Exercise idea's anyone?!

L

liketotally

New member
So, this is basically the first time I've tried to lose anything. I've been telling myself for years that I will and I do it for a day then stop, but I don't want to do that anymore! :)

my wholeee family is overweight, so I like to think some of this is genes but it could just be an excuse also, IDK.

Okayyy, I'm getting to the point.
I don't have a lot of money, and I need some good exercises, that I can do at home. I'm not too comfortable with going out yet so inside ones would be preferred :D A good diet would be nice too.
So what do you guys think, any ideas/advice?


Thanks in advance!

Oh & P.S. I want to cut meat out of my diet unless it's seafood because I love sushi way too much LOL. So any regimens without meat, thanks!
 
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I'll be glad to give you some suggestions. Feel free to take me up on them or not.

For cardio: exercise videos. There are all sorts of places you can get them, but I know WalMart has some. I have a lot of the FIRM videos. They incorporate aerobics with weights. Or I know they have those Walk Away the Pounds videos. I have never tried those though. Of course you can always walk outside, but you said you didn't really want to venture outside.

For strength training: Dumbbells! Also at WalMart. Try some bicep curls and see which weight you need to where just barely finish 8 - 10 reps. That's the weight you need. You may want to buy two pairs, light and heavy. Also at WalMart (or at least they had them a few years ago) you can buy an exercise bench. This is useful for certain dumbbell exercises. You can get by without it though. Also you can buy a mat for ab work.

A long time ago I bought the book Total Body Makeover by Bob Greene. He's Oprah's trainer. (Not trying to spam, just sharing what's worked for me.) It's no fad dieting or exercising, simply good tools for you to achieve weightloss at a normal pace. In his book, among other things, he has a list with pictures of the "Basic 8" exercises, all done with dumbbells. These consist of squats, lunges, chest press, shoulder press, butterfly, dumbbell fly, biceps curl, & triceps extension. I do all these for 3 sets of 10 reps. Then I do 3 sets of 15 reps of crunches, upper body crunches, and twisting trunk crunches. I also do some stretching exercises he has in the book. This will give you a great total body workout. If you don't want to buy the book, you can google the names of these exercises and you will find descriptions, pictures, and even video of people doing them to help you out.

I did this strength training routine with treadmill for cardio about 4 years ago, and I lost 15 pounds and went from a size 12 to a 8. It was the best I ever looked in my life. The pounds lost was great, but the best part was the inches lost. Strength training will help you lose the inches like nothing else. Unfortunately, I went back to my old ways. :) Now I'm doing all this again except with the elliptical this time.

If have any questions about my suggestions, let me know and I'll be glad to clarify. The important thing is to keep moving!! Good luck!
 
Anything you can do to get your heart rate up - jumping jacks, skipping, burpees, running on the spot, shadow boxing, push-ups, sit-ups, (also mentioned above) - lunges, squats. Walking would be the best to start because it's low impact and get's you moving - plus it's free!
I also recommend the workout dvd's or google workouts on utube and follow along to your computer.
A food diary will help you stay accountable and keep your calories in check. Portion control is important and moderation otherwise you shouldn't restrict anything or else you will find it easier to cheat yourself later.
Water, water, water is also very important!
 
The OP's BMI is 51, it would not be safe for her to do things like jumping jacks in my opinion.

I would recommend swimming, it is the safest exercise for someone your size. It's very easy for us overweight people to hurt our joints, and injury is hard to recover from.

If you absolutely can't swim, try walking. Also try doing some light yoga stretches to start improving your ligaments and flexibility (very important to have flexible calves/hamstrings, as it can reduce your chance of knee/foot injuries).

Later you can add some weight lifting (but I would only do upper body things like bicep curls, because something like squats can really damage your knees). After you've lost some weight, then you can work out more intensely. You might even want to start right now with looking up some physical therapy exercises for knees to strengthen the muscles supporing the knees and reduce your chance of injury.

Also wear knee supports and consider taping your feet/ankles.


My post must not sound very exciting, but I started working out a lot (like 2 hours of cardio every day), and ended up hurting my foot and knee that hurt for a whole month and initially hurt so severely that getting around the house was painful.
 
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All of you gave such good advice, thanks! I Think I'll do a little of each and take it slow but not too slow. this isn't an easy thing and I heard from a friend that I just need to try out a lot of different things and do what works with MY body best, since we are all different. I think I love this site. :) thanks a lot ladies!
 
hey guys, I looked up these videos on youtube today:


&


what do you think of those? i did them and i did work up a sweat and my heart rate went up. Are they a good way to start off?
 
I have a treadmill at home and an eliptical trainer but find it's hard to motivate myself to use them. When working out at home, I prefer videos. A lot of videos will do both cardio and resistance training. One that I'm doing right now is called "Melt it off with Mitch" and it uses one 2 lb medicine ball to do all the moves. There are some jumping moves which I skip (or do lightly, not jumping very high) but most of the moves are do-able but hard (at first). I did it last week once and the lunges and squats killed my legs and then did it again last night and it was way easier in just one week (but still a tough workout).

I'm getting ready to start the P90X program, which I think is going to be very hard for me and I'm just going to do what I can at first and work my way up as I get fitter.

There are a lot of videos out there - I'd do what interests you so that you'll stay interested and motivated.

Anyway, videos is my 2 cents.
 
Eagleriverdee, I think you're right too. Videos are a good motivation and I can see myself working with those a lot better than just telling myself I'm going to do this and that. I'm going to look into the mitch one, thanks! I tried p90x one time and I thought I was going to die, haha. My boyfriend does it and I don't see how.
 
liketotally said:
hey guys, I looked up these videos on youtube today:


&


what do you think of those? i did them and i did work up a sweat and my heart rate went up. Are they a good way to start off?
Click to expand...

These videos seem perfect for you right now. As your fitness levels go up and the weight drops you can then progress to other stuff. As somebody mentioned try and find some exercises for strenghening your knees and ankles ready for when you start more rigourous exercising. The beauty of the videos is that you have somebody there encouraging you on all the while.
good luck.
 
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