doublecheese's Notizen, 28 Jan 14

I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience at the gym, but I can almost guarantee no one was looking at you. They were probably too into their workout to notice you and your sweet moves! I follow the ChaLean EXTREME workout videos and I use 5, 15, and 25 lb weights. They are heavy enough for me! 

But you made it through and that is the important thing!  

I found it much easier to weight train at home in that regard of not feeling pressured by other people looking etc, and concentrating better on the exercise itself, despite the difficulties created by training alone. Also, HIIT, despite its effectiveness, can be very taxing psychologically speaking at least for me. More even than weight training. It's just a very demanding experience. I've tried it and it's not for me lol. I feel like I'm dying and I've competed in athletics when I was younger lol... but, finding a good exercise plan and doing the correct research on each exercise is doable. You just have to get the dumbbells and barbells. I started off with just a chin-up bar, two push-up handles and 2 sets of dumbbells, from there, I bought heavier discs and, later, a bar and a sponge mat because most my weights are not rubberized (more expensive heheh). :) You just have to be careful and pay attention in the videos to how your body positioning should go (try to get a YouTube Channel that has credibility in that area) and you're set. At home you can even watch a movie while you're training. It's great! As for getting too much muscle. Don't worry, you'd have to suffer hell on earth for getting too much being a woman! Get weights that will push you to the limit with 20 to 25 repetitions. And, whenever it gets easier, up the weight. Always be careful with your position (your back, your knees, your wrists etc)! It was a great decision! 

Some exercises are harder than others though so it's normal that you will have big differences in weight and repetitions from exercise to exercise. We will probably start weight training at the same time since I'm restarting any day now heheheh. Now you just have to find a routine that suits you and get those weights! ;) 

each dumbbell set came with 10 kg worth of discs (2x2kg + 4 x 1 kg + the 2 kg dumbbell bar) :)  

I go to the gym a lot. I look at people coming to the gym as someone who wants to improve. No-one that I know looks at anyone in the gym any other way. A gym is a great place to help you lose weight. If for no other reason once you are there you might as well exercise. Your visit as you describe it was disorganized ... your routine made no sense at all. I cannot imagine what you were doing with your heart rate up to 190. I suggest that you revisit the gym. I would suggest an exercise class. The instructors always modify to allow participation by all fitness levels. Then you can talk to instructors, read some materials, meet some people that know what they are doing and develop a thought out plan. I read your follow up posts. You sound like you think you know a lot about exercise. There is no sense beating around the bush ... you don't seem to know much of anything ... and a lot of what you have written is just plain wrong. A gym can be a fun place. Instead of meeting friends on line you can meet them there. It takes very little time before you know a lot of people and you won't be working out alone for long. 

Oh I realize I don't know a lot about exercise, I just follow this routine this guy at nerdfitness.com recommended. I know it was a chaotic routine (or no routine at all) but it was the first time I've seen all this equipment so it was difficult to have a routine beforehand. :D I don't want to come across like a know-it-all, I just think it's fun to discover all this new information along with people like Euheide and other people on FatSecret (that's what this whole buddy system is for, right?). And it's difficult to meet new people for me or even talk with an instructor because of personal reasons. I don't know why you're being so harsh on me but if you see me making mistakes feel free to correct them! I'm still learning :) I'm sorry if anything annoyed you but most of my posts are just about me trying out some random things. Can you tell me what a fitness routine should look like? I know I talk a lot but it's more 'thinking out loud' than wanting to teach people wrong information or whatever you thought I meant. Just a noob passing by haha!  

I've only been into weight loss & exercise/fitness for the past 2 months, I know I've still got a lot to learn! But I'm trying haha. This journal and thinking out loud (and making mistakes) really helps me to stay motivated. That's why I do it. I love the buddy system and I can only talk about this on FS. But again, it's just me and my thoughts, and if I'm doing something wrong or without thinking, I'll just write it down anyways, just to have a journal post for the day. :p 

(And I thought that me calling the machines "butt thingies" would give away that I don't know a thing about fitness haha) 

Oh and my heart goes realllly fast when I'm working out at high intensity (not claiming to know what I do but I read about it on NerdFitness.com) but I've always had a higher than average heart rate. My doctor says it's because of anxiety (something between generalized and social anxiety disorder and health anxiety). I asked the doctor if it was okay for me to work out and he told me anything up to 200 is fine  

But please, tell me how to improve my exercise routine, I'd love to try it out the next time I'm going to the gym!  

