Need Strength Training Advice

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stellakhenizy
stellakhenizy Posts: 27
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys

Basically I have NO idea where to start and need help.

Whenever I have gone on diets in the past I have focused on 'cardi' exercises - mostly walking with some cardio workouts using videos

but I have never done any strength training


I am very overweight and am mostly doing walking at the moment, but would now like to incorporate some strength training into my day - but I really have no idea where idea where to start, or in fact what sort of exercises I should be doing

Can anyone advise me please?

I live in Egypt now so don't have access to shops to buy DVDs or videos in English - but I can access YouTube from my PC of course - can I find anything there ? What would I put in the search ?

thanks guys

Replies

  • suziastro
    suziastro Posts: 56 Member
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    You could try the 30 day shred.
    You can get it on youtube, all you will need it a set of weights and an exercise mat. :)
  • amit949
    amit949 Posts: 8 Member
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    First off, how is it living in Egypt? Besides the political and civil problem now I have heard amazing things about the culture, people, and cities.

    Now i'm going to give you a crash course on effective weight loss. Your goal should be to lose body fat percentage meaning the amount of fat between your muscles and outermost layer of skin. You want to get toned.

    So that in mind, gradual weight loss is your key. You don't want to lose to fast by working out to often and not eating enough food. This is most commonly done and it is counter productive in the long run because it causes hormonal and metabolic changes that are not helpful in keeping weight off.

    That being said, 80% of your focus needs to be on Nutrition. Body's are made in the kitchen not the gym. Use the myfitnesspal application on your phone and their website. Complete their goal setting guide. This will allow you to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is essentially the amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight. What you need to do is eat CLEAN foods, avoid processed foods, drink at least a gallon of water per day and no other forms of drinks, eat 6 small meals per day in which more protein is consumed then carbs, and finally avoid bad fats and take in only healthy fats such as Fish Oils or CLA.

    You need to understand the difference between eating vs. eating healthy. There is a lot of literature available online. Key terms to research are complex carbs vs. simple, insulin effects on blood sugar/ weight loss, timing meals, meeting macro / micro nutrient requirements, and etc.

    For exercise, you should weightlift as well as do cardio. I would recommend reading up on carb-cycling as well as try to follow one of these programs: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/find-a-plan-fat-loss-2039-female.html

    Your overall goal is to lose body fat percentage by eating less calories than your BMR. The deficit you choose to have daily will dictate how much weight you will lose. Its a matter of intelligent eating and consistent training followed by adequate rest.

    I suggest doing a weightlifting program for beginners and cardio. So 3 days do strength training followed by a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio exercise at the end for 15min. Do 2 days of Cardio for 1hr each varying intensity. 1 day rest and 1 day do abs/ play a sport. Keep active and focus on learning.

    Strength training burns more calories than just cardio. Doing it will help in so many ways. Overall, you need to commit to a new lifestyle of living.

    read this also http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/931670-bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide
  • UFCPride23
    UFCPride23 Posts: 3
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    Here's what my workout schedule looks like: Monday-chest and abs, Tuesday-Back, Wednesday-Legs, Thursday-Arms and abs, and Friday-shoulders. I take Saturday and Sunday off to let my body rest. If you want I can give you my list of routines or you can go to bodybuilding.com and look up the top exercises for each body part. You can also look up the exercises on youtube and people will show you how to do them properly. You're not going to want to lift heavy weights. You need to do a lot of reps with lower weights. I generally do 3 sets of each exercise in sets of 15, 12, and 10, increasing the weight a little bit for each set. I hope this gets you started on the right path. Good Luck!
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/850719-strength-training-the-basics
    So, I thought I would do a thread on the basics of strength training. It is not intended to be comprehensive, nor is it intended to imply that one form of exercise is better than another. It is purely intended to help those get familiar with the basic concepts and terminology of strength training.

    What is strength training?

    Well, it is intended to make you strong…yep, pretty obvious. However, there are a few terms that are used interchangeably in everyday use but they really have slightly different meanings such as resistance training and weight training. I will be using the generic term of strength training here to encompass them.

