NEW and unfit. I need a PLAN! HELP!

[SilverSS]

Ok so here's who i am.

I'm 150 Ib's. 5' 10" or 11"ish. barely any muscle. im so weak.
I can easily do 20 pushups in a sitting.
I can bench up to 100.
curl maybe 30's.
all in all, below a beginner.

fitness wise,
I can do like 20 jumping jacks, or run for 2 min, or anything like that before my legs get fatigued and i get sleepy.

Everything makes my legs fatigue and makes me sleepy!

I don't know about my diet, i dont take any vitamins or supplements.


This summer I really want to get in shape. What should i do? I want to join the local L.A. fitness butt i'm afraid i wont be able to get my money's worth cuz ill just get tired after 2 minutes?

should i take any supplements? my current diet is definitely lacking. Where should i start! plz help!

 

[Goldfish]

Firstly, talk to a doctor - the 2min fatigue could just be a lack of fitness and confusion of the sensation of fatigue with sleepiness, but it could also be something medical stopping you from performing.

I don't know what LA Fitness is like, but good gyms should have at least 1 squat rack and power rack with Olympic barbells. You don't need 1000 different machines to get you fit. What you will need is a little bit of equipment which you can use effectively, which is what makes freeweights so handy - if it weren't considered hogging, I would spend my entire strength sessions in the power rack.

Good resistance programs for beginners (which you should be able to complete without this 2min fatigue issue, since you wouldn't go for 2min within a set) will generally include at least one leg exercise, one push and one pull, plus whatever accessories are necessary. An example might be 3 sets of squats, then 3 sets of bench press, then 3 sets of pull ups. Keep it simple, start out light, focus on technique and build up from there in small increments.

If you want to also do cardio, try interval training. It doesn't necessarily have to be running - in a gym environment, there's usually treadmills, exercise bikes, X-trainers, rowers, step up blocks, and skipping ropes. You could do 30-60sec work, followed by the same duration of recovery, and repeat 10-20 times. This would be a fairly basic interval training session to last you 10-40min, within those variables (I'd probably try and stick to around 20min, personally, because doing the same thing gets boring, and if you don't enjoy it you'll have difficulty adhering to it).

I won't go into details about your entire diet, but directly surrounding your exercise, it's good to have a source of wholesome CHO (carbs) 2-4 hours beforehand as part of a complete meal, as well as a smaller meal with some more wholesome CHO 1-2 hours beforehand, to fuel your workout (a lack of CHO might be the cause for your early fatigue, but it could also just be over-exerting yourself, or, as I said, it may be something medical). You should also consume a small meal rich in CHO and protein shortly after your workout, ideally within 30min, and again every 1-2 hours until your next full meal. You probably won't want to eat anything shortly after exercising, so bringing some skim milk powder with something to add flavour (such as Milo) in a shaker and adding water at the end of your workout is a good way to get the nutrients you'll need for recovery.