Need Workout Advice

[Lady Maven]

OK, so I fnally have access to all of the exercise machines I need. Elipticals, bicylces, treadmills free weights, the works. The problem is I have not had any exercise instruction since high school. Which has been like one or two DECADES ago.

I have seen some of your pics. I KNOW at least one of you knows how to work out. I need advice. And some asshole who is willing to routinely email me, insult me and tell me you don't care if I puke and DIE I had better get my ass to the gym.

My goals are to lose weight and build endurance, with strength training enough to improve my bones.

Assume I have at my disposal all the equipment I need (except bands and work out balls) and gimme some advice!!

[owly]

i wish i could help but i'm just a outa shape bum, maybe grien's ruben can help.........

[owly]

dp

[Nato]

Get a personal trainer. Tell them your goals. They will make a routine for you and teach you how to do crap. Take the routine and ditch the trainer (unless you have money to burn).

I remember the last time we all talked about weight loss and stuff. Are you still keeping it up? Sounds like you're still on task!

[Immigrant]

dp

*sniggers* that's a little risque, but guess it could burn some caleries *weg*

personally big fan or walks (if your body's willing & able).. no better excerize in the world and a lot cheaper (and better for you) than gym torture devices, or even jogging or running. better still if you have hills you can walk for a cardio-treat (or stairs for a serious work out)

[Immigrant]

...maybe some friends could go for 'group walks' to make it fun and very likely to stick with it that way (or if you have dogs, use them & their lil walks as an excuse?)

[Lady Maven]

The gym isa actually free with my apartment, so the cost is not an issue. Walking is not a BAD idea, but due to my health issues, I'd rather stay close to home. But we have tread mills.

Getting tips from and then ditching a trainer is probably a really good idea. My problem is I really onl.y respond well to someone telling me what a lazy fat ass I am and to get going.

And I AM staying on task! Nothing like a cardio episode to tell you that stuffing your face and playing Dragon Age is not such a wise health move!

[Connor]

Warm up first, cool down last. And you might want to look into PNF stretches as part of your warm up and cool down if you have flexibility/range of motion concerns. There's some argument that stretching will decrease your maximum lifts during strength training - but I think it's a fair trade personally.

lose weight and build endurance -

Interval training FTW. Interval training is any kind of cardio (personally I favour exercise bike or elliptical cause I have shit knees) done on the premise of a burst of lots of effort followed by a rest. So for a beginner, something like 30 seconds of going about 80% of your maximum effort followed by 60 seconds of 20% effort.

Adjust the times to shorten the rests and lengthen the bursts as you get fitter, and expect that your 80% effort will show growth in whatever metric you use (speed that you're running or cycling).

for strength training - I'm a big fan of and have had good results from Mike's Beginner Plan, developed by Mike Gill (a pro light-heavyweight strongman and personal trainer from upstate New York) - Mike's program is based around some ideas like the old Bulgarian power lifter's truism - 'The body becomes it's purpose' - mixing up the number of reps from week to week and engaging as many muscle groups as possible in motions that are a good analogue for real world muscle usage groupings is in my opinion a pretty good way to get stronger in a way that's efficent and practical. If you want huge guns for the beach - Mike's program isn't what you want. If you want to be better able to do stuff that involves your muscles - I think it's as good as anything out there.

do 10-12 reps first week
7-10 the second
and 3-5 the thrid week, then start with week one again.

Monday:
Bench. Not a powerlifters bench. A nice, flat backed, feet on the floor bench.
1 set 12 reps (warm up)
1 set 10 reps (warm up)
3 work sets in the rep range

Dips
3 work sets in the rep range
Standing shoulder press barbell
3 sets in the rep range.

