First day in the gym, I am getting a little worried, need advice.

G

Gardener101

0
Hello,

My name is mike, I am 23 years old. I am about 6 feet and 1-2 inches tall and I weigh 290 pounds. Actually I am a little unsure how much I weigh, the digital scales at home are showing me 282 and the scale at the gym (which I am not sure if I am using right) is showing over 300. All I know is I am obese and I am working hard dropping the pounds.

As you can probably already tell I am very new at this. I just started working out at the gym today. I did a 3.5 mph speedwalk for 45 minutes. After I warmed up a bit my heart rate was hanging in the 175 or so range, 15 minutes into the workout I averaged 180 it kept creeping higher and higher and i topped off at 191 for a few seconds.

I sweat quite a bit but did not feel too tired and could have gone for a while longer if they weren't closing. However when I got home, I looked up a target heart rate calculator and have found that my heart rate is way way too high.

I used the 220-age formula and came up with the number 197 maximum heart rate, for this workout I am supposed to stay at 70 percent which is 138 beats per minute.

This worries me, I know that when you are as obese as I am you sweat more but I am not too knowledgable about the heart rate. I feel fine now and quite energetic and happy about the changes I am making in my lifestyle. However I would like to get a second opinion and maybe some advice. Is this normal?
 
Gardener101 said:
Hello,

My name is mike, I am 23 years old. I am about 6 feet and 1-2 inches tall and I weigh 290 pounds. Actually I am a little unsure how much I weigh, the digital scales at home are showing me 282 and the scale at the gym (which I am not sure if I am using right) is showing over 300. All I know is I am obese and I am working hard dropping the pounds.

As you can probably already tell I am very new at this. I just started working out at the gym today. I did a 3.5 mph speedwalk for 45 minutes. After I warmed up a bit my heart rate was hanging in the 175 or so range, 15 minutes into the workout I averaged 180 it kept creeping higher and higher and i topped off at 191 for a few seconds.

I sweat quite a bit but did not feel too tired and could have gone for a while longer if they weren't closing. However when I got home, I looked up a target heart rate calculator and have found that my heart rate is way way too high.

I used the 220-age formula and came up with the number 197 maximum heart rate, for this workout I am supposed to stay at 70 percent which is 138 beats per minute.

This worries me, I know that when you are as obese as I am you sweat more but I am not too knowledgable about the heart rate. I feel fine now and quite energetic and happy about the changes I am making in my lifestyle. However I would like to get a second opinion and maybe some advice. Is this normal?
Click to expand...

Gardener: congratulations for taking the second step toward your new lifestyle. But, take the first step now and get yourself checked out and medically cleared before you continue.

Yes, 190+ heart rate is definitely a concern for someone who has not been exercising previously.
 
Make sure that your heartrate stays under 180 at all times, for the first month at least. Gr8 is right get the "all clear" from your doctor before you continue.
 
I completely relate, and would like to share some details on what I did in your position. In August, I was just getting started in the gym myself. I was fat, weak, tired, and sad. The first month, the only thing I did for exercise was BURST TRAINING. I had dramatic results, and will share my method with you here.

By burst training, I mean short extreme exertions of energy by multiple muscle groups. The kind of exercises I used were:

-sprints
-squats
-leg press
-bench press
-lunges
-rowing
-shoulder press/military press
-lateral pulldown

Notice each exercise uses at least 2 groups of muscles? Bicep curls, calf raises, etc. don't count for this kind of burst training.

These "bursts" should last around 30-50 seconds. Wait a full 2-4 minutes before starting the next exercise and allow your pulse to return to normal. Set the weights low and do the exercise as fast and hard as you can for at least 30 seconds. Do the exercise at top speed until your muscles fail to perform further.

Each workout should last 30-45 minutes. Pick 3 exercises and do 2 sets of each. Add more as you feel better about it. Try to switch it all up each day, so that you always hit different muscle groups. I took 1 day off per week.

Now, before all of the cardio buffs go crazy on me, hear me out. This workout was designed for maximum energy exertion and LONG TERM carloric burn. When you do cardio for 30 minutes, your elevated caloric burn lasts 1-2 hours tops. When you do burst training as I described above, your caloric burn lasts for up to 15 hours.

If you question my source for this information, PM me and I will fill you in. Notice I am not plugging a website or supplement or anything. I personally had tremendous results with this workout, so thought I'd shared.

One more thing: while it worked great for a while, this training only worked for me for about 6 weeks. I then switched to a far more elaborate heavy lifting and hard cardio routine. Burst training just got me in good enough shape to start doing REAL workouts, and I got there without getting injured or having health problems. I recommend it because you can't learn to run marathons by running marathons. You have to start by running around the block.....
 
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