Question for gym junkies

welshmoneylover

Hi

I'm embarking on a mission to lose weight (joined SW) and get fit. I've been going to the gym for the last 3 weeks and I'm really enjoying it. I can understand the buzz of it

Anyway, I started off lightly as I was really unfit and I just went on the treadmill building up to half an hour or so, walking at 6.1 aiming to do 3km in that session.

I got a bit brave today and had a go on the rower, bl**dy enjoyed it too. Only done 7 minutes but boy can I feel it.

Which brings me to my question, if I just do 30 mins treadmill and build up my rowing time to 30 mins, will this be sufficient to aid with fat loss, help trim my big fat belly and tone my arms up a bit.

I hate the cross trainer thing, I felt a bit sick coming off it

I don't fancy the weight cos the posers (men) are in that corner and I don't want to be seen as a dork cos I don't know what I'm doing iyswim :rotfl:

Oh, and I can't do the bikes cos I got rickety knees and they click like mad but for some reason I can row :T

EmmaA_2

As long as you eat healthy and stick with the gym then there is no reason why you wont loose any weight and tone up

When I first starte the gym Iwas convinced it would not work but I have went down a dress size and that is just watching what I eat and 2 days a week (1 hour each time).

If you want to loose weight you will need to tone up as well otherwise you get flabby skin - ask the instructors at the gym and they should take you through a plan to help you. Tell them what you want to achieve (make it realistic), what machines you like and the amount you can push yourself to and they will give you a personal plan to stick to. My gym offers a body stat reading which tells you the % of body fat, water, muscle, etc so you can see your progress.

But dont worry if you are doing everything right (food and exercise) and you put weight on cos you might be loosing fat but you will gradually build muscle and it weighs more. You will notice when you tone up

Good luck with it all and keep at it

Fantabulous

Swimming will help amazingly well, Pilates too.

A water-aerobics class is great fun if you fancy that?

skintlass

Your gym should do a free session with you to figure out the best workout for you. They will also be able to show you the correct way to use the weights and not look like a dork .

System

Fantabulous wrote: »

Swimming will help amazingly well, Pilates too.

A water-aerobics class is great fun if you fancy that?

How long should you swim for/lengths should you aim to do a week? I normally go to the gym but if swimming is good that would certainly help break up the pattern a little...

Fantabulous

Summer01 wrote: »

How long should you swim for/lengths should you aim to do a week? I normally go to the gym but if swimming is good that would certainly help break up the pattern a little...

If I go just to swim I will do 30 lengths or so

If I am going after gym or pilates I do about half that.

Aqua-aerobics is even better. I do 2 x 1 hour sessions of that per week and it really really does make a difference.

SandC

Doing weights will help to tone up - remember you have to lift very heavy weights a heck of a lot to 'bulk' up. I know what you mean re intimidation of the blokes in there though. Do ask an instructor to talk you through the basic machines which will all help.

Swimming is great and I was advised many years ago to get the best results it's like any other workout - you have to get your heart rate up and keep it up for it to burn fat. So, don't have rests at the side every 4 lengths. Get in the water, start swimming and don't stop until you've done what you plan to do. You could give yourself a lengths limit to start with - but remember that as you improve those lengths will take less and less time to do so you will not be getting the same benefits. I used to always make sure I swam for at least 20 mins and normally more like 30 (without stoppin!). You should be out of breath but able to talk when you stop. I used to do this before work so was limited for time. Doing 30 lengths say, is fine but if it takes an hour cos you've been stopping for a rest on a regular basis then it's not as beneficial as it could be.

Lunar_Eclipse

Summer01 wrote: »

How long should you swim for/lengths should you aim to do a week? I normally go to the gym but if swimming is good that would certainly help break up the pattern a little...

I do a variety of exercise. Swimming is fantastic, especially for the stomach area; as well as toning arms & legs. Whilst I always have a distance target, in terms of lengths I like to swim when I go, I would start with 20-30 minutes since you will really feel it the next day!

I normally swim after going on the bike & treadmill in the gym and depending on how much time I have, how knackered I am and how much I'm enjoying it, I swim anything from 50-100 lengths, 1-3 times a week. I do think it takes 10-20 lengths to get into the rhythm of the swim though. I don't have breaks because I like to get it done quicker and it usually means I need to start faffing around with goggle de-fogging, but everyone likes to do it differently.

ETA: If you're not used to swimming, you will probably want/need to take short breaks. Don't worry about doing this as often as you need to, especially for the first couple of weeks. If you are swimming fast enough, you will honestly feel like you are dying after only a few lengths! To start with, I would swim 10 lengths and then stretch (in the shallow end), treating it as a warm up just like when you go to the gym. I used to swim in sets of 10 lengths and would have a 1 minute rest in between sets, which is exactly what we used to do in serious training when I swam competitively - although the sets were longer. I only started swimming again last year after many years away from the pool and boy is it hard, but brilliant for building stamina (& slimming down a lot) very quickly!

rockie4

I've been a keen swimmer for years and have just done an improvers course. The instructor told is that it's very important to rest for 10-15 seconds between lengths while you are building your stamina up.

It's amazing exercise particularly for the upper body and tummy, I'm slightly :rolleyes: overweight but have pretty good muscle tone

well, I think so anyway:D

System

I'm not a strong swimmer, as I just started to learn about a year or so ago when I was on holiday. This is probably a good way for me to improve on this and also use as an excercise session aswell. Thanks for all your tips and advice.

FairyShazza

I have read that doing weights is actually very good if you are aiming for weight loss as muscle burns fat even when resting. Any decent gym should have instructors who will be able to show you how to use the weight machines and possibly set up a program for you to follow. I actually enjoy doing the weights and am not bothered by the muscle men at all – they are far too busy trying to be the next Jean Claude Van Damme to be worried about what I’m doing

At the moment I mainly go to Aquafit (Water Aerobics) which is great fun and burns around 380 calories per 45 minute class (I got to three classes a week) and I usually swim for 30 minutes before. However I am going to start using the gym and do weights more as I think I need to do more than I am.

I am also considering doing an improvers swimming course as I used to be a good swimmer in my teens but then after an accident at a public swimming pool where I almost drowned due to an incompetent member of staff (long story) it knocked my confidence a lot. If I could get my confidence up again it would be great as I love swimming.