What exerise routines to start with are good for beginners?

United States
October 18, 2009 4:45am CST
I'm in the middle of thinking of exercise routines I should start off with. A family member says I should start jogging I don't know if I want to begin that now. What do you think are good exercises for beginners? Do beginners need personal trainers?
6 responses
@BART78 (2927)
• Canada
18 Oct 09
hi there!! to answer your question let me ask you a question, what is your goal? if you want to tone down your fats, your family membe is right, do cardio-exercise like jogging for 20-30 mins. but if your goal is to gain lean muscles and cutting down your fats at the same time, well there's a lot of programs, a good one is do weight lifting for 60 mins. then rest for 30 mins. and do your cardio-exercises (post-work our exercise), but have good diet plan and lots of rest, preferably 9 hours sleep, co'z muscle don't grow at the gym, they grow while you are at rest. if you have budget, yah you can have personal trainer, but if your budget is skinny better search on the internet what is best for begginer, you will learn a lot.
• United States
18 Oct 09
Hi! For my goal I'm looking to do cardio-exercises, but right now I don't think jogging is the right exercise for me. I would like to build up to that one day. I find that aerobics training would be something I can enjoy and some weight lifting too. But I have a small frame so, I'm not looking go and get any thinner. I want to tone my body for muscle. Would I have to eat more calories to pack on muscle and do some weight lift training? Is weight lifting like using dumb bells? What else could there be to do beside dumb bells? With a jogging routine though or even aerobics, would I need to maintain a certain weight so I don't lose any pounds by eating more calories than I do right now to reach my goal of 145 lbs? I know I am all over the place with these questions but I like your opinions, thank you.
@BART78 (2927)
• Canada
8 Jan 10
pm me if you have more questions..
@daffy6 (101)
• Malaysia
27 Oct 09
I dont think we need personal trainers . If you have never jog before, start off with walking for 30 or 45 minutes each day slow and gradually increase your speed each day. Walking is one the best kind of exercise and it also minimise injuries. After some time, you will be able to jog easily.
@dsmmsd (71)
• Canada
27 Oct 09
its annoying when people who have no idea what they are commenting on try to comment on things.. if you are not educated in the subject matter then you probably shouldnt be throwing out advice because it can lead people in the wrong direction.. even tho it may not be intentional. interval training, and weight training are the most important type of work that you can do in order to see results beginners are able to do both of these with little to no risk for injury. Studies done have shown that these types of training will be your best "bang for buck" exercise routines to follow. however the most important thing you can do is to eat cleaner. without proper modification to diet there will be no benefit to be achieved from any type of exercise program. furthermore without any specific goals as to what this person is trying to achieve any type of recommendations are a crap shoot in that they will not necessarily get them closer to where they would like to be.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
19 Oct 09
It depends on the jogging... how far can you walk currently? If you could easily complete a 5 mile walk then you're probably ready to start jogging for a few minutes, then walking for a few minutes. However, that all depends on if you actually even want to do jogging too. Some people hate it. I don't think beginners have to have a personal trainer. I've never had one. But I did join a running group which helps to keep me motivated and goal oriented. If you like to get out there on the streets or in nature, I'd recommend cycling. It's a lot of fun and doesn't take nearly as much strength and stamina as running to just get out there and get started. Running takes much longer to get into shape for. But cycling you get nice little breaks on downhill parts and it's a lot of fun to go places. I used to be pretty skinny back when I rode 100 miles per week.
@dsmmsd (71)
• Canada
27 Oct 09
what are your goals? if your goals are to lose weight then cardio type exercise are probably the last type of thing you should be doing.. the reason being you will get an increase in cortisol, insulin which will cause you to store fat around your mid section. if you are looking for weight loss then interval type work, and lifting weights are your best bet combined with a solid nutrition plan are the only way to go.
@mayblaiz (31)
• Canada
21 Oct 09
I think it's been made clear from the responses you received already that you need to have a goal. Why do you want to start exercising? You said to tone up. Sounds like your dreading it and from your response, I'm getting the impression that you don't like "working out". You need to first get into the "active habit". And since you're not really sure yet where you want to go, then do what you feel to do that day.. whether it be taking a walk outdoors, climbing steps in the mall instead of the escalator, or even just being at home doing squats, push ups and dips on the couch. Once you can do and make a habit of doing some type of activity each day, then focus on a more specific goal. They say it takes 30 days to develop a habit, get active first. Other suggestions you might want to try is to join a sport or group activity event like basketball, volleyball or hockey. Not only does participating in these sports make you accountable to your team, you get physical exercise and fun all in those few hours a week!Good luck.
• Canada
19 Oct 09
First of all, you need to know what are your objectives. If you want to have an incredible cardio then jogging is very good if you do it for at least 30 minutes with a 5 minutes calm down. If you are trying out bodybuilding of simply weight lifting, then yes you still need to do cardio to keep the shape, but there are many other exercises you need to follow, in fact you will need to follow a specific program for about 6 weeks. If you need some exercises names, check out these: bench press, leg press, military press, shrungs, lower back exercise, leg curls, cable pressdown, biceps curl. They bare the basics moves for a begginner. You can also check out websites. One of the best websites for begginners is www.squidoo.com/buildyourbodyfast you can leanr tips and tricks about what to do or not do and you can learn programs and watch videos. It's pretty useful, go take a look. And good luck!!!