Recommendations for an inflexible pear shape

[Apricotton]

Hi all. I’ve realised that I badly need to start working out regularly. Currently I walk and that’s it. I’m a healthy weight, but I’m very untoned. After two pregnancies, my tummy is no longer flat. I’m a pear shape with shapeless flabby legs and a wide flat bum. My posture is terrible and I’m very inflexible. And very unfit.

i just tried Callanetics and couldn’t even begin to do some of the exercises. I’ve got a variety of dvds in the cupboard, such as a Davina McCall dvd, Jillian Michaels, ten minute toning, yogalates etc.

Dows anyone have any suggestions on what I’m best to do? I’ll be exercising at home.

Thanks.

Hi Apricotton,

It sounds like you’re looking to get started.

You say that you’re very unfit, so the idea would be to start off gently, make it enjoyable and form a habit.

A good focus would be to work on two things: cardiorespiratory fitness and strength.

Cardio
The aim when getting started is to work in the following order: frequency, then duration and then intensity.

I’d stick to your walks, but aim to walk faster and up until a speed where you feel you’re working harder than a normal walk, but can still speak in full sentences. This should feel comfortable, even enjoyable. Try to increase how often you’re doing this and build up daily, even if it’s only 10 minutes. Over the weeks try to accumulate more time doing these walks than you did the week before.

This will build your aerobic base and increase something called your ventilatory threshold (the point you can no longer speak in full sentences). It means you’ll be able to do more for longer week by week, but it will be comfortable and enjoyable. It will also improve your ability to use fat for fuel.

Once frequency and duration are sorted you can then increase the intensity slowly by:

Incorporating hills walks or hikes
Add a weighted backpack
Try walk/jog (30s walk/30s jog)

Strength
Start very simply. Here’s some ideas from Rangan Chatterjee on a 5 minute kitchen workout.

Once you feel a bit more comfortable, you could buy a few things to add a bit more of a challenge: dumbbells, kettlebells etc Or, join gym and get a few PT hours to give you some guided sessions and a plan.

Pilates, but have a few sessions with an instructor.
Probably for many things it's not a good idea to dive straight in trying to use videos if you've got poor posture etc.

Pilates.

Just to add some perspective. Pilates could be a great choice as part of your efforts to get fitter and improve your posture, but it’s not the whole answer.

Pilates is an activity that is roughly measured at 3 MET's (metabolic equivalents) i.e. it’s 3x the energy cost of just sitting. This stimulus alone wouldn’t be enough to help you get significantly fit enough to enjoy a wide range of activities.

If you start and enjoy it, keep doing it, but supplement with progressive aerobic work as outlined above and some strength.

Thank you so much for your responses! I definitely need to work on my fitness. I’m good at walking, but tried to do couch to 5k years ago and it was a disaster. I couldn’t do jog one minute and walk another minute.

So it sounds like I’m best to do a variety of things… something to improve fitness, perhaps some Pilates and some weights. When I walk, I am usually pushing a very heavy buggy, so that surely must be a good thing. Main thing is I need to actually do it. My will power is terrible. On the upside, I could potentially see some really good results.

Thanks again. 😊

Interesting advice @SportsAndExerciseMedicineDoc
I'm a flexible pear with flabby legs and a menopause belly now.
So difficult to shift it.

I've just found on YouTube a NHS Aerobics for beginners 45 mins. It looks good.

Just need to get off mumsnet and actually do it

@Apricotton Pushing a buggy is definitely a good thing :)

On the willpower side, I bet you have way more than you think you do. The trick is that motivation doesn’t always come before action. Give yourself a very small and doable target no matter your mood, e.g. do 5 or 10 minutes of brisk walking every day. If you feel like crap and unmotivated, give yourself permission to stop after 10 minutes. If you start to feel motivated during that 10 minutes, then continue.

The principle applies to strength training too. You find experienced lifters often don’t feel like going to the gym but give themselves permission to stop after 5 minutes if they just take themselves there. Often, it’s just the first step that’s the barrier. Yet, some days they will go home after 5 mins. No problem.

You start to line up some consistent movement over time; you may find that your perception of yourself changes.

Hi, thank you all so so much for the advice.

@SportsAndExerciseMedicineDoc I’m glad that pushing a buggy is worth something! Those are really wise words about motivation and action.

I easily get in plenty of walking most days- sometimes up to 6 miles. I think I just need to do at least something at home, whatever it is every day. I also need to stop standing in front of the mirror the day after a workout hoping to see a difference.

Thank you.