hi I am a women who has recently went from 23 stones to 130kgs with alli, but I have stopped taking it now as I have controlled my eating habits and would like to do the exercise I just need a plan that is right for me. I find exercise a bit boring so I need something that I can stick to, without taking pills
If you feel dizzy or suffer any injury, stop exercising.
Make sure you have a doctor’s okay before starting any exercise program.
To reduce your risk of hurting yourself, always start with a 5-10 minute warm up (e.g. a walk) followed by stretching of your muscles.
A general program could start with 20 minutes cardio 3 times a week. Aim to get short of puff (unable to complete a sentence) and warm during the workout.
The best cardio to start with is simply walking. Set your timer to 20 minutes. Start walking. If you need to rest, do so and then keep going until your 20 minutes is up. Work up to a brisk pace - imagine you are rushing to catch a bus/train, that kind of speed.
Once you can do a continuous 20 minutes of brisk walking 3 times a week AND find it easy, progress to 30 minutes 3 times a week. Once this becomes easy, progress to 30 minutes 4 times a week. Once this becomes easy, progress to 30 minutes 5 times a week. Once this becomes easy, then you can start increasing the intensity of the workouts e.g. walk even faster, jog etc.
Once you’ve established the habit of doing cardio 5 times a week, you’ll also have developed an even better understanding of your body’s physiology (in terms of when to progress etc). At this stage, you should take up strength training.
Abdominals - crunches
Legs and bum - squats, lunges, glute bridge
Lower back - back extensions
Upper back - one arm back row
Do these twice a week e.g wed and sat. Build up to 15 repetitions. If you can only do 1-2 the first time, fine, just do them well. Once 1-2 well done moves becomes easy, progress.
Once you have got to the level where you can do 15, take a one minute rest, and build up to your second 15. Once you get to the level where 15, 1 minute rest, 15 becomes easy, add another 1 minute rest and add another 15.
Once 3×15 becomes easy, add a third day to your workouts e.g. mon, wed, fri (always leave at least one rest day between strength training workouts to allow your body to recover).
So by now you’re doing cardio 5 times a week and strength training 3 times a week and will have changed your shape, taken your fitness to new highs and so on. All you need to do is keep progressing the workout intensity.
