Making A Life Change, Looking for some help

S

Sistek

0
Hey, my names Phil, I'm from Ontario, Canada. I'm 23 years old and have been working a desk job for 5 years, and have not been very active. I've also been smoking for 2 years.
Currently I am 5'7", 130-135lbs. I am slightly out of shape, but am looking to make some drastic changes.
I am looking to quit smoking and get back into shape, mainly looking into cardio/endurance with some strength training as well.
I currently have very minimal equipment, and insufficient funds for a gym membership. I have a door mounted chin up bar, push up hand "wheels" I guess you would call them. I also have a cross-country/downhill bicycle.
I also have 2 children, so my budget is slightly limited as far as a personal diet would go.
I know with my circumstances I am at a slight disadvantage, but have the motivation and drive to achieve success.

So, what I'm looking for is some help to get started. What is the best way to get back into exercising, as I am going to use exercise as well as a method, or aid to quitting smoking. Started small of course, yes, but I'm really unsure whether I should simply begin a daily/every
other day workout, or begin biking to increase blood flow and cardio. Or a bit of both.

I'm really just looking for any sort of advice on the matter, as far as diet, exercise regime, etc. and certainly appreciate any I receive.
Also, if there's any specific forum I should re-post this in, or if there's any specific threads/topics to take a look it I will also do that as well.

Thanks. =)
 
Hey Sistek, welcome to the forum!

Since you haven't been strength training or doing any cardiovascular exercise, my suggestion would be to start with getting into a regular cardio routine first, then add strength training once the cardio is established. Since you are taking on a lot of changes at once, I would suggest working on only one or two lifestyle changes at a time. Once you've got those under control, then you can take on another couple of changes. This way it's less overwhelming and frustrating than trying to figure everything out all at once.

How long do you think you could cycle for at this point? I'd start with every other day, steady state cycling for a few weeks. Then you could possibly incorporate some interval training once or twice a week. While you're working on getting consistent with your cardio, you can make a home workout plan.

Since you're limited for equipment, you'll have to be a bit creative when figuring out how to make a balanced workout plan for home. At the beginning, just using your body weight will probably be sufficient to give you a decent workout. After a while, you might need to find objects around the house that have some weight to them, in order to give your muscles sufficient overload. (Think of ways to incorporate your kids, like doing lunges while piggy-backing one of them :))

Read through some of the sticky threads (threads that are shaded blue at the top of some of the forum sections). For strength training, much of the information will be gym-based, but you will get some good information from them anyway. Here's one good example:

http://training.fitness.com/weight-training/weight-training-101-a-18766.html

I usually try not to link to too many external sites, but I can't seem to easily find a good example of a body-weight home workout... So here is an example of what you could do at home for a workout:

Full Body Bodyweight Workout | Muscle & Strength

For nutrition, I'd suggest reading the two articles below. The first is quite long, so you might not read it all in one sitting. Keep in mind that even if you only can incorporate a few positive nutritional changes, then you're ahead of where you are right now.

Nutrition 101 – www.body-improvements.com

Nutrition

I know its a lot of information, so just take your time. And like I said, only take on one or two changes at a time! Good luck!
 
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