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Nutrition How you started exercising

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AntonyTalor

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Need your help! I’ve been exercising for 2 weeks already. I have a personal instructor, however it’s too
hard for me to manage all those exercises, especially in the end of my training. I’m out of my energy.
When I come home, everything I can do is lying on the couch. I would be grateful to hear how you
started exercising, whether you faced such situation and how you dealt with it. Thx!
 
Well... first off welcome.
Can you give us a bit of a personal history...?
Age, physical condition, sports participation, medical/injury conditions, and maybe most important... what are your goals? i.e. What are you wanting to 'exercise' for?
This way people here can frame a better answer for you.
 
It sounds to me that your personal instructor may be driving you too hard. Some people have a view of exercise, that nothing is done if you don't dissolve in a pool of sweat after your workout. However, some people see that exercise is a matter of training and progression and becoming stronger over time. You have to decide which mode you prefer and choose your options according to it.

I think it could be a good thing to pick a few strength exercises that you really like and concentrate on doing them. A good start could be according to the basic human movements, like push, pull, hinge, squat, carry. Then add some light cardio like walking, jogging, running, swimming, or some sport you like like football or tennis or whatever. If you like you could add a weekly high intensity cardio session as well.

I've personally found that the first thing in my training is learning to love it. Willpower will replace enthusiasm only for so long. If I don't like what I'm doing, I'll do it half-heartedly and stop before long. So I take on exercises and modalities that I really like. And little by little I learn to challenge myself in different ways and add some new things on the menu.
 
Hello,

@AntonyTalor
First, welcome here !

I'd focus on "basic exercise", with few reps at the beginning. Then, as times goes by and when you get used to the pace / stimuli, I'd add volume. Driving too hard may lead to injury.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
offwidth said:
Well... first off welcome.
Can you give us a bit of a personal history...?
Age, physical condition, sports participation, medical/injury conditions, and maybe most important... what are your goals? i.e. What are you wanting to 'exercise' for?
This way people here can frame a better answer for you.
Click to expand...
hello, I'm 29 years old and I'm overweight, I'm used to eating burgers and drinking beer, but one day I was sick of it and I decided to put my life in order. And the main problem is that after training I have no more strength for anything (
 
Training should not (in most circumstances) leave you wasted. On the contrary you should come away energized.
I would suggest that your current Trainer is indeed pushing you too hard or with inappropriate activities.
If possible seek out a qualified Strong First instructor for an assessment at the very least. The SF S&S programme is very popular around here, and for good reason... it 'checks most of the boxes' and... it works.
But you need proper instruction in technique for it (and any training) to be safe and effective.
As far as weight goes... that is going to mostly happen in the kitchen, not the gym.

Strong First is a great place. You will find solid advice and tremendous support from all here...
 
@AntonyTalor : Welcome to the forum :)
I can only agree with what has been said above: your PT is pushing you too hard. There is still a life to be lived after exercising. As @offwidth suggested: get a copy of Simple and Sinister and find an SFG instructor near you.
Remember: exercising is training, and is something for the long run.
 
So about seven years ago, my Wife and I were also sick and tired of being overweight. Like you, we probably started out really hard by doing fitness videos (our "favorite" was 30 min shred). We did that for a couple of years. Eventually, we joined a group fitness type gym where the instructor sent us through different drills. That gym became too inconvenient to go to (20 mins away from home), so we joined a gym close to home and continue doing group fitness type classes.

What I enjoyed about the group fitness classes is that even though you are in a group setting, the exercises are done at your own pace. Meaning, you got to choose the weights and intensity. There were plenty of people in different states of fitness so you never felt singled out as the most out of shape (even though you feel like it). The group fitness classes also gave me a sense of accountability since I see the same people everyday and some of them would ask about a day you miss. Eventually, I started to go to more and more of the classes I really enjoyed. At the time that was cardio kickboxing.

After 2 years, I got down from 215 lbs to 180 lbs (5' 8" frame). That may sound slow but I reminded myself that I didn't get to 215 lbs overnight so I was fine with the pace I was going (1 to 1.5 lbs loss a week). The weight loss was never linear; I'll have 2 weeks in a row with good loss, but week 3 would be a week that I would lose nothing or gain weight.

Since the major weight loss, I started strength training with Stronglifts 5x5. Eventually, that got to be challenging to do in the time period I gave myself in the morning so I started Simple and Sinister.

So my words of advice, if you want to stay with your trainer, ask them to take it easier with you. You may think you are wimping out by not doing the harder work, but no workout is worth killing yourself over. Otherwise, start doing some group fitness classes every day or every other day. Eventually you'll find one or two you like and may find yourself taking more of that kind of class.

Doing S&S on your own is also not a bad choice but, especially in my case, I had to learn the discipline of going in everyday. Group fitness classes was my method, your method may be different.
 
Start slow, eat healthy, rest enough, sleep good, don't exhaust yourself every session. And above all, don't get hurt.

Find a reputable trainer in your area (preferably StrongFirst certified) that can show you the right way to do things.

Learn the proper way to swing a kettlebell, deadlift, goblet squat, do a pushup and carry some kettlebells and you will be better off than 99% of the population.

Edit: and read all you can handle on this site.
 
