First time joining a gym - Advice?

You have chosen the wise path, Start Slow and build your house one brick at a time. Consistent effort will yield results over time. Think of your decision as a lifestyle change forever. Getfitat54 has you doing something 6 days a week. That in itself is a lifestyle change I suspect for you. Great! Take time for yourself everyday to create a healthy lifestyle and you will be proud of the results.

Well done for joining the gym. Are you working with a trainer or was it just and introduction session? If the latter you should be still able to ask the gym trainers to draw you up a program. This will be a good place to start as they can base it on the equipment at your gym and if you are not sure you can ask them. Also think about some classes if the gym does these, such as circuit training or HIIT, these can be fun and more social.

Sounds like you have both upper crossed and lower crossed syndromes , which is common with people that sit a lot. If you have Ehlers Dhanlos, as mentioned above, you would probably already know this and then you should be working with your treatment specialists, or perhaps you just have hypermobility? If it's just upper crossed and lower crossed syndromes than strengthening and stretching your body will correct these imbalances overtime and a good personal trainer should know how to address these issues.

The best advice is to find what you enjoy doing it and do it. Once you get more comfortable and start losing weight then you can look around for more options but the first 3 to 6 months are pretty critical for those trying to start a fitness regime.

Good luck to you and stay with it!

i don't know the names of that equipment either don't want to discourage you, but did he show you anyt hing relating to use of free weights at all? when i did rec centre orientation way back in the day, machines were the focus as well as the person who showed me around was a volunteer and not actually a trainer of any kind. but free weights - eventually barbells rather than dumbbells - ended up being the stuff that i wanted to use.

i agree with those who are nervous of you taking generic training advice if you have ehlers danloss. i'm not sure if even the usual stretching suggestions are applicable for people who have it, as i know even a 'normal' person's ligament tissue is plastic and does not bounce back when it's been overstretched.

triciasaunders5 wrote: »

Hey everyone, my name is Trish. I;m 22 years years old, 5'8", and 255 pounds. I have 100 pounds to lose.

I decided to join a gym. I had a one hour session with a personal trainer and they showed me how to use a seated chest press and a shoulder raise thing. (Forgive me, I don't know the names of the equipment lol)

Anyway I do have very relaxed joints so the goal is to strengthen the muscles around my shoulders and knees. I have lower back pain due to tight hamstrings and shoulder muscles.

Does anyone have any advice on maybe some things I could start out with ? Thanks!

First of all congrats at joining the gym and starting to build the strength in your joints at a young age. I'm guessing that you're hypermobile, maybe with EDS. I'm type 3, which means I have the lovely loose joints and pain that goes with that, but rather than exercising I allowed the pain (and dislocations and sublexations) to be an excuse for sitting on my *kitten* all day. Since finally starting to incorporate exercise at a gym my pain levels have reduced considerably and I haven't had an actual dislocation in around 6 months. I only wish I hadn't waited until I was in my 40s to start.

Anyhow advice, firstly if you have a physio then you're going to want to work with them (and if you don't get one), there are times when those of us with loose joints have to be careful, especially when it comes to stretching. Next take things slow and don't try and jump in at the deep end, if you do have a form of hypermobility it's very likely that you'll tire quite easily, it takes work for our muscles to just hold our joints in place (which is why we very often have tight muscles). I'd also suggest trying to move from machines (that often don't allow our bodies to follow their natural range of movement), but move over to free weights, whether that's dumbells or a barbell. I find the shoulder press painful to use even at light weights, but can do a overhead press with a barbell without pain because it's a more natural movement.

I've found squats have been great for improving flexibility in my legs (although my issues are more with weak ankles), but care has to be taken with these as you get better at them it's easy to drop too low if you're hypermobile. Anyway, if you have tight hamstrings, most likely you won't be able to do them straight off, to begin with I could only bob down a couple of inches, but with time this improved and then once I managed to get parallel I started adding weight in the form of a dumbell (goblet squats) then moved on to the barbell along with adding in different variations (narrow stance, sumo, front).

Mostly I'd say don't be afraid to give things a go but equally don't be afraid to modify, as you build strength in the muscles surrounding and supporting the joints you'll find you can do more and more without worrying about injury.

I wanted to point out that cell phone use only applies to talking on your phone. It's the noise, not the phone. So texting is okay if you have it on vibrate or use earphones. I use my phone all the time, for music, for entering activities and sometimes for looking things up.

If you feel anxious about starting remember other people don't notice you're starting out and don't care (or want to help). I used to pretend I did it all the time, when I was starting. Of course, that shouldn't stop you from asking for help absolutely any time you need it. The staff are there to help.