F/38/5'6/120lbs - Total beginner looking for insight / perspective from more seasoned fitness nerds

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radekm

New member
Hi there everyone! I've always been fairly healthy, good diet etc. but have recently decided I want to just generally turn my light up a few thousand watts.

Like lots of people right now I had a tough couple years. I picked up smoking, quit. Finally got my alcoholism under control.

Now I gotta keep going. I'm looking for general pointers on diet (I'm a vegetarian, but willing to incorporate fish if need be- would life to avoid dairy as much as possible though), toning v. weights (I do NOT want to get too bulky- my arms and traps especially get huge if I'm not careful), how much cardio is too much (several years ago I was doing 25 mi/week running) and any other tips you might give a total beginner. I have a few months coming up off of work and I want to live at the gym.

My areas of focus are: Mostly, I want to change my body shape. Fix overall posture (you can see my shoulders slumping in pic 3- posed, flexed and fixed posture in last pic), develop booty/hips, flatten tummy a bit and tone, tone tone.

I also want my boobs to get a lift but don't want to get more myscle-y underneath than absolutely necessary!

Honest perspectives welcome!

https://imgur.com/a/3AtFVdP
 
@radekm Ok so.. in my opinion I would suggest going with 3 full body weight sessions a week focusing on compound lifts ( think squats, bench press, dead lifts, over head presses and rows) keep your rep range high between 8-12 for about 3 sets.

When you utilize compound lifts you are hitting multiple muscle groups so more bang for your buck. I would start out around 40% of your max lifting ability and maybe push it to 60%. This will help give a nice toning approach and also help with your muscle endurance some without adding much in the way of size.

For cardio I would focus on HIIT.. fast bursts for X amount of time followed by a short steady for X amount of time ( sprint 30 seconds, slow jog for 60 seconds is a great exactly) do that for 20 minutes up to about 30 minutes max.. I would do that five days a week. HIIT is great for cardiovascular fitness as well as increasing your endurance and speed.

I would also do about 30 minutes of stretching 5 days a week typically after you’ve done hiit and weight training. Personally I like a good full body routine and I’m rather religious with it. I’m 6’3 so for me hip mobility is huge. I do a mix of static stretching and dynamic stretching ( this along with the compound movements can really help your posture) two things that lead to bad posture ( and there can be many) a muscle imbalance or abnormally tight muscles. Now this isn’t something you HAVE to do but.. I try and see the chiropractor at least once a month and I also get a deep tissue once a month.

So a vegetarian. You’ll need to ensure your getting enough protein for muscle recovery and eating a wide variety of colors for overall nutrition. Greens are easy but also reds,oranges, etc, I stay totally away from processed foods and I like cooking ( thought it would help me get the ladies… it did not just moochy friends) but when you cook at home it helps you be in control of what you are eating. Now you can either eat when hungry or until your satisfied or base it off your TDEE which is figuring out your BMI and basing your daily meals off how much your body actually needs. I think in your case the first option makes more sense unless you want to maximize results and take it a step further. Ow there are different supplements you can take and really you should take a daily vitamin and probably vitamin d sup. Mostly foods high in vitamin D are meats fatty fish dairy so lol although if you aren’t opposed salmon and albacore tuna. Get fishes. I’d also make sure your getting enough health fats. Olive oil, avacados, nuts etc.. if you aren’t then you can run a risk of lower testosterone and for a female low Test levels can lead to a plethora of issues from decreased sexual satisfaction to fertility issues.

Also congrats on getting the alcohol under control that is amazing! It gets easier as time goes on. I struggled with it in the past myself.

Anywho if you have any questions in regards to form or diet or anything else shoot me a DM. I genuinely have a thing for fitness and helping others actually helps me focus on my own.
 
@dawn16 You guys are amazing! I'm going to have to refer back to all of this info once I get started. Tomorrow is my first day back in the gym after a 3 year break, should be interesting..... and I wasn't super diligent or focused on it at all back then.

Got a stretching/ home workout area im going to be setting up in the morning as well. Thanks for reinforcing that one.

... thanks, yeah, booze was killing me slowly. I was only ever a beer drinker with the occasional g&t, but I was up to 12-18/day, which is lifeboat territory. Between that and the cigarettes, I was starting to have chest pains. Not a good scene, I'm too old to be in that condition, and too young to go home if you know what I mean. Haha.
 
@radekm I feel that. I’m turning 37 at the end of the year and it’s at that point where I need to focus on my health for longevity. I would drink in excess and it hit a point where I was like why. Fitness really helps fill the void.

I saw you mentioned a rotar cuff issue.. if that’s the case over head presses and dead lifts might be out. At least until it’s healed. Rotar cuff helps ( although not much but still) with stabilization when doing DL. You could try stiff legged Dumbbell dead lifts focusing on light weight or replace DL with leg curls + weighted hip thrusts and leg presses that should hit the major muscle groups to replace a good DL. Have you done any PT for the issue?
 
