Could you guys give me some advice. I'm new to the gym lark but am determined to give it a go and have settled into a routine of trying to do about an hour every day (which I've done for about a month now). Some of my routine is going to sound pretty pathetic to you guys no doubt, but bear in mind I'm starting from scratch having done virtually no exercise for years, so go easy on me.
I don't have any particular goals to bulk up, but would like to achieve a reasonable level of fitness and (given I'm now in my 30s) avoid waking up as a lard arse one day!
My current routine (which I repeat pretty much every day) is:
1. 20 minutes running. I tend to cover about 1 and a half miles in that time and burn about 200 calories. I seem to more or less hit the wall after that.
2. 10 minutes or so on the weights bench. Like I said I'm not going for muscle building so this is really to give me a rest after the running and to strengthen some of the muscles in my back (which I've had problems with in the past)
3. 20 minutes on the bike. I can't give you many details as the readouts on the bike only tell you the level of resistance and the calorie burn (doesn't even say distance covered) but it burns about 150 calories
4. Sit ups, push ups etc. Again to give me a rest after the bike
5. 2k on the rowing machine. I'm pretty knackered by this point so really this is more than a warm down than anything else.
I make sure I stretch before and after the session of course. I've been doing the above for a month or so and and pretty much dripping in sweat at the end of it (although not quite gasping for breath). I do seem to have hit a bit of a wall in the respect that the above is more or less all I can manage and I don't really seem to be improving at the moment (I know a month is not long but I was hoping to see some improvement, just so I know I'm doing the right things).
So I guess my question is whether the above is a decent workout? Are there any things I'm missing that I should be going for. As well as treadmills, bikes and rowing machines my gym (which is tiny) also has step machines and cross trainers but I don't tend to use the latter as I didn't seem to get much bang for my buck for them in terms of calorie burn.
Any advice appreciated.
It's not great because you're not progressing. You could do with setting yourself with some aspirational goals, fair enough you're not weights orientated so maybe make it something like 'run 5k in under 22mins' then focus your workouts on achieving this goal, increase your distance even if you need to drop the pace the get your speed up. Once you've got something to aim for you can start to give things a bit more structure and you can start to look for small improvements session after session.
I think something like this would be ok for you, mixing it up a little but giving you something to aim for (set your own goal and fix it yourself to help you get there)
Made up goals = Run 5k in 22 mins + Row 2k in under 8minutes.
Monday, Weds, Saturday
Running Training,
5 Mins warm up
Build distance to 5k, increase speed
Measure progress week to week and follow a runners guide because it might be more efficient to include distance sessions and speed sessions.
Stretching
Tuesday, Friday
Weights (I know they're not a goal of yours but they're brilliant for overall fitness and health and will help with your athletic goals). Something simple if you aren't interested such as:
3x8 Squats, Barbell, Dumbell, Overhead, whatever depending on your equipment.
3x8 Rows
3x8 Chest Press (use free weights if at all possible but barbell or dumbell isn't an issue)
3x8 Chin ups/Pull Ups
Just try and add a little weight to each exercise every week.
Rowing training (same general thing as the running training)
Thursday/Sunday Rest/Walk the Dog/Do whatever but don't have as a goal training day.
Keep a log of how you do and see where you are in a month.
Hope you get better soon man!
...Or get some definition going, in time good sir!
ooo err, it's definitely from swinging my leg over my bike so I'll be doing a few sets on the other side to balance it out.
