So…there’s no way to avoid acknowleging it anymore - I’m pretty damn fat. 5’5, 245. My size 20 jeans are getting tight. I need to do something about this.
I have always hated exercise - I was a clumsy kid, and any sort of P.E. was torture for me. But I need to get into shape, and exercise has to be part of that.
I have an inexpensive gym membership through my work (24 hour fitness, $40/month for both me and Husband). I haven’t used it more than a few times, mostly because I went in there and…was completely at sea. All these machines, and I had no idea how to use any of them…I went on the elipticals for a bit, but had no idea how long I was supposed to use them, how sweaty I was supposed to get, or anything. I fiddled around with the various leg machines, arm machines, etc but again had no clue what to do. I left feeling not just fat and clumsy but stupid too, since everyone else there seemed to know what they’re doing.
I thought about joining one of the classes they have, but that would be even worse - again, clumsy, in bad shape, and I’d be feeling not only like I couldn’t do the exercises but like everyone in the class was watching and judging me. I looked at the class schedule for something that indicated that it was for beginners, but no such luck.
So please…explain to me as though I was a small child, or a newcomer to the country with limited English skills. What should I do in the gym? The same thing the whole time, or break it up? What’s a ‘set’, and how many of them should I do on any given machine? How much time should I spend on a workout, alltogether? What should I wear? What should I bring? Is there any etiquette I need to know about? Should I do it before or after dinner?
The gym has personal trainers, but I can’t afford them. And I’m way too self-conscious to ask the regular staff how to use each and every machine.
Each machine should have a sticker showing how to use it and what muscles are worked.
Reps=number of times you perform a lift.
Sets=a group of reps.
Say you lift a 40 lb. barbell over your head six times before you need to rest.
That’s 1 set of 6 reps. Often expressed as: Barbell Press 1 x 6 @ 40lbs.
Wear loose, light absorbent clothes. Bring a small towel.
In general, 48 hours between each muscle group workout, don’t do the same lifts every day.
So they should be just as heavy as I can lift a few times? Or lighter? Should I be trying to lift the weights as quickly as I can or slowly? Should I do them until I can’t move the muscle anymore?
In general:12 reps or more=endurance/light weight
6-10 reps=strength and muscle mass gain/moderate weight
3 or less=strength gain without mass gain/heavy weight
Moderate speed, don’t let the weights just drop, part of the workout is resisting the weight as you lower it.
Don’t worry about going to failure, that’s an advanced/bodybuilding technique.
You just want to feel fatigue in the muscle.
No matter how gently you start, you will be very sore after the first few workouts. It will pass.
Stumptuous has a lot of great weight-lifting articles, and it’s targeted at women.
Most gyms will have no problem with showing you all of the basic equipment if you go up and tell them that you’re new and need advice. My first time in my current gym, I had to go ask how you used the treadmill because I was afraid I’d do it wrong and fall off the back. They totally did not laugh at me for this request and said they get people asking this all the time. (That may have just been a lie to make me feel better, but I appreciated it.)
Btw, consider Couch to 5k. When I started it, I weighed about 215 pounds and was completely, totally, 100% out of shape, and a year later I ran a half marathon.
Note that you might not lose weight by visiting the gym alone. I lifted and did cardio for about a year and a half without losing more than oh, 5 lbs. I wasn’t eating like a pig during that time but I didn’t track my calories or anything.
I kept at the gym, tho, and went regularly. Once I did start counting my calories this January, I did start to lose weight at a pretty fast clip.
Since I had gotten to used to going to the gym, it was not a struggle for me to keep up with the calories AND do the gym, since the gym part was part of my routine for so long already.
Anyway, don’t give up if you get sore. Don’t give up if you don’t lose weight. Don’t give up if you gain weight. Don’t be intimidated and don’t sell yourself short. Go slow and stick with it!
I’ve just started doing water aerobics a couple of months ago, and if there’s a class available I’d recommend that. It doesn’t matter if you’re clumsy, and truthfully most of the people in my class (including me!) are carrying some extra weight. In fact, water aerobics is great when you’re overweight because it puts less stress on your joints. Plus I find I do more and try harder if someone is telling me what to do, rather than exercising on my own.
Will you look out of place at the gym? Yeah, probably, but that’s only because all the other overweight people stuck it out to where they don’t look out of place anymore. And in reality, most people will admire you for making the effort. They know how hard it is and will respect you for making an effort.
Forget about working on the machines alone. Unless you have a serious amount of self-motivation, you will struggle to keep going. It can get boring, so you have to push yourself to keep going.
Instead, take classes. Classes have a lot of benefits for beginners. Motivation–you’re in a group environment and you’ll feel part of something. Instruction–the instructor will tell you what to do and is available to answer questions. Structure–you will be more committed to attending classes at specific times than just showing up at random times to do your own workout.
I would recommend starting with spin classes. These are classes where you ride a stationary bike. The instructor plays music and tells you what to do. It’s great for beginners because you control the resistance of the bike so it’s at an appropriate level for your ability and there’s no fancy moving around. If you are self-conscious (although you don’t need to be), pick a bike in the back corner and no one will even know you’re there.
Does your gym have a pool? See if they have water aerobics. These will be aerobics classes which are done in the pool. Don’t worry about feeling out of place in these classes. Do them in addition to your other classes. They are good to give you a bit of fitness, but you won’t lose a lot of weight in them.
