When to start exercise and how

Viktoria2022
Viktoria2022 Posts: 16 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone, a person that is NOT used to work out here. Think about me as "skinny fat" that stayed skinny until I got older/career stressed/childbirth/pandemic happened. IN my mid 40s. Very little muscle and I am getting back problems now, loosing my breath running or even walking up a couple of stairs. So a bit scared. I have no trouble switching to eating healthy/restricting calories. I lost 20 pounds before the pandemic and gained it all back of course. So back on the plan now. I am female, 5,4 and weigh 140 pounds. I plan on loosing 1 pound a week, my goal weight is 120 (I know that is skinny, but it is just what I need, and I don't care so much if I weigh more if I build muscle). My question is: I know I need to add exercise in. But when and how do I start? I heard you get closer to your goal weight before starting to build muscle, or you bulk up. I also need a slow start since I am so out of shape. Any advice for youtube channels, activities, and then when to start to build lean muscle. The tricky thing is that with 1200 cal/day, I can't really build muscle, right? I know you are supposed to eat back your exercise burnt calories but I've heard that can be deceiving. Thankful for advice!

Replies

  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    edited March 2021
    What you're wanting to do is called a "recomp," short for "recomposition." Someone who knows more about the mechanics of a recomp will hopefully chime in with specific tips about how that works, but maybe having that word will help you find additional resources.

    But broadly speaking, to build muscle you need to pick up heavy things and put them back down again, repeatedly. So, you'll need access to heavy things, and a space in which to pick them up and put them down. If it's safe where you are, I would find a gym that has weightlifting equipment. Planet Fitness may serve you well to start, if there's one near you (and again, if it's safe to go there). They generally have only pre-loaded barbells and and dumbbells that stop around 60-80 lbs, but that might be plenty for you right now. They do usually have Smith machines that you can load plates on, which are okay, but not ideal - it's a barbell but the bar is on a track, so it moves along a fixed path that really isn't well suited to any of the lifts you might want to do with it (weighted squat, deadlift, bench press, etc).
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    I'm curious about this too, so I'm interested in what other more experienced posters have to say for a total beginner!

    I walk and run, and enjoy both. I do the "couch to 5k" program to help me build up endurance. I did that program years ago and it was great, so I'm excited to be doing it again. When I was regularly running I found it to be great exercise and also good stress relief. I also do some postpartum specific YouTube videos, which I like because they are not very stressful on the body and offer lots of modifications for uncoordinated newbies. Those are all using my bodyweight only, or maybe a water bottle as an added weight. But once I feel confident with those I am curious about what to do next, and don't really know where and how to make that leap.
  • LisaGetsMoving
    LisaGetsMoving Posts: 664 Member
    Maybe start with walking to build up some stamina? and yes, eat back your exercise calories otherwise you'll get really hungry and sabotage the weight loss. You don't have to wait to get to goal to start building lean muscle, just know that when you begin muscle building that the scale will not be the way you measure progress. Don't worry about getting too bulked up, most people don't do enough work to get that way without strong intention and lots of time put into it.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited March 2021
    Start now.
    Start gently, don't try to go from zero to hero overnight.
    Both cardio and strength/resistance training are great for your long term health. They should be for life and not just for weight loss.
    Build up progressively.
    Enjoy what you do.

    "I heard you get closer to your goal weight before starting to build muscle, or you bulk up."
    Utter rubbish, where does this nonsense come from? It's extremely difficult to "bulk up", it takes dedication and a whole lot of deliberate, targetted exercise over a very extended period of time. During that very long process you can also stop / maintain at whatever physique you choose.

    " when to start to build lean muscle. "
    All muscle is lean, all tissue except fat is also lean mass.
    Start training to try to now, at the very least you will hold on to as much muscle as you already have rather than risk losing it and taking twice as long to build back up again. There is no good reason to wait and good reasons to start now.

    "tricky thing is that with 1200 cal/day, I can't really build muscle, right?"
    Probably but training is the strongest signal to retain what you have.

    "I know you are supposed to eat back your exercise burnt calories but I've heard that can be deceiving. "
    Yes every sensible calorie counting method takes the calories burned during exercise into account - just like your body does. Just like you take your food and drink and your daily activity into account. They aren't different calories, just part of your genuine overall energy needs.
    The deceiving part is part mythology and part people using inaccurate methods or part blaming their exercise calories for what is often even more inaccurate food calorie counting. Depending on what your exercise actually is the database here may well not be the best choice to get your estimates. Don't make a hard job harder by over-restricting your calories in.
  • LisaGetsMoving
    LisaGetsMoving Posts: 664 Member
    Those are all using my bodyweight only, or maybe a water bottle as an added weight. But once I feel confident with those I am curious about what to do next, and don't really know where and how to make that leap.

    Where: You can start anywhere with body weight exercises. Eventually, you're going to need to add weights/heavy things. That might best be done in a gym because they already have all the weights. But you can use all kinds of heavy things if gyms aren't your thing or try to acquire some weights at home.

