Hello everyone! I'm pretty out of shape and overweight, so I'd like to being exercising. However, I'm a COMPLETE beginner, and I have no clue where to start.
Could anyone give me any tips on where to start? Linking to exercises, healthy recipe sites, or just general healthy living ideas would be greatly appreciated.
(As for exercise equipment, I have none. Are there are low-cost efficient tools I can use that would further help?)
Thanks!
First and foremost, you need to straighten out your diet.
But that's the easy part. Just go for whole grain foods, lots of water throughout the day, nuts (peanuts and almonds especially), healthy, low fat, protein foods like chicken, fish, etc.
And also, obviously , avoid junk foods.
You don't have to go on some crazy grapefruit diet or some shit, just don't go overboard with the donuts and peach-o's ok?
Keep in mind that a healthy diet should be something you maintain all the time, throughout you whole life, not some trendy gimmick you follow for once a year for a month.
As for actual workouts and workout equipment: you don't need to be worrying about equipment yet. Just use what you have now. You can do so much by yourself.
Just start out with building up a routine.
Do some walking/hiking, and push your limit with that for a while. That would work as a cardio routine, but that's only part of a workout routine.
For muscle building, you can do full body crunches and push-ups. If you're really out of shape, you won't be able to do many of these.
Just do what you can and build up your strength overtime. You might start out with 3 push-ups and 10 or 20 crunches. Of course, this number will increase greatly, and quickly if you are consistent.
To do effective, full body crunches:
*Sit on your back and lift your legs
*Bend your legs at a 90 degree angle to your hips and bend you lower legs 90 degress at your knees (or as close as you can get)
*Tighten your abs to decrease the length of the abdominal muscles (which allows for more intense and more concentrated muscle building)
*Put your hands behind your head
*Pull your upper body up with your abs (as high as you can get)
*Turn to one side at the height of your pull, and as you do so extend the leg (the one opposite the side your turning to) outwards, then turn to the other side (without laying back down) and repeat the same process on that side, then lay fully on your back again.
Now, push-ups are simple enough, but it's easy to mess them up when you're not paying attention and when you're new to them.
So, I'll tell you the most important things to remember about push-ups:
*Keep the back straight (which means no sagging at all, especially in the hips region and between the shoulders)
*Keep the abs tight
*Maintain proper alignment
Your cardio routine will probably initially consist of just walking.
Start jogging as soon as you can though. But don't do only walking or jogging in one cardio session (when you begin jogging I mean), start with walking as a warm up and then jog for a while and when you're tired out start walking again for a few minutes, and go for another round of jogging and so on.
You'll probably start with maybe half a minute or a minute long sustained jogs before you're huffing and puffing.
But you have to start somewhere.
Eventually, you should start running, but, again, it's better to ease into it. Do a walk as a warm up for a few minutes, then jog, and then run, and then go back to walking when you can't run anymore. You'll probably be better off waiting until you can jog for at least 5 minutes at a time though.
And, of course, before and after your workouts (and occasionally during, when appropriate) you should stretch.
Here's some basic stretches I like to do:
Stretches for cardio:
Move the neck in a circular fashion, from shoulder to shoulder. Keep the rest of the body erect, don't move it with the neck.
2. Upper leg pull-
Bend your leg backwards at the knee (bringing your foot towards your butt) and reach your hand around and grab your foot. If you aren't very flexible already, just hold this posture for about 20 seconds. If you have a decent level of flexibility (you'll know because you won't feel much of a stretch with the basic posture, of course) then slightly extend the front of your upper leg into your knee and grasp your foot tightly and very slightly pull up, moving the leg in a relaxed circular motion. Don't stretch so much you feel a burning sensation though.
3. Ab and lower back stretch-
Hold an exaggerated erect posture, stretching the abs and lower back. This is easy to do in a sitting position btw, so you can do it for a few seconds here or there even while sitting at the computer.
4. Runner's Stretch
Bend one leg and set it in front of you, and straighten the rear leg. Extend your legs outwards until you feel a definite stretching sensation, but don't do it so much that it hurts.
For muscle building:
Reach up and out with one arm and extend until you feel stretching. You can do this with both arms as well. If you've been doing a lot of muscle building (especially in the arms and shoulders) then you might want to try grabbing onto a wall or something to allow you to stretch further. Again, don't do this in such a way that it hurts.
2. Windmill Stretch
You've done this in gym class probably. Just extend the arms out and stretch them past your shoulders (or as close as you can get) and past your chest, in a circular motion.
3. Ab and Back Stretch
Just lower your hips and simultaneously raise your arms as high as you can (while keeping your shoulders in good posture, i.e. not sagging, and in alignment with the hips) and rest in that posture for about 20 seconds.
4. Side to Side Stretch
Extend your arms outward and, while keeping your upper body from bending in front or behind your hips as best you can, slowly bend your upper body from side to side.
If you just keep up a routine that includes this stuff for a while (maybe a month or so), at least 3 times a week, at least 30 mins each time (though doing 30 mins to an hour of exercise 7 days a week is ideal), you'll be in pretty decent shape.
Then you can easily move on to more intense workouts.
I don't recommend getting a gym membership anytime soon, unless you feel you have to(it is cold out, so it might be tricky to get cardio in... although for me it's fun to run in the winter weather lol).
It's easy to get a gym membership, it's hard to actually go to a gym. It often ends up as wasted money. It's best to work with what you have now and pursue gym memberships (and workout machines for that matter) when you've already consistently committed yourself to a workout routine.