[Anon420]

So I've not really exercised for 2 years, mainly just walking about places.
I was meant to start the gym a few months ago but due to some issues I put it off until now, Just signed up to a local DW Sports Gym.

However I'm wondering how I should break myself in to regular exercise, I plan on 5-6days at the gym a week. Since I haven't done much exercise and let myself get a bit overweight as well, I'm not sure what my body can handle to build up tolerance of being quite active again.

Advice and tips please I plan to start this monday, so have until then to decide things.

[Anon420]

Anyone? :P

Should i just go at the machines until i feel too tired?

[silent ninja]

I've had a year break on weights up until this May and remember being quite inactive for a couple of years in the past (never been a fatty so didn't see any reason to go), so I know how it is going in from scratch.

Firstly your technique is gonna suck on weights. Not only might you be a bit wobbly but more importantly you will not lift to your potential because your body just isn't programmed for the motions. Hence, when you do find yourself lifting next to nothing don't be discouraged! Muscle memory, neuro links and all that malarkey that comes with training, will mean in a few weeks you'll see a vast improvement in your lifts. Also don't overdo it for the sake of your joints. Your whole body gets conditioned as you gradually go up weights, not arch your back and belly flop on the bench like some people. Going up fast + poor technique = injury.

Have you found a programme you want to follow? What are your aims? To get fitter (cardio), lose weight, bulk/put on lots of muscle? A mix of weight lifting with cardio suits most people. We'll need to know what you want out of it before recommending anything.

Nutrition is a major factor. If you're in to counting calories, you can try myfitnesspal.com. I'm personally against beginners counting calories. I think it usually turns out to be too much of a strain in watching every ounce you eat on top of following a strict workout regime and the result is often demotivation, unhappiness and giving up. Taking on everything at once is just too much for most. My advice is to eat in moderation and use common sense. Minimise fats and carbs (at the right time) and up your protein and beyond that common sense is sufficient. If you fancy a cream cake just have it but don't have it 4 times a week. You will find as your workout routine improves, you'll naturally be inclined to eat better and you can introduce a stricter diet later if you want. The main thing is to eat in moderation and train HARD.

[Anon420]

Sorry for late reply ninja, +repped you.

End of 2nd week of break in, delayed muscle soreness seems to be gone now but the odd muscle gets sore.

Started last Monday with not even being able to do 2mins on the crosstrainer / 4mins on the treadmill. So end of 2nd week of the gym (1hour sessions 4 days both weeks) and I'm comfortable with doing 12min crosstrainer sessions on level 5 and 15minute 6.2kmh 2% gradient fast walks. Did 10% gradient up hill 4kmh walk for 10minutes today with a 2minute slow 8kmh jog.

Lifting betters on the weights with more reps.
Generally 20kg arms 25 reps 2 sets
50kg leg presses 20reps 2 sets
25kg ab crunch 20 reps 2 sets 10 reps 1 set

I was barely lifting 15kg 10 reps when I started 2weeks ago, lots more work ahead though as I want more reps or more weight. Time will progress Still haven't fully suited my diet out, just eating healthy and drinking only soya milk/water/one glass of orange juice a day really.

Usually have a cheeky coke once a week :P

[RollerBall]

(Original post by Anon420)
Sorry for late reply ninja, +repped you.

End of 2nd week of break in, delayed muscle soreness seems to be gone now but the odd muscle gets sore.

Started last Monday with not even being able to do 2mins on the crosstrainer / 4mins on the treadmill. So end of 2nd week of the gym (1hour sessions 4 days both weeks) and I'm comfortable with doing 12min crosstrainer sessions on level 5 and 15minute 6.2kmh 2% gradient fast walks. Did 10% gradient up hill 4kmh walk for 10minutes today with a 2minute slow 8kmh jog.

Lifting betters on the weights with more reps.
Generally 20kg arms 25 reps 2 sets
50kg leg presses 20reps 2 sets
25kg ab crunch 20 reps 2 sets 10 reps 1 set

I was barely lifting 15kg 10 reps when I started 2weeks ago, lots more work ahead though as I want more reps or more weight. Time will progress Still haven't fully suited my diet out, just eating healthy and drinking only soya milk/water/one glass of orange juice a day really.

Usually have a cheeky coke once a week :P

You really should get a proper routine. 20-25 reps? Wtf is "arms"?