    How: Learn to do it properly so that you don't hurt yourself. Pay a personal trainer for his or her time, find a friend who knows, or study it on the internet. Slow reps, increasing weight, concentrating on different muscle groups. In order to build muscle, you're going to first have to really tax it (tear it) and then let it rest and repair making sure your body has enough calories and time to do the repairs.

    Disclaimer: I am only a novice and have no real experience in this subject...yet.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I agree with others, walking is a great place to start. You don't need equipment (except shoes) and you don't need to join a gym. If the weather won't cooperate, go on-line. There are lots of walking-style workouts on YouTube for free. Leslie Sansone and Jessica Smith just to name two.

    There are lots of styles of yoga, find what fits you.
  • Viktoria2022
    Viktoria2022 Posts: 16 Member
    I just want to thank everyone - really - for all this detailed and excellent advice!! Starting with walking, light rowing on our rowing machine and perhaps a yoga/pilates video or two!
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    Add weights.

    Women often avoid this because they're afraid of getting 'bulky'. That doesn't happen without a LOT of work. That 'toned' look? That's from weights/resistance. Get some light dumbbells or resistance bands to start and add it in, at some point, when the other stuff is habit. Building muscle makes you look better, feel better, and, bonus, burns more calories than fat.

    And also yes, find something you love. Dog agility is my thing. It's still exercise. And my desire to be faster and with better endurance there is good motivation to do other stuff.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    If you want YouTube suggestions...one of my favorites is Sydney Cummings. She posts a new workout every day. All you have to do is do it! She shows low impact and body weight modifications for beginners. Her programs are very balanced and always include a Sunday stretch. Just remember to go at your pace and use lighter weights to start. I tried to go heavier too quickly last summer and developed elbow tendonitis!
  • Whatsthemotive
    Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
    Is your goal to be able to lift a large amount of weight or to build endurance and stamina? I’m no expert but I think people have different goals. Also, without claiming any sort of expertise, it seems to me that jumping into lifting heavy weights when you are out of shape and have not done so in the past could lead to injury. I’d talk to someone with expertise, but it sounds like you’re concerned about cardiovascular health, since you mentioned getting out of breath. I wouldn’t think that lifting heavy weights would be necessary for increasing cardiovascular health and stamina.
  • Jennliftsandspins
    Jennliftsandspins Posts: 151 Member
    I highly recommend Sydney Cummings on YouTube. She posts a new workout daily and you don’t have to think about what to do or reps. Just follow her every day and your weekly exercise will be well-rounded and complete. Even she says all she does is her daily posted workout for exercise. It’s so easy and fun. She makes modification suggestions for beginners. You basically need a set or two of dumbbells. And there are a few other pieces of small equipment she uses but that aren’t necessary (glute bands, jump rope, kettlebell, sliders) as she give modifications if you don’t have them.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    edited March 2021
    Whatsthemotive wrote: »
    Is your goal to be able to lift a large amount of weight or to build endurance and stamina? I’m no expert but I think people have different goals. Also, without claiming any sort of expertise, it seems to me that jumping into lifting heavy weights when you are out of shape and have not done so in the past could lead to injury. I’d talk to someone with expertise, but it sounds like you’re concerned about cardiovascular health, since you mentioned getting out of breath. I wouldn’t think that lifting heavy weights would be necessary for increasing cardiovascular health and stamina.

    "Lifting heavy weights" just means lifting weights that are heavy enough to be a moderate but safe challenge for the person doing the lifting.

    I'm a li'l ol' lady, 5'5", 125 pounds, age 65. The "heavy weights" I would lift, even as an active person (rower), are dramatically lighter than the weights that would be lifted by a 21-year-old female rower in a competitive collegiate rowing program, let alone an Olympic rower. (I've seen the collegiate elites do it. Weight plates the size of freight-train wheels, it looked like, I swear! 😉 As an aside, they also weigh much more than I do at roughly the same body size, because so much more muscle mass . . . and they also look cuter in their strapless party dresses, because so much more fit.)

    For some of us, starting out, just lifting the bar - no plates - is enough of a challenge, and that's fine. There are even shorter/lighter bars, if needed. To us, that's heavy and a bit of a challenge, which is enough to begin making progress. If no start, no progress.

    ETA: IMO, too many people are afraid of strength training, believing that they must lift gigantic scary weight plates that will be significant injury risks. That myth is unfortunate, because improved strength is valuable for everyday life and health, and it's accessible to most everyone. The only difference is the starting point.
  • Whatsthemotive
    Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
    Thanks for the clarification.
  • Whatsthemotive
    Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
    I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything since I'm not knowledgeable. I get frustrated when I hear that everyone needs to lift "heavy" weights. In my ignorance, this sounds like heavy means heavy, not that it means heavy for the person's ability. So I hear a one size fits all directive. But my frustration is not based on any training and is probably unreasonable. So I apologize.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    edited March 2021
    For what it's worth I started with two pound dumbbells.

    I'm up to TEN pounds now.

    After (more than 6) months.

    They're heavy for me. I am not a strong person - but I AM a stronger person than I WAS.

