Hello Fitness forum

J

justin616

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I am a 26 year old that has no experience in fitness or exercise. I would like to begin. I went through the last 26 years without any sort of controlled program. I have never done a push up or a sit up. I always made fun of those who cared so much about their body (not in a nagging bully type of way, just commenting on how that is not my lifestyle because there was no point or end for me).

I am "naturally" skinny, but as of late i have been developing a small gut (probably from over eating). I am self conscious of the way i look although i show no signs of being fat. I would like to work on removing my gut and maybe building a little muscle.

As i said i have never exercised in a formal way. I never to gym classes or weight training, i opted for golf and similar non-active sports. The one thing that I did active throughout my teenage years was skateboard. Now that i am "grown up" i have given up my passion and no long participate in being active. I dont run, i dont walk, i dont partake in sports. I eat, drink, and work.

The reason i joined this forum is because i do not know where to start. I see all these infomercials which i believe to be false just as any product ever sold on a tv at 3 am. I dont know how comfortable i would be going to a gym. I feel i have a weird run so i dont know how comfortable i would be jogging outside the comfort of my 4 walls.My four walls are close together so i doubt i could jog inside. I am trying to build confidence but running ten feet and having to walk the next five football fields would embarrass me. I have never lift a weight and I am not particularly willing to hurt myself to learn. I am not trying to become a muscle head. I am on a tight budget currently and have only a few things.
-a small weight set that my parents left behind *the colored ones that dont weight very much maybe 8 pounds at the most.
-a jump rope
-a bike
-a yoga mat (not sure where it came from)


I have access to fitness videos of any caliber (but as i said i dont know if these are just a crock of ****).

SO please someone point me in the right direction. Do i realistically need to join a gym to lose my small gut and maybe cut some abs and build a little muscle? or is possible to do on a work out plan from home with the tools i have? I understand it comes from the food i eat and the amount of food i eat. I dont eat unhealthy i just indulge. I am not fat but i am not fit. I want to become fit so maybe i can build a little self-confidence.

Cheers
Justin
 
OK you have hit the stage many do a lot later than you have, where the physique of youth is leaving because you haven't used the muscles pubescent growth gave you and your metabolism has realised it can slow down and you will still survive.
Good news is you have decided to change this early, and at an abnormal time of year. The bad news is there is a strong chance you will need to find stuff you enjoy in order to get what you want and have no real idea what those things are. I enjoy lifting pointless lumps of metal and pounding the pavement, because I am mentally unbalanced, while I consider golf a good walk spoiled, football etc. insanely boring. Others will love the activities I hate and do well with them.

I could easily give you a bunch of programs, advise you on what gym equipment to look out for etc. but if you hate the stuff I suggest it will be totally pointless.
Your goals are vague and simple enough that you could achieve it with some circuit training, a program of weights and cardio, some football, boxing, in fact pretty much anything that gets you moving and using your body more than you do now.

I do appreciate this is a stupidly vague response but the truth is more people quit training because they hate what they are doing than any other reason, so finding something you enjoy is the most important step of all. If what you enjoy is only half as effective as the best option, take twice as long, because you will get there and beyond by doing so.

This is the time of year when gyms are going quiet because new years resolutions have left and there is no sign of spring or summer on the horizon, so you can likely negotiate a good deal on a months trial or similar. The annual prices are cheaper but when you aren't sure you will enjoy it and there is a risk you'll want to leave in a few weeks the price becomes less viable.
If you go for the gym, take it steady at the start, it has taken you 26 years to start being unhappy with how you look, give yourself a year to start being impressed with yourself again. Going in full force will just leave you aching to much for your next sessions and feeling like it was a bad idea. Of course give it a few years and you may start liking the aches as a sign of good sessions, trust me it happens and even though I have had this for decades and still appreciate it I have no sensible explanation why.

