[ShetlandSheepdogLove]

Well, yesterday was my first day at Planet Fitness. I spent a total of 2.5 hours there (late morning and from 8:30-9:30pm) and I practically spent most of my time on the elliptical and other machines for cardio/leg muscles. I honestly didn't think I worked myself too hard.

I literally hobbled out of bed this morning and couldn't make it to the "Design Your Own" fitness plan that was starting at 9:30 a.m.

I realize I'll have pain, and I'm fine with that. I'm just wondering if I need to switch my workout schedule. I had originally planned to go for 2 hours, 6 days a week (not on Sunday) and have those hours spread out during the day. I think I was definitely hoping for more than what I can do.

Many of you ladies have routines established for going to the gym. Could you share what you personally do? I'm thinking about just making it to an hour, five days a week, changing it up every day.

[DrivenByAmbition]

Why two hours?

[mandalinn82]

2 hours is a long time.

My routine usually involves 45 min to 1 hour of cardio, 6 days a week, plus strength training (the leg machines you described are a form of strength training) 2 days a week.

You don't want to work the same muscle groups 2 days in a row - so if you did leg machines yesterday, you don't want to do them today - this is to allow time for your muscles to repair themselves and get stronger. If you're truly hobbled today, you might want to wait 2 or 3 days before you work your legs again.

[WildThings]

Had you been exercising (cardio and/or strength training) before joining the gym? If you had not been exercising regularly before, 2+ hours on the first day is way over doing it. Not only will a routine like that make you sore, but you are substantially increasing your risk of injury. Start slower, build up a strong base, increase from there.

[Desiderata]

No wonder you can't move! That's extremely excessive, especially if you haven't been working out on a regular basis. Your enthusiasm is wonderful, but you need to gradually ramp up your workouts. If you can go to the gym almost every day, that's fantastic - what you really care about is getting into the routine of it. If you can only start out at 20-30 minutes, that's still amazing, and just add 5 minutes on until you build up.

More importantly, though, you can't out-exercise a bad diet. If you want to lose weight, eating well and eating fewer calories will get you much better results than killing yourself at the gym. Fitness is great - don't give it up - but realize about 80% of your results will come from diet, and 20% from exercise.

[Brid]

Slow down!

You've only just started, and your body's not used to getting plenty of exercise yet. Too much too soon, and you could end up injuring yourself. It'll also take time to build up your stamina. An hour five times a week sounds a much better place to start. And who knows what will happen a few months down the line? You may find you end up able to handle it easily, and pushing yourself to do more. Or you may find that your weight loss ticks over nicely at that, and you won't need to do any more.

Also bear in mind that an hour's exercise isn't likely to burn more than a few hundred calories. If two and a half hours a day is crippling you, you can get pretty much the same effect with less exercise and a little less food, and you'll probably be happier (and in less pain!) because of it.

I don't go to a gym so much as to the spare bedroom, which contains my grandad's old exercise bike. I use it on average six days a week. And I don't count how long it takes, I count how far I get. The basic amount I insist upon every day is only ten kilometres, which takes about twenty minutes. Most days I go up to fifteen, sometimes twenty. I've got two 3kg weights, and two arm exercises that I do with them. Typically 20 reps before the bike and 20 after. And that's it.

[ShetlandSheepdogLove]

I thought that if I were to do an hour in the morning and one at night would be reasonable, enough.

The pain is slowly going away, so I'm walking. It was just a nightmare to get out of bed (when isn't it?)

I've been told that weight training is good for weight loss, any opinions on that?

I wasn't planning on doing leg workouts today, as I did yesterday. Thank goodness.

[ShetlandSheepdogLove]

I've been doing light cardio before going to the gym (jogging, etc.) but it wasn't up to how I'm working right now.

I'm good about making good diet decisions, so I don't personally have a problem with that.

I really appreciate everyone's input on this, the thought of injury completely missed me.

I'll just start with an hour a day, five days a week, then. The pain really isn't too bad anymore, and I can walk, which is great!

[Brid]

Once you've built up to it, an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening might be fine for you. It's just a bit much going that far from a standing start, as it were. Your enthusiasm's great, but what happens a week or two down the line when it all catches up with you and you just can't face going? I'd hate to see you feeling guilty and berating yourself for "failing" because you've tried to do too much too soon.

I'm sure others can tell you more about weight training's benefits, but Desiderata's right - it's changing your eating habits that will get the pounds off. Exercise still has many benefits though, not least of which being you'll look fitter when you've lost weight if you've also toned your muscles nicely with exercise.

[mandalinn82]

Weight training is excellent for weight loss. Not only do you burn calories while weight training, you burn more afterward while your muscles repair themselves, AND as you create more and more muscle, your body will burn more calories even at rest.

Plus it makes your body look better even at higher weights. Win-win!

[ShetlandSheepdogLove]

I'm just going to keep more track of my eating habits. That will come first, and exercise will just fall into place as an addition. I definitely will work my way up to whatever is possible, exercise-wise.

[alaskanlaughter]

i juggle my gym time between work and family...right now i get up at 5:30 a.m. and sneak out of the house to the gym and try not to wake anyone up...right now i work out with weight machines and cardio...i dont do free weights because of the risk of re-injuring my lower back...but i do ab crunches and arm weights on the machines...right now i can pull down 70 pounds in ab crunches and push out 55 pounds on my arms...i do 7 sets of 10 reps on the abs and 5 sets of 10 on the arms...then i go upstairs to the treadmill, do a short warm up walk, run one and a half miles in intervals, and a short cool down walk...then i'm done...takes me about an hour total

[ShetlandSheepdogLove]

Originally Posted by alaskanlaughter

i juggle my gym time between work and family...right now i get up at 5:30 a.m. and sneak out of the house to the gym and try not to wake anyone up...right now i work out with weight machines and cardio...i dont do free weights because of the risk of re-injuring my lower back...but i do ab crunches and arm weights on the machines...right now i can pull down 70 pounds in ab crunches and push out 55 pounds on my arms...i do 7 sets of 10 reps on the abs and 5 sets of 10 on the arms...then i go upstairs to the treadmill, do a short warm up walk, run one and a half miles in intervals, and a short cool down walk...then i'm done...takes me about an hour total

I generally have a preference towards the machines for ab crunches and arm weights, as well. I really like those for some reason.
The treadmill is what I'm slowly working up to, and I'm barely doing a five minute jog at a time. I'll just stick to a good walk on the treadmill for now.

[lm3898]

Currently - running 30 - 75 min. 3x/week
Kickboxing 2x/week
weight lifting 2x/week. [1x/week with shorter run, 1x-2x/week alone]
Sunday - OFF.

[EagleRiverDee]

I think you should work up to exercise in stages. Start with a half hour, work up to an hour. See how you feel at that point. There's no reason you can't workout 2 hours a day once you work up to it, but that's a lot of time to spend in a gym. I'd rather work out for an hour and then go outside for a bike ride or a hike or something myself.