Struggling at the gym

Hydrating properly?

nicolega2001 wrote: »

armstrongchloe wrote: »

Hydrating properly?

When I did an assessment at the gym they said I was properly hydrated. But I have been wondering if I should drink more water. I was getting headaches while exercising for awhile, so I upped my water intake a bit. Haven't had anymore headaches.

Are you snacking before you go to the gym? Or are you going in hungry? I always feel my weakest when I haven't eaten or I've been slacking on my water. Try different things and feel out what helps YOUR body.

Part of it is the fact that fitness takes time to build...it doesn't happen overnight. Part of it is the fact that some days are just better than other days. I've been training well for 5+ years and I have good days and bad days.

nicolega2001 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Part of it is the fact that fitness takes time to build...it doesn't happen overnight. Part of it is the fact that some days are just better than other days. I've been training well for 5+ years and I have good days and bad days.

There are moments where I'm like yes I got this I'm killing it and then other times I'm like what on earth am I doing? This is hard!

Me, too.

First--congratulations! I admire you for committing. However, as you yourself admit, you were sedentary for a long time and obese. That means it will take at least a few months for your body to catch up to the new changes. By all means try different things to see what works best. Any movement is good, even starting out walking on the treadmill for 15 mins slow to start before you do other things. Once you start to feel in control you can up intensity and frequency in moderate stages. Being overly tired means cutting calories too much, or lack of sleep, or could be other things. Best of luck to you.

Yes...it will take time to build up both strength and endurance. Also, be sure to eat about 200-300 calories and at least 1 cup water per hour before you go to the gym. If you are going in 2 hours, 400-600 calories and minimum of 2 cups of water (3-4 if you can). This will give you time to convert food to fuel for your workout, as well as get it out of your stomach so it's not sloshing around.

I am doing a triathlon sprint program (half mile swim, 12.4 mile bike, 3.1 mile run), and while I don't do all of them every day, today I did a 4+ mile run in the AM. I ate about 2-3 hours before hand, and finally averaged under a 10 min mile. Days where I get up and run empty, I am lucky if I can keep it just over 11 min mile average.

And while I don't suggest you buy it at this time, on Sat when I do my personal triathlon sprint (half mile swim, 6+ mile bike b/c my butt can't handle 12 miles yet, and 3.5 mile run), I use a BCAA supplement to help me out right before/during the workout. It is an amino acid supplement that help with energy levels, as well as keeps your body from tearing down as much muscle during the workout that it normally would. Nearly 2 hours of pretty intense cardio can be rough, and while I feel the workout, I don't hit the "exhaustion wall" like I did before. Again, I wouldn't suggest you take it at this point (healthy fuel up snack should be fine for you), but just letting you know that it's something we all face.

Finally, don't know what exercises you're doing, but if you're not, mix in a little strength training. Cardio is great, but you need to build muscle to push you on that treadmill or whatever. It is suggested to do strength first, since you are fresh, then do cardio after - if you do them both at the same gym visit. You will be tired/slower doing your cardio since you muscles have been worked and fuel supplies are depleted, but you still burn the same calories doing 2 miles on an elliptical, you're just going slower and it takes a bit longer (5-10 min perhaps). The other way, you might not have the energy to do that last set, so your strength training gets cheated.

Coffee, caffeine is your friend.

It provides more water then it would cause you to lose - unless you are just over-reactive to it.
If it keeps you up at night because of drinking too late - that's no good then.

And if it's a matter of muscles are too tired to push your HR up to a level you reach other days without too much difficulty - look at why muscles may be tired.

Lack of sleep, didn't recover well from last workout because of that or too big a diet, lack of food or wrong foods for you and blood sugar is lower this time.

Well congrats on the life change and welcome aboard! The most important part in the beginning is to make small changes that you can maintain for your lifetime. Make friends at the gym if you can to keep you going.

When I got back into shape I was doing ~30 mins on the various cardio machines and mixing in some light lifting. As the weight came off I pushed it a bit harder and increased the intensity slowly, but steadily.

Some tips that kept me going - I drank coffee (I limit myself to 1 cup in the morning and 1 in the afternoon) ~1 hour before workouts if tired. I kept a small pouch of jelly beans and ate 1 every 5 mins. I carried a 16 oz water bottle and took small sips to stay hydrated and usually finished this off in the daily 1 hr workouts.

jemhh wrote: »

nicolega2001 wrote: »

FatWithFatness wrote: »

Coffee, caffeine is your friend.

You're the second person who has said that on this thread. Very interesting to me! I had never considered that before. I think I assumed it would make me feel dehydrated.

Some people may use coffee as a preworkout but I wouldn't suggest it in this situation.

As of a month ago, you were completely overweight and out of shape. It is reasonable to expect that there will be days when you struggle in the gym. That's just part of working your way into shape and even most in shape people have bad gym days now and then. If anything, my concern is the focus on a target heart rate. I don't see the point of it when starting from zero and just getting up and moving on a regular basis is a fantastic goal. I mean, I've been there--sedentary and obese--and I think that focusing on a heart rate would only have been a distraction, or an unneeded complication.

Agreed...

Heck, all I did for awhile was go for walks everyday...I doubt my HR was up much.