Gym help

ladsheaf1

I'm a gym novice looking to supplement my weight loss goals but I'm finding it a real challenge. I weigh 176 lb, I don't smoke, but I get really uncomfortable quickly. Everything hurts like hell within minutes. And I'm not talking about jumping on the treadmill at 20mph. I'm starting on 7 mph for 20
Minutes and it's really tough. I didn't expect a fair ground ride, I LOVE the weights and can easily handle 60Kg on all machines for 5 mins at a time but I feel like the real rewards will be in cardio and I'm just really crap at it. I like the rowing machine though. The cross trainer is an absolute fail. About 30 seconds!

canadianlbs

holy cow. it's not great to compare yourself to others, but fwiw i've flirted with running a couple of times and i never got anywhere NEAR 7 mph. more seasoned runners might not find that a blistering pace, but when i was trying to 'learn' how to run it sure was.

MonkeyMel21

7 mph is extremely fast. What gave you the idea that that is a starting point? 4.5 or 5 mph is more realistic for a novice and even then you can’t expect to do that straight for 20 minutes right off the bat.

dougii

^^^^ Ditto!!! I'd suggest 4.0 mph as a really good starting point - slow/easy running should comprise the majority of what you run. If that is easy start increasing by .5 until you can't hold a conversation and then back off a bit.

SephiraAllen

If 7mph is too much (and honestly that pace would literally kill me), start slower. Find a pace you are comfortable at (even if it's only 2mph) and work up from there. Especially if you are out of shape, you don't want to start off too aggressive, as that will only discourage you and lead to you giving up.

Same thing with any type of exercising that you do (weights/cardio, etc...) - slow and steady wins the race. Start at a lower level and work your way up. Otherwise you will be in a ton of pain, which isn't fun at all.