Does the gym offer any type of Aerobic classes? Or, do you have a local MMA dojo that offers a "Combat Cardio" class?

You don't have to do the same resistance training, but a good aerobic program is always a benefit.

Yes she was enthusiastic to both. You won't be able to pick anything up for the first few days, so keep that in mind.

My wife and I go to the gym together; howhowever, we font work out together because she wants machines and I want free weights.

t/j to kiltedthrower, can I ask why you prefer free weights?

We just negotiate what exercises to do, and always either do the same exercise or something next to each other, because our whole point is the UA time, and the exercise is secondary to that.

Depending on the proximity of local parks, or the amount of back yard you have - you could always assemble a "farm boy" home gym consisting of;

2 30ft lengths of 3" rope
1 Large tractor tire
1 10-20lb sledge hammer
1 Keg

Find plans and assemble a chinup bar.

All that, and who needs a gym?

I'm not KT, but the free weights tone better and make the support muscles work that the weight machines don't.

And, hubby loves that I'll do free weights with him when he's in town. When he's out of town I stick to the girly weight machines.

I could write on teh benefits of machines, but for my goals free weights work better. My workout is typically divided into 2-3 different portions. I have a strength portion in which I primarily concern myself with Olympic lifts, front squat, back squat, deadlift, push press, or dumbbell press. You can't recreate these movements accurately on a machine like you can free weights.

My next workout portion is typically very high intensity metabolism work. As an example, yesterdays workout involved pairing front squats with jumping rope. Or I might run a triple set of burpees (you can google these), dumbbell swings, and chin ups. It�s almost like cardio but with weights. Basically cardio or aerobic work is getting your heart rate up for X amount of time. I can do the same affect but with weights and create an anaerobic environment that burns more calories over all for a longer duration of time than getting bored on a treadmill for 45-60 minutes. And the benefit is you get more done in less time. Check out crossfit.com or crossfitfootball.com for an example of the type of workouts I do (I don�t follow their workouts but mine are similar or based on a lot of the stuff they do). This type of stuff really helps with throwing competitions, playing indoor soccer, and just being really fit. I can get what would normally take me 45-60 minutes done in under 30 minutes. And when you set stuff against the clock, you work faster and harder.

Since I�m now into week 2 of a 12 week competition (like the last one) it behooves me to create as much of a calorie burning environment as possible while building muscle. Doing the machine circuit setup won�t really help me as most if it involves sitting or lying down. But machines are great if you really want to isolate a muscle.

Now I do use machines. I�ll use leg press as an assistance movement after squats. I�ll use the bicep curl machine to if I really want to emphasize the biceps and not worry about engaging other muscles. And I really like the cable machine. One of my other issues is I get really bored sitting on a machine and counting out 10 reps (or how many ever reps you use) and then going to the next machine and doing the same thing.

I�ve also noticed that women �specially love the high intensity stuff. Typically with the female clients I have, I�ll have 1-2 days of typical gym work with a mix of machines and free weights that will take about 30ish minutes with middle reps (no high reps for �toning� There�s no such thing as �toning�. I know what people mean when they say this but tone refers to muscle tone or tonus.) And then I�ll give them a 10 minute �finisher� where they kick their heart rate up into high gear. This helps get them in better shape and get their strength up and some muscle building. Then 1-2 days of real high intensity against the clock type stuff�they usually almost always love these days so much more because it�s challenging and keeps them excited. And the other days gets them excited because they go �Wow! Look! I�m now pressing X lbs and when I started I was only doing X lbs!� Guys do also to some extent like the high intensity stuff but not quite as much as a lot of women do. In fact, if you go and look over at the crossfit.com site, you�ll see a lot of women.

Okay. I think I went off into left field for a simple question lol

Sometimes I think it'd be nice if we did also. But she has absolutely no desire to do my type of workouts and I'd be bored to tears if I did her machine circuit. But I think it's awesome you two have worked this healthy habit into UA time.

One time I was trying to show my wife how to do a clean and jerk. Well, I didn't get my head out of the way in time and smashed the bar into my chin and chipped a nice chunk off one of my teeth. She laughed and said, "Ummmm...no thanks"

I used to do this type of workouts until we moved and couldn't take the tractor tire with us. Keg throws, sledgehammer swings, tire flips, rope climbing. Maybe when we move back into a house by the end of this year, I'll go get another tractor tire and get back to doing this type of stuff.

It can be hard to get a lot of hypertrophy off this type of workouts is the downside.

Quick lesson. No such thing as toning. Tone refers to muscle tone or tonus. I blame Cosmo or some other women's fitness magazine for starting this misnomer of a term.

My exercise physiology professor would threaten to throw things at people when they used the word 'toning'.

If I get any muscular hypertrophy going, the W will kick me out of bed. She likes trim, but not cut.

I think she's on drugs...


Aaaaaaaaaaanyway... my workout yesterday consisted of 30 minutes of mat work in Judo. Almost nothing else compares to the fatigue that 30 minutes of grappling will put on you.

