I am new and have some questions

S

Sagath

0
First, I apologize for not looking through the threads to find the information that I'm sure I could, but it would take me a lifetime to sift through it all.

I am 19 and I have had asthma since I was born. I have grew up getting sick a lot and because of that the doctors often prescribed predinsone and when I was older, gave me steroid shots if I was sick and it effected my asthma bad.

Now, the steroid stuff made me gain weight and most irritating enough it went to my chest. I am 5'11 and weigh around 270 (and a guy). I am not terribly overweight compared to many people I have seen and know, but I am not happy with it.

I eat fairly healthy, and never really was one to indulge much. Heck, I eat healthier than most of the guys I have spent my life envying.

What I have problems with is exercising. It is not the lack of motivation, because I have that. It is that I don't understand how to go about it.

I can easily obtain a YMCA membership and I would like an explanation on how I should start out with lifting. How long, how many sets and reps (and exactly what the 2 terms mean), as well as which exercises effect what. I also have one of those excercise balls if you can suggest something I can do at home before or after working out in the gym (whether it be stretching with it or what)

I am not looking to become a bodybuilder by any means. I just want to build muscle to burn away the fat I have. I want lean muscle, i don't want to be "skinny". It would be nice to obtain a "cut" look, but now is not the time to concern myself with what I want the final result to be, but how to get started.

Word of advice, be clear (not to sound commanding), but I have trouble understand all the work-out talk and need a play by play on what works what, how long to work certain parts, ect.

So, I think I made it fairly clear so, thanks again. I am looking forward to the advice of the people on this forum.
 
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Repeated use of corticosteroids can impair your adrenal glands and you end up producing too much cortisol. That is what makes you fat.

What I suggest you do first is get a test to make sure your adrenal glands are functioning properly.

Second, what asthma medications are you taking now? Would you consider your asthma to be under control?

If your asthma is under control and your adrenal glands are functioning properly, then you can start working out.

I would suggest a combination of cardio and weights to help you lose your fat. Go easy on the cardio at first. If you have exercise-induced asthma, going at it too hard, too fast will bring on an asthma attack. You don't want that.

Anaerobic exercise (i.e., weights) is far less likely to affect your asthma.

I will let somebody who is more knowledgeable than I am with beginner exercise programs suggest to you what you should start out with.

Good luck!
 
My asthma has been under control for awhile. It is more of a panic-attack induced asthma, or at least that is how I categorize it as that is the only time it really gets set off. Emotional stress is really the only thing that has ever given me an asthma attack, and most of it self-induced because insecurities and getting angry at a situation or people around me. So exercise, across the board to target everything any average person should target is what I need and as far as I am concerned, shouldn't be a big deal. I only use an albuterhol inhaler when my asthma acts up and that is only if I need to because I don't like to rely on it. Considering it usually just takes a quick break and calming my breathing to ease it up. So, it is well under control.

Cardio (running, jogging) ect make it act up quite fast, and cardio really does very little good what where I want to lose weight, let alone for muscle.


As far as I know my adrenal glans are fine, but I don't have the kind of money to go to a doctor to tell me whether they are or aren't. Never had any problems of the kind. I haven't had steroids like I did when I was younger for years, mostly because I refuse to let them give me those shots when I am sick. That, and I don't get sick nearly as often, mostly it is just allergies or sinus.

Pretty much I just need to be told the ropes, exactly, where to start, how to start, and what exercise machines available in the average YMCA to use, how long to use them, how many reps and sets (and as mentioned earlier, what each even are) once I have that knowledge as well as a few tips on what stretches to do to prevent injury than I am ready to get to work on it. I am quite impatient, so I apologize if my writing sounds flustered or such.
 
Alighty young newbie, lets get you started (to cover my ass, I am not a profressional and this is only advice and you should seek medical attention from a doctor before doing intense excercise program, etc etc etc). You know the drill, I am not responsible for what happens to you except to provide knowledge.

First, weight lifting terms:

1) Rep (short for repitition) is One full motion from start to finish of a movement. For example doing a push-up by lowering your chest and and raising it back up to the starting position is ONE rep.

2) Set is how continually doing the same excercise motion until full rest. For example, doing 20 reps of push-ups before you stop and lie flat on your belly.

3) Splits are how you divide your workout betweens the days. For example, doing a chest + bicep on Monday, legs + abs on Wednesday, and Back + tricep on Friday is your weekly split.

Overhaul, someone might tell you, Joe the newbie, go do 3 sets of 8 reps of push-ups with 1 minute rest in betweens. A shorter way of writing this is 8x3 push-ups. It means a grand total of 24 pushups being done in about 5 minutes span.



