Ok so when I decided to get healthy quit smoking and make some life style changes I bought some exercise equipment before starting my dietary change. I bought a rowing machine (which I love) and I just got an assault bike. The assault bike is like hell on earth , I can barely do three minutes on it, maybe it’s bc I’m tired from not being full fat adapted yet, but my question is what gym equipment is good when your trying to work out but still feeling like crap. I am just so tired, I got a busy lifestyle so I don’t really know if I’m tired from that or my carb withdrawls keto flu symptoms (although I’m feeling better. In the beginning did anyone else have a hard time working out? At what point did you have the energy to work out once going into ketosis ? Thanks
What gym equipment do you use?
You are using two mostly cardio machines.
If you want to build muscle, you have to lift heavy.
What I use myself mostly is kettlebells - you can do deadlifts, rows etc. but, you can do the hard style swings - really a good almost-full-body exercise.
In my personal experience your energy levels should rebound in two weeks or so after starting keto, but it may be different for someone else. It seems counter-intuitive, but working out a couple times a week generally improves my overall energy the next day.
I’d echo what Rob said about kettlebells if you’re truly starved for time. There’s nothing faster than doing some HIIT with heavy kettlebells in your own home. With that said, I prefer the Stronglifts/5x5 heavy lifting when I have an hour+ to spare but you would need a gym for that.
Heavy bands and perfect push up bars. I’m old school. I prefer body weight exercises over machines. Harder to hurt myself. Best thing you can do though is walk regularly.
I use a mixture of things, depending on how motivated I am and how much time I have.
At home, I have 3 kettlebells, 12kg, and 2x 8kg, I also have a set of press up hold bars (good for planking), and an ab roller, which I haven’t used yet (supposedly VERY good)
In the gym, I use the Spin Bikes in the classes, and around that as my main exercise I also mix up treadmill, exercise bike, rowing machine, and the Power Vibro Plate.
I generally don’t lift weights in the gym, although I realise I probably should, I think you can achieve most of the same results with kettlebells, and probably a decent bench at home, but each to their own - I say this on the basis that most of the people I know aren’t elite athletes, and are just trying to get a bit fitter!
Also have a bike for the non-gym moments in life!
I do two days of heavy lifting, Mon and Thurs.
Workout A
Squats - 3x8
bench press/push ups - 3x8
Inverted Rows - 3x8
Back extension - 3x10
Workout B
Deadlift - 1x5
overhead press - 3x8
lat pulldown - 3x8
walking lunges
I do a bit on the elliptical to get my blood moving since I start at 5am and then do warmup sets based on my working set (the set I’m actually lifting). I do these on Mondays and Thursdays. Tuesday I do sprint intervals, Wednesdays I do stairs. Friday is rest, weekend is hiking/family time.
I can not stress the importance of strength training enough. You will not get bulky. Your body composition will change. Your metabolism will increase. You will increase bone density. You will feel incredible. Pick any horizontal push/pull (pushup, inverted row) combo, any vertical push/pull combo (OHP, lat pulldown, a hinge movement (like a deadlift) and squat. It can be pretty short, just work hard and at the level that is heavy for you and make sure you have correct form. You will increase quickly. Newbie gains are a thing. You Are Your Own Gym is also great for progressive strength with bodyweight only and you can do it all at home.
Avoid machines for lifting as much as possible. When you’re using free weights you’re employing more muscles and are not limited to the path to which the machine restricts you.
It can take becoming fat adapted to feel energized in a workout. I also make sure I have salt water after.
^^^THIS!
Before I started Keto, I ran 11 miles per day, which took up at least 2+ hours of my time (I wasn’t very fast 
). I started doing slow burn exercises and kettlebells recently and my body has completely changed. The scale hasn’t moved much, but I am dropping inches. I go down one pant size approximately every month. I am seeing muscles that I didn’t even know existed. Not to mention the fact that I now spend less than an hour each day exercising, rather than 2+ hours.
I even use the kettlebell swing for an aerobic workout as well!
I got my kettlebells at Kettlebell Kings - I like the look of the competition bells.
Expensive but, to me, that is motivational (they look nice AND I don’t want to feel I wasted my money!).
I concur, I’ve used this with good results: https://stronglifts.com/5x5/#gref
I still integrate into my weekly routine. It’s just not my single regimen anymore.