[Anon420]

(Original post by RollerBall)
You really should get a proper routine. 20-25 reps? Wtf is "arms"?

Arms, those things attached to your body and hands that help you do things. You know what I mean, any weight machines that use your arms to pull up the weight.

I know I should get a proper routine, but it's the end of week 2 and it's still breaking in really, so just doing what I feel like when I'm there. Trying not to take everything on at once, so going to settle myself into the environment before I start doing things like a static robot.

[RollerBall]

(Original post by Anon420)
Arms, those things attached to your body and hands that help you do things. You know what I mean, any weight machines that use your arms to pull up the weight.

I know I should get a proper routine, but it's the end of week 2 and it's still breaking in really, so just doing what I feel like when I'm there. Trying not to take everything on at once, so going to settle myself into the environment before I start doing things like a static robot.

No, I really have no idea what you mean when you say arms. There are quite a few muscle groups worked when you use your arms, including chest, triceps, biceps, back, shoulder etc.

Also, screw settling in. I "settled in" for two weeks and it was the biggest waste of time. Just get a routine and start doing it, otherwise you'll be two weeks into your routine and kicking yourself you didn't start with it. You're not going to be using the machines very much when you sort out what you're doing anyway, if you must "settle in" do some bar work so at least you have a head start on form.

[Ronove]

If you want to build strength, you want to be limiting sets to 6-8 reps. 20+ reps is on all accounts pretty unnecessary - even for muscular endurance 12-15 reps would be fine.

[Anon420]

(Original post by Ronove)
If you want to build strength, you want to be limiting sets to 6-8 reps. 20+ reps is on all accounts pretty unnecessary - even for muscular endurance 12-15 reps would be fine.

I hear lots of different opinions regarding this, the personal trainer who showed me around basically said 2sets 20-25reps would be a good start.

Then I read online that lifting heavy is overrated and lifting lighter, but for more reps is better. Not really sure what to think myself, I just lift to 20-25 or until I can't physically lift anymore for that set.

Whats the difference technically speaking of lifting heavier for 10 reps or lifting lighter but for 20reps?

[tooosh]

(Original post by Anon420)
I hear lots of different opinions regarding this, the personal trainer who showed me around basically said 2sets 20-25reps would be a good start.

Then I read online that lifting heavy is overrated and lifting lighter, but for more reps is better. Not really sure what to think myself, I just lift to 20-25 or until I can't physically lift anymore for that set.

Whats the difference technically speaking of lifting heavier for 10 reps or lifting lighter but for 20reps?

10 is more size, 20 is (pointless) more endurance. ~5 is more strength fyi. You can still get size on 5 and strength on 10 but I'm not sure there's really a good use for 20...

Nothing will get you settled quicker than getting on a routine and sticking to it.

[Ronove]

(Original post by Anon420)
I hear lots of different opinions regarding this, the personal trainer who showed me around basically said 2sets 20-25reps would be a good start.

Then I read online that lifting heavy is overrated and lifting lighter, but for more reps is better. Not really sure what to think myself, I just lift to 20-25 or until I can't physically lift anymore for that set.

Whats the difference technically speaking of lifting heavier for 10 reps or lifting lighter but for 20reps?

Lifting 'heavyish' for 10 reps will contribute to gains in muscle size and increased muscular endurance (ie being able to do the exercise at that weight for longer periods of time, which would be useful if you were trying to improve your ability to carry out manual labour at your job, etc) and may just about increase strength over time, but 10 reps is over what is advised for strength gain.

For strength you should in theory aim for lifting 75% of your 1 rep max (the absolute maximum weight you can do the exercise with, which causes you to be unable to do any more than once without resting in between reps).

In practice that's pretty hard to work out and it's a lot easier to just find the weight that you can do for 6-8 reps, at which point you have to end the set and break for around 1-3 minutes. Breaks should be shorter if you're going for high reps and low weight and thus muscular endurance.

Is your personal trainer actually qualified to call themselves a personal trainer? Are they currently on the Register of Exercise Professionals (REP)?

[Anon420]

(Original post by Ronove)
Lifting 'heavyish' for 10 reps will contribute to gains in muscle size and increased muscular endurance (ie being able to do the exercise at that weight for longer periods of time, which would be useful if you were trying to improve your ability to carry out manual labour at your job, etc) and may just about increase strength over time, but 10 reps is over what is advised for strength gain.

