Recently I was in a clothes shop, and I mentioned to the salesperson that I had trimmed down a little bit. She then asked if I had been going to the gym.

The answer is yes and no.

Gym memberships are expensive and guarantee us nothing. We have to make the effort to get there and work out. Wouldn't it be great if you could buy a block of motivation to go with that?

The good thing about a gym is once you are there... motivation is easy. Everybody is working out. You are there to exercise, and (unless you spend the whole time talking to someone) you will come away feeling like you've achieved something.

Working out on home equipment lacks the camaraderie but is very convenient.

I have tried both - home gym and paid membership... and it very much depends on your personal circumstances. I will say this: While a paid gym has vastly superior equipment - this is no substitute for personal intensity or commitment.

At home I can get away with panting like a tired dog, emitting the occasional grunt, and doing exercises like Burpees or Tuck Jumps without getting really strange looks.

Whatever gets the job done...

Every other week another new fitness gadget is released. It seems we want to exercise without actually moving. Whether it's a Vibrating Power Plate or an iGallop - plain old bodyweight exercises just don't seem to be in vogue.

Over the last few weeks I've realized how astonishingly weak my abdominals are. That's because real strength and endurance requires real work. It requires sweat, and mental toughness... in fact anything but laziness.

I tried doing something called an "L-Sit". It is similar to a hanging leg raise - but you hold your legs in the L position. It's something gymnasts are extremely good at. The challenge with an L-Sit is actually holding your legs in place for any duration. Jeremy provides a great guide to increasing abdominal strength here (there is a lot about various leg raises).

There is considerable discussion surrounding the objectification of women in modern media. But what about men? The pressure to be heavily-muscled grows stronger every day.

Tracy Tylka, of the Ohio State University reviewed previous studies and found that:

"...media images of men in action toys, Playgirl centerfolds, etc., have become increasingly muscular over the last 25-30 years."

Tylka also surveyed 285 college men. The men felt considerable pressure to conform to an idealized image. This pressure led them to "work out so much that weight training interfered with other parts of their lives."

I'm sure the protein supplement industry loves the trend - not to mention the growth of steroid use among gym lifters.

Do you feel the pressure to get ripped? Does it lead you to pursue a healthy lifestyle or an unhealthy one?

What is it about the not-so-humble bench press? It must be one of the most popular weight training exercises around. In my local gym, over a period of a year I must have seen only 3 individuals using the pull-up bar - but the bench press? That was almost always occupied.

Glamour Sport?
The sport of powerlifting comprises 3 lifts - the squat, deadlift, and bench press. However only one of these has it's own special competition. Yes... there are bench press champs (but no dedicated squat or deadlift champs).

Bench Press Goals
I always thought that being able to press your body weight was a great achievement. That is until I came across a CrossFit workout that left me staring like a goldfish. I'll call it Bench Press Extreme... you'll soon see why.

Bench Press Extreme
So you thought you were good at the bench press? Try this:

• Seven rounds bench pressing your body weight:
• Number of reps each round: 21 - 18 - 15 - 12 - 9 - 6 - 3
• In between the bench press rounds, do the same amount of pull-ups.

I had to read and re-read that workout. Yes, this is asking for a grand total of 84 Reps at a weight that equals your own body weight. If you weigh 180 pounds, you bench 21 reps at 180 pounds. Then you do 21 pull-ups. Then you go back to the bench and do 18 reps at 180 pounds, and so on.

Scalability
I thought I was doing okay being able to get out one rep of body weight. Boy do I know nothing.

Of course, with all such workouts they need to be scaled right down to appropriate weights. Also, the reps must be done in whatever fashion possible. In the 21 rep round, for example, you might do 7-7-7 - but form should never be sacrificed.

As with many CrossFit workouts, the stopwatch is running - this provides a benchmark.

Reality Check
What did I do? I scaled the weight right down. All rounds were severely broken up. Pull-ups very quickly turned into jumping pull-ups. On round number 5 I hit utter failure, and needed a spotter to lift the weight off (okay you can stop laughing now!). After that I gave up. But next time... next time... I will complete the Bench Press Extreme!

There's an active discussion going on over at Diet Blog in response to a survey on eating and exercise habits. One figure that stands out:

40% of obese people claimed they did 'vigorous' exercise at least three times per week.

I find that difficult to believe - and it's not about being obese or skinny (in fact many skinny people are woefully unfit).

Theory of Relativity
It's a case of relativism. What is vigorous to one person, is nothing to someone else. For some people a 100 meter walk might feel 'vigorous'.

Which begs the question: What is vigorous to you?

I had no idea until I started doing CrossFit workouts. If that's not vigorous I don't know what is. I am still having to significantly scale the workouts (but have had quite a setback with a bout of flu virus).

Here is a recent workout:

• 400m run
• 30 (yes that's thirty repetitions) 'Thrusters' at 65 pounds weight. A thruster is a front squat (i.e. bar across the chest/shoulders). However when coming upward from the squat, some explosive power is required to thrust the bar above your head (i.e. a shoulder press).
• 30 pull-ups (okay so I'm years off achieving this).

Then do it all again... and again (3 rounds total). I scaled the weight down, and had to use jumping pull-ups. And even then I bailed after two rounds.

Now THAT is vigorous exercise.