Starting at a gym for the first time... Would it be overkill to stay full work-days?

ElectricJoltik

ElectricJoltik

New member
I have a job that allows me to stay at home for a few months at a time... I want to know; is it unhealthy or detrimental to spend 5-6 straight hours at the gym monday-friday?

A bit of background information... I am about 350lbs, 5"4, and although I used to play a lot of tennis when I was a teenager, I am now in my mid-20s and I don't get a lot of exercise. I do have hypertension and diabetes which just happened this year.

I usually go head-on into these things, and going monday-friday from about 9am to 2pm (so 25 hours a week) would ensure that I treated it like a job and went consistently.

My only concern is that this may be unhealthy. Don't laugh, I admit I'm very ignorant to exercising as you can probably tell by my weight stats. Would it be beneficial and healthy to spend so long at the gym? Are you only supposed to spend 1-2 hours a day? I'm just not sure.
 
I'm no expert, but if you want to be there that long every day you would need some kind of schedule of what to do at which intensity.
If you go head-on full blast into this, you might overdo it, and get yourself hurt.
Isn't there someone on the gymstaff you can at least seek advice from?
Or better yet, ask your physician.
 
What were you planning to do at the gym ? Depending on how bad your hypertension is lifting weights could be dangerous for you, specifically anything overhead, this is something you should have doctors clearance for.

Usually those of us that hit the gym most days will split training up between bodyparts to give each portion appropriate rest. Until you have clearance to lift I would start with steady cardio to begin with, which will help with the initial weight loss and should help the hypertension as you begin to loose the fat.

You don't need to be at the gym all day for it to be effective, spending that amount of time WILL lead to overtraining which leads to injuries and a depressed immune system so you end up getting every cold and flu going around.

Getting a heart rate monitor will help you keep at a safe exercise level to begin with.
 
I'd have to know what you're planning to do at the gym. I wouldn't advise you to lift weights for more than an hour or an hour and a half, for example.

But no matter what you're doing, 6 hours would be complete overkill in your current physical condition. For example, When I was hundred and ten pounds overweight, 20 minutes of strenuous exercise was the most I could handle, but I did it 6 times a week, with 1 day rest so that I could go at it again the next week. I did that until I lost so much weight that I was able to safely up the training volume.

Continuity is key and I can assure you that you won't want to exercise for a while after you've been doing it the whole week and 6 hours per day.
 
No way. You'll hurt yourself. Start slow with some cardio ( bike, thread mil, elliptical trainer), minimal weights and work your way up.
 
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