Whatever you decide to do, START EASY!!! Give your body time to adjust to working out. If you take a spin class, set the tension on the bike to easy and don’t pedal super fast. You’ll probably still be a little sore the next day, but it should quickly fade. Make each workout a little harder than the previous.
One more thing about working out. The more intense your workout, the more fat it burns. At low levels of exertion you’re not even burning fat (like walking). But in a spin class where you’re breathing hard and sweating, your body is actually burning fat at that moment. So even if you can’t work out intensely now, work up to that level to see rapid weight changes.
Find a good trainer. I have my problems with some practices of trainers. But be up front with them. Say you want to be trained in the basics of the equipment and what you should do on your own. If you get a trainer who is only interested in showing you exercises you can do with him, get another trainer. Proper use of the equipment and proper form is very important. I’m sure some of those links are great but nothing beats hands on instruction.
Plan your workouts before you go. Research a couple of group moves, “arms” “back” “legs” “chest” “abs”, write them down in a notebook and check off as you complete the activity. Like previous posters have said, rotate your groupings so you aren’t doing the same ones back to back. This will keep you from feeling like you are lost at sea, and keep you on track for your goals.
Don’t forget to change up your workouts every couple of weeks, don’t expect to go in day after day, week after week doing the same exact workouts and see results after you plateau. This book is a good one for beginner weight lifters, and gives you a very extensive lifting plan that includes variations in 6-week intervals and very detailed and basic instructions on how to do all the moves.
Make sure you incorporate both resistance training such as weight lifting and cardio. If running isn’t your thing, try walking, or cycling, or swimming. It has to be something you enjoy, or else you won’t keep doing it! Start out slowly, you don’t have to go crazy on your first week, but start to develop good habits where you go to the gym X number of times a week for Y number of minutes. If you want to try running, I recommend the Couch to 5k running program.
MHO is to just go to the gym 5 times a week and do something that makes you sweat for 30 minutes (ie, walk on a treadmill, ride a bike, etc.) At this stage, the goal is to develop good gym-going habits. In a couple of months, revisit the topic and think more about what your goals are and go from there.
OK, I’ll address one etiquette issue, since everyone else has given better advice than I can about working out.
Your gym probably has some sort of spray bottle with disinfectant and paper towels. Perhaps multiple bottles and towel stations. Even if you don’t think you got any sweat on the seat or headrest or whatever, do give it a spritz and wipe it off. When you do get sweat on the seat or the bench, give it more than a cursory spritz and wipe.
I agree with this, too. A life-long change starts in your head, not your biceps.
Also, when you first start exercising more, you’re going to get hungry. Go ahead and eat. It’s okay to tell your body you’ve got to go out and hunt the occasional elk, but it’s not okay to tell it you’re starving to death. Once you’re used to exercising regularly, start cutting corners a little and let your body adjust over time.
Never startle your body. It has very few ways of reacting to that and they’re mostly unpleasant.
I have a friend just like you! Almost exactly your height and weight, and just like you, she was very self-conscious about exercising around other people. I have a weight bench and weights in my apartment, so one afternoon I showed her three or four exercises to do for each body part with a set of dumbbells. But that doesn’t really help you.
Based on the set up of your gym, I don’t know if this is possible, but if you can, set up on a piece of cardio equipment that faces the gym floor. Then, instead of reading a magazine or watching TV, watch the people on the floor to see how they use the equipment. Of course, you’ll probably also want to read up on different moves to make sure you have proper form, but seeing other people should make you feel much more comfortable with the moves.
You mentioned that your husband has a membership as well. Could he possibly show you some moves?
Oh my gosh, ladyfoxfyre recommended the exact book I was going to recommend! I’ve been doing bodybuilding for years and have a whole shelf full of bodybuilding books, and out of all of them, this is the one I would recommend. It dispels a lot of prominent myths about females and weight lifting, and the writer has an extremely engaging writing style. But most importantly, it has instructions on all kinds of weight lifting moves with accompanying photographs. And it’s geared towards a beginning lifter.
Oh, one last thing: youtube is an excellent resource as well. All you need to learn is the name of an exercise (which you can probably learn by googling weight lifting exercises), and youtube will most likely have more instructional videos than you could ever hope to have time to watch.
It’s natural to be embarrassed when taking classes. But remember that everyone is too embarrassed about themselves to be embarrassed for you. The mirrors on the wall? No one is looking at you. They are looking at themselves.
But even if they do see you? The worse that can happen is that some jerk that you don’t know, who you will never have to interact with, has a bad opinion about you. But even then, it will be a short-lived opinion, sharing space with a whole bunch of other stupid opinions.
But yes, you will feel embarrassed. Like all physical and emotional hurdles associated with exercise, you will eventually get used to it.
This is the best advice here. I started by just walking and gradually wandered into the weight room and watched people surreptitiously while pretending to use a machine, and read the labels on the machines, and gradually started doing some lifts. Also, the gym I go to lets you have a one-time 30 minute session with a personal trainer at no extra charge, which is a good way to get some basics. Might be worth it even if you had to pay. Just because you use the trainer once doesn’t mean you have to sign up for life. But really, get in the habit and then good things will happen. (For me I met a bunch of other old farts who walk every day and we keep each other going. Walking and talking is a lot easier for me to keep on doing than just walking.)