Dumbells, 3 - 8 lb, kettlebell 10 lb, and medicine balls 4 and 6 lb. Also, do yoga and walk half marathons.
You’ve received a lot of good suggestions. I’ll add this: the fun factor. You won’t do it if you hate it or if you aren’t motivated.
Previously I did an hour and a half of hula hooping most days. Then lifestyle changes happened.
These days I do half an hour of mini trampoline, plus 30-60 minutes of other exercises, depending on the day of the week. The other exercises include hula hooping and flagging (weighted silk flags for upper body), plus core, rehab exercises, stretches, etc.
I also find that if something isn’t either fun or top priority, I need to limit how long I do it (10 minutes or whatever), and/or not do it every day.
@RobC
I’d like to start a kettlebell routine(s) but not sure which weights to start with. I have a pair of 10-lbs dumbbells but need to go to a good bit higher I’m sure. 20? 25? 30? One or two of each?
Any good web sites or You Tube videos to recommend?
Keto and EF have knocked off 67 pounds but at age 68 I need to regain some muscle mass and overall strength.
I recommend always getting competition kettlebells because, regardless of weight, they have the same dimensions and handle size - making learning easier as you increase weight (and they look cool, so motivating). I like the company kettlebell kings but there are many great makers of competition bells. If you buy cheap non-competition bells to start and really get into it - you’ll want to hide those when you get good ones.
The other great thing about kettlebells is that, in the beginning, weight is not very important. I would start with 10 or 12 kilogram bells. You want to start low - if you have a gym with bells, try them there to get a feel for weight. If you have a bell that you think is too light - it is easy to do moves that make it a hard workout (hard swings which give you HIIT, Turkish getup, overhead press, fast snatches) and, if you have a heavier bell, it is easy to make that work too (deadlifts, rows, regular non-hard swings which are similar to cardio). You’ll quickly find out what is easy and hard when you try the moves on the video.
Videos - search for “kettlebell kings” on YouTube and then select videos that have the three Mind Pump Media guys:
Or any videos with this pro (Brittany Van Schravendijk - her name is right but my spellchecker is dead):
Or this pro (Mike Salemi):
Chin Ups/Pull Ups
Body squats
Bar dips
Push Ups
You Can do all w NO gym access as well, if Desired Many Local parks will have various things to use for exercise
Love them Monkey Bars!
Works for me
Oops - forgot the “one or two of each” question.
At competition kettlebell prices you want to be strategic.
For example, lets say you want to do squats at 44 kilograms.
You could buy a 44 kilogram bell (and do “goblet squats”) or you could buy two 22 kilogram bells (and do “2 kettlebell front squat”).
The upside to 2 bells is that you can also do a bunch of exercises with one of the 22 kilogram bells.
So, you are more likely to eventually want some sets of duplicate bells at lower weights but, at the very high weights, just one (like a single 44 KG bell for deadlifts - at $250, you don’t want two of these!).
One bell to start and see if it is your cup of tea!
I’ve gotten an Assault Bike at home. Following the Engine plan from Gains Lab - to develop both aerobic and anaerobic systems, get in shape for Ultimate. As a good geek, I’m watching HR and HRV 
It’s challenging but only 30 minutes a day. By following a program I work much harder than I’d push myself. If HRV goes too low I’ll skip a day.
Schwinn Airdyne
York olympic bar & plates
power rack
standing calf
dip stand
York dumbbells
pull down
leg press
seated calf
leg extension attachment
leg curl attachment
flat bench
I put all of the above in a basement gym 35 years ago, trained for 10 years, then took a 25 year layoff. A year ago I came back and lucky to have the equipment and 10 previous years of experience.
Best results come from 3 whole body workouts per week, 1 set of 12 exercises, 25 minutes. I figured this out with 6 months of daily bio impedance scale data.
@Lbomb Yeah, it’s pretty rugged. I’m wearing an HR monitor between 150 and 162. Getting comfortable huffing and puffing like that is a challenge
I can do 18 cals / minute in 30-second bursts, but can’t imagine doing it for an hour – https://www.instagram.com/p/Blp99C-BebV/
Wow that’s awesome, have you ever seen the cross fit tournaments and how long some of those people do it? I can’t even imagine lol