Exercise for the sedentary starter

[emilythepenguin]

Hi. I'm starting my W30 tomorrow and am curious about exercise. I am in a sedentary job and basically don't exercise regulary at all. When I do, it is generally treadmill or walking....I don't like weights but I also acknowledge that I have NO muscle strength.

Do I try to incorporate exercise right away?

Do I stick to just food since energy will be down for awhile?

Do I suck it up and start using weights despite my dislike of them?

Thanks

[karacooks]

I would start to incorporate exercise as soon as you can. There's no reason that you shouldn't and every reason (health and fitness wise) that you should

Weights are important, IMO, for overall fitness. I really recommend the New Rules of Lifting books for people who are new to lifting. A lot of the programs in the books are designed for gyms with barbells, but you can adapt them to dumbbells or even bodyweight workouts at first.

[Renee Lee]

I think that the smartest thing to do is to start picking up heavy things. It doesn't require a TON of energy as a rank beginner, and it will make a big difference.

Picking up heavy things doesn't mean that you have to be stuck in the gym with barbells and stuff, btw. You can hunt down a strongman type gym and flip tires/lift stones, you could do kettlebells, you could even look into movnat style training.

Good luck!

[CAK911]

For something that's zero-cost and easy to start, you might look up the 100-pushup challenge and/or the 200 crunches challenge. Those are great for building some core strength, and they're designed to let you start from where you are.

I agree with the stuff above, but just to add.

[karacooks]

I would be careful with the 100 crunches challenge. Crunches are not the most effective exercise for your core, and most people do them incorrectly anyway and wind up putting a lot of pressure on their lower back and using their hip flexors more than their abs.

There are a lot of programs out there that start with bodyweight and incorporate things like lunges, squats, dips, pushups (both full and inclined), and so forth. A set of resistance bands or a good pair of 10lb dumbbells will give you even more flexibility and more options.

[befabdaily]

I started out from basically zero strength training a couple of months ago. I'm using the "Convict Conditioning" book and have been slowly working through the progressions of bodyweight exercises. I can do all of it in my home and without weights, but it's still lifting something heavy (me!) Try something like that. It's very satisfying to gain enough strength to, say, do a few sets of full squats.

[Bebe]

I'm going to 'slightly disagree' with the responses you've gotten so far. But I am no kind of expert. This is strictly my opinion.

I'm an all or nothin' kind of gal. So I love to say things to myself like 'On Monday, I'm going to walk 6 miles, do 45 minutes of weight training, give up caffine and start a perfect whole 30'. Well, as you can imagine, I usually get overwhelmed and crash and burn before I've even gotten the thing off the ground.

So my suggestion to you is this: Do a self inventory.

Is this going to be a fairly radical eating change for you? Is it going to take a lot of your emotional and physical energy to stay eatin' clean? Or are you an all or nothin' like me? Then I suggest you tackle one thing at a time. Concentrate on doing the best Whole 30 that you can. Really key in to the changes you see and experience through the 30 days. Maybe start researching the programs suggested above, think about the kind of exercise you'd like to do but keep the focus on your eating. Then when you have one Whole 30 under your belt, add in one of those well considered exercise programs.

On the other hand, if you've been eating pretty clean all along and this is not that big of a change; you're rarin' to go on an exercise program AND you are not one of those weird perfectionistic all or nothin's like me, then do both - the Whole 30 and the new exercise program.

You know you best. Do what the part of you that loves you best advises you to do. Good luck^!

[Adagio]

I would try walking every day for the rest of the month.

It's a simple way to exercise, and you don't have to overthink it. I've returned to exercise from extremely sedentary periods of inactivity due to illness, and I learned that the more complicated the initial workout, the more overwhelmed I got. JMO.

[Lifepm]

Emily,

I was in a similar situation when I started this program in June. After day 12, I went for a power walk and haven't stopped. I'm really into setting goals(OK, just in food and walking at the moment), so I do the same route and try and walk at a certain pace. After a few days I added a slow jog for a minute or two. I kept increasing my time and jog for two minutes, walk fast for a minute. I can keep this up for 25 minutes. I surprised myself! I was also very tired in the beginning, but not anymore.

Now, almost a month later, I'm looking to do some type of strength training, not sure what yet. I'm impressed reading the blogs about the major workouts people are doing. I felt like I was the only one sitting at home on the couch while following the plan.

So like Adagio mentioned, try walking, it's a good start.

Good luck!

Happy Day!

Peggy

[michelle888]

What ever you do START SLOW. Otherwise you will end up injured. Just moving, even a little bit, is progress. Do not feel like you need to instantly start running. Walk around the block. Stand up and sit down from the couch a couple times during commercials. Do a couple bicep curls before you open that can of coconut milk.

I think it is way too easy to feel like you should jump into hard core work outs when you start into a paleo/whole 30 life style. If you are sedentary, slow and easy is the way to go. Focus on changing your diet, then add in the physical stuff.

I tried to jump into workouts too quickly and ended up with a stress fracture in my tibia - and on crutches for a month. It is better to ease into workouts than do too much and end up disabled, because then you will be even more couch-bound than you were to begin with.

[SugarfreeLife]

I was/I'm a couch potato my whole life. I have huge problems with my lower back from it, I have virtually no muscles to support my back-bone. I would recommend swimming, walking and careful lifting heavy things - at the beginning your own body is enough (wall push-ups, wall-squats, hand-knee plank etc.). Yoga/pilates is also great. These exercises don't require too much energy and greatly compensate sedentary work.