Exercise for Beginners?

I've just recently decided I was going to lose weight in a healthy way, and am looking for really easy, but effective workouts. Preferably some an overweight person can do.

I know about Fitness Blender but I can't do it or YouTube workout videos as often as I would like because my internet slows down after a few video plays.

I'm always on Pinterest and got a few exercises from that, but I don't know how many calories they burn or anything, and I want to be able to have a good variety.

Please help me x

Steph

Replies

  • riotatme23
    riotatme23 Posts: 56 Member
    walk.

    walk around the block
    walk around the mall
    walk around the park
    walk to the store

    run
    jump rope
    jumping jacks
    dance
    dance at a club
    dance while you clean
    dance while you get ready in the morning
    stretch
    swim
    ride a bike


    regardless of what you decide to do for exercise, you have to moniter what you eat or it will all be a waste.
    track your calorie intake and compare it with your calories burned for the day. I was amazed how many calories I burned just by taking my kid to the park and walking around for an hour.
  • JuliRamone
    JuliRamone Posts: 365 Member
    You could try StrongLifts 5x5 -
    it's a great program for beginners, at the moment I am 13 weeks into it.
    Lifting helps you retain muscle as you lose weight and, oh and this is the big part:
    It makes you feel strong, confident and invincible :)
  • Rlavigne93
    Rlavigne93 Posts: 119 Member
    If you can get to an elliptical, they're great for combined cardio and strength. Easier on your knees than running, too.

    When I started out, having never excercised before, I just tried a bunch of different ones until I found what worked. I'd do 20 crunches, 5 reverse crunches, 10 squats, and about 20 lifts with a 10 pound medicine ball. I'd add on 5 of whatever whenever one thing started seeming easy. Recently I started doing this Express Workout. It's not too difficult and pretty easy to modify the difficulty of.

    http://punkd.org/2013/express-workout/
  • kit_liu
    kit_liu Posts: 22 Member
    Your internet may slow down, but you can still download the youtube videos onto your computer or put them on your phone/ipad by using the clipconverter.cc website. I do this and follow several youtube exercise programs; mainly because I do my exercise in a different room from my pc.
  • jillshadow
    jillshadow Posts: 76 Member
    I know this is going to sound lame but try Richard Simmons workout vids.As a beginner I have tried many exercise vids but the moves were too complex. Richard Simmons is easy but will give you a good workout.also he is ridiculous and will have you laughing your *kitten* off too.
  • TheAndiMe
    TheAndiMe Posts: 11 Member
    I know this is going to sound lame but try Richard Simmons workout vids.As a beginner I have tried many exercise vids but the moves were too complex. Richard Simmons is easy but will give you a good workout.also he is ridiculous and will have you laughing your *kitten* off too.

    I'll second that...I love Richard Simmons. And they are silly enough that it's fun!
  • segovm
    segovm Posts: 512 Member
    I just ride my bike around and the seems to do the trick pretty well. Doesn't get much easier or comfortable than that.
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    Walking is especially good for weight loss. Hills make it more effective.

    Search on the web and read about target heart rate--use it as a guide for how hard to exercise so you don't push too hard and burn out. You will want to start by working out in your "fat burning zone" and you can start adding "cardiac" work-outs once you are well established in your exercise habit and want more from it. You can use target heart rate to guide all your non-strength training workouts--walking running swimming biking kayaking etc.
  • TracyeS4
    TracyeS4 Posts: 746 Member
    I love to swim. It burns more calories than anything else that I do. I also started training for my 1st 5k. I am going to try the Couch to 5 K (C25K) app and see if it helps. I figure that I will do best if I have a goal.
  • frayst
    frayst Posts: 62
    Walk at a brisk pace for 2 miles at least 4 days a week

    Yoga

    Get the "Daily Workout App" and do their programs at your pace

    If you have the means, find a good kickboxing or HIIT class
  • frayst
    frayst Posts: 62

    dance
    dance at a club
    dance while you clean
    dance while you get ready in the morning

    You sound like a whole lot of fun!
  • zamphir66
    zamphir66 Posts: 582 Member
    If you're at all interested in strength training, I am a recent convert to this:

    http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Your-Own-Gym/dp/0345528581

    Pretty much all the exercises can be adapted to any age/size/skill, etc. I am now wishing I had not renewed my annual gym membership.
  • I just do 15 minute alternating on various machines in my small gym my apartment has (usually it is a treadmill/stair climber, but time to time I mix it up). Stair Climber's are great, I find they burn the most calories and you feel like you are really working out but you aren't straining yourself.