    I didn't mean to imply you needed to do huge deadlifts or anything. Just that the pick up things that are a heavy for *you* is a good part of a fitness routine.
  • Whatsthemotive
    Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
    edited March 2021
    Deleted
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    Whatsthemotive wrote: »
    I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything since I'm not knowledgeable. I get frustrated when I hear that everyone needs to lift "heavy" weights. In my ignorance, this sounds like heavy means heavy, not that it means heavy for the person's ability. So I hear a one size fits all directive. But my frustration is not based on any training and is probably unreasonable. So I apologize.

    @Whatsthemotive, you don't have anything to apologize for: That's completely understandable!

    Yes, I too worry that some people don't even consider strength training, because there are cases when people say "you must lift heavy", without explaining that means "heavy enough to be a challenge for you personally", and scare folks off from strength training who could really benefit from it. (Sometimes I comment on those threads, too!)

    I also don't like it when people say "don't just lift pink dumbbells" or "don't lift Barbie weights" or other dismissive things. I do see people at the gym sometimes lifting weights that are not really heavy enough to be useful for them at the reps they're doing, and that's not a great strategy either. (No way to know that they're not rehabbing or something though, but in certain cases it's kind of obvious.) But no matter what color a weight is, or how heavy it is in pounds/kg, if it's a reasonable challenge to the person doing the lifting, then it can be helpful to build strength.

    We start where we are, and progress from there. We can surprise ourselves with what we can accomplish long term, in a lot of cases . . . but we need to start, and we always need to start from where we are at the time. 🙂
  • Whatsthemotive
    Whatsthemotive Posts: 145 Member
    I'm using light dumbbells. I started with cans of food. I use 3 pound weights and 5 pound weights now, depending on the exercise that I am doing. I started at the beginning of the year. I'm doing my workout 6 days a week. I do 25-30 reps of the exercises that I do. The workout is one that is for people who are elderly, obese, or have mobility issues. I am 62, obese, and I have mobility issues. I think I'm being overly sensitive --for the reason you mentioned. It feels like people are dismissive of people who are at my level. Maybe it is better to "lift heavy" but I can't start there.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    Whatsthemotive wrote: »
    I'm using light dumbbells. I started with cans of food. I use 3 pound weights and 5 pound weights now, depending on the exercise that I am doing. I started at the beginning of the year. I'm doing my workout 6 days a week. I do 25-30 reps of the exercises that I do. The workout is one that is for people who are elderly, obese, or have mobility issues. I am 62, obese, and I have mobility issues. I think I'm being overly sensitive --for the reason you mentioned. It feels like people are dismissive of people who are at my level. Maybe it is better to "lift heavy" but I can't start there.

    If it challenges you to lift the 3 and 5 pound weights at the number of reps you do, then that is "lifting heavy". There's way more to it, and this isn't the thread where it's totally on topic, but you want those last couple reps to be difficult, but not scary-dangerous feeling.

    It sounds like you're doing fine. 🙂 I'd put you in the "you will surprise yourself with what you can accomplish in the long term" group, as long as you keep going, and keep that bit of challenge in the picture by gradually increasing weight or reps as that's feasible (and it sounds like you are doing that).

    (I'm 65, was obese until 59-60, and have some arthritis and a torn meniscus that limit me in some activities, so I hear what you're saying. I feel like general two attitudes can limit us: People being dismissive of where we are, when we are where we need to be to make progress; and people who have low expectations of how much improvement we can achieve with work and patience, because they think we're "too old". We, ourselves, can be among the "people" in either of those two groups, too. I'm glad to hear you're not holding yourself back in either of those ways!)
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,457 Member
    Whatsthemotive wrote: »
    I'm using light dumbbells. I started with cans of food. I use 3 pound weights and 5 pound weights now, depending on the exercise that I am doing. I started at the beginning of the year. I'm doing my workout 6 days a week. I do 25-30 reps of the exercises that I do. The workout is one that is for people who are elderly, obese, or have mobility issues. I am 62, obese, and I have mobility issues. I think I'm being overly sensitive --for the reason you mentioned. It feels like people are dismissive of people who are at my level. Maybe it is better to "lift heavy" but I can't start there.

    Comparison is the thief of joy.

    This holds true for weights, too. What’s heavy for you may be light for me, or vice versa. Or may be child’s play for 90% of the people on this thread.

    I work out at a heavy metal, competitive gym. No one disrespects me, snubs me, or treats me any different because I can’t throw around the weight they can and am the anomaly who has no interest in competing. If anything, I get a lot of respect for being the old chick who keeps coming back time after time. And that’s if they even notice me at all. It’s not like I’m in their way often, camping out on the light end of the dumbell rack, lol.

    Me, I’m envious of the runners who blow past me, and the new yogi (former gymnast) who got a freaking handstand (!!!) her first week practicing. But I keep hacking away at it, and am so very pleased that I can do what I can do, and give it my best.

    Mobility comes with small steps and progresses from there. There was a brief period eight years ago I was on a walker. As my yoga instructors so often preach during class, “Be grateful for your amazing body and what it can do for you”. I’ve tried to take that to heart.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I've been lifting weights off and on since the late 80s and have yet to "bulk up."

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