The Total Gym is one of the most popular pieces of home fitness equipment around. It’s a great way to get in shape, but it can be hard to know exactly what exercises you should do on it.

The Total Gym offers a lot of exercise options, but if you’re just getting started with it or want to take your workout to the next level, here are some of our favorite workouts for weight loss on the Total Gym.

How does it work?

The Total Gym uses resistance bands and pulleys to provide different levels of resistance during each exercise. This lets you change up your workout without having to adjust weights or use equipment that’s not included with your Total Gym.

There are several different models in the Total Gym line, each with its own set of features and benefits. The Total Body Trainer 300 is one of the most popular models because it’s affordable and versatile enough for anyone who wants a full-body workout at home.

Total Gym Workout For Weight Loss

behind of a young man weighing himself on a scale

Has Anybody Lost Weight With Total Gym?

Weight Loss

As its name suggests, the Total Gym is a piece of fitness equipment that is designed to take the place of all the other equipment you might find in a workout facility. People have indeed lost weight by using the Total Gym — though if you want to be one of them, you should first understand the mechanisms of weight loss and how the Total Gym can help.

Strength Training Equipment

The Total Gym is, in essence, a piece of strength training equipment. On its website, Total Gym is described as a piece of “functional” resistance training equipment which utilizes your own body weight, providing resistance similar to what you might encounter during weight training. Strength training is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, reminds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The main function of strength training is to build muscle. Muscle requires more energy to maintain than fat tissue — so by building muscle, you’ll burn more calories throughout the day and you could lose weight over time.

Cardio Equipment

Your body requires calories — another word for energy — to move. When you burn more calories than your body requires for its basic functions, you’ll create a calorie deficit and you’ll lose weight. If you’re sedentary or you don’t exercise at all and you start using the Total Gym, you’re going to be moving your body more than you did before, and that could result in more calories burned and a subsequent calorie deficit. That calorie burn coupled with the building of muscle has helped numerous people lose weight, according to the testimonials published on the Total Gym Direct website.

Food Factor

There’s much more to losing weight than simply doing cardio and strength training workouts. You can create the necessary calorie deficit by adding more exercise to your daily routine — but if you want to do it even faster, you’ll also need to alter your diet, reminds personal trainer Michael Behnken, who reviewed the Total Gym for his website Ask the Trainer. While Behnken endorses the Total Gym as a viable piece of equipment for weight loss, he also reminds readers that a well-balanced diet with proper nutrition is the key to real success. If you’re not sure how many calories your body needs, use a calculator such as the one provided by the American Council on Exercise to calculate your needs based on your weight, age and gender.

Ideal Approach to Weight Loss

If you’ve chosen the Total Gym as the equipment you’ll use to work out and lose weight, you can see results — but keep in mind that a combination of a calorie-controlled diet, strength training and cardiovascular exercise is the best approach. Ideally, you’ll perform strength training exercises with the Total Gym two to three days a week on nonconsecutive days and then perform cardiovascular exercise such as running, swimming, cycling or aerobics about five days a week to help the weight come off faster. In terms of calorie burn, keep in mind that strength training exercises only burn roughly 112 calories in 30 minutes for a 155-pound person, while continuous cardio such as cycling can burn nearly three times as many calories.

This 20-Minute Full-Body Workout Uses Only a Towel

Woman wiping sweat on face after towel workout.

This full-body workout only takes 20-minutes and all you need is a towel.

It can’t be said enough: You don’t need fancy equipment for a good workout. You can use water bottles as dumbbells or a gallon jug as a kettlebell. You can even use a towel in place of sliders.

All you need for a great 20-minute, full-body workout is a towel and a clever rep scheme. For the following circuit — courtesy of Samuel Chan, physical therapist at Bespoke Treatments — you’ll perform each move for 30 seconds, then you’ll rest for 30 seconds. Try your best to get through at least 5 total rounds.

1. Push-Up With Alternating Arm Slide

1. Push-Up With Alternating Arm Slide

Image Credit: LIVESTRONG.com/Samuel Chan

SKILL LEVEL Intermediate

TIME (IN SECONDS)30 Sec

BODY PART Abs, Chest and Arms

  1. Start in a high plank with you hands under your shoulders, body in a straight line from head to hips to heels. Place a towel under your right palm.
  2. On an inhale, bend your left elbow about 45 degrees from your ribs, lowering your body toward the ground.
  3. Simultaneously slide your right palm and towel up past your head as far as possible.
  4. Exhale and press into your left palm, sliding your right palm back, returning to the starting position.
  5. At the top of each rep, swap the towel to the opposite palm.

