Urgently need an exercise that is not push up or abs, leg required

[annie11]

@marimur Pro tip: if you treat anything fitness related as urgent, you’re approaching it in an unsustainable way. It’s a marathon.

So as many push-ups as you can do on day one and then you’re super super super sore… but what did that achieve? Nothing but stop you from working out. You can’t achieve your goals in a day or week or even months.

The goal should be to do a manageable amount of push-ups (like 3 sets of 5), and then each time you do them add a little more. after a year you’ll be doing 100 pushups in a day easy but without even getting very sore. And then you can add resistance with bands or whatever.

Stop rushing. You won’t achieve anything that way. Although I commend your commitment. Just take it slow. It sounds like a cliche but it is about adopting a new lifestyle pattern. Not working your ass off to quickly accomplish something.

 

[apersonwithnoname]

@annie11 What may help is to realize you get diminishing returns very fast. If you do 100 push ups a day vs 20 a day you don’t grow muscle 400% faster. You may grow muscle 20% faster but you lose that advantage because you need longer to recover and if you don’t recover properly you might even lose progress.

 

[snafuy]

@marimur I would do some good deep stretching. It will help your overall muscle development and recovery, and could very well improve your form. Look up a stretching/yoga routine that focuses on recovery, and improving mobility.

 

[dsilvain]

@marimur There are people saying have a rest day. I'll do you one better.

Have an active rest day. Do pushups and stuff against a wall or a bench to take a lot of weight off. You want to have about 20% of your normal difficulty.

Working out like that will pump fresh blood into your muscles to help them rebuild and repair faster then rest alone. You can even do that on top of other exercises that were suggested.

Doing this will help you get back into the game faster.

 

[maddielovesbaseball]

@marimur I agree with pretty much everyone else in this thread, listen to your body and take a rest/active recovery day.

Your fitness is more largely dependent on your rest recovery and eating habits(I’d say this is like 80% of fitness) than trying to spend all your time working out. Trying to work out when you’re already sore is probably gonna give you a shit workout and discourage you, based on your negative language towards your body.

Remember, someone overweight doing body weight exercises is moving more mass than someone starting out underweight/skinny, so don’t be too hard on yourself for getting gassed out earlier than expected

 

[supremocombo]

@marimur Wall sit- one minute, rest a minute, do another minute. You'll feel it.

 

[agustin956]

@marimur Going with what everyone else is saying…FIRST STRETCH. Even if you don’t get in a small workout, stretching for even just ten minutes will make a massive difference, especially if you habitually do it.

I started my fitness journey at the age of 40, after my the birth of my last child. I’ve always been in decently good shape, but I decided to actually take it seriously and do all of the things.

I started with a 30 day fitness app on my phone that began with ridiculously easy workouts. Example: 5 push-ups, 10 squats, 10 mountain climbers, 20 jumping jacks.

At the beginning I could barely do the five pushups. Well I’m now 45 and in the absolute best shape of my life with muscle definition and strength. I’m very much into Yoga which I highly recommend. Just keep going with it. Go slow and do your best to stay away from too much processed sugar and booze.

Also as you get older, you realize that being healthy and in shape is such a great motivator to keep it going. When you’re young you really just want to look good and that’s not a sustainable way to keep it up if you ask me. Good luck my friend and congratulations on your new babe!!

 

[light144]

@agustin956 Which fitness app did you use?

 

[agustin956]

@light144 Sorry I’m late to reply, but it was a free 30 day app that had a full body, abs, butt, arms, and legs. Each was 30 days and went from easy, medium, then hard, each at 30 days. Would start easy then get super hard! I was pretty amazed at what I ended up being able to accomplish tbh. So that being said it was literally 5 years ago that I had this phone. I actually still have it somewhere since I kept it just for that app! I’m sure there’s something similar though and I’ll have to find it. I do like the convenience of body weight fitness.

 

[jander8629]

@marimur Just dropping by to say GREAT JOB in deciding to spend 5 minutes a day getting yourself going. Your trusted friend who told you to start small is absolutely right. As you can see you are quite sore from those 5 minutes a day. Stick with that for a couple weeks and then slowly add time and reps to your daily workouts. Most people in your shoes would never even begin bc they would think it’s pointless. But big ups to you for taking the first step! My favorite gym sign that I’ve ever read said “remain patient and consistent, and the results will take care of themselves.” It won’t happen overnight, but if you stay patient and consistent you will see a HUGE difference this time next year. Great work!!

 

[dawn16]

@marimur Superman: lay on your stomach w arms straight above your head. Lift and lower both arms and legs simultaneously

 

[dablain]

@marimur Anything for the back of your body. Rows or pull-ups if your arms aren’t too sore. Lower back core work. The Hinge Progression from the Recommended Routine.

 

[alan226]

@dablain Keep in mind that he doesn't have access to any equipment.

Maybe he could do rows with a backpack full of books or something.

 

[dablain]

@alan226 Supine rows. He could use two chairs if he doesn't have anything better.

 

[cookiedough7177]

@marimur Just take a rest day and let your body recover. At 5 minutes a day you're losing nothing by missing one or two days out of all the available days in the future.

You can train sore, but if you're that sore, best just rest up your whole body recover rather than risk some level of adrenal or chronic fatigue bulding up.

In fact, just going for a walk is probably the best thing you could do for many reasons.

 

[scottjackson777]

@cookiedough7177 Generally I agree with this but I’m guessing the point of this 5 minutes a day thing is to build a habit. Taking a day off and doing nothing breaks that habit before it can start.

OP- other people have suggested deep stretching and I agree. Or do 5 minutes of yoga (sun salutations are a simple sequence you can start with, basically a slow, stretchy burpee). Either way, active rest that maintains the 5 minutes/day habit.

 

[jenib]

@marimur Get the Peloton app and use some of their 5 min warm ups or ab workouts to fill in on days where you don’t want to think.

 

[themadbaron]

@marimur As long as you're doing something, all these suggestions are good. Stretching, walking, yoga, squats, lunges. Do something you think is fun.

 

[hayden91]

@marimur Lunges would be a killer exercise!

 

[tkams]

@marimur Seconding go for a walk around the block. Strap the nibbling to your chest or put them in a stroller. Will be slightly more impactful and also give your wife time to take a shower (definitely a problem I had during the newborn phase)