@radekm Full disclosure, I'm relatively new myself, but I've been fitness nerding the heck out of it for a few months now, so I'll share what I've learned. Also, I'm a dude, so my experience will obviously be different from yours.

Weight training is gonna change your body shape more than anything else. You'll want to incorporate cardio/conditioning as well, but it won't do as much for your aesthetic goals. Squats and deadlifts especially will be helpful towards developing your derrière and fixing your posture.

Regarding bulk, everyone is different, but conventional wisdom is that women have a harder time gaining muscle mass than men. Especially as a vegetarian (unless you're really going out of your way to eat a ton of protein) I wouldn't worry too much about getting too bulky.

TLDR; Go lift weights. Don't be afraid to lift heavy stuff, especially if its squatting.
 
@jhunne Thanks for this 💚 way thoughtful reply

I'm a little hesitant on the deadlifting because I've got a rotator cuff injury. Maybe machine-assisted would be ok?
 
@radekm I would advise checking with a doctor/trainer on that one. Personally, I don't notice any strain in my shoulders when I deadlift, but I don't have a rotator cuff injury. One legged deadlifts may be an option to work the same muscle groups with less/no weight, but I won't claim to be an expert.
 
@radekm Good Mornings, even with bodyweight will be challenging enough for a few and are easy to load up with any weight you can cradle in your arms. Or just do a bunch of broad jumps.

Windmills are another option.

Peeled back to the basics, resistance training should incorporate:

- push (pushup, benchpress, overhead press - pushing your body away from a stationary surface or pushing a load away from your body)

- pull (rows, pullups - pulling a load toward your body or pulling your body toward a stationary surface)

- hinge (Deadlifts, Good Mornings Windmills, Broad jumps - bending at the hips, lowering the shoulders while the butt moves back, lower back stays neutral, deep crease at the hips, knees do not bend deeply)

- squat (Squats, lunges, step ups - shoulders and hips/torso goes up and down as a unit and stays more or less upright the whole time, bend deeply at the knee, fold at the hip)

- accessories (curls, tricep press, calf raises, abs - anything that is not directly hit by the compound exercises that fall into the big 4.)

Some exercises like get-ups, clean and press, hit multiple movement patterns and that's fine too. A lot of times these work best for conditioning and use the more simple movements for heavier lifting. Try to keep working loads at no lighter than 15-20 reps. If nothing else a simple DeLorme Method approach is still a valid option for creating program basics - it will be a lot easier to just use a pre-written program.

Don't worry about bulking, if you don't eat to get bigger, you won't, but you will improve body comp and strength. As we get older we lose muscle mass. Even if we stay the same weight, is just a slow process of replacing fat with muscle unless we resistance train.
 
@radekm You look great and will only get stronger. You don’t need to worry about getting too bulky, that’s not likely to happen at 38. You will build muscle and that is good because it will protect you for years to come and up you metabolism. To support the muscle growth and increase your protein add a vegan protein shake to your diet 1 or 2x per day.

Remember that injuries happen so go slow and protect the form, form, form.

*lift heavy it works 👍 Perfect the form and never increase weight and reps at the same time. Add some rotator cuff work. I personally know several fit women in your age class with rotator cuff/ shoulder issues.
  • If you are not lifting at all right now, maybe start with some body weight exercises and yoga for 2-4 weeks to start conditioning your muscles, joints and tendons.
For posture - face pulls, wall angels, foam rolling and mountain pose and, when you are ready, overhead presses.

For booty - squats all types. The booty is a large muscle and cardio or a low protein diet will negate any significant growth. Add tag second protein shake. LOL

Good luck!
 
@_%D7%A1%D7%AA Yeah I haven't done any lifting for several years, 3 or more. I'm interested in the low-maintenance aspect of the bodyweight excersizes so maybe I'll spend a lot of time there first, and stretching 😉
 
@radekm Resistance training 3x per week and go for a jog a couple times per week.

Prioritize resistance training and don't worry about getting "bulky", that not an issue. You want to improve posture and form, that is done by strengthening musculature.
 
@radekm The best thing I’ve ever done for my fitness routines was incorporate kettlebells into my workouts. They were amazing during lockdowns as well when all the gyms were closed. You only need a small area to use those in.

advantage goes to the many dynamic exercises that target all areas when using those. I used to be a barbell dumbbell only kind of person but I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos and ordered several of them. Now I will use them in conjunction with my weights, or solely those, maybe warm a up and cool downs with them. Don’t limit yourself to one routine, find what you like best and stick to it.
 
@lyndon451 You know...I thought about picking some bells up awhile ago, maybe you just convinced me to add them into my routine. :) "dynamic" and multiple muscle systems is what I want
 
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