could to – it seemed to emulate all the machines I would use at our local gym, and even though I only used it pretty briefly, my arms were sore for days from the workout – in a good way! After the conference, I told Jai how impressed I was, and he was really interested in learning more about it.

And that’s why I’m very excited to announce that Total Gym and I have partnered up for this special series! I can’t wait to share my journey with you and see what kind of results we get. Here’s some of the reasons why we’re excited to be the proud new owners of a Total Gym XLS:

• Workouts. As you’ll see, this machine is adjustable and comes with enough attachments to really emulate almost any machine you’d use at a gym. Our kit came packed with so many workout DVDs and instructional cards that we haven’t even scratched the surface of what we can do with it.
• Space. I always pictured that having home gym equipment would be impossible due to the huge amount of room it would take up. Although the Total Gym does take up a bit of space while in operation, you can actually fold it and store it under a bed if need be.
• Time & Convenience. Since my schedule has changed, getting myself together to go to the gym has been really hard because I am so pressed for time – going out to the gym changed from being a welcome break to a big time burden. The wonderful thing about having the Total Gym is that it’s ready whenever I’m ready. I can break my workouts up through the day if I want, or take a break from my computer to stretch out my back and wrists when I start getting repetitive strain from sitting at my desk all day. I can now easily squeeze in my workout in the evenings when it is convenient, which is a huge stress reduction for me. I don’t have to worry about washing my special gym clothes or putting on makeup (Yes, I’m one of those people who wears makeup to the gym!). Honestly? I just hop on this thing in my PJs! It’s so easy and with my schedule at the moment, has been the perfect solution to the problem that has been keeping me from exercising.
• Low impact. As the trainer at FitBloggin’ showed me, you can do SO MANY exercises on here that put no strain on your knees at all, so I can take it as easy on my knees as I need to!
• Did I mention convenience? Jai can do his workout whenever he wants, and doesn’t have to try to time it with me like he did when we were going to the local gym together. Also, our home gym is open 24/7, so he can workout in the middle of the night if he feels like it!

I’m really excited to see what our results will be from using this – after my knee injury, I lost so much muscle tone that it’s really the main area I’ve been wanting to focus on after losing so much weight over the last year. I feel like toning up will be the #1 improvement I can make, since not being able to walk for so long left me with a really odd body shape. Having a reliable workout routine in place will take care of the rest of that and help me get into the kind of shape I want to be in!

Check out our introductory video below to see the unboxing of the unit and our initial thoughts:

These are our current measurements:

Beeb:

Arms – 10.7”

Chest – 36.3”

Waist – 29.2”

Hips – 37”

Thighs – 18”

Jai:

Arms – 13”

Chest – 39”

Waist – 38”

Hips – 37.5”

Thighs – 20.2”

Jai and I will be sharing our updates with you every Tuesday, along with our thoughts on the gym and how it’s working. We’ll wrap up every month with a video blog, and in mid-December we will share our final results and total inches lost with you!