Newbie

I'm 15 y/o boy with a 20.4 BMI.

I'm beginning to work out for a couple of different reasons. I think that I look OK right now, but would like to have a toned, muscular body. I could live with being a bit more athletic. And, I've read that regular exercise reduces anxiety, which would really help me out.

I've been kinda exercising for about two months. The first six weeks, I just walked and jogged. I started to try strength training about two weeks ago.

My current cardio routine is to be outside an hour and fifteen minutes each day. I walk steadily and jog 12 or 20 minutes depending on the day. Jogging isn't that hard. I like to sweat. My only problem is that I don't think my shoes are suited for jogging. I'm getting some inserts to protect my feet until I can get real running shoes. I have an odd foot size, and pronation confuses the crap out of me, so I'll need to actually go to a store to get a good shoe. I'm not 100% sure that I want to continue running, I'm trying a TaeBo video and want to see how that does.

I will go ahead and say that I suck at form. I know the importance, its just that I am not very coordinated, so that's a big hurdle to jump.

As far as strength training is concerned, I don't do too much, just enough to say that I did something. I use eight pound dumbbells and do six sets (three per spurt) of curls, presses, flies, and shrugs (ten reps). I know that I need to do a lot of things differently. Spend different days doing different muscles, do more exercises, alter the number of reps, use heavier weight, and so on.

The things are, and I'm not trying to make excuses. Although my family isn't "poor", it is a recession, and a gym membership isn't exactly cheap. And, my house isn't exactly roomy. A treadmill, some exercise bands, and a set or two of dumbbells is all that I'd realistically be able to fit in.

I also do pushups. Right now I use the Perfect Pushup workout sheet to base my workouts on. I'm not sure my form exactly right. My shoulders hurt when I do them.

I eat very well. All natural. Get enough fruits and vegetables. The only thing I can think of is more protein, and I'm working on that.

I stretch for 7.5 minutes before and after exercise. I usually use the same stretches, but some times switch an "old" stretch out. I don't bounce, which I heard can hurt muscles.

I could stand to gain some weight, but at the same time, my first goal is to attain abs, so hmm...

I have a lot of questions to ask, so I'll need to do some research to help myself.

Just thinking of something, sleepiness sucks. I've been getting good sleep the entire summer. Yesterday I went to bed at my regular time, but took two hours to get to sleep since I exercised an hour and a half before. I had to get up an hour and a half early since I had a doctor's appointment. God, do I feel tired.
 
I jogged at five miles an hour today in order to see how long I could jog. I jogged for forty minutes. It was mainly my feet that made me stop. I need running shoes.

My new running routine is 30 min on A days, 20 min on B days.

Tomorrow is weights day. I'm perfecting crunch form. When I'm flexing my abdominals and go slowly, it is difficult to do as many crunches. I think I'm going to find some bicep exercises.
 
Hey Blalex, welcome to the forum!

If you want to continue running, then investing in a proper pair of shoes might be a good idea. But remember that it's also very important to progress gradually... Running 40 minutes all at once when you're first starting out can be a bit rough on the body and may increase your risk for injuries. I would suggest building up your continuous running time very gradually. For example, the first week, you might warm-up by walking, then jog for 5 mins, then walk for the remainder of your cardio time. Then you would increase your jogging time by 3-5 mins per week as your symptoms allow. The other option would be to look up 'couch to 5K' programs or 'run/walk' programs, where you would alternate jogging and walking intervals - the length of the jogging intervals gradually increase over the weeks of the program.

For strength training, just to clarify, are you saying that you're doing 6 sets of 3 reps of curls, presses, flies but 10 reps of shrugs, or are you doing 6 sets of 10 reps of all of the exercises?
 
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