Workout routine (beginner)

miagarces0821962

Hello,

I am currently having trouble with figuring out what exercises to include in my workout as well as how many reps/sets to do. I’m currently just doing 30-40 minutes of cardio. My goals are to lose weight and build muscle (mostly my lower body).

I2k4

Not very specific about where, when or how either the cardio or other training will be done, or awareness of the impact of diet on potentially conflicting goals where "weight" obscures the difference between losing unwanted body fat and gaining desirable muscle mass. I would generally suggest a complete beginner look for coaching, either from an experienced acquaintance or professionally at a gym long enough to get the basics in hand along with a starter program. (Personally had four years in a university weightroom that lasted a lifetime.) There's a lot of good beginner content on Youtube, i quite like Coach Ali who is pretty clear and covers bodyweight through other training modalities, but live or onscreen it's always personal preference.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIn3nS9mJKxnpffRDh6olCORLjj69qt70

AnnPT77

The generic recommendation from authorities for general health goals is to manageably work your way up to 150 minutes weekly of moderate cardiovascular exercise, or 75 minutes of more vigorous cardiovascular exercise, or a proportionate combination of the two, ideally spread over 5 days of the week; plus do some form of strength-challenging exercise at least 2 days per week.

If starting from zero, don't jump to that all at once. Phase it in, keep it to a manageable challenge. Over-fatigue is counterproductive for either of weight management or fitness improvement. Include recovery time in your plan, appropriate to your current fitness level. Recovery is when the magic happens, your body rebuilding better than before after the productive stress of the exercise. If you stick with a manageable starting plan, eventually it will start to feel easy, no longer challenging. That's a point where you can increase any of duration, frequency, intensity, or add some new type of exercise.

What cardio? Anything you find fun (preferably), or at least find tolerable and practical. It can be walking, cycling, aerobics on video or in classes, swimming, any of dozens of kinds of dancing (including just dancing in the kitchen to your favorite music), learning a martial art, playing active VR or video games, pickleball, playing frisbee with the kids, rowing/canoeing/kayaking, or any of dozens or hundreds of other possibilities. Anything that raises heart rate counts. It doesn't need to be some gym-y thing, unless you like gymming. It doesn't need to be the same activity every time, either. Try things until you find something you like.

Strength exercise? I'm not an expert. Weight lifting is the most efficient method, but there are also bodyweight exercises, strength-challenging forms of yoga or Pilates, and more.

There's a thread here that lists strength programs other MFP-ers have found helpful, many of which are free. Despite the thread title, it includes more than just lifting weights in its details. That's here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you

PP is right: Starting with a trainer is a good thing, if available/affordable.

There are other threads here, but experience suggests the Community software won't let me include lots of them in this post. This is another useful one for strength exercise:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10920257/how-to-set-up-a-weightlifting-routine

It's about lifting, but the general principles apply if you choose bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, or some other way of creating strength challenge.

There are some experienced, knowledgeable helpful people here who've been strength-training for years, who could give you more nuanced advice on that front. I know more about the cardiovascular side, as a long-term rower with some coaching education in that sport. I hope some of the strength folks will come along and give you advice about that side, beyond the basics in those links.

Best wishes!

rsccore

It depends on individual circumstances, but in terms of weight maintenance, the current recommendations from the ACSM, CDC, WHO, pretty much all health/fitness orgs is a minimum of 150 minutes a week, but up to an hour or more of moderate to vigorous activity a day. 10k steps for example is 90 minutes of brisk walking and over 7 days that would be 630 minutes of moderate activity.

The 150 minutes you often hear was the recommendation for health and fitness, but for those losing significant weight, the orginal recommendation was always more than that.

That activity will be a mix of cardio and resistance training according to your goals, with the recommended minimum of 2 days of resistance training to maintain strength and muscle mass. Of course, if you are wanting to maintain a more jacked physique then that will require more resistance training and less cardio.

Having more muscle mass will boost your BMR/TDEE some, but unless you are full on body building, you will still have cardio in the mix.

As far as how much, it depends on your appetite. I have a moderately active appetite, which I know from my weight history before and after the desk job, and when I am moderately active, I just eat and all is fine. So for the diet portion I simply restricted my intake and ramped up the cardio / resistance to get back in shape and gauge how much I was burning and by the end of the diet, had established a routine of vigorous (high inclined walking / HIIT), moderate (walking outside), and resistance (calisthenics, dumbells, kettlebell, barbell), that put me at or above moderately active, and all has been good again since.

All in all, I would say that 90 minutes of my day is devoted to activity, which is less than 10% of my waking hours, so while that may seem like a lot when I first started, it isn't in the grand scheme of things. 30 minutes in the morning to a vigorous routine, 20 minutes to a brisk walk after, and the rest is really just being more active in my day (walking more when the opportunity arrises) or just putting more effort into chores that I used to avoid or do with astonishing efficiancy (lack of physical movement).:) And resistance training fits in there 2 to 3 days a week.

While I have tried schemes in the past, my mornings are due to discipline now, and I wish I had went that route sooner. That gets me the bulk of "moderately active" and the rest just falls into place now, as I have the energy I used to have before the weight gain and falling out of shape.

Fun is always good of course, and I like sports the best, but it is hard to have a reliable routine based on that now, like it was in my 20s when friends and peers and opportunities were readily available. I am now 100% a person who "works out", which is something I never had to do before because I was that active naturally before the desk job.

At the beginning, I started walking, then inclined walking, then some running, and some HIIT. For resistance training, body weight exercises, dumbells, barbells. Most of the body weight exercises I had to do at an incline because of my weight, but gradually could do normally.