upper body, my gym.....and thoughts

I wrote an article for hhwclub about "home gym on a budget" and wanted to share with you a few things we got great deals on. The first picture above shows our smith machine. We got this at a garage sale and about 10 plate weights (olympic weights) for 75 bucks! What a steal!
The leg extension machine (blue) is something my hubby bought way back when we were a two income family, it was around 350.oo bucks. I am sure if you shop around at garage sales or new papers you can find a deal on one of these too. The exercise balls are about 15.00 at walmart or academy. My dumbbells (the weights I have in my hand) were bought at garage sales or on sale at academy. The black weight bench was something we needed despretely as our old one was worn out... this one we found at a garage sale where a group of college guys were selling out because they were graduating from college :) That bench was about 15 or 20 bucks.

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Today i did chest (bench press and flies on the ball), shoulders (press) and bicep (curls) and will finish off with pushups :)

I am excited to share too. That I have decided to start studying for my personal trainer certification I will be using NASM and have downloaded one section they are offering for free until the end of July. My nephew used this program to get certified so he loaned me the text book for the other part of the curriculum. I began reading on the way home from San Antonio yesterday and loved learning about it all :) I will eventually be offering personal training and support in person and on the web ... how much fun will that be! Hope to take the test later this fall ... to think I could be a marathoner AND a personal trainer by Christmas would be sooo cool!

I am soooooo happy to be home again! .. It was a fun but quick trip but it is so nice to be able to be back on my schedule for eating, sleeping, and working out :) Home is always nice to come back to isnt it! I am resting my legs today with the exception for a walk today with the kids so they can run around the track since it rained track practice out this morning :)