Beginner Exercises

mmc100
mmc100 Posts: 3
in Fitness and Exercise
I am new to my weight loss journey and was wondering what are some good beginner exercises/programs to do?

Replies

  • shabaity
    shabaity Posts: 792 Member
    Body weight:
    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

    C25k for running

    starting strength, stronglifts 5x5, or nrol for weight training

    There's lots of options out there.
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    Walking is often a good place to start, for people not already used to exercise. You can use hills to increase the intensity if you need to. When you are ready you can alternate walking and jogging, eventually the jogging portions run together and *poof* you are a runner.

    Read about target heart rate--how to use it to guide exercise intensity to achieve your goals. While I don't recommend necessarily buying a heart rate monitor (a food scale is a more important initial purchase), the Wahoo heart rate monitor website has a really good write-up of how to use heart-rate to guide your training. It's a marketing write-up though, so you have to mentally de-spin the sales-pitch portions. I suggest reading about target heart rate from several sources though.

    In general, for fat loss you will want to do some kind of "aerobic" exercise, such as walking, running, swimming, paddling--things that raise your heart rate and make you sweat, and that you can sustain for 20 minutes at a time. That may sound like a lot but if you are using target heart rate you will find that the intensity is low enough that you can go for a pretty long time without burning out. Start off at an intensity that puts your heart rate in the "fat burning zone".

    Once you are comfortable with exercising, you can read about interval training and start adding exercise at an intensity in your "cardio" heart-rate zone. But you can defer this for now.

    The other concern is for preserving muscle mass while you are eating at a calorie deficit to lose fat. Most people work to maintain or build muscle mass by lifting weights. You need work a muscle group only once or twice a week. More than that can result in over-training and a loss in strength. Some people will do their entire body in a session, some prefer to do upper body or lower body only and alternate days. Both ways are effective--pick what best fits your overall time schedule.

    The best way to learn how to use weights is to join a gym that gives you basic instruction in their weight machines when you join, or to hire a personal trainer for one to two sessions only to teach you to use free-weights. Use books for reference so you don't forget how to do free weights, but its safest to learn first from a real person. Keep a paper logbook of your weight work-outs with you in the gym and write entries as you complete each exercise, so you don't forget what weight or reps you did.

    You are 19--if you are in college or junior college, find out what services the college gym offers, it's likely to be less expensive than a private gym. There may also exist a weight-training PE (kinesiology) class.

    add: many sedentary people first starting exercise have especially sticky or even stinky sweat. This is a temporary phase that generally goes away after a month or two of consistent exercise, and sweat becomes more watery and takes much longer to generate any scent. Your sweat glands are out of shape too! So don't let "I hate sweating" deter you from exercising.
  • Stella_Mayfair
    Stella_Mayfair Posts: 226 Member
    swimming is best imo
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,899 Member
    What's your current fitness level? How far can you run without stopping? If you can't run can you walk? Can you do push-ups, pull ups?
  • VelveteenArabian
    VelveteenArabian Posts: 758 Member
    If you can join a gym, try out different classes.

    If you see an ad for a workout routine that looks interesting, search on YouTube for some videos and try them out before you invest money. Or heck, just search YouTube for workouts and make your own playlists.

    The best routine is the one you will stick with.
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    oh--yoga is also good for flexibility and de-stressing. At higher levels it can also have some strength and aerobic benefits but most people stay at less challenging levels. If you have time for it, add it to whatever else is in your exercise program.
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    If you can join a gym, try out different classes.

    If you see an ad for a workout routine that looks interesting, search on YouTube for some videos and try them out before you invest money. Or heck, just search YouTube for workouts and make your own playlists.

    The best routine is the one you will stick with.

    This!
  • Wanderer1234
    Wanderer1234 Posts: 9
    Anything that forces your body to continually adapt physically. You must follow the rules of physiologically adaptation. Read the following article:

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson87.htm
  • MsDellyssa
    MsDellyssa Posts: 66 Member
    I feel like such a slacker. Reading all the posts about "how long can you run" or if you can't run "how far can you walk" and I think I saw something about a 5K (I don't remember exactly)

    I don't run, never liked it, makes my boobs hurt, and yes I have a very good sports bra but it still doesn't stop the bounce pain (it's an Enell). I used to love to walk a lot. I had knee surgery last Feb, and I'm very over weight (I have like 200 lbs to lose). I don't want to ruin the repair by running or walking too much just yet with this weight. So I started doing these sit down exercises on youtube.
    https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL-3ha1N51FWOHt_G7xKX_Eq_94_NFsVk1

    I hope to soon be back up to a mile a day and work towards more miles later. I still don't see me running anytime in my lifetime.. sorry.. lol.

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