Nevermind StoicGrace, Doublecheese. Some people on the internet think it's ok for them to just bash whoever they want without any reason. She's probably upset about something else and used this to vent her emotions. I don't know where she got the impression that you're trying to pass as someone knowledgeable in the gym lol. She misunderstood you completely and should probably go get her eyes examined! Also her speech was way too defensive about the gym and too offensive towards you. What has made her feel so insulted in you opting out of the gym is one of those big mysteries... Imagine if people would go off on someone, like that, just because they said they preferred A instead of B lol. It's crazy lol! So just ignore it. Grace needs to get a grip and be more rational. It looks almost as if she read someone else's post instead of yours from her answer... ;)  

How can someone get so political about something so innocuous? lol 

Doublecheese, what I said about the number of reps and even sets is not set in stone. Some people will do less reps. I just thought of 20 to 25 since it seems a safe way to start while still getting a good workout. Also there are the sets. When it comes to sets, I have to admit that I've always done 1 of each while training alone but that didn't prove very effective. So you will want to get information from someone more experienced on that area. Bunnyhall has gave me some good tips on that area but I will need to go back to look for it :) 

Ive read these posts and if you don't mind I wouldn't mind passing on some thoughts - nothing is wrong or right about a gym and exercise unless you know your stuff like a PT or instructor, and I don't think there are many of those here, this place is for people like us with weight issues who are trying their best to find a better way of life. For myself Ive been going to the gym seriously for over three years, five to six times a week, and for a large part of that time had a PT (personal trainer) one to two times a week. I've learnt a lot about myself and exercise including......1) yes its an intimidating place when you first go and I feel your pain - I certainly felt that when I started....2) apparently 20% of the population are non responders and it seems it doesn't matter how much you exercise while there are health benefits you wont lose weight by exercise alone Im pretty sure all of those 20% are overweight (I believe I am one of them)...3) It seems the best way to exercise in the gym or at home (depending who you speak to but I think universally agreed) is high intensive training - short burst of intense work short rests, the key word seems to be intensity, this help burn fat for long after you have finished your workout..4) When I made the lifestyle change on Dec 1st I changed to HIT training along with my 5:2 diet, the difference has been massive (11 kilo's loss as of today all up and all fat - muscle is up) ..5) these days I don't get intimidated at the gym - really I don't think they care about some overweight guy trying to do his best - instead I use it for motivation: I look at all the macho built guys sweating and grunting it out, and the gorgeous skimpily clad women and think......Im going to look like that within six months. And six months isn't that far away, hell its been five weeks since Christmas and hasn't that flown? I can do six to nine months standing on my head and every day I look at the beautiful people in the gym and think that will be me one day soon. Hey I hope this helps, my advice for what its worth, is to grab a bottle of courage, go back to the gym, find a Personal Trainer you like and trust and work out a program just for you - I bet in a month you will become a gym junkie (like me) and love it. Steve. 

Hi Kingstephen! I think that what made Doublecheese dislike the gym the most was the lack of guiding when she got there. I remember feeling a little bit like that too. I joined more than 3 gyms already. In all of them, I would wonder around without any type of assistance. In those that had personal trainers, I would have to pay a very expensive fee to have access to them. And so, naturally I thought: if I'm paying just for the equipment, then I might as well get some equipment and train at home because equipment alone isn't worth a monthly fee. When one joins a gym without any previous knowledge of that universe, or experience, one expects to be guided in what to do and I think that's also one of the reasons why many people quit the gym even on the first week they join. Because they don't know what they're doing there. I'm not saying there aren't good gyms with trainers that will orient you but many gyms just aren't like that. The issue ends up being exactly the fact that we don't know our stuff like a PT or instructor. If we had that kind of knowledge than we would probably be able to take a much better advantage of the gym setting. Look at this page: http://tinyurl.com/pfzq6jv This shows that there is, apparently, a problem that scares people away from gyms. When you have a business you can't blame your client. If something isn't working, then you're probably doing something wrong :)  

At home, with the internet, one ends up having more guidance than in many gyms out there... 

^ True! The only thing I miss is someone who corrects you, and you may be doing some things wrong without knowing it. But now that I think about it, you could also film yourself and compare it with instructional videos on Youtube. 

That's definitely true. If you had people there correcting you, that was already very good compared to my experience lol ;) The gyms I frequented, no one would even look at you. It was like 10 people for 1 trainer and this trainer would usually be very distracted from those people. On YouTube, the most important things to be careful with on a given exercise are often said (the safety rules) despite it being true that, technique-wise, having an instructor right there telling you what you are doing wrong in real time would be better but I think that, paying enough attention to those YouTube videos you can achieve correct posture. :)