On working out

I am not stranger to dieting and working out. During my last weight loss I was in the gym 3-5 days a week for about 5-6 months. For about 2 months of that I had a personal trainer and was in during the mornings with him and at night with my friend. That is why I find it so odd I am not back there yet. I figured I would write about my experience so that I can re-motivate myself and maybe share some of my experience being very overweight in a gym with others and maybe do a little motivating.

Sure, at first the gym is intimidating but I have found that the more you go the less you worry about that. You start to see the same people and they start to notice you working hard. The only judgement ever passed in gyms I have seen are on people that are there to socialize and not work out. I have even had people offer advice which I humbly took.

In my opinion (and you will find others touting this or that) resistance training is the way to go. I have read all about (HIIT)High Intensity Interval Training, I have read the articles on LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) as well as many on the benefits to resistance training (lifting weights.)

At the end of the day, no matter what you choose everyone is going to react differently. I think the best is to try a little of each. A great forum I have used in the past for ideas and finding information is the John Stone Fitness Forums. This is not exactly a pro-low carb place but it is great for diet information/working out information.

Most of the diets stressed on the site are of the 6 meals a day, reduce you calories below you basal metabolic rate and slowly burn the weight off. I am not going to get into the calories vs insulin debate, this is my workout post. =) I just thought I would warn people that are low carbers reading this that read some of the diet information there and get upset.

Anyway, onto my experiences. I have found that lifting weights worked very well for me as far as losing inches and getting stronger. One thing about lifting I noticed is that initially you will gain muscle mass quickly if you have not been working out before. Why do I mention this? Well because imagine that you lose 2 pounds of fat and have gained 3 pounds of muscle. What is the result of that? Well for me it was dropping a belt loop and losing 0 pounds or even gaining 1. It felt great though to see myself improving on the weights I could use. Just remember that muscle is dense and fat is not. That is how you shrink when you gain muscle weight. The goal is to lose fat, minimize or gain lean muscle mass. The great benefit is that lean muscle needs more energy to be maintained than fat. Thus your body will use more fuel to maintain itself.

As far as the actual lifting what I did (and would recommend) is to do each exercise at a weight that allows you to do 8-12 repetitions before your muscle fails. If you can just keep going and going you should up the weight. Make sure you start out low the first time you go, don't want to hurt yourself. You should do at least 3 sets of these repetitions per exercise. For example my favorite exercise was the dumbell bench press. I got to where I was using 65 pound dumbells, but when I go back this week I will start back at 40 and work my way up. When you get to the point where you can do 11-12 reps for 3 sets, move up in weight. Just to the next weight up. Rinse and repeat.

As far as how often and when to work out which muscle groups. I am not an expert go to the forums and you will see 1000 different routines where people tell you do a full body workout, others will tell you do do chest/arms and then back/shoudlers, then legs... The way I did it was I just broke it down to Chest/Back, Shoulders/Arms and Legs. I highly recommend starting out with basic compound exercises. Hit your large muscle groups! Squats for your legs, rows for your back, bench presses for your chest, and about 2 other exercises per body part. Why do you break it up? Simply because your muscles will not heal efficiently if you keep stressing them. Give yourself 48 hours AT LEAST before you work the same body part out again. Muscles grow by micro tears/stress and then healing. I know people start off really motivated, but gradual workouts with healing times are needed. That is another reason people break up the exercises by body parts. If you do a full body, fine, just make sure you give your whole body 2-3 days to heal before going back.

I could make this long and perhaps as I go back documenting it would be a good way to continue the conversation. I just wanted to get started. Things I would strongly recommend for overweight people starting out...

Squats and Lunges! Your natural body weight is all you need when you are really heavy and this is where extra strength will help you in your daily life. Do a squat (proper form) the first few times 3 sets of 15 squats with proper form. The next day your will burn. The same with lunges. Be careful with doing a lunge because with either of these exercises you are putting stress on your knees that with your heavy weight they are not used to! Proper form is a must! After awhile add a medicine ball (5-8lbs) and do the squat while holding it, and at the top of your squat put the ball above your head for a shoulder press and come down. I love that exercise. My shoulders were weak when I started and that really burns.

Situps! Remember that your abs are muscles too and you should let them heal like all other muscles. Do your sit ups and wait a couple of days before doing them again.

Work your back out! Seated Rows are great! I noticed that my back got the strongest the quickest. It helps your posture and is great!

I will post the workouts I start here in a few days and show you the other ones I am going to add. Just starting is the key and don't burn yourself out!

One more thing to add.. You WILL BE SORE! The first 2 weeks you will be the most sore. This is just a sign that your muscles are building up, and in the beginning they are building more because of the abrupt change in routine. I promise it will pass over time.

Anyway, not sure if that is a help, but at least I got it out there.