New to this whole stuff... :eek:

Dravokivich

Right folks...

been meaning to start this whole get fit and shape up jazz for the last 3 years, was just too dam lazy to get up and make a start of it. I've just joined a gym that's down the road from me as they were doing specials on a 12 month sign up fee.

Thought to myself... jaysus this is a sign... fairly good sign too now that i think about it, well laid out... they got a special for 3 months and 6 months also... anyhow, I ain't here to advertise them, but to put out what I'm trying to put in...

So had an induction this evening. 1 of the instructors talked me over the gear and put a program together and then said we could pretty much go over the progress during the course of a month and see how we can expand it and take things from there...

As it is now, I'm just short of 6 ft and somewhere in the region of 13 - 14 stone. not sure of the exact weight, I'm got a bit of flab around chest / stomach / waste.

The general idea is that I tone up the body / muscles and build up a bit of strength. Primary objective is the toning.

Got a program split between the Cardio / Muscle Toning / Core.

Cardio:
Cardio will be a combination of Cross / Bike / Treadmill.

Used to do a lot of cycling a few years ago, so the bike shouldn't be a problem and thinking of using that to either start up the cardio to warm up (After stretches of course) or possibly to slow myself back down as I'm able to gauge myself better on it.

But generally the time on each is going to be split between 10 / 15 / 15 and possibly thinking of alternating the times between the rides on different sessions to get a real feel for it.

Muscle Toning:
To be honest, I've forgotten the names of what these particular machines / exercises are for... I'll double check my program sheet when I'm back in on Saturday for the proper names...

Either how for the moment there's 4 machines I'll be using, they'll be working upper body strength and will focus on arms, shoulders, chest and back. (reason I'm starting Strength with upper body is that as well as general blood flow / heart rate / raw calorie burning with Cardio, my legs will be getting quite a work out too by shear coincidance).

My goal is to do 3 sets of each. On each machine, each set will be between 12 - 15 reps. With 12 being the optimum target and 15 being the max to try for (more likely on the last set). Haven't really got an idea yet on what weight to work on. But I'll figure that out over the first couple sets when I'm in on Saturday. Easy first then work it up so not to knacker myself out by being too adventurous from the get go. But of course if it's too easy, switching to a higher level.

As mentioned, will double check my program for the actual names of what I'm going to be working on, then will post up the weights I'd worked with and how I felt about them.

Core:
Right as said before, my main objective with these workouts and joining the Gym is to tone up and get in shape. The core objective if you will . Anyhow, my Core exercises will reflect this. 2 of which focus 2 of the 3 sections in the 6 pack. While the third is around the thighs / lower back.

No more room in post, will post further updates after workouts!

Dravokivich

right folks,

just attempted my first session in the gym this evening. After doing some stretches to warm up, I did resistance / muscle toning, core and then followed up with cardio. Overall I found the core to be the most challenging, but recon that's just a matter of beating the flab around my belly. The muscle toning / resistance was also farely hard, found the Cardio to be the handiest to do. Anyhooo...

Resistance / muscle toning

right, double checked the names of these things, seems i'm doing Lat rises, back extensions, chest presses and shoulder presses. with all of these my aim is to do 3 sets, 12 reps per set, with the max reps in a set as 15

Chest Press
Had the weight set as 15kg

first set i got 15 reps
second set I got 11 reps
third I got 10 reps

Shoulder Press
Had weight set as 15kg

first set i got 15 reps
second set I just about got 12 reps
third I got 8 reps

These 2 I found really tiring really quick... not sure if it's the weight or just that I'm not used to'em

Back Extensions
Had the weight on these set at 21 kg for 2 sets actually made it to 15 rather easily.

Decided for the third set to have it at 28 kg, easily reaching 15 on this also. Could feel the lower chest and back pushing in and out, but didn't really feel like I was working it much, considering going up to 35kg next time I'm in.

Lateral Rise
found these to be really hard during my induction, which is why i chose to do back extensions first, so I could rest the arms a bit. decided to do 14kg and found it quite manageable and was able to do full 3 sets of 15. but I'd rather finish of the week at this weight and see about putting it up a bit more next week.

Core

Core consisted of Sit Ups, straight leg rises and something like sit ups, but on a gym ball. target is is to do 3 sets of each, 20 reps a set

Sit Ups
Did 2 sets of of 20, 1 of 15. Found it to be quite a strain on the neck. Gotta try and stop raising my head as much.

