[ryan57401]

Hi everyone my name is Ryan and i have been new to this site for about going on 4 weeks. And i love it!! Alot of good people and alot of great support. I come on here about 3-4 times a day to read what people say and etc and it has helped me get through alot. Anyways I have a memebership to the local YMCA and when i go i go straight to the machines for cardio it veries from the eleptical to the bike and etc the thing is i dont know what to do how long to go on it i normally go for 5-10 minutes and after than i go through all the machines I just wish i knew what I need for excercises and routines and how much to do each in one day i heard all kinds of things do ur legs one day and the next to ur upper and etc also i dont know how many reps and weights i need to use i am just so confused lol i just hope i am making sense to ya!! Thanks and have a good evening everyone

Ryan

[alinnell]

Ryan,
My thinking is that you should keep with the cardio for at least 20 minutes and then do the strength training on the other machines. I agree that with the strength training, you should alternate upper body with lower body, but to lose weight the cardio is really key.
Best of luck to you.

[almost there]

I dont have a gym membership, so I am not really sure what to tell you. I have a treadmill at home that I go on for 45 minutes 5 days a week (run for half of that time) and I do some small weights for my arms aswell. I would think that there should be somebody at the YMCA that can help you with any questions you have. I remember hearing from somebody that you should rotate your upper body one day and then your lower body the next, not so sure though. Sorry! I would see if there is assistance at the YMCA, Im sure they would love to help you.
Good luck

[BlueToBlue]

When I first started working out, I did 30 minutes of cardio with 30 minutes of weights three days a week. I've been at it for about nine months now, so I've worked up to about an hour of cardio on Tues and Thurs and 35 minutes on Sat and Sun. I work out with a trainer on Mon, Wed, and Fri so I don't do cardio on my own on those days. If for some reason I'm not able to work out with my trainer, I do 30 minutes of cardio and 30 to 45 minutes of weights.

I do abs every day except Sunday, but I definitely wasn't doing that when I first started out (in fact, I just added Saturday to the ab program this last week). Most of my ab exercises aren't on machines, I found a link in this forum for recommendations for ab exercises, see http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercises.htm. Some of those are the exercises I've been doing and some are exercises I probably should do.

It's good to mix it up on the cardio. Try different machines and also try increasing the difficulty level. I often do fifteen minutes on one machine and then switch to a different machine. I also usually start on a medium to low setting and then increase the difficulty every five minutes. It makes the time go by faster. I've read that it's a good idea to try to do a few minutes at the maximum setting that you can (like a sprint)--this will increase your cardio endurance. But don't set it so high that you feel like you have to hold yourself up with your arms. Just use your arms for balance (unless you're doing the elliptical with the arms that move).

On the weight machines, when I'm on my own, I usually do two sets of 12 reps. I've read that you want to set the weight heavy enough that it is difficult to do those last few reps. If you can get through all the reps easily, it's not heavy enough. If you can't get through more than eight reps, you've probably set the weight too heavy.

You can get some free beginner's workout routines on the Bally website at http://www.ballyfitness.com/rapid_re...lans/index.asp. (I believe this page is available to non-members). These might help you get started.

Good luck and whatever you are doing is better than not doing anything at all!

- Barbara

[Stephanie Osborne]

Ryan you may also consider checking out some fitness magazines. Men's Health is awesome...I have numerous guy friends who swear by it. They give you a different workout plan each month. They are pretty easy to follow, some at home, some at the gym but give you some variety to try and see what you like.

[leanbodyfitness]

Ryan,

check out this book called The Testosterone Advantage Plan. It's written by editor's/writers/trainers from Men's Health (at least they did at the time the book came out). It gives a great into nutrition as well as how it compliments a strength training routine. And it also gives you a 9 week workout and provides for you exercises that you can do at a gym or at a home gym.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...&link_code=as1


(just as an FYI so people don't think i'm making any money off of this or plugging it for my own self interest, i'm not. this is just a great beginner book that i think people can build off of that are just getting into exercise).

Michael Navin, CSCS