Now over to the more important thing, WEIGHT LOSS. Personally, I think this is where you should focus your attention. First thing off, always have 2 inhalers around probably one in the gym bag (or 2) and another in the car as a spare. So, you would ask, "how do I lose weight?"

Well, the lazy man answer is go to the doctor and get lipo every 6 months to a year because with proper diet + excercise, you will gain it back. Just kidding. There are a few Golden Weight loss rules.

Rule 1: MOST IMPORTANT. If you burn more calorie than you consume in a day, you will lose weight. Aim to be about 500 calorie defeciet from dieting and another 500 from working out (during your workout days). That is a grand total of 1,000 calories a day if you workout every day. This will roughly translate to losing about 2 lbs for a week, as being 1 lbs of fat = 3,500 calories. So you ask how do I go in defeciet calorie by dieting? Answer see rule 2.

Rule 2: EAT CLEAN. You hear this all the time from the cut / tone / fit guys but what does this mean? Well Joe, it does not mean washing your food before eating it. It means to eat foods that are long burning food. For example, eat wheat bread over white because wheat is a slow digesting carbs. It also means avoiding fat laiden food like DEEP FRIED anything. Listen to your body, when you eat crappy food, it usually makes you slugish vs eating heathy food which makes you want to go run a mile. So now you ask, I am eating clean but why I am not losing the weight?

Rule 3: Eat every 2-3 hours. What?? Eat more?? Wait a minute, I am trying to lose weight, why am I being told to eat more? Well, Joe, I am not telling you to eat more, I am tell you to eat more OFTEN. Overall, in a day you will need to eat 500 calories less than what you normally burn by sitting around BUT you have to eat a heathy snack between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner. Try like an apple or orange or yogurt, etc. Some light and it is consider eating. This means eating less for lunch, dinner. Also eat your carbs in the morning / lunch and tail off the dinner with a lot of salad and try eating a little bit of carbs in the evening.

I think that should suffice for now; before I end this session. I personally perfer to do my cardio workout in the morning at the butt crack of dawn and when I do workout cardio I go AT LEAST 30 minutes as the first 15 minutes is only warming up and you are not really getting into fat burning cycle.
 
Thank you TIC!

Just what I needed to know.

Food wise, I eat whole wheat bread already. I started eating it over 6+ months ago cause my mom had always bought white bread and i just never liked how... doughy it was.

That and I try to eat lean meats like turkey, chicken and FISH (gotta love tuna).

I also have stuff for protein shakes (whey). So I think I am good to go.

What would you suggest for warm ups?

Nice use of the Joe the newbie :p, don't think that term is gonna die out any time soon! And just so people have no worries, I always have brought an inhaler with me when I plan to sweat, if only for the sake of having it "just in case" because that is its purpose.

Thanks again!
 
Because, i have been active most of my life, my knees are pretty worn down; so I usually warm up doing ellyptical machine until i break a little sweat. Sometimes, if I am enjoy myself, I would be there reading a magazine or listening to my mp3 player or watching tv and next thing yuo know it; poof 1 hour pass.

As for protein, I would go with Optinum Nutrition (personally, I like the Mocha-Cappicuno flavor) but if you want to test all the flavor out, they do sell a variety pack. I buy mine at bodybuilding.com and no I do not work for ON or the website just found them to be super cheap and sell good product.

I've recently posted some other stuff for people who asked how to lose weight, etc as well if you want to read some more. Remember, information is power; so go out there and empower yourself.

Here is food for thought: remember how people tell you to always to turn that frown upside down? Well, try to apply it next time you workout. If you are frustrated about something, think about it while you are running / doing cardio. As you get upset and want to break things, push that speed up faster while maintaining proper form (essential for preventing injury). Keep pushing yourself and after awhile, you will pretty much think to yourself, that whatever was brothering you is not worth it. Then, slowly release the anger and stress and forget about it. It's a technique that I use to motivate myself when I was younger and it's a good tool for un-doing built up stress.
 
Once again, thanks alot

I'll admit that I have a lot of stress, more than I should be I think. Mostly due to years of envy, though I have finally kicked aside the worst of it that had made me near-bipolar (not diagnosed, just personal assumption) for most of my 11th grade school year. Heck, due to this I skipped school for about 2 weeks straight. During that time, well I don't even know who that person I was back then, but a lot of it was me not wanting to be around anyone. Seeing them or being seen.

Heck, this my first year of year of college I wrote a paper on envy, cause and effect paper. Also explained how it was much worse than ordinary jealousy. Anyways, i'm glad i've been able to leave that past mindset alone.

Anyways, thanks again. I'll definitely be getting my YMCA membership again.
 
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