I'm out of shape and trying to lose weight and begin working out. I'm not a very athletic person and I started doing the walk 4 miles at home tapes. I'm drenched in sweat and out of breath when it's over and my body aches days after. I go to the gym for an hour 3 times a week and do the tapes 5 times a week. I'm feeling like it's not getting any easier for me to do the exercise. It's only been 2 weeks but I thought I would notice a little difference. I'm about ready to give up maybe I was never meant to be an athletic person.

Or maybe you are starting out at too advanced a level/routine? Bit off more than you could chew?

Exercise is supposed to be a challenge so you improve in fitness. That's challenge. Not a TORTURE. Apart from not being able to stick to it, you could get really hurt.

Try a pattern of 3 day on, 1 rest, 2 days on, 1 rest. Whatever the workout is on your "on" days, do only ONE that day -- gym or DVD. Not any that are gym AND DVD. You have been at this only 2 weeks! Remember rest days are just as important as on days. Your body needs time to recover.

See how that feels for a while THEN move on to other challenges in a safe way. Ramp it up in reasonable amounts.

A.

In the beginning, rest is so important. It's crucial to avoiding injuries and also allowing your body to repair so you can increase your stamina.

Does it get easier? Yes and No. Yes, because you can do more and because you get the endorphin kick faster (and your body starts to crave it too). No, because it really should (to some extent) be a challenge. Exercising and no walking away a sweaty mess means that you're really not exerting yourself as much as you could be.

With everything, you just have to stick it out. Good luck!

Give it some more time. If you are not used to exersise, you might need to take this extra time to get used to it. I am assuming you are walking 4 miles in an hour, which is 15 minutes per mile. That is a very slow walk and will do nothing for you except "get you used" to walking.

You will also see better results with high frequency weight training (as far as building muscle to utilize fat). This is the whole "repetitions to failure" school. You do not need fancy gym equipment for this.

Low impact aerobic exercise was invented to help the heart and lungs and should only be part of an exercise routeen. It is great for you, and builds up endurance, but has only a small impact on weight loss (from what I hear).

It will get easier when you find something you LOVE. I used to hate working out at all until I found my passion. Now I love it and I do all kinds of workouts just to get better for that. One Saturday class motivates me enough to bust my a... another 5 times a week :-)

I think I'll take that advice to work out for 3 days take a break and do two days. The tape I do involves jogging and other exercises and it's high impact to me!! There's no way I can do something more advanced right now.

First of all is very important to excercise (and yes, even walk!) properly so you don't put a lot of strain on your body parts (in case of walking a proper shoes are a necessity). The strain may eventually lead to injuries, sores and great fatigue.

And about your question - when it gets easier? Like everything else it just needs time and when your body gets accommodated (this is very individual) it will suddenly get very easy and even pleasant!

Stick it out!! The very first month just sucks no matter what your beginning weight is.

Truth be told, though, it should always suck, in a sense. Your body is made to adapt. Over time, the exercise gets easy because it gained strength and endurance to be able to meet the demands of the work you require. If you get to a point where the work out is too easy, it's time to step it up again. That means, it'll suck again. It's a cycle.

What begins to happen is that your mind gets used to the work, too, and you'll crave the endorphines post work out.

But back to the original point, as an athlete since birth, a gym teacher, group instructor and personal trainer, I still loath the idea working out. That is, until I start my work out and the euphoria kicks in. Then I just LOVE it.

You'll get there. Be patient. Be persistant and you'll succeed.

Goodness knows I'm still working on getting consistent exercise in, but I do know from what I read that it's bad to over-do it. Over-doing it, of course, depends on our capacity for exercise. Every 'body' is at a certain fitness point and we have to push the envelope a bit to get improvement but we also have to 'rest' because when we 'rest' the body is doing its thing to get stronger and take in the benefits of the training we've done. Try an 'easy day' followed by a 'harder day' followed by rest. Do that for a couple of weeks and see if you're feeling better. I've also learned that I have to take in good, clean nutrition to really feel good, and drink lots of water.

Good luck, you will succeed !

That's fine. Just do what is challenging for you right now. Later when you are fitter you can shake it up again.