For strength you should in theory aim for lifting 75% of your 1 rep max (the absolute maximum weight you can do the exercise with, which causes you to be unable to do any more than once without resting in between reps).

In practice that's pretty hard to work out and it's a lot easier to just find the weight that you can do for 6-8 reps, at which point you have to end the set and break for around 1-3 minutes. Breaks should be shorter if you're going for high reps and low weight and thus muscular endurance.

Is your personal trainer actually qualified to call themselves a personal trainer? Are they currently on the Register of Exercise Professionals (REP)?

Thanks for the advice, I think i'll try a heavier lift but for shorter reps. I'm not really sure what my main goal with muscles size is, I don't want to bulk or free lift. I just want to use the safe machines.

I joined the gym mainly to lose weight, then tone up and keep fit. I work in IT and Study in Science so I don't foresee any future manual labour jobs so not going to work around that. I am going to focus heavily on cardio but I also want to do weights to help me get a bit stronger and fitter as at the moment I'm quite weak. In terms of the personal trainer, I've no idea... I met him through my gym induction session he did with DW Fitness Gyms

[silent ninja]

(Original post by Anon420)
Thanks for the advice, I think i'll try a heavier lift but for shorter reps. I'm not really sure what my main goal with muscles size is, I don't want to bulk or free lift. I just want to use the safe machines.

I joined the gym mainly to lose weight, then tone up and keep fit. I work in IT and Study in Science so I don't foresee any future manual labour jobs so not going to work around that. I am going to focus heavily on cardio but I also want to do weights to help me get a bit stronger and fitter as at the moment I'm quite weak. In terms of the personal trainer, I've no idea... I met him through my gym induction session he did with DW Fitness Gyms

Machines are not safer. They were created so that gym staff wouldn't have to train members how to lift (=money saving). They could just throw them in front of a machine. Barbell/free weight lifting requires more knowledge.

Machines restrict your range of motion, they are rigid, they dont engage secondary muscles and stablising muscles. You need this if you're gonna use your strength in real life. Assistance in this case is a bad thing. For example compare the shoulder press in the Smith machine compared to a free bar. The weight in the Smith machine ends up above your head and about an inch in front of you. That's unnatural. With a free weight, the same weight ends up in line with the back of your head/spine where it should be. So doing the first one can't be great for your shoulders in the long term (like benching on the Smith machine, terrible for your shoulders as it's not a vertical lift).
Even the lat pulldown; it seems perfectly fine but it's not engaging your stablising muscles so it's actually rather poor compared to a chin-up-- you may as well perform them using a chair, that's a lot more effective.

The fewer machines you use, the better. They're not all useless by any means but be weary.

[Anazoth]

I just joined a gym for the first time and they had a lot of leaflets at the entrance. One was called "getting started" and it give you a nice beginner workout that gets the heart pumping and the muscles aching. This is what i do. Keep in mind i'm a complete beginner and not looking for pure strength training just yet, mostly cardio and leg work with a little strength added.

The following is pretty much a full body workout, some people prefer a more intense strength workout though.

1. Treadmill ~ 10 min warm up (walk or jog)
2. Converging chest press machine ~ 2 sets / 12 reps*
3. Diverging Seated Row ~ 2 sets / 12 reps*
4. Exercise Bike ~ 10 mins on a level you struggle with a little.
5. Rope Climber ~ Pick a level, do it until you physically can't any more.
6. Lat Pull ~ 2 sets / 12 reps*
7. Cross Trainer ~ 10 mins on rolling hills and a comfortable level
8. Converging shoulder press machine ~ 2 sets / 12 reps*
8. Leg Press ~ 2 sets / 12 reps*

* = What ever weight you are comfortable with.

Click equipment name for a pic of the machine.

also, if you are doing 25 reps then i think the weight is a bit too low for you, bump the weight up slightly until it you can just barely do 10 - 15, i stick at 12. It is also recommended that you don't over-train. Go every 2 or 3 days, make sure you take a day off for recovery.

[CallumTM]

(Original post by silent ninja)
Machines are not safer. They were created so that gym staff wouldn't have to train members how to lift (=money saving). They could just throw them in front of a machine. Barbell/free weight lifting requires more knowledge.

This, for the most part, machines are a waste of time. Get your main lifts done (bench press, squat, deadlift, overhead press), this way everything else will improve.

Edit: Also what do you mean by "arms"? Biceps? Triceps? Forearms?