Can you help me with my fitness plan?

[Minifingers]

In short, I'm fat (175lbs at 5ft 6 inches), nearly 50, and very unfit.

I've decided that I HAVE to get fit as my unfitness is compromising my day to day life. My back feels fragile, and I'm scared I'm going to do myself an injury lugging my equipment around at work if I don't do something about my core strength.

The plan is - as many exercise sessions as I can manage.

So, this week I swam on Saturday for 45 minutes non-stop, went to a pilates class yesterday, and today have just come back from the gym. In addition I've walked for an hour a day with the dog.

My muscles feel so weak. I was shocked at how hard I found the pilates. :-( I'm also anaemic, which doesn't help.

I need some ideas for the gym - how many reps should I do for each exercise at this point? Keep weights light and reps high? Today I cycled to the gym, and once I got walked fast on an incline on one of the machines for 10 minutes until my heart rate was 80% of maximum for my age, then did 3 x 10 reps on about 8 machines, exercising the front and back of my torso, upper and lower, glutes, arms, chest etc. Does that sound about right?

I want to start slow and build up. The plan is to do 2 x pilates, 1 swim, 1 or 2 gym visits and a yoga class weekly if I can. Plus continue with my daily walks. I'm also dieting (not calorie counting, just eating mostly nuts, fish, good meat, greens and a bit of fruit).

While I was at the gym I saw a spin class. Never seen so much sweat or heard so much shouting. Felt completely intimidated (despite the fact that there were some really fat an old people taking part - good for them!). I wonder how many people drop dead while doing this sort of exercise? I think I would...

[Lagoonablue]

does your gym not have someone to help you with a plan?

FWIW I used to do 3 set of 15 on each exercise and moved round the gym. 20 m warm up on a bike or treadmill then used the machines to work arms and legs, the some stomach crunches. 3 times a week plus swimming, kept me toned but didn't lose weight.

[Lagoonablue]

Btw spin is good. The bike doesn't have to be set at high resistance so you can start slowly.

[Minifingers]

Thanks! That's helpful.

I need to do some high intensity exercise but can't face it now, except in very tiny doses.

3 x 15 reps sounds reasonable to me. I'm right in thinking that if the muscle feels a bit fatigued when you're doing the exercise (ie from doing lots of reps) that this is a good thing?

[Lagoonablue]

Yes