Several months ago I received the KettleWorx Ultra 5 to review. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I never got around to doing the review before surgery, since I was so busy preparing for surgery and doing day-to-day things. Then I had surgery. Then I was recovering. Well, I followed my surgeon’s orders and didn’t do any kind of exercise for eight weeks. Now I’m a day shy of being nine weeks post-op, and it’s time to do something. My stomach is a hopeless cause, seeing as how it wasn’t too nice to begin with. But I want to try and tone up as a whole, and I definitely want to work on my arms, lest the leaning-towards-bingo-flaps look turns into outright bingo flaps. 
So starting tomorrow, I’m going to incorporate the KettleWorx into my daily routine. Since I’m most concerned about my arms, Dan suggested I work on the “resistance” exercises, but I think I’ll start with the introduction DVD, and them move onto the resistance DVD.
By the way, I am most definitely in a size 20 now! :D
Let us know if the kettleworx videos work! I’m always wary about exercise videos . . but then again, I never actually follow through with them :B
Hehe n_n I like the “bingo flaps” description. I’ve always called them bingo-wings though.
Congrats on the size 20 :]
You can work way more than just your arms with a kettle bell. My trainer made my abs so sore with one of those things I moaned every time I sneezed for the next few days. You can pretty much do an entire above-the-waist workout with them. How many pounds is it?
Also remember that any toning you do right now is just going to make your arms look BIGGER, not smaller. I’ve been having that problem. Although, I REALLY like flexing my bicep in the mirror now that I HAVE a bicep. *giggle*
Just thought you should know that on my browser (it’s called flock, it uses mozilla interface though) the comment box/website box go out towards the links/etc. I don’t know if that’s intentional or not, but I figured you should know. Congrats on the weightloss and the surgery and good luck with toning up.
I highly recommend resistance ropes!!! I bought a set at Wal-Mart that came with a 30 minute workout DVD and it has been awesome in helping me keep my arms really TONED! I’ve been wanting to try Kettle bell exercise myself so I hope you like the Kettleworx =) Congrats on getting down to a size 20! I remember being in a size 22 and I still have my skort in that size to look back on and say to myself… NEVER AGAIN! I also recommend walking (of course!)
@Shellie: I kept my jeans in a size 26 — the ones that fit SNUG last spring — as a reminder of where I came from. It’ll be so neat when I’m small enough to fit in one leg of them, lol.
I definitely plan on walking, as soon as it gets a little warmer! Once the temps are around 45-50 in the daytime, I’ll definitely take Leah and my iPod to the local park and walk!
The quickest way to get rid of the flab is to just focus on your biceps, triceps, and shoulders – build up those muscles. You don’t need anything special aside from some comfortable hand weights/dumb bells and 10-20 minutes a day.
I started with two 3lb hand weights until it felt like it was way too easy to lift (took about 2-3 weeks), then I switched over to 5lb weight. Within those first few weeks I could SEE the difference – there was less fat bulge when I had my arms down at my sides, less jiggle when I held my arms out to my sides and waved, and I had some minor definition when I flexed.
I didn’t do anything special, just your basic strength training exercises for the upper arms and shoulders – hammer curls (biceps), french press curls (triceps), front raises (shoulders), standing shoulder press and chest flies (chest/breast). CHEST FLIES ARE AMAZING!!
I did 2-3 reps (1-2 minute break between reps) of 10-15 hammer curls & french curls every day (or a variation of them) along with 1 of the shoulder or chest exercises a day, 5 days a week, and made sure to take in extra protein directly before or after.
At most I would spend 20 minutes a day doing this, it was incredibly easy and fun and extremely effective! Just start with a comfortable lower weight (I started with 3lb) so you don’t over tear your muscles and be sure to raise/lower the weights slowly – that’s the key.
I found this page with pictures of some of the exercises I did: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html