Ranger Danger! - ArmoredGallant's Introduction

[ArmoredGallant]

I actually signed up for NF awhile back but had a lot of stuff come up so I left for a while. I'm back again, though, and am read to go! Here's an abridgment of my story:

I was obese most of my life, never exercised, sat down all day, and ate awful (lots of fast food, instant noodles, canned meat, etc.) I tried exercising sometimes, but nothing jived well with me.

I moved to a new city and stumbled across an exercise class that, for once, I actually really enjoyed and became gung-ho about exercising. I started doing nearly everything I could including various aerobics, dances, Pilates  and so on. I was exercising an average of 2-4 hours a day and dropped about 70lbs over a year, but I still ate just as badly (if not worse). Eventually, this caught up to me and I fell ill (the actual reasons are still a mystery, but I suspect overexercising/awful eating was the source) and was pretty much bedridden for about 3 months. 

I did a 30-day detox where I went raw vegan and took herbal supplements, which actually did help me recover. However, I never quite got back into a good routine of exercising so I gained all that weight back. I did start eating healthier though and noticed a huge difference in my energy and mood when I ate organic foods at home and when I ate fast food. So, here I am now, trying to get back into shape again but balancing eating healthy with exercising, but with higher quality and less time. I'd rather do 30 min to an hour of good, healthy, intense exercising that will get me into shape than what I was doing before of 2-4 hours where I was burning myself out. 

 

I'd like to be a better ranger-type as 1) my previous skill set fits well with it (I was good at a wide variety of things, but a master of very few) and 2) Aragorn is one of my favorite characters, so being a ranger like him (though impossible IRL) is a cool idea. Any tips or advice for me?

Thankfully with nutrition, I'm pretty knowledgable and will be able to do well there. However, with exercising outside of classes, I'm not really sure what to do. I tried walking 2-3 miles a day, but I got shin splints and had to stop for a couple of weeks. I have almost zero idea what to do with weights. I'm in need of tips and advice with exercises. I did read some articles from NF and have set some things up from what I got from them as well as still doing some classes. 

Here's the workout regiment I'm planning on doing so far:
 

Mon/Wed/Fri

3 Sets:

       Squats: 20
       Push-Ups: 10
       Lunges: 10
       Plank: 15-Seconds
       Jumping Jacks: 30

Increase Per Week (Per set):

+ 2 Squats

+ 1 Push Up

+ 2 Lunges

+ 2 Seconds to Plank

+ 2 Jumping Jacks

Tue/Thu/Sat:

5 Minutes of light walking.

6 Sets of:

30 seconds of increased pace.
2 minutes of decreased pace.
 

5 minutes of light jogging and stretching.

Increase:
+ 1 minute per week of light jogging.

 

Classes:

Monday/Wednesday:

1 hour of Belly Dance and Yoga (2 hours total).

 

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday

1 hour of Aerobics.

I signed up for a 3-year membership at LA Fitness back before I discovered this site, so I now realize that I've pretty much wasted my money as most things I can do to get into shape are things that I can do outside of the gym. However, I was hoping that there might be some tips people can give me for what kinds of exercises I can do there? I'm unsure as to what I should focus on, more weights, more bodyweight types, less cardio, and so on. I have lessened how much exercising I was doing a day from an average of 2-4 hours to 1-2 hours, but I still don't have weights in there. 

This is pretty much a rough draft for the exercise portion of the challenge that starts next time. I'll do these routines for now and will listen to advice and tips to modify/add to them.

[raging3vil]

I would take advantage of the weights at your gym. Nothing fancy with weights.

Presses (overhead, bench), squats, and dead lifts.

 

I just recently started lifting myself and was worried I wouldn't know how to do things properly, but employees and other members of the gym were all very helpful in making sure I was doing things with correct form and the proper weight.

[AKLulu]

Welcome back! As far as workouts, I haven't personally tried them, but a lot of people around here have started off with the Angry Birds workout or the Beginner Body Weight workout. Have you looked into those?

[ArmoredGallant]

Raging3vil: Sounds good! I am just nervous I'll hurt myself and the gym staff only helps if you pay extra. Plus I hear a lot of trainers are not fully trained so I worry about that as well. Weights, they make me nervous, lol. Thanks!

AKLulu: I havent seen those! I will give them a read, thanks!

[ArmoredGallant]

Alright, day one went badly. I forgot my school was closed today and drove all the way there (and hour drive total) in rush hour traffic only to find an almost empty parking lot. Whoops. This means that my two hours of Yoga/Belly Dance were cancelled. I got home and kept trying to motivate myself to workout. Fiiiiinallly I did, and got through one round of the 3 sets and started feeling sick (not sure why as I can normally handle those exercises). Anyway, I'll just try to pass it off as first day bad luck and tomorrow will go full force into interval walking and an aerobics class. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with weights as I'm nearly clueless and very intimidated by them.

[raging3vil]

YouTube is your friend.

 

Squats, Deadlift, Overhead Press, Bench Press.

 

4 simple exercises that cover a lot of muscle groups.