Tuesday:
Squats (yes the one with the bar on your back.)
1 set 12 reps
1 set 12 reps
3 work sets

Deads
3 work sets

Wednesday:
1 set of pull downs 15 reps warm up
3 sets of pull ups in the work range. use an assisted machine untill you can get the reps on your own
Bent over row
3 sets in the work range

Thursday:
Dumbell incline press
3 sets
Dips
2 sets
DB seated shoulder press
2 sets

Friday:
DB stiff legged deads
3 sets
Bar front squat
2 sets
Seated row
3 sets

Knowing how to do stuff like how to get out from under a bar if you push to fail is just as important as knowing the correct form for a lift. And there's no good alternative to a good trainer for learning how to control the weights and getting your form right. You can check out EXRX for form instructions on most exercises (their index isn't great, but if you google exrx.net deadlift (or whatever) you'll get straight to the right place. But having someone who can show you and then watch your form is a vastly better option.

Just keep in mind that with weights training - you'll put muscle on. So any weight loss you see from the interval training will either slow or plateau and you may even start putting weight back on. A body fat check is a much better way to judge your progress. The electrical resistance testing scales that you can get from stores aren't perfect ways to determine your body fat - but they're not bad.

To give you a gauge for what you should aim for - The American Dietetic Association recommends that men have 15-18% body fat and women have 20-25% body fat. Healthy male athletes might be as low as 5-12% body fat, and healthy female athletes could be as low as 10-20%. Too low is often just as, or even more unhealthy than too high.

Also keep in mind that if you go and see a doctor, rather then a psych and the doctor thinks you might be annorexic, the diagnosis is based on how much weight you've lost over what period. Losing more then about a pound a week for an extended period will fall into the annorexic diagnosis and give you all the associated risks of annorexia - increased heart damage risk being most concerning among them. Don't try and lose too much, too fast, no matter what lies the Biggest Loser tells.

A Wii fit isn't a bad way to keep yourself on task. The little bastard says 'Ouch' when you step on if you've put on weight and generally mocks you, and keeps a graph of how much or how little effort you're putting in so you can't lie to yourself about it.

[Lady Maven]

SEE? Mocking is what I need. And the plan looks doable. I have tried the eliptical, but I do not know how to shorten the stride and it REALLY hurts. I usually alternate in aerobics betwee the stair master and the bike. It is near to hyper extending and that can NOT be right. I can walk a 5k no problem, but I can't run or jog it, which is kind of where I want to go. I would like to get in shaoe to run a marathon, even if I never actually run one. I do Qigong every night before I go to bed because along with old age came insomnia and exercise helps me sleep.

And my weight really does not bother me so much as the condition my weight is in. If I looked like a body builder at my weight that would not be so bad. But I look like my grandmother.

[Lady Maven]

Oh and seriously, something MUST be done about my gut. It is to the point I am considering surgery. And crunches are a no go because of my neck and back in jury

[Connor]

I have tried the eliptical, but I do not know how to shorten the stride and it REALLY hurts.

If you can't control the stride length through feet position and range of motion - it will either be a screwdriver job or not possible to change on the majority of kit. I'd just go to the cycle or the stair master.

I personally think running is a bad form of exercise unless your goal is to run better. The whole the body becomes it's purpose maxim holds a lot of water and running is the best way to get better at running, no question. But unless you're training to get better at running - cycle or stair master is better for your hips, knees, shins and ankles by a huge margin. And just as effective at reducing your gut.

[Lady Maven]

Well then I won't feel so bad at not pushing myself harder on the treadmill. I have thois nagging hguilt if I don't use ALL of the machines.

The one I am having SERIOUS issues with is the under arm curl. With free weights no sweat but when I go to the machine, even on a LOW weight I cannot lift the bar.

[tubs]

Don't worry, if you did crunches thinking you'll lose fat around your gut, all it will do is build up your abdominal muscles, it won't necessarily reduce the fat around your gut. There are no exercises that can target specific areas of fat. Ignore all the stupid ads that say you can lose fat here or there. Eat healthily and keep up a regular cardio schedule and you'll see an overall reduction in body fat. But your body will decide on its own where it will lose fat.

How is your diet?

[Lady Maven]

Mostly ok. I won't say I don't indulge in a brownie on occasion, but I limit my intake of all meats, I don't eat anything cured in sugar. I have switched to whole grains and my veggies and fruits are at least at the minimum. I take a calcium supplemennts because I really don't like dairy products. Closest I come to milk is almond milk.

