Exercise for the exercise challenged. :)

Many of you that know me on here, know that I have not exercised up to now.  Well I have decided that the wrinkles on my upper arms bother me enough to do something about them.  I have finally started to exercise.  So instead of doing formal 30 min. or more of exercise a day, I have simply started to stop every hour or so and do a few sets of something, push-ups after breakfast, arm curls when I am bored grading papers, working my triceps by scooting off the chair and lifting myself up and down using my arms, whenever I think of it.  Basically, I am doing something at least every hour, and boy do I feel it in my arms, shoulders, chest and back.  I am trying to decide if I should have some kind of reason to this madness, you know, like work opposite muscles one after another, or something  a little more thought out.  I am an exercise neophyte, as I am sure all of you already know. Do I take days off, or do I just do something different every day.  Like maybe I should do arms and chest and shoulders one day, and then legs and butt and calves the other day.  I guess I should do abs every day.  Any reasonable advice is welcome here.  I don't want to go to the gym, I would like to just use what is already around me, like the weight of my own body and maybe some weights and bands.  What do you guys think?

Hi E, I am clueless about this stuff but sounds like you are on the right track if you have found something you can stand. I recall from my old days when I used to do weights that they had us wait a day between workouts but then I was doing weight machines with some fairly serious amounts of weight after awhile. I am sure some of our other members will have better advice.

My exercise has been taking dog to beach, hauling junk around for various events, and some gardening as my hands are finally getting back to where I can do some things. I really want to do some small dumbells to increase arm strength. If you use those, get some of the little gloves they sell for weightlifting as they really help save stress on your hands and wrists.  Diane

 
Hey Elina.....

You can totally make it fun and not boring.......

Sub could probably give you a general run down since she works with a trainer......

My only suggestion for you is that I think you want "tone" and calorie burning cardio vs. bulking and building muscle mass (am I wrong here?)

The basic concept (totally old school) is to keep fit and tone.....do lots of reps.....like 50 of an exercise. A great example is a distance/endurance swimmer.....long, lean and tone

vs.

a heavy weight/resistance that you fail at 6-8 reps.....lifting to failure in a short amount of reps is how you build bulk.

That is my understanding on how it works.....

My Judo and wrestling coaches wanted me to train for being fast and lean.....so it was all about high reps......

Than Football season came and it was about heavy weights and low reps.....

My problem is after sports..... I became a high volume, high carb, high fat eater........eating was my sport !!!!

Hope this helps.

frisco

Edit: Ahh.... MacMadame.....next thing you know your gonna be a tri athelete

Morning Elina.  I have two gym memberships and don't use either one.  I like to walk my insane little doggie.  We will walk 3 fast miles a day.  I also have a recumbant bike on my front porch, I ride a lot.  I'll do cardio like this daily and I have 8lb dumbbells that I use 4X a week.  I also throw in sit-ups and push-ups several times a week.  But alas...  the flab just hangs in there.  What the heck

When you do any kind of strength training, you want to take 1-2 days off in between to let your muscles rest and rebuild. You can totally do stuff with your own body weight with no equipment at home. You don't need to do it every hour either.. just carve out 20 minutes a day to do it, every other day.

I would check out youtube.com as there are a ton of videos there that are free and show you what to do. I just did a search for "home arm workout no weights" and found a bunch, and you can change up the key words and find more, or sort through what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=home+arm+workout+no+weights&aq=1&oq=home+arm+wo

I totally agree with Sub. You can do squats, lunges, core work, arm work, etc., without setting foot in a gym. Also, Comcast has a fitness channel On Demand that some people have recommended. I haven't looked at it. Also, Sparkpeople.com has an entire section dedicated to fitness and has videos for every sort of exercise that you can think of. The short videos are good, because they show you the proper form to use.They start at the beginner level and progrees on up. You should do strength training every 1-2 days. Your muscles need the rest to repair themselves.

Gail

You can work the muscles on consecutive days as long as you work different muscles.  For instance, you could do squats and biceps one day and the next do triceps and chest.  Then the third day do abs and shoulders.  Then back and biceps.  You get the idea...don't work the same muscle two days in a row.  The only muscles you can work daily are abs as they have a much quicker recovery. 

For legs you can do squats but since you are only using body weight, do more reps...like 25 or so.  Just pretend you are going to sit down in a chair bringing your arms up in front of you for balance then stand back up.  You can also do a squat against a wall...squat deeply letting the wall support your back and try to hold for a minute...repeat several times with a 2 minute break between. : )

Laura

Hi, Elina,

I'm writing to you from NY, where we are visiting family and having a nice little vacation...

I was just going to say that one thing that I've done was work with a personal trainer for just a little while. I went to her house as I don't belong to a gym either. She was able to assess my strengths and weaknesses and then come up with a routine that I can do twice a week at home using one of those big plastic exercise balls, hand weights and  bands. It's nice because having her make a plan for me did exactly what you said--gave reason to the madness! For cardio, if you decide you want to do some of that, I do step and floor aerobics--both with as much dance-y choregraphy as I can find and I do those at home as well. Collage Video is the site where I've found DVDs...you can find them cheaper elsewhere sometimes but I do like that they have clips that you can watch to see if it's what you want...

Lizanne

Hey, Elina, you stole one of my ideas from a presentation I'm working on. LOL My coach sometimes has us do something like this. He calls it 24 hours of swing. We bring a kettlebell with us for a day and every time we think of it, we swing it.

The last time I did it, I got in 200 swings and never sweated once! (In fact, no sweating was part of the instructions.) It's amazing how much you can do if you do a little bit every time you think of it.

I also want to second the idea of the personal trainer. I showed you a few things when you were at my house but I have no idea if your form is correct or not. My trainer watches me and tells me exactly how to stand, how to move my feet, etc.

I can't say I could do the same thing; watch someone else and tell them if their form is correct. I worry that you'd try to do the moves and then end up injuring yourself with bad form.

I think the videos often explain how to have proper form, but it's nothing like having your trainer tell you exactly how to do it. You may be able to go see one for a few session and then have them set you up with a routine which you just continue on your own at home.

I can give you my trainer's number if you like. Hugs...