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Beginning tips for wife

Advice for helping establish workouts/goals for beginner wife

jestlin
jestlin g Aaron Webster
6 Post(s)
6 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Lose Fat Date Joined: December 12, 2016
Posted

My wife and I are gearing up to start working out at home together, and would appreciate some advise. I have been athletic in the past, am ex military, and am no stranger to gyms. I overall am not concerned about my ability to get back into shape as long as I can stay motivated. She however is a different case.

She was never particularly athletic, and has no idea what it would "feel" like to be "In Shape"...so that makes it harder to visualize an end goal fitness-wise. She says she has done static cardio, interval cardio, and minor strength training in the past, but never noticed any kind of results (weight loss specifically, she never taped herself). She is extremely skeptical of any real results (she is prone to getting frustrated and quitting things), and beyond helping her with a meal plan, I am a little bit out of my element with this.

What kind of beginning routine would you recommend for her situation? Any motivation or end-goal advise for her that I might be able to pass on? I would greatly appreciate any help anyone can give me.

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: jestlin

My wife and I are gearing up to start working out at home together, and would appreciate some advise. I have been athletic in the past, am ex military, and am no stranger to gyms. I overall am not concerned about my ability to get back into shape as long as I can stay motivated. She however is a different case.

She was never particularly athletic, and has no idea what it would "feel" like to be "In Shape"...so that makes it harder to visualize an end goal fitness-wise. She says she has done static cardio, interval cardio, and minor strength training in the past, but never noticed any kind of results (weight loss specifically, she never taped herself). She is extremely skeptical of any real results (she is prone to getting frustrated and quitting things), and beyond helping her with a meal plan, I am a little bit out of my element with this.

What kind of beginning routine would you recommend for her situation? Any motivation or end-goal advise for her that I might be able to pass on? I would greatly appreciate any help anyone can give me.

@jestlin Hey Aaron.

 

I think one major difference now might be that you are there to support her. If you can both go to the gym together, even if you're not doing the same routine, I think that will be helpful for her. For some people, doing it by themselves makes it harder to stay accountable. When you're doing it together, you can keep each other accountable in terms of not missing a workout and making sure you're both eating well to reach your goals.

 

As for what to get her started on, I suggest starting out slow. That means probably not going straight into a full program, because if you throw a big program at her with lots of exercises and long workouts, then that might be something that actually pushes her away. Keep the first few workouts short for a while - 45 minutes maybe, and focus on the basics, the compound movements.

 

That is if she wants to lift at all - if she wants to focus on cardio, that's totally fine and up to her, but you can also tell her the benefits of weight training (if you haven't already). The key with people who tend to give up quickly is you have to find ways to make it enjoyable. Part of that is trying a few things and seeing what she enjoys - the other part is actually seeing results and seeing her hard work paying off. That will keep her motivated too!

 

Hope that helps!

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