My biggest issue is in forgetting to eat. I will forget to eat all day and then eat somne crap sodium laden garbage before I go to bed.

[Connor]

My biggest issue is in forgetting to eat. I will forget to eat all day and then eat somne crap sodium laden garbage before I go to bed.

See, that's bad for a bunch of reasons. If you don't regulate your metabolism with regular meals - your results from working out will be somewhere between sporadic/unpredicatable and useless/unmeasurable.

Ideally, spread yourself out across 6 small meals a day. If you can't manage that (and fuck knows, I've never been able to do it for more then a week or two) - at least eat at regular times and be sure to get in breakfast.

[Lady Maven]

I have to shamefully admit my "breakfast" usually means a cup of coffee with a packet of Splenda. And not even the fiber added Splenda.

I need an alarm that tells me when to eat. I KNOW I am not supposed to eat the way I do, but I get really busy and before I know it a whole day has passed with no food. In fact, until I posted that bit about not eating I had forgotten I had not eaten today. I am not really sure why I never really feel hungry.

[Connor]

The one I am having SERIOUS issues with is the under arm curl. With free weights no sweat but when I go to the machine, even on a LOW weight I cannot lift the bar.

After clarifying in PM - I think you mean a preacher curl - I think isolation exercises like that are a waste of time unless you're trying to pump your mad gunz for the beach or something. The only people who should be doing preacher curls are body builders and frat boys who want an extra half inch on their bicep to look pretty at the beach.

Complex muscle group engagements get you a much better return on time spent in the gym and energy invested on the exercise.

[Lady Maven]

Where as I would be happy with merely enough arm strength to climb and defeat Mount Laundry.

[Connor]

Where as I would be happy with merely enough arm strength to climb and defeat Mount Laundry.

Anything is better than nothing. Comared to only ever lifting laundry, the remote control and a glass of booze - preacher curls are awesome. But I think pretty much any other exercise that even remotely engages your biceps is a better use of your time.

Isolation exercises like preacher curls are good for specific cosmetic issues. When you want to build a specific muscle only to look better - an isolation targeting that specific muscle can help. But reality is that to lift a laundry basket from the bedroom to the laundry - you're engaging most of your body - quads, back, core, posterior chain and dozens of stabilizer groups - your arms might be the part that's failing - but they're not the part that's doing the most work. If your arms are the part that's failing - unless you've got a pretty specific illness, or you've got a laundry basket full of bricks.

Very few things that you'll do in the real world happen in isolation. The four muscles to flip someone off and tell them to blow you line is oh so unfortunately not a reflection of the real world. Deadlifts, Squats, Bench Press, Rows, dips, pull ups and those sort of exercises that engage a bunch of your muscles to load and move the bar and stabilizers to hold form for the lift are much, much better ways to use your time and energy in the gym if your goals are practical/pragmatic.

Lots of people spend all their time on isolations becuase they're trying to get an 8 pack of abs, massive biceps or a rock hard ass. Which only works if your body fat is low enough to show off the muscle development anyway. Which is fine if that's what you're after. Some people work isolations to rehab a particular muscle or joint - but I'd argue that that should be supplementary and done in addition to a practical work out - not instead of.

It's also worth keeping in mind that your basal metabolic rate has a LOT to do with how much muscle you're carrying and how active that muscle is. Putting on muscle is a great way to increase the number of calories that your body uses in the course of a day - so if you can keep your calorific intake steady while putting on muscle - you should reduce your body fat fat percentage. And carrying a bunch of active muscle around is a great way to keep your body fat down - as well as all the benefits to bone density and preventing the back complaints that come from not having strong enough abdominal muscles to support your upper body weight.

But the fastest way to lose weight for 95% of people is to eat better food in smaller portions at more regular times and do some simple cardio exercise. End of the day, Intervals are a massively more efficient way to use your time on the cardio equipment than slogging it out in the fat burning zone or whatever.

[Lady Maven]

Oh hell, I can't LOSE weight!! I am mean and mouthy and besides that I am an utter BITCH! If I lose weight I lose the little padding I have against getting socked up. I need to be fat AND healthy.