Yep hardest thing I ever did was boxing and wrestling. I think I'll stick to weights but after my wife runs her marathon. I'm excited to cheer her on when she crosses that finish line. Admittedly I didn't do that in the past. It's important to have your husband be there when you accomplish something outstanding! I'm totally fine with her training because she IS spending UA with me now!

That made me laugh. I remember when I first started working out, my wife told me she didn't want me getting "all big and gross". It's funny that the 'bigger' I get the more her definition of what "big and gross" is. Of course I'm no where near bodybuilder big. Yet.

I also laughed the day I got shredded for my last competition. She hadn't been a huge "yay for abs" kinda girl. Then I had these great abs and she said, "You know, I think I do like abs." We all laughed and high fived.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer this, KT. I have done both: machines and free weights and seem to have better results with free weights. Like you, I do use weights with my cardio and it increases the intensity. I have been doing HIIT solely for the reason that it helps my blood sugar. It does increase my appetite, but both aerobics and HIIT bring down the glucose circulating in my blood stream, which helps my insulinism.

I will head over and check out crossfit. Right now I am doing alot of the older Firms and a Cathe Friedrich HIIT.

Sorry for the threadjack!!

Average night, not a good morning. I have all the same old feelings of me not being important to my wife after last night. Affection shut off like a faucet, she said she was just tired. I sent her a note in the afternoon about "if I put all the kids down tonight and pick up some bath salts on the way home would you be open to taking a bath with me?" She sent a note back, "honestly I'm too tired." We had stayed up late, reasonable request so I shifted to thoughtful mode, picked up some "sleepy tea" for her so she could go to bed early and be well rested. Body language was different the entire night. No affection, little sarcastic(both of us), she sat on the recliner and I sat on the couch. Last night before bed I asked respectfully if we could "make sure and not get complacent", and she agreed. She did make one sarcastic comment last night about the previous night which stuck which was, "well I gave you SF last night and met your needs" as if to say "I gave you loving now I get to take the day off from MB and you should consider yourself lucky." This morning rather than do the stew face I brought it up and mentioned that there was a shift in body language from her and that I had some of the same old feelings as before of not being important to her. Then it began. "Sorry, but its not my fault." "I was tired cause of the kids." "You're reading into it." "If you hadn't of had me stay up late then I wouldn't be so tired." On and on and on. Same thing she always has done in the past which was, "you shouldn't feel this way", and "its not my fault." I admit a "you're crazy woman face slipped out" during an AO by her. She through in a "I can't stand you" comment for good measure. I said, "I don't think we should talk right now" and its been silence ever since. I know it can't be peachy all the time, but needless to say this was very disappointing and a huge step backwards. I can't control her so I'm gonna be a big boy and attempt to do what I need to do to control me. My question is, what do I do from here? How long do I let things blow over and calm down? I'll go read some more in a bit here, gonna work out of the house today so maybe we'll have some time to chat. Stay tuned.

By the way she did say, "If we don't stay up late for a week and drink wine, then we can hang out comment." I pointed out this was an SD, she didn't like my having done so. To her credit later she said, "How can I respectful ask you not to stay up super late with me?" We've been having fun together so the staying up late seemed natural to me, like if it ain't broke don't fix it. She obviously doesn't want to continue the pattern of staying up late so we need to POJA about it I suppose. I think we also stay up late because it is our only time together during the week. If the kids go down at 8pm and we go to bed at 9pm, then its hard to get enough UA together you know?

Hill, your posts above are absolutely loaded with disrespectful judgments. At the core, it is obvious that you believe that she is wrong to feel the way she feels.


What do you do? You:

* meet emotional needs
* avoid love busters

What are you planning to do nice for her to meet her emotional needs, today?

If she wants to talk about it, let her talk, and listen, and use the information she provides you to modify your behavior. If she does not want to talk about it, don't talk about it.

I have suggested numerous times that you thank your wife for putting up with you, Hill. Here you are going out committing DJs again. That's a lot for your wife to have to deal with. You should probably express your admiration and appreciation to her for putting up with that.

What did you find disrespectful or demanding about the way she asked? It sounded quite respectful to me, like a request, not a demand.


Okay, your perspective here sounds pretty valid to me, but are you saying that her perspective should not have even been expressed? That she was wrong to suggest change?

Remember to use the policy of joint agreement as your guide. If one of you becomes unenthusiastic about something you are doing, even if it's something you've negotiated before, you immediately STOP DOING IT! and begin negotiating something else. Be creative and brainstorm and look for something that will make you both happy.

That doesn't seem like a very effective way to squeeze in UA time. If she is tired at that time, that would be the WORST time to schedule UA time. I would plan nights OUT, away from the children, at a time when she is not exhausted. Is she exhausted at 5 or 6pm during the week? Is she exhausted at 1:00 on Saturday? Find good times to schedule UA time away from the kids when you are not tired.

HT, that is not a SD. She was telling you she doesn't want to do that. Do you have the book Lovebusters?