New girl :-)

[jules89]

Hello!

I am 23 and I have just joined the local gym for the first time!

I have never struggled with my weight but I would love a toned fit body.
I am a uk size 8-10 and weigh approx 8 and a half stone.

When I look at my body I can see where improvements can be made- my arms ans legs have no tone or definiton!

My stomach is alright but I do become bloated easily

I am having my gym induction on tuesday and want to set up a program to tone my arms and legs.

I am trying to cut down on fizzy drinks and try to avoid junk food as much as possible!!

I want to be proud of my body not just to look at it and think, well i dont look 'fat'

Any words of encouragement or advice for arms, legs exercises or diet advice would be great

I really dont know much about health and fitness but want to learn

 

[CrazyOldMan]

I give this advice a lot and with good reason. Try to train everything, initially in one session but perhaps over time split into separate sessions dependant on your aims.
You are smarter than many who assume slim means fit, a very good sign. You will likely be looking at a situation where you will be gaining weight on a toning program, even if you maintain size or possible even shrink a little, muscle is immensely heavy and the only way to be toned is to have muscle on your frame in place of body fat. This shouldn't worry you but it does for many.
Compound exercises are best to start with, they will hit more of your body in less exercises. This combined with varied cardio will give you tone and good posture.
Arms are not easy to leave out of a workout so don't worry about isolating them especially at the start. It is far too easy to over train at the beginning and cause injury or so much aching you can't train or don't want to.
Basically a bit of aching is good, a lot is not, and not aching until second day after means you seriously overdid it and have damaged yourself badly. Overload is taking the body just out of its comfort zone, not leaving it in the dust.
Temporary bloating is more noticeable the leaner you are. This shouldn't be too much of a worry unless it becomes a fixed shape.

Compound exercises (those using multiple muscle groups) include those below. Pick a few like those below at your gym where the whole body is being worked evenly. These are all machine based, free weights are generally great but if training alone and just starting machines can be safer. Please follow instructions on these machines.
Leg press
Hack squat
Lat pulls
Seated rowing
Upright row
Bench press
Shoulder press
Twist and crunch (if done well, but pushing compound a bit)

Isolation exercises work predominantly one muscle group at a time. They are not bad exercises in any way, but it can be easy to develop unevenly when using a lot of them and training the whole body using these would take a long time and leave you very sore at the start.
Leg curls
Leg extensions
Calf raises
Arm curls
Chest flyes

If you are able to do free weights under sensible guidance, deadlift, squat and bench are good movements, along with a very few others that will be your whole body worked.

Toning reps, normally 12 to 15. When training as a beginner, the last reps should feel tiring rather than hard, if you are struggling to lift, reduce the weight.

Cardio should ideally be varied to work as much of the body as possible, so use rowers, treadmills, cycles, cross trainers etc. before and after weights. If there is plenty of time, 10 minute before and 20 after is ideal, but in fairness you might end up doing 10 after and needing to stop, this still means 20 minutes overall and is very respectable.

 

[jules89]

Thank you so much for your reply!

Great encouragement and advice!!

Can you or anybody else give me any tips on diet? What foods should I really avoid? Are bread and pasta going to bloat or bulk me?

 

[CrazyOldMan]

For optimum diet google the food pyramid. This will give you your ideal balance.
Volume is obviously personal, if you have the right balance and want to increase weight, add more of everything, reduce, eat less of everything.
I tend to avoid cut out diets in general. There are obvious things that aren't good to eat in large amounts, the Scottish classic deep fried mars bar is an extreme, along with dripping sandwiches, sweets, chocolate, crisps etc. However anyone declaring you should ban these from your life, likely doesn't have one, and this is the opinion of someone without much of one, though I am not sure I would want the mars bar. Allowing yourself one treat a day is good for moral, and as long as it is more akin to a small slice of cheesecake, not the whole thing you should be fine.