Exercise Newbie in need of advice
 

Hello everyone. :wave: This is a cross-post, please forgive me, but it was suggested that I ask you for advice.

I'm totally new to this section of 3FC but I've posted over at the 300+ support group for almost two years. I'm also pretty new to exercising in general. I've lost most of my weight with very little exercise involved...I belonged to the Y for a while and really enjoyed their fitlinx weight machines, but quit due to money and time constraints. I did yoga for a while - ditto! I bought an eliptical for use at home and it became a very ugly piece of sculpture in the corner of my living room until recently. About three weeks ago I decided to give doing the eliptical in the mornings a try. I'm quite pleased that I've actually kept that up and have no plans to stop! I started at 10 minutes and am up to 20 each morning. (I do allow myself up to two days a week to NOT do it, but so far haven't used them this week! :) ) Now that I'm actually getting in some exercise, I'd like to try some more!

I really need to tone up. As you can imagine, losing 90+ lbs without exercising has not been kind to me - flab city! As always, time is precious to me...I have new yoga dvd's I need to try and haven't yet because finding 40-60 minutes in the evening has been a problem, but I'm working on that. We've been talking about buying a bowflex or some such machine for the home so we don't have to leave our dogs (our babies) home and go to a gym. My DH is quite taken with the Total Gym thing that Chuck Norris hawks...but either machine is probably several months away. All we have for weights at this time are little 1 to 5 lb dumbell things.

What sort of things would you recommend for toning and maybe building a bit of strength? I have ZERO upper body strength - doing yoga is hard enough and a push-up is out of the question - I have NEVER done a pull-up, even as a child! My upper arms are HUGE and flabby and they are without a doubt the WORST part of my body in my opinion. The fact is I FEEL weak - and I don't like it! :mad: ANY advice is most welcome! Thanks!

Oh, and if it matters at all - I'm on Weight Watchers.

You could start with this Resistance Band Workout

and then Krista Smash's Site Great advise and fun to read too...

I second the resistance band sticky. A set of bands and a stability ball can give you a great start for a minimal price and space investment.

Mel

Thank you for your advice.