Hate These Exercises!

krtbmt

I'm starting to get back into exercising using workout DVDs which use a variety of different exercises. BUT I hate it when they make me do lunges and mountain climbers. I absolutely do not have the muscle strength for those ones yet. I was wondering if anyone else has exercises they struggled with in the beginning or even after a while of working out there are still some exercises that you can't stand. Just wondering out of curiosity.

jdhcm2006

You can go slower. You don't have to do as many reps that the people in the video do. That way you d build up the strength to do them. When I did Insanity, there were times when I would do maybe a 1/3 of the reps that the people in the vids were doing. I would take my time b/c I knew my body and I didn't want to injure myself. I would take out a lot of the jumping parts and do high knee steps in place or something along those lines b/c again I didn't want to injure myself. You have to find the balance of following the vid to get the most out of it but not injuring yourself.

alias1001

I always hated "pull" day (still do) because for me it's been the hardest. However, a good way to look at it is as a challenge: this week will be better than the one before. Took me about a year but I'm doing multiple pull-ups now.

quiltlovinlisa

I can't do jumping moves with my hands on the floor, so burbees and mountain climbers in full form are out. I do them at an incline, with my hands on the edge of the couch. It gives me more control, and prevents me from injuring my weak ankle.

Adjust how you do them and work on getting closer to form as you get stronger.

jemhh

Lunges used to kill me. The very first strength workout I did was the Nerd Fitness beginner bodyweight workout. I modified it to be even easier because I was miserably out of shape. Did two rounds I think I did just 5 lunges (holding onto a chair for stability) on each leg. I can remember my husband peeking down the basement stairs and asking me if I needed help getting back upstairs I could barely walk for days.

That being said, I stuck to it with a few changes. First, I did a much more involved warmup. I started walking for 10 minutes, then doing a stretching routine (fitnessblender.com's lower body stretches for flexibility--10 minute video), then doing the bodyweight workout, and then doing the same stretches again. Little by little I was able to add reps and another circuit or two.

I'll second the advice to do the lunges more slowly in general. Even if you can only do 3 when the video has people doing 10, do that. Gradually you will improve. Mountain climbers--same thing. Slow down to the speed that is doable for you. Eventually you will get there and if you try them and just desperately hate them even after giving them a good shot, just pick a substitute exercise. That is a-okay. It is good to follow a program but at the same time don't make yourself miserable.

Adc7225

Absolutely!!! I hated push-ups, lunges (reverse lunges are a little easier), jumping jacks and planks (I still think these are some sort of tortuous exercise). Once I set my mind to take it easy through the exercise and focus on form and count I find that in time I'm going at it with little to no discomfort and can focus on increasing the intensity or count. The more I hate it the more determined I am to get past it. Just take your time and try not to focus on how much you dislike it

lizandrashaw

Lunges are medically contraindicated for me. I found these exercises to build the gluts and legs instead: http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/no-squat-no-lunge-butt-workout I can't do #4, but I started doing all the rest of them.

middlehaitch

Oh jemhh I so hear you on the first attempt at Nerdfitness. I thought I was going to die. Once I realized the fitness police weren't going to throw me in jail, I broke it down into doable moves and aimed at completing one set. It took me months to be able to actually do the programme, I still don't do the jumping jacks. Don't like them, and think they will do me more harm than good, so replaced them with step ups.

I give most exercises a good try and will simplify until I can do them, but find the more explosive ones beyond me.

Cheers, h.

SylviazSpirit

Modify them for a while and build up. I still have to modify some stuff... like push up, ugh push ups. I'm still working on my upper body strength.