At the weekend I received an email from a reader of the blog Kelly. She wanted to know where to buy or where to find an exercise wall chart to maintain and follow a good exercise routine.

As I’ve been a subscriber to many different fitness magazines I’ve managed collect a fair few of these “wall charts” during my subscription base, many of which proved quite useful when working out at home.

Fitness magazines such as Men’s Fitness (this is the best by a long way for wall charts), Men’s Health and many other fitness magazines always include these handy wall charts in their monthly magazine, and if no wall chart is included then you will always get an exercise routine with photographs in the back few pages.

I’d advise leafing through this month’s fitness magazine editions in WHSmiths to see if you can find a fitness wall chart with a program that will suit you.

The dumbbells I recently bought online also included a large wall chart which helped with my exercise routine. Most home gym fitness equipment includes wall charts and wall planners to help you with your home fitness routine. The wall chart I got with the dumbbells was more of a large list of exercises you can do with dumbbells, rather than an exercise program, but it’s still proved helpful.

I also found a website that sells the fitness wall charts online:

Fitness Wall Charts

If you cannot find any that are what you’re looking for here, or not willing to pay a premium for a fitness wall chart, I’d recommend buying a large wall year planner to track and write up your fitness program. You could buy a few fitness magazines, cut out many of the different exercises they demonstrate and compile your very own customised fitness wall chart!

Last night I entered my photos into the Maximuscle Body of 2008 Competition, via their website. I'm very confident and pleased with the images I submitted. I'd love to feature in the Maximuscle magazine as I've trained really hard through the duration of maintaining this blog and tracked my progress and training methods along with different equipment I've used.

It would be a great achievement as I feel I’ve worked very hard to get to the fitness level I’m currently at. I ran into many difficulties along the way, including currently training without a gym! But all in all feel I’ve achieved many goals within the time frame I set myself.

I’ll hope to hear something either way... we’ll have to wait and see! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Many people that knew I used to swim have commented on the swimmers bodies at the Olympic Games, but it’s not as easy to get as toned as that without some hard work!

But if you want a toned body like a swimmer.... you’ve got to do laps like a swimmer.... all year long. That's the bad news for those who get bored after one length of the local swimming baths.

When I used to swim when at university I swam 60 thousand meters a week which was 9 x 2 hour swimming sessions. Michael Phelps is reported to do 80 thousand meters a week! Since this amount of meterage I’ve managed to keep fit through running and general aerobic activity while maintaining my high metabolism, but you needn’t be swimming 24/7 to get fit...

The good news is that you can get toned and fitter through Aerobic exercise!

Aerobic Aerobic Aerobic!

If you can keep up a steady routine of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week and eat healthily then you’ll notice physical and fitness improvements after 3 weeks. There is no need in hitting the gym daily to get bigger without the aerobic exercise as you’ll be bulking up without seeing the difference underneath. Shed the fat and you’ll look much, much fitter.

Finding somewhere to do pull ups without being in a gym is quite hard work, but I have found the perfect solution in the form of a "PowerBar" pull up bar!

The pull up bar isn't one you have to attach to the walls by drilling holes etc. It simply supports itself in a door frame and will hold up to 20 stone! Surprisingly it is very sturdy and works just like the pull up bars you'll find in a gym. With the use of a pull up bar added to any home fitness routine you can really develop a good core strength routine, build muscle even work on your cardio fitness levels.

Arms and abs can be specifically targeted and developed, the great thing about pull ups is that it's your own body weight that you're lifting so it's not going to be too much. I'd recommend everyone getting one of these pull up bars even if you're a gym regular, as it's too simple and easy not to have one in your house! Even for a quick blast on a set of pull ups when you're waiting for your computer to boot up! For under £30 you really can't go wrong.

You just need a sturdy door frame with a few inches either side (not a door frame right next to a corner) to mount the pull up bar and away you go! Pull up to you're hearts content! Read more about body assisted exercises or Calisthenics in one of my previous blog posts.

It looks as though the gym I'm going to be joining in September is getting a "Power Plates" machine, there is a lot of interest surrounding these machines, although I've never seen a good solid review on them or even a developed published training program.

I've written a review the power plates machine a few posts back from all the information I've collected online, but still have yet to test one out. Looking around some of the health and fitness forums some users have left reviews and some tips on the machines. From what I've read and found out from online and user reviews the vibrations just make your muscles work harder when exercising on the machine because they are fighting to stabilise themselves, helping to develop core fitness as well as exercising the area you're targeting.

To get the most out the power plates machine you'll really need decent circuit or routine set out for you which I hope to publish here on my blog once I joined the gym and have eventually got to use one of these machines, watch this space!

Power plates machines are lowering in price and they are actually affordable for the home user, as well as various power plates training DVD's becoming available. It would be great for some users to write their reviews of the machine, leave a comment letting me know of your experience or training program you may have developed on a power plate machine.