Greetings, comrades. So to cut the story short, my physical state is absolute junk and it’s about time to do something about it. I am overweight and lose breath after going up s flight or two of stairs, my back hurts almost daily and lifting things heavier than a backpack is stating to feel hard. All the doctors say I require exercise to resolve most issues. However, due to long commute and a few other issues, I can’t really visit gym on a regular basis (plus it’s not cheap). So what can I do from home to stop being a useless blob of blubber? For reference, I have a set of dumbbells, but using them hurts tendons in my arms more than it seems to affect the muscles.
I am seeking advice from the comrades
Definitely look into bodyweight programs. Freeletics app has like a million programs with all kinds of difficulties, goals, etc. They’re generally similar to what @CjkOvPDwQw recommended. Not sure how monetized it is nowadays, but it used to be pretty decent. Depending on how overweight you are some of the exercises eg squats might be too taxing on your joints. I’d say try them out and if you can’t do them with decent form or they’re painful for you, don’t worry about it and skip them for now. Just do what feels comfortable and healthy for you, as long as you do something regularly and it gets your heartrate up.
Once you’ve built up your work capacity, got your tendons and joints used to stress again, you can look into real calisthenics if you want to gain strength and build muscle too.
But, I’d say, you should probably also take a good look at nutrition. They say “You can’t outtrain a bad diet” for a reason. Working out is always better than not working out, but limiting calories even moderately would probably be the single most effective thing you could do right now. Limiting calories even a bit and increasing workload would be even better and should yield good results in no time.
If your aim is getting healthy, I would say walking and some body weight exercises should be enough.
I would aim to do something like:
1. 1min Jumping Jacks 2. 2x10 push ups 3. 30s High knees 4. 3x5 squats 5. 1min plank
This plan shouldn’t take you more than 30/45 minutes. Feel free to change the sets/reps as needed I used the format
sets x reps
. If the reps are super hard feel free to lower them and when felling confident increase it again !Good luck on your fitness journey, any question feel free to ask.
Open to Criticism :)
pushups and squats may be too difficult for a beginner. they probably need to work up to it.
I do agree with that, probably my workout plan is poorly made for people with low mobility. Maybe replace the squats with sitting down and up from a chair
I feel if you are in bad shape and want to begin exercising, couch to 5k is a great program to guide you through the progression.
Im assuming you are very overweight, at a point that bodyweight excersices are incredibly hard.
My first advice would be to start going on daily walks on your neightborhood ( only if it is safe ). Basically get your steps up.
I dont know anything about your diet but i would advice you to stop drinking soda or just swap them for their 0 calorie counterpart (coke zero, etc.). If you eat ground beef, try getting the leanest one etc… Cooking with less oil ( or using an air fryer! ). In general look for low calorie counterparts.
Making small changes to your routine helps tremendously .
Personally I never had any results from home workouts because I just can’t get into the mindset; you always have the possibility of stopping mid-workout. At a gym or other dedicated space, once you’re there you figure as long as you made the trip you should stay and finish up. But your mileage may vary.
It’s also difficult to overload when you’re limited in the weights you have at home, and the lack of equipment prevents some very interesting exercises, like the back hyperextension on the purposely made bench:
I don’t know you personally but I still agree with your doctors, it sounds like your problems could be solved with exercise. It’s good that you have this confirmation at least, it tells us you have options.
I have slight scoliosis and my lower back also hurt sometimes, but now that I’m fitter, my lumbar muscles help keep the spine in place and I have completely stopped feeling any pain in my lower back. Same thing for the tendons, I expect you spend hours on the computer, like most people these days, which means your arms are always bent and your tendons become soft.
For the back problems you normally would look at weighted back exercises that target the location of your pain. Your back is all muscle but essentially there’s the shoulderblades, upper back, and lower back.
For the tendons, this is fixed with exercises that work your tendons indirectly, like the bench press: most of the weight will go into your chest, shoulders and arms, and your tendons should be spared. They will then slowly reinforce. You should find an exercise that doesn’t hurt your tendons (personally I had better luck with barbell exercises than dumbbell exercises when I had my tendinitis), and you should also stretch your tendons throughout the day:
(do both: palm facing out, palm facing in, both arms, throughout the day).
Is it possible for you to visit the gym on your commute? E.g. leave work -> go to gym -> go home? How about other facilities, like a pool?
I’m of the opinion that you really can’t beat resistance training, muscles are the basis of a healthy life and transfer to everything you do – the cliche of the bodybuilder who can’t touch his toes is exactly a cliche. But there’s a low-impact cardio exercise you can do at home if you get a rowing machine
They’re super expensive and you only do a pulling motion, which means no pushing muscles will be involved. But it could be a solution if you want to train at home. There’s other cardio machines of course, like treadmills or bikes, at varying price ranges but I like to recommend the rower because it works your whole body and is low-impact.
Also check out this guide: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Essay:A_nutrition_and_fitness_guide. You can start working on your weight or physical fitness independently of the other.
Helo, comrade! Glad you are improving your health and well-being.
Having a healthier balance means changing both diet and exercise, and diet is the more powerful thing to tweak, so I recommend staying on top of that. Counting calories while getting your macros is a simple and effective method. Adding a multivitamin doesn’t hurt either and can be super helpful when you’re changing your eating habits.
For home exercise, isometrics and calisthenics are the go-to exercises. Isometric is holding a position, like yoga or doing wall sits or planking. Calisthenics has more movement, like pushups and situps. I personally recommend yoga because it involves multiple muscle groups, has low risk of injury, requires only a yoga mat, has a set amount of time it takes, and also helps with flexibility. There are many free youtube instructor courses, too. The 30 day beginner challenges with Adrienne are great.
A better diet and yoga are plenty for getting started. You can add more, including weight training, any time you want. If you do use weights, like dumbbelks, I strongly recommend that you begin with low weight so that you can practice the forms. It is easy to injure yourself.
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see if you can do this workout for a start. as long as you don’t get injured or have a connective tissue disorder, some movement is better than no movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJByH8S9Tfw
as for diet, I recommend Nutrition Made Simple’s channel. focus on nutritious foods with lots of minerals and nutrients. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2q5qC7NLMY
First of all, I am not a medical professional of any kind.
That being said, it’s difficult to gauge this without some idea of your diet. All the exercise in the world won’t do much in isolation of a proper diet, one which is low in empty carbs and sodium, and high in protein and essential vitamins and minerals.