Daily Exercise

Don't do crunches, they're bad for your back.

You'd be very well served to look at a strength training program, people have set them up to build muscle in a balanced way. Convict conditioning if you don't have access to a gym.

spiritdimund89 wrote: »

Keep my body guessing as in start new exercises to help it burn more fat and calories. My body reached a plateau a couple weeks ago. I added a 10 minute workout and started incorporating jogging during my walks. That helped. Aside from that I just want to know if the exercises I have liated above are going to be too much to do daily. I am new to this, so I don't know squat. My goal is to lose 28 pounds.

Exercise is good for you, but you don't need to keep your body guessing. Adding exercise burns more calories, that's all.

Your body doesn't get used to some level of exercise, and burn fewer calories doing it (at the same body weight, intensity, duration, etc.). A fit 150 pound person burns about the same number of calories running a mile at X miles per hour as does an unfit 150 pound person. It just feels harder to the unfit person, and they look like they're struggling, so people think the unfit person burns more calories. In reality, the difference is trivial.

Another thing that makes people believe otherwise is the fact that some heart rate monitors will estimate calories differently for those two people (because the fit person's heart doesn't need to beat as frequently to deliver the same amount of oxygen to burn the same amount of fuel). HRMs only estimate calories, and sometimes they estimate inaccurately.

One thing that really does happen is that as you lose weight, you burn fewer calories moving your smaller body as you do things, in exercise or daily life. So, as you get lighter, you may need to exercise more or eat less in order to keep losing weight at the same rate.

IMO, how you tell whether exercise is too much is based on:

1. Whether the time it takes in your day allows you to keep good life balance, i.e., still pay enough attention to your family, job, chores, non-exercise hobbies, etc. If you can't maintain good overall life balance, even by making suitable adjustments in other required things, it's probably too much.

2. Whether it leaves you feeling energetic for the rest of your daily life (after maybe a few minutes of a "whew" feeling right after the exercise session). If your exercise makes you feel fatigued or exhausted, so that you drag through the rest of your daily life, you can actually end up burning fewer overall calories througout the day: Resting more and doing less in daily life offsets some of the calorie burn from exercise. This part changes over time, i.e., as you get fitter, you can add more time or more intensity and still feel energetic afterward.

Personally, I also feel like the exercise should be fun, since if something's fun we'll do it regularly, but if it's boring or annoying in some way, we'll put it off and avoid it at any opportunity. A less effective exercise we actually do burns more calories than an ideal exercise we don't like so don't do.

The US government (and some other experts) suggest we need a minimum of 150 minutes weekly of moderate exercise per week, or an equivalent (less total time) of vigorous exercise per week, including 2 days of strength training. That can be a good goal to work toward.

We would not know if this is too much for you because we don't know your fitness level and skills. Everyone defines beginner differently. I would think 100 crunches is a lot for a "beginner" but maybe not for you. I also dont' know what a "booty shaking workout" means! Consistency of whatever you do is the most important thing.

Seems like a solid plan. I understand what you mean by keeping your body guessing, I'm not sure why others seem to be so hung up over the idea. Anyways, your plan looks good. Not terribly intense, considering you've been regularly active for 2 months, which is a good thing since you plan on doing this everyday.

kami3006 wrote: »

FitAndLean_5738 wrote: »

Seems like a solid plan. I understand what you mean by keeping your body guessing, I'm not sure why others seem to be so hung up over the idea. Anyways, your plan looks good. Not terribly intense, considering you've been regularly active for 2 months, which is a good thing since you plan on doing this everyday.

Because it's a myth that you need to keep it guessing to progress. Your body will improve but that does not mean that the workout is not effective and that you'll stop seeing results.

Exactly. If you think it's fun to switch things up, that's fine.

But there's no need to do it for progress in fitness: That's a myth promoted by marketers that want to keep selling you new equipment and videos. I'm hung up over it because it's a cheesy misleading sales promotion lie that they impose on people who don't know differently.

Do you think national team (Olympic) athletes "keep their bodies guessing" in order to keep making progress? They don't. They follow a well-designed progressive plan that varies through the year depending on competition demands and priorities, spending a big bundle of their time on some version of their sport. Of course their
plan includes some cross training for well-roundedness and injury prevention, and ample rest, but no "switch it up to keep your body guessing".

spiritdimund89 wrote: »

Is this list okay for a beginner? I have been exercising for almost 7 weeks now and lost 11 pounds! Yay! I started off with walking. I want to keep my body guessing though. Please give advice and opinion. I would greatly appreciate it!

Keep your body guessing is absolute nonsense peddled by people who have a financial interest in making simple things complicated.

Calorie burning is down to physics not ridiculous concepts like "guessing" - your body doesn't guess, it uses energy to move mass over distance - that's physics not marketing.
I've done over 300 hours of cycling this year, it still takes energy (calories) to power my rides.

Pick an exercise routine suited to your fitness goals and follow it. No guesswork required. No idea what you are trying to achieve with what seems a very random selection of exercises. Yes it's good you are moving but I think you could do better.