First time joining a gym - Advice?

triciasaunders5

Hey everyone, my name is Trish. I;m 22 years years old, 5'8", and 255 pounds. I have 100 pounds to lose.

I decided to join a gym. I had a one hour session with a personal trainer and they showed me how to use a seated chest press and a shoulder raise thing. (Forgive me, I don't know the names of the equipment lol)

Anyway I do have very relaxed joints so the goal is to strengthen the muscles around my shoulders and knees. I have lower back pain due to tight hamstrings and shoulder muscles.

Does anyone have any advice on maybe some things I could start out with ? Thanks!

Getfitat54

Good morning Trish. I hope you're having a great day today. Congratulations on joining a gym that is a great first step. I feel your pain, literally on the tight hamstrings.... I always say, I'm as flexible as a steel bar.

Start with a good circuit training format. Basically working out your whole body three times a week (M-W-F), then doing some light cardio on Tu-Th- Sat. Cardio such as walking, or just getting outside and being active. For your shoulders, (you say you have relaxed joints) general toning to start. I just did a quick search, maybe start with something like this https://youtu.be/oUychjqfO8I

Good luck and feel free to add me.

dtb2greenville

You have chosen the wise path, Start Slow and build your house one brick at a time. Consistent effort will yield results over time. Think of your decision as a lifestyle change forever. Getfitat54 has you doing something 6 days a week. That in itself is a lifestyle change I suspect for you. Great! Take time for yourself everyday to create a healthy lifestyle and you will be proud of the results.

lorrpb

Great job to get started! Since you are working with a trainer, I'd suggest following his program for awhile before you try to mix it up with your own ideas. Talk to him about a plan and next steps and what you should be doing on your own. I suggest that you start with walking and work up to 3-5 miles per day. This approach worked for me.

rdl81

Well done for joining the gym. Are you working with a trainer or was it just and introduction session? If the latter you should be still able to ask the gym trainers to draw you up a program. This will be a good place to start as they can base it on the equipment at your gym and if you are not sure you can ask them. Also think about some classes if the gym does these, such as circuit training or HIIT, these can be fun and more social.

MeanderingMammal

triciasaunders5 wrote: »

Anyway I do have very relaxed joints so the goal is to strengthen the muscles around my shoulders and knees.

Do you mean you suffer from Ehlers Dhanlos Syndrome?

If that is the case then get some advice from a physiotherapist or specialist trainer, rather than a generic PT.

Wheelhouse15

Sounds like you have both upper crossed and lower crossed syndromes , which is common with people that sit a lot. If you have Ehlers Dhanlos, as mentioned above, you would probably already know this and then you should be working with your treatment specialists, or perhaps you just have hypermobility? If it's just upper crossed and lower crossed syndromes than strengthening and stretching your body will correct these imbalances overtime and a good personal trainer should know how to address these issues.

The best advice is to find what you enjoy doing it and do it. Once you get more comfortable and start losing weight then you can look around for more options but the first 3 to 6 months are pretty critical for those trying to start a fitness regime.

Good luck to you and stay with it!

peaceout_aly

Hey Trish! Nice to meet you! Awesome that you took the jump and joined the gym, you are going to love it. My biggest piece of advice is to stay dedicated. Secondly, I'd start off with cardio. Incorporate lifting little by little, but to get in the swing of things I would start with cardio first to jump start the loss of that 100 lbs. Then start incorporating bodyweight plyo jumps and circuits, then increase to weighted and then LIFT! Good luck on your journey, fitness is FUN!

canadianlbs

i don't know the names of that equipment either don't want to discourage you, but did he show you anyt hing relating to use of free weights at all? when i did rec centre orientation way back in the day, machines were the focus as well as the person who showed me around was a volunteer and not actually a trainer of any kind. but free weights - eventually barbells rather than dumbbells - ended up being the stuff that i wanted to use.

i agree with those who are nervous of you taking generic training advice if you have ehlers danloss. i'm not sure if even the usual stretching suggestions are applicable for people who have it, as i know even a 'normal' person's ligament tissue is plastic and does not bounce back when it's been overstretched.

MostlyWater

You need a lock; either the kind with a combination or a key. If it's a key, rubberband it onto your water bottle or wear it, even while in the shower.

Bring a water bottle; the kind that doesn't spill. You can fill it there. If you tend to have senior moments, stick the combination to your locker on the bottom of your soap container AND your water bottle, because one will always be out with you.

If there is towel service, on the way in, get one to stand on when you dress/undress. If you shower there, bring shower shoes and a shower cap if you want one; soap and shampoo too. I got a mesh bag to keep them in so they don't mold when they are wet.

Use 2 towels when you shower, for your top and bottom separately, and so they don't fall off and flash everyone, keep them on with large banana hair clips.

It's very handy to keep separate make up wipes, lip gloss, extra moisturizer, etc in your gym bag, so you aren't transferring things back and forth a lot. Bring extra underwear too. Make a list if you think it will help - certain clothes for spinning, weight gloves when you lift, etc. You don't want to carry 10 tons of things around unless you need them.