Show Instructions

Tip

As you move from the bottom of the push-up to the top, keep your core braced and back as flat as possible.

2. Slider Lunges (Right Side)

2. Slider Lunges (Right Side)

Image Credit: LIVESTRONG.com/Samuel Chan

SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate

TIME (IN SECONDS)30 Sec

BODY PART Butt and Legs

  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Place a towel under your right foot.
  2. Bend your left knee to 90 degrees.
  3. At the same time, slide your right foot several feet behind you, lowering the knee to lightly tap the ground (or hover just above it).
  4. On an exhale, press through your rooted leg and return to standing.

Show Instructions

Tip

As you slide your leg back, focus on bending at the waist and driving your hips back, Chan says. In the stationary leg, keep your shin relatively vertical.

3. Slider Lunges (Left Side)

3. Slider Lunges (Left Side)

Image Credit: LIVESTRONG.com/Samuel Chan

SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate

TIME (IN SECONDS)30 Sec

BODY PART Butt and Legs

  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Place a towel under your left foot.
  2. Bend your right knee to 90 degrees.
  3. At the same time, slide your left foot several feet behind you, lowering the knee to lightly tap the ground (or hover just above it).
  4. On an exhale, press through your rooted leg and return to standing.

Show Instructions

4. Pike-Ups

4. Pike-Ups

Image Credit: LIVESTRONG.com/Samuel Chan

SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate

TIME (IN SECONDS)30 Sec

BODY PART Abs and Back

  1. Start in a high plank, hands directly under your shoulders. Place a towel under your toes.
  2. Press into your palms and lift your hips up toward the ceiling, sliding your toes along the ground toward your hands.
  3. Raise your hips as high as you can.
  4. Reverse the motion to return to the starting position.

How Long Does it Take to Change Your Body Using Total Gym?

Portrait of a young African American man flexing muscles over colored background

You got the equipment — now you’re ready to get started with your Total Gym and to start seeing results. If you’ve invested in one of the Total Gym’s products that promise to train and tone most of the muscles of your body, what you have is essentially a piece of strength training equipment, with the option of adding some cardio as well. Strength training is an essential part of a healthy exercise routine, and by using the equipment wisely, you may be surprised to see results very quickly.

Results from Strength Training

The surprising thing about strength training is that people tend to see results almost right away. When you first start doing resistance exercises, as you do with the Total Gym, you’ll very likely see results within the first few weeks. During that initial period, your body is undergoing neural adaptations that cause the muscles you’re using to “relearn” how to be stronger and bigger. After that initial period, you’ll likely continue building muscle, but it will be less noticeable compared to the changes you saw during the first few weeks. Still, it’s important to stick with one routine for at least a few months to really see what that type of workout can do for you, reminds personal trainer Jonathan Ross, writing for the American Council on Exercise.

The Time Factor

As with all workout routines, the results you’ll see will be due, at least in part, to the amount of effort you put in. If you’re using the Total Gym five days a week for 30 minutes a day, you’re naturally going to see changes to your body faster than if you only used it twice a week for a few minutes at a time. In the world of fitness, several factors affect your training results, including frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise. Working out more frequently and for a longer period matters. So does the intensity of the workout. If you’re not using an amount of resistance that causes your muscles to feel fatigued toward the end of the set, you’re probably not putting in enough effort and you should increase the resistance on the machine.

Adaptation

Finally, the types of exercise you do also matter. Over time, your body becomes adapted to the demands you’re putting upon it, and will make adaptations that can result in seeing fewer positive results. The Total Gym offers a myriad of exercises, so about every four weeks, change your routine and do different exercises. That will help you continue to see changes to your body. Also, keep in mind that every body is different. Some people will tend to gain muscle or shed fat faster than others — so compare your progress only to yourself and not to someone with a totally different body type.

Other Factors

When you want to see changes to your body, strength training is just one component. Aerobic exercise is key not just to burning calories, but to increasing the amount of oxygen your body can use — which can lead to positive body changes such as breathing and moving around more easily. If your goal is to lose weight, you’ll need to either take advantage of the cardio exercise suggestions offered with your Total Gym, or start walking, swimming, cycling or doing other types of cardio. And if you’re not counting calories and working to stay within a certain calorie goal, you won’t see results as quickly, because your new muscles will be hidden by fat. In short, use the Total Gym for your strength workouts, but to see real results, also do cardio and eat a healthy diet. With that program, you should see very significant results and change your body within a few months.

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