Starting summer excercise routine

[Doclector]

Well...yeah.

I need to get some excercise over the summer. Usually I don't have an excercise routine-my metabolism is pretty fast, it seems, and most of the time, I do enough walking around/handling heavy film equipment to offset my admittedly not brilliant diet, but of course, with the summer holidays and employers undoubtedly not going to take 5 seconds to look at my goddamn CV, I'm not very active at the moment, so I need to do some regular excercises without leaving the house, for two very important reasons 1) I do not deal well with summer. I have hayfever, which is worse than it's been in a long time with the return of my childhood asthma. 2) Good looking/fit people hang around anywhere I could excercise outside, IE, the gym, or sports places. I get that look from them, the look of disgust. I get upset, then I get angry. Not good.

So, essentially, I need a good home excercise routine. I'm not brilliant for space or money, so no equipment either. Time isn't a major issue, as god knows, give it a couple more weeks without any real objectives, and I'll be going mad anyway.

And I suppose making a thread helps motivation somewhat...I know I don't know you, and you don't know me, but somehow saying I'll do it makes me commit. Man of my word, and all.

 

[IndomitableSam]

WiiFit? DDR? Kinect? Running up and down stairs? Then crab-walk up and down? Deep walking lunges? Pilates? Find some yoga videos online and do those? Lay on your back, stick your legs in the air, and pedal? Clean the house top-to-bottom? That'll be exercise. Grab some spare wood, a hammer and nails and make a bike stand to lift your bike's wheel off the ground and suspend it so you can make it a stationary bike.

Do some gardening if you can. That counts too.

Try Kijiji or Craigslist or whatever in your community to see if there are any cheap exercise machines. (Reminding me to bug my coworker about hers...)

I guess walks don't work due to your allergies. Maybe just work on muscle strength and flexability with yoga/pilates/lifting things and such? Lots of planking, maybe.

That, or close the blinds and dance.

 

[SilentlyHilly]

Those "looks" that you're talking about should be a non-issue. As long as you're out there trying to improve yourself no one has any right to judge you, nor should you let yourself be affected by it.

But if it really does bother you, I've found there's this big myth out there that you have to go to a gym to workout. I get a great workout just at home in my room using no weights at all. I alternate pushups,(I actually do a lot of pushups, they workout a very large portion of your upper body and core, even some lower body as well) tri-dips on a table, crunches/situps, and look up how to do upper and lower back exercises. Then I'll add in some squat thrusts and calf raises. I'll do 15-20 reps for each and do 3-4 sets. It's a hard workout, but it's worth it and I can do it all at home.

I also try to run several times a week. The hardest part of running at first is getting past the first week or so, at least it was for me. Once you get used to it though it really gets better and it makes me feel great after.

 

[Goofguy]

There are a wide variety of calisthenics you can do at home:

Upper Body
Push-ups (wide grip, diamond, incline/decline)
Dips

Legs
Squats
Lunges

Core
Superman
Leg Raises
Sit ups
Crunches
Plank

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure a Google search will give you many more exercises to consider.

 

[Humble Grapefruit]

Yes, you can get all of these exercises, but there are a couple things to remember. 1.) Muscle Memory. You could do crunches all day, every day, but it would not be as effective as it could be. Mixing in plenty of other exercises and doing some on certain days will keep your muscle memory low, and work it a lot better. 2.) Confidence. You simply cannot care how other people look at you. As far as I am concerned, they should be praising you for trying to stay fit instead of being lazy. 3.) Hydration. Your muscles work a lot better if you are well hydrated, plus, if you are not a regular exerciser, you will become dehydrated fairly quickly and this can make you sick.

Not a trainer or anything, but just from experience I thought I might be able to help. Glad to here that you are staying fit and good luck!

 

[Luca72]

Invest a few bucks in 10-15 lb dumbbells (should be around $10 a piece in the US). Eventually you'll plateau on the bodyweight exercises, so those can add some extra weight. If you REALLY want to get in shape quick, forget all this and get a kettlebell. But I'll assume you want to stick with bodyweight stuff.

I suggest planks, which are better for tightening your core than sit-ups, and curls with a twist. Any kind of hanging ab exercises, like leg raises or twists, is better if you have something to hang from.

Start off doing pushups. Do as many as you can until you drop - take that number and do 3/4 of it next time. That'll be one set. Try to do three, with one minute rest in between. After a week or two, switch it up - close-hand, staggered, elevated - variations of pushups are easy to find on youtube. Also, use those dumbbells to do lat raises and upright rows, which are good for your back and shoulders.

Do plenty of squats, and hold the dumbbells while doing reverse lunges. I suggest "monkey jumps" as well - squatting to a crouched position, then jumping as high as you can. These are great for burst strength.

And get over the "looks" thing. I'm almost sure no one has given you a dirty look for exercising. Did you ever think that maybe the other runners have strange looks on their faces due to... I dunno, physical exhaustion? That's a common thing with beginners going to the gym, being afraid of being judged. Truth is, no one cares what anyone else is doing. Even if they did, there's no reason to pay it any mind. I'm not impressed with the 6-packed MMA fighter doing curls, because he's been doing the same thing for years. I'm impressed by the overweight English professor trying his hardest every day on the treadmill.

You need to get over this because you need to run. At least twice a week. Start off slow, ten to fifteen minutes at a moderate pace, and increase the distance or intensity every week or two. Make sure to build comfortably.

So a broad idea of a workout day would be like this:
2 sets of planks, hold for 1 minute
Air squats, 15 reps, 3 sets
Pushups, 75% max, 3-4 sets
Ab twists, 12-15 reps, 3-4 sets
Reverse lunges w/ dumbbell, 10-15 reps, 3-4 sets
Lat raises, 5-8 reps, 2-3 sets (at the beginning at least)
Hip abductions, 12-15 each side, 2 sets

Exercise three or four days a week, with one day rest in between. Run on two of those days. Drink a lot of water while exercising, eat carbs and protein immediately after exercising, and MOST IMPORTANTLY make sure you always do exercises slow, and with good form. A lot of people cheat on exercises and rely on stabilizing muscles to get them through, which cheats your body out of a good work out. If you can't do another repetition with good form, take a break. And get lot's of sleep too! That's when muscles grow.

By the way, I'm an ISSA certified trainer, so if you have any specifics feel free to PM me This is a pretty broad idea of a routine, so if you have any specific goals or ideas I can give you a more specialized routine. Really though, you just need to get moving. Once you have momentum you can find plenty of resources online for whatever you need. Good luck!

 

[Batou667]

Just to second all the advice given so far which seems very solid. Some other thoughts:

- Look up "convict conditioning" or "convict training". Basically, it's loads of bodyweight exercises, ranging from the tame to the demonic.

- People in the gym giving you funny looks? Fuck 'em. Put that rage into your exercise. Don't let anybody else put you off.

- Jogging is free, and if you do it after dark or early in the morning there shouldn't be many people around.

 

[Rastien]

Having recently gone down the health and fitness route changing your diet can help an incredible amount depending on what you want to do.

As im the process of loosing weight im currently on a low carb (20g or less a day) and just walking 15 minutes to work and back everyday. The weight is dropping off, the bit that made it abit easier for me is living by myself so all the food in the house is my own, so by making it all high in protien and low in carbs i'm eating alot less etc.