What am I doing….

[pastorsamukelisiwe]

So long story short-ish…. I’m early 40’s and I am wanting to get in shape for the first time ever. My whole life I have been overweight but more importantly I have no muscle. I’m mostly just fat. I have been going to the gym since April of last year and have had some success. I started around 295 and am now 245. That’s huge! I know but… I hit that mark in October. I also had a pretty severe injury in October that kept me from going to the gym for several months.

Now we are here.. I’m still 245, I’ve been going back to the gym and nothing. This has been a few months now and I’m still where I was when I left off in October.

My routine- I have no clue what I’m doing, I start with about 20-30 min of cardio used to be elliptic but recently found the rowing machine) then move to weights and do that four about a half hour, but I only have an hour a day and I go at lunch. I just need some help with what to do, I hear weights are the way to go but due to a lot of gym anxiety I have not graduated to being able to do free weights or dumbbells. Only machines. But I don’t know what v to do what days… anyone willing to give me some C advice I’d love it.

When I say no muscle I kinda really mean it this is what I mean. On the machine, bench press I pretty max out at 50-60 lbs and that is pretty embarrassing lol. This the anxiety portion of my workout routine.

Thanks

 

[dawn16]

@pastorsamukelisiwe Are you doing the machines in a circuit to save time? If I were you I'd separate cardio and machines and do cardio from home (starting with brisk walking, and then looking into couch25k though I feel their progression scheme is a little aggressive, you can tweak it to your abilities).

As far as machines, I was never able to progress on them. This was possibly because I was circuit training, possibly because I was not using the principle of progressive overload or possibly because I picked too high of weight to start with and therefore was never able to increase the weight on anything.

Most gyms have 10, 12 and even 8 pound dumbbells. You could also buy something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basic...6&sprefix=suitcase+dumbbell+s,aps,367&sr=8-10

And do dumbbell workouts at home (sorry for the long url).

However, if you want to stick with machines, double linear progression in the 8 to 12 rep range with 3 sets per exercise is probably your best bet, and workout every other day (or do half the machines one day and the other half the next and take rest days when needed). Try to rest between 1:30 and 5 minutes depending on your goals--with shorter rest times showing more benefit to size and longer rest times allowing you to build strength more quickly. As far as a description of "double linear progression:" the first workout you'd do 8, next workout 9, etc. up to the workout after you get 12 good reps with the same weight you started with. At this point you increase the weight as little as possible (some gyms have 5 pound weights you can put on the stack, I'd use those) and try to get 8 good reps with that. Continue repeating the process, and consider deloading (using less weight) by 20% on all your exercises to start with that way you can progress past your sticking points.

Consider trying to build a connection with the targeted muscle and using slow controlled reps (especially on the lowering portion, some people advocate "explosive" eccentrics--the lifting portion--some people suggest controlled eccentrics, I think on machines because of the constant tension you'd be better off with slow, controlled eccentrics and concentrics but someone can correct me here if I'm wrong.)

Let me know if there's anything I should explain better or any questions you have. I probably cannot answer them but someone else might be able to. Oh, and congrats on the progress so far! In my experience it's normal for progress to slow as you get closer to your goal, so it's possible you have been making progress, just not quickly enough to notice, and changing up your routine can sometimes help with this. Like deloading and switching to a more aggressive progression scheme.

 

[mizzd]

@pastorsamukelisiwe Something that might help out your anxiety is realizing that gym bros are not average people. Most people would consider 50-60 pounds a heavy weight.

Make sure you have adequate rest. You won't build muscle if you just try to overload and don't let your muscles actually heal from it.

 

[cgolordshammer]

@pastorsamukelisiwe You are prioritizing cardio over weight training which will give you the results you're seeing. If you want to properly grow muscle you need to put some more time into it. Maybe try to do just weight training for your 1 hour, 3 times a week.

Machines are fine but try to use some cables or a smith machine as well if you aren't comfortable using dumbbells yet. (I'd still advocate for trying to use dumbbells occasionally but it's okay to work up to that in the future too)

 

[robertfred777]

@pastorsamukelisiwe It sounds like you’re on the right track so far. One thing that you may want to try is counting your calories/macros and maintaining a slight deficit.

I weigh about 210 myself and I literally just started counting calories yesterday because I’ve been exercising a decent amount for about 5 months and I’m not losing weight despite increasing my strength and cardiovascular fitness.

I’m trying to keep my calories under 2500, my protein above 100 grams, and consume about 20 or more grams of fiber per day. Ideally I’d like to eat 40 or more grams of fiber, but that’s actually pretty challenging and will likely require shifting more of my calories to high-fiber carbs and eating more low-calorie vegetables. I don’t really worry about counting my grams of fat and carb, as I get a decent amount of carbs with my fiber, and I get fats from my protein sources.

I have a feeling I was typically consuming 3000-3500 calories daily for the past few months, so I’m going to monitor my nutritional intake along with my level of hunger each day, and adjust as needed.

 

[3penntony]

@pastorsamukelisiwe Best way to loose weight is walk every where incline and decline where possible even if its stairs.

Also diet what do you eat diet is 80% of it the exercise is only the 20% u can't outwork a shit diet

 

[enji]

@pastorsamukelisiwe Try Strongman, it’s going to be your new home, no mirrors, just straight competition with yourself!

 

[jmjm]

@pastorsamukelisiwe What’s your diet look like?