    Strength training is a means of stimulating the development and improvement of muscle strength by increasing the ability to resist force through the use of, inter alia, free weights, machines and your own body weight. Strength training is primarily an anaerobic activity.


    Benefits of strength training.

    When properly performed, strength training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health, including increased bone, muscle, tendon and ligament strength, increased bone density, increased metabolism, improved body composition and generally making you feel like a badass.


    Compound and isolation lifts

    Compound lifts utilize more than one joint and as such work several muscle groups at once. For example, squats require the use of the hip, knee and ankle joints. It works a host of muscle groups but primarily glutes, quads and core.

    An isolation exercise is one where the movement uses only one joint, such as leg extensions.

    Both have their place, however, due to the fact that you are using a number of muscle groups for compound lifts, these often form the foundation of a majority of lifting programs.


    Rep ranges

    Different rep ranges cause a different type of stress on the body and it reacts differently to each.

    The lower rep range (1 – 5) causes neurological adaptations, which is your body developing its ability to activate muscle fibers by increasing the frequency of neural impulses sent to the brain as well as improving intra- and inter-muscle coordination. Basically it makes you stronger but does has a lesser impact to your muscle mass.

    The mid rep range (6 – 12) the impact is more on the metabolic and cellular level where you gain muscle mass but strength gains are not as significant as you would get in the lower rep ranges. This is the general rep range for hypertrophy, or mass gains.

    The higher rep ranges (13+) stimulate muscle endurance primarily with only a small amount of hypertrophy and very little strength and as such is not considered strength training in the strict sense of the word.

    Note, that there is no hard and fast line between the effects of the above, but rather a continuum. Also, the number of sets plays into how much is strength v hypertrophy v endurance. For example, you can do 5 sets of 6 reps for a total of 30 lifts, or you can do 10 sets of 3 lifts for a total of 30 lifts. If you do them to an equivalent level of failure, the time under tension will be the same. The number of sets does not automatically turn it from strength to hypertrophy due to the rest periods between sets, but it does have a bearing on where in the continuum the routine lies.

    So, in summary:
    1 – 5 reps = strength
    6 – 12 reps = hypertrophy
    12+ = endurance

    So, the appropriate rep ranges really depend on your goals as well as your overall lifting program. Most ‘standard’ programs focus on the upper end of the strength range so benefits of both strength and some hypertrophy are gained.


    Some tips:

    - Form is of importance all the time. Do not push to increase weights if your form is not good.

    - Warm up your muscles before lifting by doing a short amount of cardio (less than 10 minutes). Stretching is not required and should not be done ‘cold’ in any event.

    - When you get to lifting heavier weights, with the compound lifts, make sure you do sufficient warm up sets.

    - If you want to do cardio in the same session, do it after lifting.

    - Put the ‘big’ lifts (heavier strength range compounds) at the beginning of your session.
  • stellakhenizy
    stellakhenizy Posts: 27
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    TY for the info - not sure I understand everything but do quite a lot of it and
    will do my best to return and read a few more times for it to sink in

    I'm on a diet from my doctor and actually I think she is getting me to eat too little and
    I am in danger of my body going into panic 'I'm being starved' mode

    Will try YouTube to see some ways of how to actually do the exercises for strength training
    Hopefully I can find what I need simply.

    I live in a village in the Delta region so its fine here, no problems like they get in the cities with
    all the upheaval etc though of course we are facing sky rocketing inflation terribly, tho the one thing
    that is still not TOO bad price was is locally grown fruit and vegetables, which is especially helpful

    The heat does make it hard for me to exercise as I weigh more than double what I should, but the good thing is
    that soon we should start seeing the temperatures drop when Autumn FINALLY arrives here and that should
    help with my daily walk routine.

    thanks for all your help - am sure I will be posting again for more help at some point
    once I've seen what I can find on You Tube

    I did try Jillian's shredded video on YouTube but I am so large and so unfit that it was just too much for me

    She says in it that anyone - even 400 lb persons (which I am not) - can do jumping jacks. Well believe you me I
    tried and tried but I really cannot .... my knees OMG !!!!

    any hoo that's enough of me for now
    If you think of anything else, please feel free to message me
    ooo and I'm accepting FRs too :smile:

    Stella :flowerforyou:

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