After starting GLP-1s, I knew I had to work out to avoid losing muscle mass and to help with general fitness. Alas, I had never really worked out… ever.
So, I started slowly and bought an indoor bike. This seemed like a good choice as I hate running (I blame a bum knee!) and I thought I could ride the bike while watching football in my “sports cave”. This was moderately successful, but I didn’t really develop a regular pattern of workouts.
I also knew I had to start strength training but really had no idea how to do that. I bought some dumbbells and an adjustable bench (since that seemed to be essential). I used the Hevy app for a while and enjoyed that it had a ton of exercises in it and explained what muscles are worked. However, again, I didn’t develop a regular habit. It was more a haphazard collection of pushing some weights around when I felt guilty.
After doing this for a few months, I decided that I needed help. I didn’t really want to go to a gym because I was still very fat and very clueless about what to do. I found the Future app on Garage Gym Reviews and I quickly signed up for a trainer (before I could change my mind). It’s $200 a month, but I reckoned if it makes me work out, that’s totally worth it. I just needed some accountability and advice from a human — the AI robot algorithms weren’t doing the trick (full disclosure: my day job is in AI)!
I picked this guy, Jose, who didn’t seem too crazy and whose claim to fame was having been a strength coach at Princeton. This worked out spectacularly successful.
I now work out every weekday morning with Jose’s program. Monday mornings, I use my office’s gym (since it’s totally empty then), and the other days, I work out from home. I ended up with more dumbbells, the bike, a Concept2 row erg, and a trap bar. The workouts typically are total body 4 days a week with a bunch of mobility and cardio thrown in. Thursday is the slow day, mostly consisting of mobility and stretching exercises.
I have stuck to this schedule very strictly and now actually enjoy the workouts and the feeling after finishing them. As I felt lazy on the weekends and *everyone* is telling me that “Zone 2 cardio” is the way to better LDL/APO B, I have started riding the bike on the weekend days. Often my 6-year-old will join me and lift some weights while hanging out with me (5 and even 10 lbs!). See below for a random workout — be nice, I am new to lifting, I am sure for many of you the weights are super light…