Be nice to the cleaning people and the desk people & tip them at holiday times. Learn their names if you can.

Don't use your cell phone in the locker room, it's against gym etiquette. If you have an outside pocket of your gym bag, keep your id and lock in there so you are easy in, easy out.

In the wintertime, if you are freaked out about your coat walking away, get a 2nd lock and stick things in a 2nd locker. Try to be unobtrusive about it.

firef1y72

triciasaunders5 wrote: »

Hey everyone, my name is Trish. I;m 22 years years old, 5'8", and 255 pounds. I have 100 pounds to lose.

I decided to join a gym. I had a one hour session with a personal trainer and they showed me how to use a seated chest press and a shoulder raise thing. (Forgive me, I don't know the names of the equipment lol)

Anyway I do have very relaxed joints so the goal is to strengthen the muscles around my shoulders and knees. I have lower back pain due to tight hamstrings and shoulder muscles.

Does anyone have any advice on maybe some things I could start out with ? Thanks!

First of all congrats at joining the gym and starting to build the strength in your joints at a young age. I'm guessing that you're hypermobile, maybe with EDS. I'm type 3, which means I have the lovely loose joints and pain that goes with that, but rather than exercising I allowed the pain (and dislocations and sublexations) to be an excuse for sitting on my *kitten* all day. Since finally starting to incorporate exercise at a gym my pain levels have reduced considerably and I haven't had an actual dislocation in around 6 months. I only wish I hadn't waited until I was in my 40s to start.

Anyhow advice, firstly if you have a physio then you're going to want to work with them (and if you don't get one), there are times when those of us with loose joints have to be careful, especially when it comes to stretching. Next take things slow and don't try and jump in at the deep end, if you do have a form of hypermobility it's very likely that you'll tire quite easily, it takes work for our muscles to just hold our joints in place (which is why we very often have tight muscles). I'd also suggest trying to move from machines (that often don't allow our bodies to follow their natural range of movement), but move over to free weights, whether that's dumbells or a barbell. I find the shoulder press painful to use even at light weights, but can do a overhead press with a barbell without pain because it's a more natural movement.

I've found squats have been great for improving flexibility in my legs (although my issues are more with weak ankles), but care has to be taken with these as you get better at them it's easy to drop too low if you're hypermobile. Anyway, if you have tight hamstrings, most likely you won't be able to do them straight off, to begin with I could only bob down a couple of inches, but with time this improved and then once I managed to get parallel I started adding weight in the form of a dumbell (goblet squats) then moved on to the barbell along with adding in different variations (narrow stance, sumo, front).

Mostly I'd say don't be afraid to give things a go but equally don't be afraid to modify, as you build strength in the muscles surrounding and supporting the joints you'll find you can do more and more without worrying about injury.

firef1y72

canadianlbs wrote: »

i don't know the names of that equipment either don't want to discourage you, but did he show you anyt hing relating to use of free weights at all? when i did rec centre orientation way back in the day, machines were the focus as well as the person who showed me around was a volunteer and not actually a trainer of any kind. but free weights - eventually barbells rather than dumbbells - ended up being the stuff that i wanted to use.

i agree with those who are nervous of you taking generic training advice if you have ehlers danloss. i'm not sure if even the usual stretching suggestions are applicable for people who have it, as i know even a 'normal' person's ligament tissue is plastic and does not bounce back when it's been overstretched.

Stretching advice definitely is different if you have EDS/hypermobilty, we have to be very, very careful of over-stretching. When I first started training I had instructions not to stretch out at all because I could have disclocated and then my physio worked with me so that I knew my limits. I have been lucky that my trainer has experience with hypermobility and has worked very hard to teach me form and stop me pushing myself too fast. At one gym I looked at I'd told them I was hypermobile and was 260lb at the time with very little strength (struggling with lat pull down at 40lb) and the PT tried putting me on the assisted pull up, felt like my shoulders were dislocating. The instructor at the gym I finally decided on (a lot more expensive) wouldn't let me near the assisted pull up until I could comfortably lift 80lb on the lat.

And like I said in my previous post, free weights are far kinder to our joints than machines. Just don't get fooled in to thinking that the Smith machine is free weights, it's absolutely not and can cause real problems with hypermobile joints.

rks581

I wanted to point out that cell phone use only applies to talking on your phone. It's the noise, not the phone. So texting is okay if you have it on vibrate or use earphones. I use my phone all the time, for music, for entering activities and sometimes for looking things up.

If you feel anxious about starting remember other people don't notice you're starting out and don't care (or want to help). I used to pretend I did it all the time, when I was starting. Of course, that shouldn't stop you from asking for help absolutely any time you need it. The staff are there to help.

mgalovic01

Skip the machines. Jump right into the free weights. Start very light and stress form/ posture, and smooth, controlled repetitions. You can add cardio machines and core machines into your regimen, but for almost everything else the free weights are the way to go. Enjoy yourself.