what would be the best workout for me?

[cokey 10]

on january 10 it will be 1 year since my surgery

i have lost 148 lbs but i sitll have 54 more to (my goal weight is 180)

i signed up for a gym in late december and i want to start it soon but i need a good workout plan. what would you suggest to someone a year off from surgery?

[SpartanMaker 798]

Congrats on the weight loss and the anniversary!

The most important thing is to find something you enjoy because the likelihood you will continue to workout will go up tremendously. As such, I'd actually recommend trying a lot of different things.

From a health perspective, I'd strongly recommend at least 3 days (though 4 or 5 would be better!), of some sort of aerobic activity (a.k.a. cardio). This can be walking, running, elliptical, biking, hiking, rucking, as well as group classes. Really anything that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there during the exercise is fair game. Start with where you are on this. If you can only do 5 minutes right now, that's fine, but do try to increase that over time to about an hour per session.

I also recommend at least 2 days a week of strength training. That again would be a minimum, because just like for the cardio, more days would be even better. Just be careful that you give yourself enough time in between training to let your muscles recover.

My number one suggestion would be to enlist the help of a GOOD Certified Personal Trainer to assist you with program design. Note that there are some really good CPTs and unfortunately some really bad ones. You might want to ask around your network to see if anyone has a recommendation?

There are just too many variables involved in developing a good strength training plan to provide a recommendation here. At a minimum, a plan has to consider exercise selection, exercise form, effort level, volume, intensity, frequency, and tempo. Some of these variables are highly dependent on things like your current gender, age, strength level, mobility, trainability, as well as any physical limitations you may have.

The point is that program design should be tailored specifically to YOU, and that's really not something I could do via a forum like this. Also, in my many years of experience in the gym as a competitive powerlifter, I've seen way too many beginners make horrible mistakes that could have been avoided with some guidance. These are generally mistakes a good personal trainer can help you avoid. Some of those mistakes will just lead to poor results, but some can end up really hurting you.

If a personal trainer is just not in the cards at this point, I would caution you to avoid weight machines or free weights for now. As a beginner, you can make tremendous gains just doing bodyweight exercises and there is a lot less risk of injury taking that approach.

Feel free to Google bodyweight beginner routines, just keep in mind that some (just like the CPTs), are really good and some are really bad. At a minimum, I'd want a program that has all of the following:

• Bodyweight squats of some sort
• A lunge movement of some sort (I'm partial to front foot elevated rear lunges, but the actual type is not really that important at this point.) If lunges are painful for you, an okay alternative might be a bridge exercise
• A pressing exercise (probably pushups, but if you can't yet do regular pushups, start with elevated pushups)
• A pulling exercise (Ideally, this would be pullups, but I recognize these are hard for most beginners, thus an inverted row might be a good alternative
• Some sort of core exercise. A lot of programs have people doing planks, but I'm personally not a huge fan of planks in any form. I'd much prefer to see something more dynamic like a mountain climber, dead bugs, or hanging knee or leg raises.

Best of luck!

[ShoppGirl 4,935]

15 minutes ago, SpartanMaker said:

Congrats on the weight loss and the anniversary!

The most important thing is to find something you enjoy because the likelihood you will continue to workout will go up tremendously. As such, I'd actually recommend trying a lot of different things.

From a health perspective, I'd strongly recommend at least 3 days (though 4 or 5 would be better!), of some sort of aerobic activity (a.k.a. cardio). This can be walking, running, elliptical, biking, hiking, rucking, as well as group classes. Really anything that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there during the exercise is fair game. Start with where you are on this. If you can only do 5 minutes right now, that's fine, but do try to increase that over time to about an hour per session.

I also recommend at least 2 days a week of strength training. That again would be a minimum, because just like for the cardio, more days would be even better. Just be careful that you give yourself enough time in between training to let your muscles recover.

My number one suggestion would be to enlist the help of a GOOD Certified Personal Trainer to assist you with program design. Note that there are some really good CPTs and unfortunately some really bad ones. You might want to ask around your network to see if anyone has a recommendation?

There are just too many variables involved in developing a good strength training plan to provide a recommendation here. At a minimum, a plan has to consider exercise selection, exercise form, effort level, volume, intensity, frequency, and tempo. Some of these variables are highly dependent on things like your current gender, age, strength level, mobility, trainability, as well as any physical limitations you may have.

The point is that program design should be tailored specifically to YOU, and that's really not something I could do via a forum like this. Also, in my many years of experience in the gym as a competitive powerlifter, I've seen way too many beginners make horrible mistakes that could have been avoided with some guidance. These are generally mistakes a good personal trainer can help you avoid. Some of those mistakes will just lead to poor results, but some can end up really hurting you.

If a personal trainer is just not in the cards at this point, I would caution you to avoid weight machines or free weights for now. As a beginner, you can make tremendous gains just doing bodyweight exercises and there is a lot less risk of injury taking that approach.

Feel free to Google bodyweight beginner routines, just keep in mind that some (just like the CPTs), are really good and some are really bad. At a minimum, I'd want a program that has all of the following:

• Bodyweight squats of some sort
• A lunge movement of some sort (I'm partial to front foot elevated rear lunges, but the actual type is not really that important at this point.) If lunges are painful for you, an okay alternative might be a bridge exercise
• A pressing exercise (probably pushups, but if you can't yet do regular pushups, start with elevated pushups)
• A pulling exercise (Ideally, this would be pullups, but I recognize these are hard for most beginners, thus an inverted row might be a good alternative
• Some sort of core exercise. A lot of programs have people doing planks, but I'm personally not a huge fan of planks in any form. I'd much prefer to see something more dynamic like a mountain climber, dead bugs, or hanging knee or leg raises.

Best of luck!

Lots of great advice. You can start with walk pushups too if your arms are really wimpy like mine. They seem fairly easy but if you do them correctly and you do a lot they actually do build you up to be ready for the raised ones.

Edited yesterday at 01:50 AM by ShoppGirl

[ms.sss 15,690]

it will really be up to you to find what you and enjoy doing...best to try different things and see what sticks. start slow and small!

i started off with just walking....i then tried a gazillion other activities/exercises/classes and went through phases of interest. i'm 6+ years out now and the ones that stuck were: pilates, hot yoga, running/hiking, rock climbing, dance, and the occasional swim. as an aside, weight lifting and other gym-type machines are the bane of my existence. i never enjoyed it, and still don't. i went through a couple of years forcing myself to do it, but eventually stopped, because, well, i hate it, lol.

but yeah, as mentioned above, find something you actually like, because you will be more likely to keep doing it.

good luck! ❤️

[summerseeker 2,209]

I live in a rural area. I too hate the gym but love walking. I get out at least 3 times a week, I need the alone time. I come home refreshed and ready for anything the family can chuck at me. I also work 1 day a week in a Charity Shop and oh boy this is physically hard work ! I come home battered after 9 hours there. Whole body and mind exercise

This is all I did for weight loss and how I maintain

[ShoppGirl 4,935]

I started with just walking. My friends all live a descent ways away so we made phone dates in the beginning to get me going. It worked perfectly. I still felt accountable to them even though they were walking around their own neighborhoods. I also stuck close to my own house for a while. I did as many laps around the block as I could but I didn’t go far away just in case I would start hurting or something it would be a short distance back at any point. After I gained a bit of confidence, I checked out the community center and they have fitness classes there for cheap. There is no contract and you can try out as many different classes as you want. I like cardio and yoga and still do the yoga now (plan to get back to cardio as soon as my health permits). There are also videos online but for me, having the group of women that are starting to be more like friends is pretty helpful in keeping it fun. As others have said, though the best exercise is one that you don’t hate. And you may not love it from day one but you should get a pretty good idea of whether you hate it pretty quickly. 🤣 Try a pretty good variety and you will find something you enjoy I’m sure while getting some good exercise along the way.