AntonyTalor said:
Need your help! I’ve been exercising for 2 weeks already. I have a personal instructor, however it’s too
hard for me to manage all those exercises, especially in the end of my training. I’m out of my energy.
When I come home, everything I can do is lying on the couch. I would be grateful to hear how you
started exercising, whether you faced such situation and how you dealt with it. Thx!
Click to expand...

Eat! Eat fruit an hour or so before your sessions. Plan and eat good meals and 90% of your energy problems will disappear. Get a little more sleep as well, but the nutrition is paramount.

My first experience of "formal" training was with my 7 years older brother on his "Bullworker", I was 9 years old. I remember how hard it was to get the red plastic indicator to move even a single line further. I used the poster of exercises and IIRC it came with a weekly program.

I got very strong for my size! It hooked me on resistance training for life.
 
I started exercising three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, not that it matters). I honestly did not make much progress the first two years I lifted, but because of my insistence on always lifting 3 times a week no matter what, I established a habit that has kept up for years. Although I didn't plan any of this out, in retrospect it was a much better path to take than if I had burnt out or injured myself.
 
Hi :)
Any further details about your nutrition and eating habits?
Sleep?
Mood?
Challenges at work?
Life in general?
Did your Trainer take these things into account?
What would you love to do? The things you do or anything else/different?
 
Welcome @AntonyTalor!

I would recommend that you buy the Simple & Sinister (S&S) book, and one or two kettlebells, and just start reading and following along in the book. The price you pay for a couple of kettlebells will be realized back in a couple months of not paying for the gym fees & the trainer's fees. You can workout in your garage or basement. I, personally, have found it harder not to workout at home, when the kettlebells are right in front of me when I sit down. I always could find an excuse not to go to the gym, traffic, worked late, whatever other bs reason I could come up with that I could accept.

The hardest thing to accept, to me and others at first, is that, in the S&S workout is the lack of feeling gassed is expected. This is a workout to be done daily, if possible. You should not be wiped out at the end of your session. I know, this is weird, but the results are amazing.

Another major component for you is to clean up your eating. Find an eating regimen that you can follow, and get going. Same goes with rest. You gotta sleep, your body needs to rest & recover.

To respond to your original request, this is my current exercise program. A pulled muscle in my back led me to kettlebells for rehab, and I never went back to barbells and dumbbells. I am in better shape now than I was last year.

My eating regimen is still a work in progress. However, I am working on it. I have tried intermittent fasting and the keto diet. I am currently looking for one that encourages fresh fruit instead of consuming fat.....but I digress.

The important thing is that you have started down this path. Now, you are asking for assistance, and this forum has this in swimming pools. We are all here to get better personally in our kettlebell workouts, and we have questions just like you do. The neat thing about this place, is that everyone had to start somewhere, and to a person, we are willing to help another if we can......

Again, welcome @AntonyTalor, now let's get you moving.
 
I was a weak and asthmatic kid. My father realised it would be better for me to be strong and healthy - and made a deal with the most evil PT in the whole city to extra strict on me.

That was more than 30 years ago - and I never looked back. Looking back, I have to admit it is indeed better to be healthy and strong than weak and sick.

@AntonyTalor Purchase Kettlebell Simple & Sinister. Read it cover to cover. Read it again. Start practicing the drills. Shoot a video and upload it here on the forum. Find a nearest SFG. Practice. Get healthier and stronger, and you will never look back.

You are at the right place.
 
Asthmatic here as well when a child, then it came back about 15 years ago, living in a house with mold we didn't see.... I have it well controlled now, but I am still trying to get more cardiovascularly strong.

Steve Freides said:
We have this in common. My parents, however, didn't do anything about it other than hospitals and doctors.

-S-
Click to expand...
 
I was acting like a smart a#@ to a few guys and ended up getting my a#@ beat, badly. I went to a local dungeon of a gym that was really for hardcore powerlifters. I would sit back and watch them and finally asked for help. I was put on a simple plan of 6x6 of bench, squat, rows, deads and presses. Three days a week. Nothing crazy, and they wouldn't let me move up until I could do everything the right way with good form. A few years later in high school I decided I was smarter them and did a typical bodybuilding routine, and lost most of the strength I gained. Lesson learned.

35 years later I'm still remembering the great lessons learn from them. They also taught me that if you can see a Vein in your foot your ripped and don't lose any weight. I still live by that last lesson. Lol.
 
In high school I loved video games and junk food. I only did sports because I lived in a small town where they needed warm bodies to field a team for basketball, football, etc. I was a terrible athlete (there was literally one guy who was worse at sports than me) and promptly resumed my couch potato ways after each season was over. Then I decided I wanted to join the military, and I knew that I wasn't even close to the physical shape I needed to be in. I started training regularly (running and body weight stuff that I had to learn on my own) about 6 months before I actually signed the papers. That was about 9 years ago. I would say the first 4-5 years of my training was poorly programmed and executed, but it was way better than nothing, and at least it got me in the habit of training on a daily basis.
 
after collage i desided to lose my freshmen 15. (Instructors for your own sanity dont read what my solution was, It was dumb)
every day i did basic calisthetics 3 sets of pushup, crunches, squats, pullups (cuz back exercise) and chinups (cuz thats an arm exercise)
my diet IFy, basicly skip breakfast, small lunch small dinner and a lot of booze. somehow it worked and i lost the weight. i was sick almost all the time, sore as most of the time and not strong. ive come a long way.
 
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