Help just joined the Gym

[texasgirl1227]

Im 21 yrs old and im 230 pounds and i just joined the gym ive been doing threadmill and trying to do 30 mins everytime been doing this for a couple of weeks and have lost about 5 pounds im looking to tone my arms and well keep losing weight.

what other types of exercises i can keep doing at the gym? im sorry if this comes off as a dumb question.

 

[Steve]

Not a dumb question. Simply misguided. You can't "tone" your arms how you're thinking.

 

[patsar16]

I usually dont run on the tredmill because it bothers my knees after a while from the constant pounding. I really enjoy the elliptical because it is easier on my joints. I noticed you said you wanted to tone your arms. This wont make a huge impact on them but it will certainly help a little while your doing cardio. Im sure you probably have two different types of elliptical machines. One type has two swinging arm bars that you hold onto while you run. I'm not sure if you have the same kind we do at my gym but on ours you can set the arm bars to either pushing or pulling. these two settings control which muscles you target. Even if they dont have those settings i would still use the elliptical that has the arm bars on it. This way your moving your arms which works your muscles a lot more than if you were just keeping them at your sides.

 

[tonedubbz]

I usually dont run on the tredmill because it bothers my knees after a while from the constant pounding. I really enjoy the elliptical because it is easier on my joints. I noticed you said you wanted to tone your arms. This wont make a huge impact on them but it will certainly help a little while your doing cardio. Im sure you probably have two different types of elliptical machines. One type has two swinging arm bars that you hold onto while you run. I'm not sure if you have the same kind we do at my gym but on ours you can set the arm bars to either pushing or pulling. these two settings control which muscles you target. Even if they dont have those settings i would still use the elliptical that has the arm bars on it. This way your moving your arms which works your muscles a lot more than if you were just keeping them at your sides.

I've had that same problem. I use a knee brace for my left knee, and after 20 minutes it really starts to bother me but I still keep going. Then when I get back to my office, I usually have ice my knee down for 20 minutes.

But then I started using the elliptical machine and man let me tell you, this thing works great. I can go thirty minutes at 8 MPH without feeling any pain in my knees. The ellipitcal machine eliminates the impact you get from distributing uneven weight on your knees.

Try it out, I've been doing it 3 times a week for 30 minutes (about 3.8 miles) and my knees doesn't even bother me.