Exercises
Enjoy getting fit & strong!
The Chin-up
I'm all into exercises that use as many muscles as possible in one hit, so you get a much better workout for your time spent. The chin-up requires a whole bunch of upper body muscles.
If you can't do a chin-up, you're not alone. Lots of people don't have the upper body strength at the start. But as you get stronger you will be able to do more of them.
Most gyms have machines that will assist you in chin-ups, so use these to get your muscles working, and then as the weeks progress, try to move over to performing them unassisted!
The Deadlift
This is a classic test of all-round strength. There isn't a muscle in your body that can hide when you perform a deadlift.
Be very careful, and only lift the weight you can comfortably pull until you are confident with your technique. Always keep your back straight (don't hunch; this can be helped by looking up & forward, which lifts your head up), keep your arms very straight (the weight of the deadlift can burst your biceps muscles if you let them try to contribute), drive your legs into the floor to get the lift moving, and then straighten your back until you are standing up vertically.
I often crouch beside the bar when I'm finished... it might look like I'm praying, but if you stand up too quickly you can faint! This is because the lift constricts the blood to your brain, and your body needs a few seconds to recover. There are videos on You Tube of people fainting after performing deadlifts! So wait a few seconds for your blood to get flowing again before you stand up.
The Squat
The squat is another all-round compound exercise, that works a whole bunch of muscles. Whereas most people consider it a thighs exercise, you will often have sore butt muscles (glutes) and adductors (inside your leg) the next day. It also works your lower back, which needs to stay straight at all times.
The lower you can squat, the more you will get out of the exercise. Keep your knees apart, and crouch as if you have a 7 month pregnancy between your legs. This keeps the pressure off your knees, which many people are concerned about.
Wear hard-soled trainers (the flatter the better) or just socks. Soft-soled shoes will put extra stress on your knees so avoid wearing them.
Use light weights until your confidence & technique grow. The bar (try to use an Olympic bar) weighs 20 kilos, so at the start you might find that just the bar is enough while you learn to squat all the way down (known as "arse to the grass") and maintain control at all times.
If you lose your balance, which happens sometimes, and you can't recover your balance, or if the weight is too heavy and you can't get back up on your last attempt, then the safety bars are a life-saver: just drop to your knees and let the bar land on the safety bars. These have saved me more than once! Having them there also means you can lift heavier than you have done before, because you know that in the worst case you can bail out... by dropping down. Try this bail-out technique a few times to get confident now... before you need it for real.
Bailing out of a Squat when things go wrong!
The squat is a serious exercise, and when you have a heavy weight on your back, you need a "Plan B" when things go wrong. You can easily lose your balance, or you can simply push yourself beyond your ability to fully lift that final rep.
When this happens, you need to know how to bail out. This video (awkwardly) shows me bailing out of a lift. It turns out that planning to bail out is very difficult, which is why I look a bit weird. But it does show you how the entire bar & its weight (60kg in this case) is easily managed because of the safety arms that are in place.
The safety arms need to be low enough that they don't get in the way of your squat, but still high enough that there is some space for you to "hide".
If you choose to squat without safety arms, in my opinion you're asking for trouble. The difference between a squat being under control & out of control (like losing your balance forward when you're at the bottom of the squat) can be half a second, and then you need somewhere to go that is safe... in this case, straight down to the floor!
Dips
Dips are excellent for your upper body strength, especially your triceps (the back of your upper arms), your shoulder muscles and your upper chest. They also work plenty of other upper body muscles too.
Try to maintain your balance; at the start this will be difficult. Go down as far as you can but be wary of your shoulders; the exercise stretches the front of your shoulder joint and can cause discomfort until your body gets better at it. Try to keep your elbows tucked in near your body; they will want to splay out like bird's wings, but you will develop better triceps muscles if you keep them tucked in.
If you can't do dips on your own, then most gyms will have a machine that allows you to perform assisted dips. This machine is good for building your strength; once you are strong enough, do them for real!
Rear Deltoid backward shoulder lift
There are lots of exercises for the front, sides, and the top of the shoulders, but it is difficult to train the muscles to the rear of the shoulder because they are awkward to get to. I find the exercise in the adjacent video are the best for me to hit these muscles.
Other muscles in the region will want to "help out", such as your traps (trapezius) and your triceps, so it's important to keep your elbow straight and concentrate on rotating the shoulder joint, not the whole arm using your back muscles.
Keep your arm straight, lean forward, and lift a suitable weight: try to aim for about 8-10 reps, so choose a weight that will allow this quantity of repetitions.
For extra intensity, try to hold the weight at the top of the lift (behind you); this will bite! At first it might not feel like anything is happening, but near the end of the set you will feel the rear muscles getting very tired.
Do 3 or 4 sets if you can, once a week with your other shoulder exercises.
Jogging
I don't suggest lots of cardio. Time is precious, & I'd rather you spend your exercise time doing exercises that will build your strength & help maintain strong bones. However, some cardio is great for keeping your heart healthy. That's why I suggest one day in your routine dedicated to jogging.
My suggestion is to get onto a treadmill, set it for 40 minutes, and see how far you can go in that time. So every week you are on the treadmill for 40 minutes, and each week you are trying to go further in that 40 minutes than you managed last week. Make a record each week, and you will be amazed with your progress in due course.
If you can't jog for the 40 minutes, that's fine. Try to do a combination of walking & jogging. You might only jog for 30 seconds & walk for a couple of minutes to recover, but as you progress you will be able to jog for longer & walk for shorter periods. Eventually you'll be able to jog for the full 40 minutes.
You can alter your speed too of course, and this also allows you to try & beat last weeks' distance!
Just be careful at the start if you haven't done any cardio for a while. Take things easy and let your progress go at a steady pace. Your fitness & your distance will both increase dramatically in a surprisingly short time.
The Power Snatch
This is a very energetic exercise that is designed to increase your explosive power.
Starting with an Olympic bar (I am using the 15 kilogram skinny bar here), your objective is to swing it from the floor to straight above your shoulders in one huge lift.
This requires a huge amount of instant power, hence the name. When you lift it, you should do so with enough intensity that you actually rise up onto your toes in the process as the bar is flying upward.
The weights that you apply to the bar should only be such that you can lift the bar whilst maintaining control over it. If the bar is too heavy, you won't get it all the way to the top of your straight arms, or you will swing off balance, which is very easy to do!
So choose a weight that isn't risky. I find that after 6 or 8 reps, I am surprisingly breathless.
I try to do this lift on my shoulders day. It adds a different dimension to my week and provides me with the explosivity that is missing with most of the other lifts & exercises.