Hi all-

I am getting back to the gym and need some help. My old routine will no longer work, since my gym has miniscule stuff (stairmaster, elliptical, stationary bike, treadmill, free weights and a few weight machines). Plus, I wasn't losing, only toning. I need help. And I know there is another forum for this, but I have never found it to be a friendly one...

I went to the gym 2 weeks ago and got shin splints from doing too much too fast.

Can someone recommend about an hour's worth of a routine that can help me continue to lose without killing myself?

Thanks!

I ALWAYS get shin splints when I do the treadmill. If you don't want to be on one machine the entire time, I'd suggest 30min of the elliptical and 30 min on the stationary bike (or stairmaster) and then do weights.

I usually just do 45min-1hr on the elliptical, so you could do that, but if you want to switch it up, just try different machines. You could do any combination of any of those, but chances are its the treadmill causing the shin splints, so I'd suggest to stay away from that.

Good luck!!

Thanks!

How about free-weights?

Oh, the treadmill (which is now my best friend) used to give me the worst shin splints. I asked an old gym teacher and she said I should stretch before I get on the treadmill and to start out slow. It worked for me...

Free weights (and the machine weights) are great for training too. I just started using them last week. It's too early to talk about results, but they are fun to use and it showed me that I was really weak and needed to strengthen/ tone up while I was losing weight.

Sometimes it takes a while before you really start losing on the exercise machines... But I found out that I just needed to increase my intensity so I would actually break a sweat!

I see you started WW...it is the best! With WW and exercise you're bound to really meet your goals. I'm certaintly not dissapointed with my results. Congrats on the weight you've already lost!

I'd suggest do your hour of cardio and then 15-20 minutes of weights. I usually do the weight machines, I don't know much about free weights, but the people in the lifting thread on here may be able to help you with that, but I find the weight machines are sufficient for me. A lot of people will do strength training every other day, so like Mon/Wed/Fri you do that, just make sure you're not using the machines every day. Or if you'd like you could split it up, do upper body one day, then lower body the next and keep alternating. I hope that makes sense, if not let me know and I'll try to rephrase it.

I've always done 30 - 45 minutes of cardio (elliptical), and then 30 minutes of weights (machines + free weights). Works well for me .