Just keep it real -- to your level. You can always improve and build on that later as you get fitter.

I'm a re-beginner.

Where I once did half marathons and had a 10 min mile jog, mountain biked on weekend with DH and had awesome cut quads... I know I can't just START there! Been benched too long and regained lots of weight. I don't need to kill myself and bench again!

15 min mile is my first goal as a walker. I have to ramp it back up to where I used too be.

And I'm a mom now so also have to teach my kid to ride a two wheeler and ramp her up before bringing back the mountain bike thing on weekends as a family. Poor kid can't even manage a two wheeler on a sidewalk yet. But she's trying! Yay her! One day... we'll get there.

Take it one thing at a time -- you will get there too!

A.

What? 4mph for walking is a great speed and will do wonders for endurance and strength. Most people you see out for walks are moving much slower than 4mph! I lost all my weight in the beginning walking and jogging at slower speeds than that. Speed does not matter, calories burned is what matters. Calories in/out. I do use weight lifting now in addition to my cardio, but could not have done a lot with weights when I was 80 pounds overweight. I could barely lift my body up the stairs!

To the OP, it will get easier as you take off some more weight. For me, every couple workouts, I found I could go a little longer or a little faster (not much), but I didn't beat myself up if it still felt hard.
And sometimes I had to back off the speed or distance just because it was too much that day. I agree, just do something small and work up from there.

It's highly individual. I did just fine starting out at slower speeds. I think my first walks when I started back at the gym were 2.5 mph with intervals at 3.0. Heck even my first "running" speed was slower than 4.0 (3.8). As long as it's getting the heart rate up it's good. And what gets the heart rate up will vary from person to person, so saying that 4.0 will do nothing for someone can be quite untrue.

It does get easier though, Rose, and you will be able to do more if you are consistent. But if it starts to feel too easy then it's probably time to change something to make it challenging again.

I agree with the folks that say to find something that you love. It makes the time go by faster and continuing to challenge yourself won't feel quite so much like torture.

My husband loves hockey so he started with skate lessons to refresh, now he takes hockey lessons and sometimes during his lunch break or right after work goes to the rink near there and gets some extra skate practice in, and when he's in the gym he has workouts planned around strength training or high intensity intervals intended to help with his hockey playing. Now that he has something to focus on, he's a lot more consistent with working out than when he just went to the gym and killed time on a bike or elliptical machine. He still comes out of a workout dripping with sweat and often tired, sore, etc, but he's able to do more to get to that point than he could a year ago and has already seen how it's improved his hockey play which makes it worth it to him.

First of all, 4 mph is a VERY FAST WALK. most people walk at 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 mph.

second- walking is the BEST FORM OF cardio for fat loss, hands down. It increases your daily caloric burn, which is what leads to fat loss (ie; being in a caloric deficit)without overstressing the body and creating the need for down time. NEWS FLASH-- you burn ALMSOT ALL OF YOUR FAT while you are sleeping, not while working out. There is no ACTUAL need to work out to lose fat, as long as you are eating less in a day than you burn just by existing and going about your daily activities.
That has nothing to do with the numerous other benefits of exercise. Not to mention exercise will play a large role in loving your body whenyou get to goal.

Lastly- High imact/low impact has NOTHING tio do with the INTENSITY of a workout. A spinnign class is EXTREMELY hi intensity, but almost NO IMPACT. Impact refers to the amount of force on your body and joints.... ie; jumping up and down for exercise is high impact, and high intensity, while swimming can be high intensity with very low/no impact, and yoga can be very low intensity AND low impact

See the difference?

Bottome line-- do what you enjoy for now, so you wills tick with it. Try some group exercise classes, like Zumba, or Step Aerobics or kickboxing. Above all, if you arent enjoying it and its too hard, then you are probably doing too much, too soon.

I was panicked over the whole 4 mph being slow- when I was a teenager I walked 12 min miles... I'd be lucky to walk a 21 min mile now! Mkroyer, your post is very helpful!

Yeah, 4mph is totally fine. Walking is excellent on lots of levels.
Enjoy !