3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

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- Exercise! (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/exercise-34/)

- - What is your routine? (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/exercise/201233-what-your-routine.html)

All good points here, but most importantly find what you feel you can do long term. Once you hit your goal the exercise must continue and you have to want to do it and enjoy it. I run 45-60mins 3xs a week, hike or do some other kind of non typical for me cardio 1x a week, 45 mins of weights 2xs a week and about 15mins of abs 2xs a week.

If you're looking to add some weights to your routine, I highly recommend checking out this site: http://exercise.about.com/cs/exercis...eight101_2.htm

Scroll down, and click on a muscle group for some ideas.

My routine: 30 minutes on a bike, 30 minutes of weights, 30 minutes on the stairclimber. With weights, I do upper body M-W-F and lower body T-H.

I love my routine, but it's ever changing as I find new challenges I want to conquer. Here's my current basic routine:

M/W/F: Spin Cycle class
T/TH/S: C25K run/strength training

I often walk additionally in the evenings.
On Saturdays I often hang out at the gym for a few hours. I'll throw in Yoga or swimming. I love swimming!

This summer I plan to be in the gym a few hours every morning because I'll have loads of time!

I have a commitment to myself to get up at 6 am every day, including weekends, in order to exercise first thing. (Even though I am very much not a morning person. It's that important to me.)

M-W-F I do 70 minutes biking to/from work (35 mins each way).

T-Th-Sat I do 45 to 60 mins strength training at home, full-body. I have previously done some of New Rules of Lifting for Women for this, right now I am just starting the program in Female Body Breakthrough.

Sunday I take a one-hour brisk walk with my husband (pace is about 3.5 MPH). This is really an exercise rest day, but the walk wakes me up a little and it's good to have that time with him.

I throw in other recreational exercise as I can, such as swimming with my kids, hiking, and rollerskating.

elliptical/bike/rowing machine or a combination for 45 minutes 3-4 x a week, yoga class once a week (wish I could do more), zumba once a week, and a thai-chi/ yoga/ pilates class 1-2 times a week...then if I can get anything extra in like walking the dog, great! I need to start doing some strength training though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shmead (Post 3282831)

It's more important to exercise than it is to do it "right": people get so stressed out about finding the perfect formula or being efficient that when they can't do it perfectly, they quit completely.

It may well be that exercise A is 5% more efficient at burning calories than exercise B, but exercise B is 100% more effective than nothing. It's extremely discouraging to people new to exercise to have someone say "X is a total waste of time" when that's what they've been doing--and frankly, if it involves any effort at all, it's not a waste of time.

When I started exercising seriously in August, everything I was capable of doing were things people told me were a waste of time: I could ride the stationary bike for 5 minutes/2 miles, and I could walk less than a mile. It was partially physical--I was 300ish pounds and totally sedentary, after all, but a lot of it was mental--I was constantly anxious and restless and bored and desperate to quit every minute I exercised.

So I "wasted" my time for weeks. But it improved my conditioning and my mental space. Every 1-2 weeks, I upped it a little, and now I exercise almost 2 hours a day, 7 days a week in three separate sessions, and I never, ever miss. I'm in great shape, and getting better.

That said, I am good at persistence but not at intensity. I really, honestly am not sure I've ever had my heart rate in the "target" zone--I seem to have all sorts of problems (in my head or in my muscles? I don't know) with getting up to any sort of speed. But my resting heart rate has still gone down to under 60, I've lost 100+ lbs @ 2 lbs/week while eating at least 1500 calories a day, my bp is good--maybe those numbers would be better if I got my heart rate up more on a regular basis, but they are a **** of a lot better than they were--and if I'd listened to doctors and experts who said that you only burn fat and improve heart health in that "target" zone, I'd have given up long ago.

My point is that it's best to do whatever you can bring yourself to do, and don't worry too much about getting it exactly right. There's plenty of time ahead to expand and tweak your program.

I completely agree with all of your points. I always say that the best exercise is the exercise that you'll do. I just hate it when people say that you must stay in the "fat burning zone" when you do cardio, when in fact it's calories in vs. calories out that determines weight loss.

Congratulations on your great accomplishment. :carrot: