Beginner seeking workout suggestions...

I'm brand new to this board and have recently hit my 5 month plateau. I am looking for a good workout to get me moving again. Been walking, but feel I am ready to upgrade to some bodybuilding and weightlifting. I used to do it Pre-pregnancy 12 years ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. But, it's been awhile and I can barely remember the routines. I used to do 3 sets with about 10-15 reps on lats, abs, bi's, gluts, curls, and leg lifts. But with such a long time period between then and now what do you all recommend. Any suggestions welcome, and thanks......Lovey

I would love to help, but I am barely getting mine right, I would hate to mess you up with bad advise. Have you tried I-shape.com, or body for life? I think they would be excellent places to get a beginning routine. You most likely will benefit from just about anything now, I would say a couple sets, high reps, lower weight and lots of cardio to start. Then once your muscles have become adapted you could go from there.

Hiya Lovey! Welcome, too! I just joined this board myself! I think Earl has given you some good pointers to get you going on workouts, and I think that you'll find that adding weight resistance exercises to your walking will definitely help you to kick that metabolism into higher gear! Just a couple of thoughts to take with you: *when you join the gym, or if you're a member of the gym, there are also usually personal trainers associated with the gym who will (usually for a fee but often joining gives people some free personal trainer sessions) help you to lay out a fitness program there, show you how to use equipment safely, etc. Take advantage of this if it is available. It will also help you to make yourself at home in the gym and feel comfortable, and have people there that you know and can turn to with questions. *if you do a predefined set of exercises for a while and stop seeing results, you may have hit an adaptation response by your muscles. You see, they always want to do something the easiest way possible, and as they get used to you doing a given exercise in a certain way, it will take less and less energy for them to do that. So change up your exercises, even in little ways, as you go along, just to keep those muscles earning their keep, ya know? *watch out for overtraining. With people who get wildly enthusiastic with their weight loss and pursuing their fitness goals, they often want to go overboard with training and can do their poor bodies a disservice in the process. Don't let that be you! Overtraining undermines the very work and the objectives that we are trying to achieve! So once you've gotten used to workouts, if you find yourself exercising *a lot* and after a workout you feel ill, as if the workout just made you sick, you could be overtraining! If so, just take a day or two off from the gym and you should be able to come back refreshed and ready to take on the weights again! *if possible, try to find a friend who can join you as an exercise partner, to keep you both motivated and helps the workout to go by quicker. Consistency is the key! If you find yourself talking yourself out of going to the gym, make the 5-minute promise to yourself: I promise myself to exercise vigorously for 5 minutes and if at the end of that 5 minutes I want to stop, then I can stop, no guilt, done. But what typically happens if your issue is simply one of motivation, is that 5 minutes of exercise will get your heart pumping, get your energy up, and elevate your mood, and you will likely want to continue and finish your workout! If you do find that it's necessary to take more time off, don't guilt trip yourself! Just get right back into your schedule as soon as you've gotten past that temporary period. With kindest regards, Donna E. www.teklawgirl.biz