Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below Hello. My name is Mindy, and I'm new to this group. I am going to be 18 in a few months, and I just want to start out the new beggining of my adult life feeling good about myself, so I really would like to start exercising on a regular basis. I am in pretty good shape, I'm healthy, I just have trouble being consistant about working out. Denise Austin has been my "personal trainer" for the last few years, I think she's the best. My problem area's: Inner Thighs, Upper/Lower Abs, those damn Love Handles, Bicepts/Tricepts, & Upper Back. Do I have any hope? I could really use advice on what I should start doing, how many times a week. I don't drive, so I walk ALOT. I walk about 2 and a half hours a week back and forth to stores/work. I would love to hear from advanced people who know what they're talking about. Thank's so much.
Need Some Help PLEASE!!
- Thread starter LuScIoUs
- Start date
Sassy69
New member
Mindy - welcome to the boards! First off, use the "Search" feature - this will help you find lots of info for specific questions. Second, what a great attitude to start off your "adult" life with! (Wish this board was around when I was that age - jeez - your exactly half my age 
) The good news is that you are never too old and there is always hope. Frankly, it only gets better! To give you an example of "never too old" - I did a bodybuilding competition where there were 3 guys in the "Over 80" category and two women in the "Over 70" category. A little scary, but how cool is that. One woman was 72 and got into "body building" because she started lifting weights to deal w/ osteoporosis. There was also a woman who got to competition level as part of recovery from cancer.
This is not to say you have to get into bodybuilding competition to enjoy good health....!
The basic thing to understand about "getting into shape" is clean diet & a consistent training & cardio regimen will do wonders. The recommended diet "style" is eating 5-6 small meals per day (or think of it as 3 meals w/ a couple of healthy "snacks" between) so you are eating every 2-3 hours. (Lots of info on this on the Diet board and some on the women's board.) Weight / resistance training will do wonders for strength & fat burning. Cardio helps with better fat loss.
And the whole training & cardio thing is a wonderful stress reliever! (Trust me - it got me through a physics degree and two masters' degrees while working full time.)
If you want to "lose weight", think more in terms of "losing body fat" instead. (Better measure of "fatness".) You might want to get a body fat measurement done at your local gym to give you a reference point for your future efforts. And the most important thing to understand is starvation diets will hurt you more than help you so just be patient and the above "clean diet, training, cardio" thing will give you great results.
Another interesting thing you will find after a while is learning how your body reacts to the general diet/training approaches. Personally, I was always able to build great muscle mass, but at the cost of increased body fat. The only way I lost significant body fat was by doing 45-60 min of cardio 3-4 x/week (+ my clean diet & training) on an empty stomach before breakfast.
... Its a lifestyle!
Hope you learn lots and have fun here!
) The good news is that you are never too old and there is always hope. Frankly, it only gets better! To give you an example of "never too old" - I did a bodybuilding competition where there were 3 guys in the "Over 80" category and two women in the "Over 70" category. A little scary, but how cool is that. One woman was 72 and got into "body building" because she started lifting weights to deal w/ osteoporosis. There was also a woman who got to competition level as part of recovery from cancer. This is not to say you have to get into bodybuilding competition to enjoy good health....!
The basic thing to understand about "getting into shape" is clean diet & a consistent training & cardio regimen will do wonders. The recommended diet "style" is eating 5-6 small meals per day (or think of it as 3 meals w/ a couple of healthy "snacks" between) so you are eating every 2-3 hours. (Lots of info on this on the Diet board and some on the women's board.) Weight / resistance training will do wonders for strength & fat burning. Cardio helps with better fat loss.
And the whole training & cardio thing is a wonderful stress reliever! (Trust me - it got me through a physics degree and two masters' degrees while working full time.)
If you want to "lose weight", think more in terms of "losing body fat" instead. (Better measure of "fatness".) You might want to get a body fat measurement done at your local gym to give you a reference point for your future efforts. And the most important thing to understand is starvation diets will hurt you more than help you so just be patient and the above "clean diet, training, cardio" thing will give you great results.
Another interesting thing you will find after a while is learning how your body reacts to the general diet/training approaches. Personally, I was always able to build great muscle mass, but at the cost of increased body fat. The only way I lost significant body fat was by doing 45-60 min of cardio 3-4 x/week (+ my clean diet & training) on an empty stomach before breakfast.
... Its a lifestyle!
Hope you learn lots and have fun here!
Phemomena
New member
listen to Sassy... she's a smart girl... literally... two degrees... damn girl... i didn't even finish my first one...lol.. oh well, making big bucks now, that's all that maters (oh, that and looking/feeling good)
welcome to the board lusc... there is enough information here to help you enter your adult life and spend the rest of it living happy and healthy, just search around, ask lots of questions when you don't understand and work your butt off (not much to ask is it?)
welcome to the board lusc... there is enough information here to help you enter your adult life and spend the rest of it living happy and healthy, just search around, ask lots of questions when you don't understand and work your butt off (not much to ask is it?)
welcome to the world of fitness!
can't add much to sassy's words except as you're training w/ weights to tighten up arms , back, etc as you said, expect your weight to go up as you add lean mass- which will decrease bf%- do not access your progress merely by the scales- tape measures never lie.
The first thing I loved when I began training was I got to take those stupid shoulder pads out of all my clothes. REAL shoulders look so much better!
lunges are great overall leg training, also plie squats will help inner thighs you mentioned.
Good luck!
Flex
can't add much to sassy's words except as you're training w/ weights to tighten up arms , back, etc as you said, expect your weight to go up as you add lean mass- which will decrease bf%- do not access your progress merely by the scales- tape measures never lie.
The first thing I loved when I began training was I got to take those stupid shoulder pads out of all my clothes. REAL shoulders look so much better!
lunges are great overall leg training, also plie squats will help inner thighs you mentioned.
Good luck!
Flex
Hey everyone! Thank's for the GrEaT advice! I think I am...wait...I *AM* going to start tomorrow since it is Monday-- a new week. I'm going to wake up early and do some cardio. Then the next day I'll do weghts. And so on.. I'll keep ya posted! I really hope I stay motivated.. 
I hope to see results by Sept. Thank's again.
I hope to see results by Sept. Thank's again.Similar threads