Straight Leg Rises
during the induction I originally found these quite easy, but this evening it was quite straining on my lower back. First set I did 15, but second set I could only manage 5. Will be looking up some stretches that could help relax it for me a bit more with the back.

Sit Ups on Gym Ball
During the induction last week I actually found them quite hard to do, was feeling it in the lower lower chest for a day or 2 after. oddly tonight they didnt seem too hard. saying that, I only managed to do 15 reps in each of the 3 sets. With the third set being quite tiring. but i recon its something I need to get used to.

Cardio
Left this to the end of the session for a reason. as i mentioned, have done alot of cycling and running before, so wold be easier to gauge warming up / being on the verge of keeling over and cooling down again.

Cross Trainer
Did 10 minutes on this found it quite weird. not so much the exercise itself, but the foot placement. when running i was more used to keeping on the ball of my foot, with this you're keeping the foot flat on the platforms. otherwise is like doing the bike standing up :P

Anyhow, kept on raising the toughness on this, even doing a sprint for about 40 - 50 secs on level 9. don't think it's much but was able to keep my HR around 145 to 153 for alot of it. really broke a sweat.

Bike
was on this for about 15 mins. set my target heart rate as 166. Again kept it regularly around the 145 - 153 mark, slowing down occasionally just so i didn't over do it too much. bout 12 mins in, went all out to hit the 166 target, took me about 20 seconds to get up and then tried to hold it for about a minute. then spent the last couple of minutes slowing down.

Tread Mill
Spent 15 mins on this, first 5 - 6 mins was warming up and gradually building speed. Ran fast and tried sprinting for about 2 minutes, then spent the next 5 mins slowing back down gradually.

Overall
S'pose I did drag it out quite a bit, but hey. either how, feel free to throw out some advise where ya can spare it. Main thing I need to work out really is the Chest / Shoulder press. Would it be worth going down to a lower weight to get used to the movement which might help my arms not feel as tired?

Dravokivich

Right Folks,

Just been in the door a shortwhile now after session 2. basically the same format as above but decided to mix the order I did the muscle toning / resistance in. Had an issue with 1 excerise with the Core, lower back still seems to be straining when I try to do those pesky "Straight Leg Rises". Cut the Cardio a bit short though, was starting to get late. Decided not to do the Treadmill.

So yeah... general stretches with 10 mins going easy on a cross trainer to warm up before getting into the work out... drum roll at the ready...

Muscle Toning / Resistance

Lat Pull Downs
Right... accidentally called this "Lat Rise" earlier... sorry... I was completely wrong... anyone in the know.. thanks for not pointing it out. ^_^=b

Kept these at 14 KG as mentioned earlier. was able to do the 3 sets with 15 reps. first 2 were rather easy, but the third starting getting hard around the 10th rep. will keep it as this so for about another 3 - 4 sessions at least. Around then probably trying the 3rd rep at 21KG.

Back Extensions
Felt them tonight... Set the weight as 35KG as I mentioned i'd try earlier. Was able to do 3 sets with 15 reps. First set went through fine. half way through the second set really started feeling it along my lower back. 3rd session felt it throughout, but was able to carry on. Will keep it at this for a while.

Chest Press
Right, another mistake on this 1 last week... the weights go up in 7's. I was actually doing 14KG on it. Did'em again like that tonight. Found it a bit easier, but I took a more sensible approach to it... No point going all out on the first set, make 12 on the first 2 then try for 15 on the third. Got 12 on each though, was happy enough with that.

Shoulder Press
Now for this demon of a machine. Think the main problem I have with this 1, is I have to push up. where as the others are pulling down / pushing across or swinging your upper body back and forth. Admitedly my left arm isn't really too developed, so this makes pushing up with it really tiring. So I went down a peg... literally.. decided to do 10 KG.

Set 1: 12 Reps
Set 2: 12 Reps
set 3: 12 Reps... at a struggle. was finding it hard when I got to 7 / 8 but decided to push on and made the 12.

Core
In general found the Situps easier to do. Found out the "Sit ups on a Gym Ball" are actually called "Ab Curbs" so will be referring to'em as such from here on! Again though, as mentioned above and from my previous session, found those Straight Leg Rises to be rather tedious, lower back straining again.

Situps
First off... to the b****x who was laughing at me to his mate when I was finding it hard to get back up to take a rest in between sets, go screw yerself man... I'm sure some of this sh** was hard for you when you first started... Anyhoo... back to business..

