Just one more question..


Okay so when I got my membership to the gym yesterday, he showed me around. Didnt tell me anything about personal training. But one of the trainers there was my old jenny craig consultant, which I told I was leaving town.. So If I cant speak/afford to talk to a trainer. Where do I start?? I know I need to do my cardio, and I know how to do that. I just dont know where to go from there? At the gym the machines are color coded to what area of you body you want to work. But still I have no idea where to begin. How many reps/sets?? Any and all advice will be appreciated!!!

TIA Stacie

Stacie --

Get thee to www.stumptuous.com and read the articles in the section labeled "starting". It's a great site, chock-a-block full of solid info for beginners, and nothing to sell.

Kim

Oxygen Magazine always has good monthly workouts... Ask a friend to show you around... Is the Jenny Craig person the only PT there? If not ask for a session or two as a Christmas gift...

and also, the article on this forum entitled 'fitness fundamentals' helped me get my head around basic requirements...

Hi Stacie,

When I joined the gym at first I got programme for fat burning and increasing fitness from the personal trainer, it might give you an idea?

I do:

10 min on the bike, 15 min on the treadmill (5km per hour, increasing gradient as I go along)

then weights at 2 sets of 15 reps each, I am weedy so I use the lowest setting for the arm exercises:

arm curl (front and back)
leg curl (front and back)
The thingy which makes your stomach flat (forget what it's called - cradle?)
shoulder exercise

then:

100 calorie burn on x-trainer (elliptical in the US, I think?) Takes abiout 11 min.
another 5 min on the bike at a low sett to cool down

then I go to the pub, ha!

Er, you might want to miss the last step out

I also use Mags like Oxygen and Muscle and Fitness Hers. They're inspiring. I also go to bodybuilding.com/women and the "no fluff training guide". It shows pics and has some video on how perform exercises correctly. Don't be intimidated there by the pics. Even though I aspire to be cut, I don't plan on competing and don't expect to have 8% BF, so just look past some of those pics. (And women don't have enough testosterone in our bodies without adding it to get built like a man... but we can get cut by losing the fat! )

I am on a program now that's 4x10 with heavy weights for 4 days, with 10 min of hard cardio before weights and some HIIT once weekly for 30 minutes. I use the elliptical and bikes to help keep my knee caps from falling out from the treadmill!! And I'll split up my 30 min. with 15 on the elliptical and 15 on the bike so I don't get too bored!

So you could work your way up, but I guess you have to define what your goals are first. I'm doing this program for fat loss, then I want to build strength once I reach my goals, which will change my program to 5x5's.

Someday, I'd like to do an unassisted pull-up...

Hope that helps in some way!