    Then I do at least 30 minutes with my fitness hula hoop (I have a 3 pound one) this burns around 210 calories per session - which is what I found most often repeated online/on the forums/from my own experience. This is an fun thing to do! It also helps your core which is a good thing. You can multitask a little while doing it. I usually watch some TV or jam to some high energy music while hooping, I can walk while doing it too, but my apartment doesn't offer too much room for that so I usually keep to one sport.

    I highly recommend the hoop for getting your toes wet if you aren't use to working out much, I was hooping for a couple weeks before doing anything else and found I didn't exhaust as easily when doing the machines. :)
  • scottkjar
    scottkjar Posts: 346 Member
    Don't be in a big hurry to do complicated and difficult workouts that burn 1000 calories per day.

    I started just walkind around the parking lot at my apartment complex. That only took about 10 minutes. A couple months later, I found a nearby park with a 1/2 mile path laid out, and I walked that path once. A week or two later, I walked it again. And again. And again. Until I started walking the path every day, and sometimes going around it twice. Then three times. Then 5 times, Eventually 6 times around.

    About 9 months later, I jogged it for the first time.

    There is no need to be in a hurry. You are doing something that you need to develop for the rest of your life.

    Just get started. Just walk.
  • VelveteenArabian
    VelveteenArabian Posts: 758 Member
    The amount of calories exercise burns depends on your stats and your effort. Anything that tells you "this burns X calories" is at best just guessing and at worst flat out lying. You and I can do the same activity and the caloric burns WILL be different.

    The BEST workout is the one you will stick with. I can tell you workouts where I burn 700 calories an hour, but if you can't do it because of your fitness level, you won't hit that burn. If you don't enjoy the workout and don't stick with it, then it doesn't matter how many calories it burns if you're not doing it. Find an activity you enjoy, and do that.
  • MMarvelous
    MMarvelous Posts: 1,067 Member
    Try a few apps - Freeletics is a body weight app, workout trainer by Skimble there are couch to 5k apps
    If you have access to a gym - try bodybuilding.com Jamie Eason's 12 Week LIve Fit Trainer for beginner weight lifting

    MapMyRun is another way to track your run or walk.

    You can do a couch to 5k program on your own.

    Take the stairs whenever you can. Many libraries have free DVDs you can use as well.
  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
    I know about Fitness Blender but I can't do it or YouTube workout videos as often as I would like because my internet slows down after a few video plays.

    I sometimes have issues with my video player so here's my low-tech solution for doing my favorite streaming exercise vids.

    1. I write down the different exercises from the favorite vid on index cards. For example, the first card might say "kettlebell swings 50 seconds," the second card might say "kettlebell clean and press, 50 seconds" and so on.

    2. I have downloaded an interval timer for my smartphone. There are tons of free ones, just search your app store.

    3. I program my interval timer for the exercise routine. For instance, on FitnessBlender many MANY exercises are based on 50 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, for a certain number of intervals. So I program that sequence into the interval timer and save it so I can reuse it in future. For my example above, I would have named it "Cardio Kettlebell Routine."

    4. When I want to do that routine, I just queue up my cards and start the interval timer.

    I keep thinking there's gotta be an interval timer out there that would let me record my own voice prompts so I could dispense with the index cards, but I've been too lazy to look for one LOL.
  • Lilly_the_Hillbilly
    Lilly_the_Hillbilly Posts: 914 Member
    I've lost 18 kilos doing not much more than pushing a stroller with my kids in it and walking fast. I got a HRM and I walk fast enough to elevate my heart rate. I usually walk for about an hour. I also track and weigh what I eat. It took me 8 months to lose the weight.