Was able to get the first 2 sets done with 20 reps... no major problems but did find them prgressively tiring. found the 3rd set a bit tedious as I started getting a lot of tension around my neck half way through. But still got to do 20 of them.

Straight Leg Rises
As mentioned before, struggled with these again. Got a rather sharp pain in the small of my back. (No previous injuries) First set I could on manage 11, took a break for a minute, could only do 3 after that. Unfortunately since my last session, didn't get a chance to look up some back stretches / exercises to try and loosen it up. should be able to check that out on Friday before I go in again over the weekend.

Ab Curls
Recon I did better at these. had to take a break though for a couple of mins before doing them after trying the Straight Leg Rises.

First 2 sets I did 20, 3rd set I got to 15, felt my chest was getting too tight and wasn't able to keep up in regards to breathing. But considering target is 20, not so bad on the second session. Should be able to work out the breathing for this over the next couple of times I'm doing them. To be honest though... I'm not too sure If I'm geting the posture right. Will have to check it out in the Aerobics Studio if it's free when I'm down just to be sure.

Cardio
Noticed it was getting a bit late so decided to cut out the treadmill... sure I've had to walk home anyway. Right, well to be honest my legs were still feeling kind of tired from when I was in 2 nights ago. It was made being able to feel all the movement of the muscles along my thighs too while walking around for the last couple of days too... felt like i was sort of floating too :eek: Right... back to business...

Cross Trainer
Man I still can't get over the feet positioning on this thing. As I mentioned earlier, more used to the idea of running, by running on the ball of your foot / toes as opposed to with your foot flat on the ground.

Anyhow, did 10 mins of this. Set the target HR as 166. got to 140 easily enough and brought it up to 148 / 150 which I held until 5 mins in. Then went to raise it up to 166 and held it for about 3 - 3.5 mins and slowed down for about a minute or so. Really broke a sweat on this one and felt the calfs tightening, but not by too much. Could probably push myself a bit more, but would rather wait till I'm more comfortable with how you actually stand in the thing.

Bike
To be honest... somewhat ashamed of my performance on this, but i s'pose i was getting tired and it was late in the evening. was going on 21:10 when I started on it. Set the HR to 166 again, but never actually made it. Topped off at 1 point at 153.

Set it up so that it'd be running for 15 min. for the most part I was keeping it around the 140's and then as I got into it more so after about 10 mins was up to 148 - 151 but never really managed to go past that.

Overall

Really happy with how the Muscle Toning / Resistance went. Will be keeping to the same weights and wit hthe SHoulder / Chest will possibly be taking the sets on as 12/12/15 Reps until the 3rd is easy, then 12/15/15. if I'm able to do that for a couple of sessions will look into upping the weights. Felt good about the Core workout except for the Straight Leg Rises. At least I know i'm able to do those situps now so will be working on'em. Cardio, not so happy about the Bike, will probably do 5 mins extra on the treadmill next couple of sessions so i don't feel as guilty about skipping it tonight.

Also NOTE TO SELF and anyone else out there who's only learning this stuff...

In my haste to get out at the end of this session I skipped on the cool down stretching. really feeling that now in the back of the neck and along my right shoulder.... It's like a really bad cramp when you wake up and can't turn your head on your neck... or possibly depends what else you were focusing on when working out...

Won't be skipping this from now on...

Dravokivich

Apols in advance, nothing in the sticky referenced re-using an old thread you had.

I had about 3 or 4 sessions after the last entry above, but some personal issue's came up that kinda set me aside a bit, a while after that I just got lazy and didn't really bother to get back into the gym... 1 of the lads in work asked me about this thread the other day and thought to myself... screw it... Drav's getting his fat ass back in there...

So I intend on going back in within the next 2 / 3 weeks. But before hand want to get my head back in the game... I've gotten myself some stuff (Dumb bells, fitness mat, Ankle / Wrist weights and some strecthing things for core, 1 is like a "rower" thing, while the other is for strecthing either arms or legs). These will proove somewhat handy if I'm unable to make it into the gym for a session as well.

The agenda is still the same as before, want to concentrate mainly on toning and then get into strenght. But I'm going to have that aside for a bit over the next couple of weeks. I really want to be able to go at it when I'm back in the gym and make use of what's avail around me. So I'm going to work on 3 days of Strength / Cardio alternating 2 days of Core / Cardio.

I've looked up a fare few Dumb bell excercises and admitedly didn't get to go through as many as I intended. Arms and legs were getting farely tired. Hopefully they can pick up during the week. Today I did a few things for Chest, Biceps, Trapezius, Shoulders and Legs.

