I need exercise routine advice.

Justin741

I'm two weeks in. I am out of shape and overweight. 6'2'' yesterday's weigh-in was 283.8. The past two weeks I have been getting on the ellitipitical trainer everyday for 20 minutes and decided for the month of March I will do 30 minutes. I feel good about my cardio routine but I also want to do some light strength training as well.

Currently I do 15 crunches, center and each side. And Mon,Wed,Fri I do 3 reps of 5 pushups. I have considered adding some light weight routines with my arms on the offdays or weekends. A friend of mine suggested the plank but I am not sure if I should do mutiple reps or not.

Any advice on changes, additions, or tweaks to my routine? Working out is a brand new thing for me so I need something I build a base and go from there! Also, if you want to ADD me I could use the support as well! Thanks!

koosdel

What sort of weight lifting equipment do you have access to?

Justin741

Very little koosdel, I have a 7 & 10lb kettlebell , and 5lb & 8lb dumbells. All equipment my wife has acquired over the years but she hasn't really used either.

frogger718

If you have the financial means and are a member of a gym, I would highly recommend at least paying for 3 one hour sessions with a trainer who can give you a basic routine to follow and some suggested workouts. My husband and I do group training with just the two of us at Club Fitness--way cheaper than paying for individual training. We paid for 50 sessions each and must attend all of them together in order to consider it group training. We go to the trainer 2x per week, attend a Dynamic Training class that lasts 30min one time each week, and do 45-60min cardio workouts 2 times each week. We have done quite well because, even though he's only lost 9 lbs and me 7 lbs in 6 weeks, he's taken off 7.25inches and me 4.25inches as well as about 2% body fat each.

Kettlebells and dumb bells can be used for so many different weight training routines. One thing our trainer told us was to not just stand still and do curls or things like that. All weight work should be combined with other movements--combine squats and lunges with arm work--do step ups with arm work--if you do that, you'll burn more calories. I would also suggest the Jillian Michael's 30day shred DVD. She has 3 levels of workouts all with a warm up/cool down and about 20-25min. of circuit training. It is an excellent video workout--she has a girl doing a more advanced step and a girl doing a simpler/easier version of the same step.

Hope that helps some.

BobbyDaniel

Walgreens has the Supreme 90 video workout videos for $20, i call them the "Poor Man's P90X" or in my case, the pastoral budget version! Great workouts using only hand weights with a lot of cardio. They are pretty hard, but can build strength.

dschevy348

Hi Preacher741,
Im new to myfitnesspal, but not to exercise. You're starting in the right direction, it looks to me like you just need a bit more background. You said you already do crunches center and sides, as well as push-ups. The problem I see is balance.

The Plank is an exercise of endurance. You get on your forearms and toes and hold your body up, working your abs. The longer you stay up, the more your abs are worked. However, you are already doing one ab workout. Granted, the plank will work you lower abs, and crunches work upper abs, but you have nothing to compensate your lower back.

Remember that all muscles work in opposites, so if you work one muscle, it is important to work its opposing muscle as well. Incorporate lower back exercises like good-mornings. Simply stand straight up with your legs straight and shoulder-width apart. With your hands on your hips, bend over at the hips without bending your legs as far as you can go, then back up. This is using your own upper body to work the lower back. Of course, this should be avoided if you have known back issues. You can make it harder holding your arms straight up while bending (there-by extending your body and applying more torque to your hips), or harder still by holding a weight against your chest (harder still by combining the extended arms and weight).

Same with the abs and lower back, push-ups work biceps, triceps, chest, and shoulders. You can easily adapt the push-up to work the opposing muscles by changing you hand placement. Arms shoulder height but wide apart works chest and shoulders more, close together works triceps and biceps more.

I'm a firm advocate against complicated weight systems, since you can get an excellent workout with items already found around the home. Don't have weights? use a gallon of water or milk (just under 10lbs). No ab machines? Sit-ups can be done anywhere, with or without a foot support. A bit of Knowledge and Creativity goes a long way.

Chevy

Baroque_Ja

This is stuff that is working for me and has worked for me in the past.

The greatest thing you can work that will burn cals sleeping is your legs. Keep up the walking and try and work up to 3 miles in an hour, that's a decent clip.

The thing that will build leg strength is a good routine of squats. I really like the stronglifts.com program because it's easy and it's 3 times a week 30 minutes total.

It's interesting to see how little low rep weight training is going on for the most part in these forums.