Regarding feeling embarrassed at the gym, don't. The gym is a place people tend not to go if they are totally happy with themselves, so if you are unsure about yourself you will be in very good company. If you go in trying to bench press 100kg on day 1 the others will laugh at you, if you did so and managed it perfectly you would see many grown men crying. I don't advise trying.
Remember an Olympic bar weighs 20kg on its own so if you are using just the bar, compare this to your bodyweight and I expect it will seem more impressive.
There will be people there in far worse shape than you, and far better. No-one really cares, as someone who has been fit his entire adult life I find it impressive to see people come in, train and improve over time and all other long term trainers respect this as much as I do.
Often beginners are largely ignored, because the average training lifespan of a beginner is weeks at best. It's when you have been there a few months and it's evident you are there to stay you will become part of the furniture and be welcomed more openly. It doesn't mean people don't like beginners, we've all been there, it's just you get bored helping people out for the to disappear the day after.

Find out what you enjoy first and foremost. This means trying things and letting it either grow on you or moving away from it.
 
I found a couple more dumbbells. I have all the way up to 20 lbs. Do you think I could get away with just using these for a while to make sure i stay with my lifestyle change? And if so do you know anywhere i could find videos of exercises to do with them?

Finding some activity that i enjoy is not the easiest task. As i said i dislike sports. I do have a touring bike that was left at the house i reside, would this be a good start to exercise? Like you said beginners tend to quit and if i do i dont want to invest money at this point.

I have bad ankles from skateboarding. Any heavy foot work is pretty much out of the question. I like the boxing idea. I have always wanted to try that. I take it a gym is required for this? In which case money is involved.

Im trying to find activities in which I dont necessarily need to spend money especially at this point in my revelation.
 
Sensible approach to find out what you want before committing the cash. In fairness based on what you are saying starting out with small weights etc. should be fine.
Most boxing training takes the form of endurance circuits. Obviously you can use a punch bag and/or speed (more like co-ordination) ball to enhance this at home. But to get a sample of the training you could do some simple circuits.
A lot of the stuff is body weight or light weights sets of 10 to 20 moving form one exercise to another. The term dirty dozen circuit was very common when I did them because ideally you want to balance using Pull Push Legs Core on rota for circuits. Trick to remember with them is the first circuit should be relatively easy, in fact at the start very easy, intensity builds from fatigue. When you get fitter you can make the first circuit harder so the last will be hell, which for some reason we end up enjoying, but at first take it steady.
A dirty dozen circuit would be 3 from each area in format Pull Push Legs Core, Pull Push Legs Core, Pull Push Legs Core, then do either 2 or 3 of these circuits with sets of 10 each. This would be starting off quite hard due to volume of work so you may want to go for one lot of Pull Push Legs Core repeated 3 times on sets of 10. The idea is not to kill yourself yet, if you get really into it in a few years you will feel dead often enough.

Examples of Pull exercises with bodyweight or dumbbells
Deadlift, chins/ pull ups (with or without assistance), bent over row, dumbbell row, upright row

Examples of Push exercises with bodyweight or dumbbells
Push ups (box, knees, straight), shoulder press, bench press, dips (bench, bar etc.)

Examples of Leg exercises with bodyweight or dumbbells
Squats (including goblet), lunges, tuck jumps, star jumps, step ups

Examples of core exercises
Plank, side plank, overhead squats are a personal favourite, not for the faint of heart.

Try some combinations in balance and see if you like them. Remember at first you should finish training feeling like you have worked but not hard, glow or slight misting of sweat not drowning. As you become fitter the intensity will increase because exercise is about overload, which means going beyond what is normal for you. At the moment that won't be much so keep in mind what the aim is, as you progress overload becomes more load to get over what is normal. Going up the intensity is easiest over time, and much as I hate it I know moderation is the key to starting out. I have had to use this a few times and my impatience has come to bite me when I got it wrong. You may be more sensible than me and enjoy moderation long term, if so congratulations you will be fit, healthy and likely permanently injury free, if not welcome to the club and the good news is the recovery rate you get from training at the high end constantly means you recover fast from the occasional injuries.
 
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