Using 2 dumb bells and have'em set the same. 2 x 1KG wieghts and bar is 1 KG also, so each dumbell weighted 3 KG. For most of the excercises I was using both Dumb Bells at the same time but will put (A) next to the excercises I alternated them on. So here's how I did:

Chest Dumbbell Exercises:
Flat Chest Presses: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 20 reps , 20 reps.
Flat Chest Flies: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps.

(Don't have a bench, was laying on a fitness mat while doing these, was carefull not to have the bells / arms hitting the floor)

Shoulder Dumbbell Exercises
Seated Shoulder Presses: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 15 reps, 12 reps - Found these tedious just like on the shoulder press machine I've mentioned before.
Lateral Raises: 3 Sets - 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps - Man I was snarling like crazy while trying to do these, found them very tiring to do as well.

Biceps Dumbbell Exercises
Hammer curls: (A) 3 Sets - 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps - was really feeling the tension on these, might do more arm stretches next time around before going for the biceps again.

Leg Dumbbell Exercises
Half Squats: 3 Sets - 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps - found it easy on the first set, but during the second 2 was really concentrating alot more on my balance.

Trapezius Dumbbell Exercises
Shrugs: 3 Sets - 15 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps - found these easy enough to do, but while counting the seconds on the first set I was starting to lose count of the reps

For my cool down going forward I intend to do a run leading into a jog leading into a light walk. Like a fool I want ahead of myself and put the ankle weights on to see what they were like. I was knackered by the time I got round the corner

Either how... I know Triceps need to be looked into, but think I can incorporate them into the Core workouts I've been looking over.

I intend of doing a mix of a few things on these video's -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYoCVqQnbXI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_HWEoGoxgI&playnext_from=TL&videos=26oJXmCTHJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSdZFnbjuzU&feature=related

Along with a couple of things I've got down on a few sheets.

Dravokivich

Right Folks...

making a start to these Core / Cardio -majigs... Not entirelly sure how they're gonna work out...

Those 2 stretchy things I mentioned last night, 1 is called an Ab Rower while the second is called a Resistance Tube. Ab Rower is feeling good to use, Resistance Tube is rather tense and seems to be very short when stretched out so limiting what I can do with it. Will have a look around for some looser'uns.

First off I used the Resistance Tube. Not entirelly to sure what this exercise is refered to, the diagram doesn't have a name for it. It's similar to the Chest flies yesterday. Stretching it in front of my chest across the shoulders.

^ That thing: 3 Sets - 20 reps , 15 reps , 15 reps - First set I took a bit slow, but for the second 2 I decided to try going as fast as I could. Really started feeling it then so will try to do'em quicker in future.

Next onto the AB Rower, there's 2 positions with it. Vertical and Horizontal. While using it Horizontally yer basically doing Rowing / Sit Ups. Vertical yer just pulling it up to yer chin while thrusting (Should help with the killer boogey moves;) )... It's also very similar to squating...

First off I did the aforementioned thrusting...

Thrusting: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 15 reps, 15 reps. Again did the first'un slow, but felt alot more going on while doing it quickly. Rather tiring too, which is why there were less reps in the 2nd / 3rd sets.

Sit Ups: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 15 reps, 10 reps - First set felt easy... as they always seem to, during the second set I felt the flAbs shaking up abit and again on the second set. Found them very off putting, lower back was starting to get kinda tired by it as well. I was very concious to minimise the use of my arms on this, had them in a steady V shape just holding onto the handle.

Now... to try out a view things from those vids I linked to yesterday...

Seal Jumps: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 20 reps, 20 reps - Did these quickly, as if I was springing off my feet.

Jumping Jacks: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 20 reps, 20 reps - Did these quickly as above. was feeling tired after the first set becasue they are very similar to Seal Jumps, only difference being the arm movement.

Stationary Lateral Lunges: 3 Sets - 20 reps, 20 reps, 20 reps - did these at a farely steady pace, found them easy to do, but the thighs seem to get more work from them then I expected considering yer just basically leaning from 1 leg to the other.

Lunges: 1 Set per leg - 15 reps for each set - Found this a bit tiring after doing a set on each leg. Decided to call it a night here.

Overall:
Just goes to show how fit I'm not, really tired after doing the above. Think I'll do the bits with the resistance after the jumping around and leaning next time. Didn't get to work on the Triceps tonight, will definately add them in with the Dumb Bell work outs tomorrow. Might actually try some situps with the AB Rower as well.