Setting up a light exercise routine... (in Off-topic)

Hey there Cb.

I am currently taking Computer Science classes in a technology school for adults. Following this summer's initiative of doing a lil bit of exercise to compensate for the long hours I spend practicing my favorite hobby (wasting time in front of a screen), I had begun exercising there, regularily ending up doing my push ups and sit ups in the school corridors. (And also lifting various surrounding objects.) I have recently been summoned to the principal's office, who questioned me for twenty minutes, basically asking me if I was some sort of extremist, seeing as how I spent every one of my breaks exercising and also seem to favor wearing all green clothing and an army jacket.

Ok, so I guess people have the right to be suspicious, but that is not my point as this has been taken care of with the direction (positively).

What came out my conversation with the principal, is that I would have the possibility of having a room open, every break, to dispose of as I please, and exercise to my heart's content without scaring anybody :)

Finally, the situation is as follows:

I have absolutely zero knowledge when it comes to working out, (as even if I am disciplined, I always end up hurting myself) and over there at school, I also cannot count on any physical aides ( no dumbells or whatever, is what i mean), and I wanna make the most of the room I get and my 45-60 minutes of break time to work out as much as it is possible. I need to come up with some sort of exercise routine, and I need input.

That is where you come in, fellow players, and give me some pointers! (hopefully) Any sort of help would be greatly appreciated:)

And in any case, thanks for reading, I hope it makes sense.

Well you'll be focusing on bodyweight exercises and possibly a few other tricks. I'd say start with push-ups, bodyweight squats and if you can manage it, handstand push-ups against a wall. You can also do burpees which are an intense exercise when performed rapidly without rest. Basically you drop down into a squat. From there you throw your legs behind you and end up in a push up position. From there you can do a pushup if you want or just return to the squat position and stand back up. Do 3-5 sets of 10-30 of those depending on what you can do. Also, you can get a duffel bag, fill it with 30-60 lbs of sand and practice tossing that into the air and catching it. It will be a great overall body exercise. You start standing and drop into a half squat and explode upwards throwing it into the air while pushing with your legs ending up on your tippy toes. For some cardio, you could do 6-10, 3-5 minute rounds of skipping rope. Just start off with the basic two footed jump unless you're an expert and can do jogging in place or one footed jumps.

Here's and example routine you could do:

Pushups x 10-20, Squats x 10-20, Handstand pushups x 10
Do them all after each other. Rest 1 minute between sets and do 3-5 sets total.
Burpees x 15 x 4 sets
Rest 1 minute between
Sandbag throws x 8-10 x 4 sets
Again rest about a minute between each set
Jump Rope - 3 minutes x 5 rounds
Rest 1-2 minutes between each round.

If this is too easy or too hard, adjust accordingly but make sure you do it evenly. Also, don't do it more than 4x a week, you could overtrain that way. If you need to add some resistance, hold the sandbag while you do your squats. CM me if you have any other questions. Good luck with the working out!

Get a cement block to use during exercises -- put it on your back while you do push ups and hold it above your head while you do squats.

Aim to do sets of at least 35 reps. As you progress bring your arms in closer so that they are parallel to your shoulders, and bring them down so that they are under your stomach. Find a way to make your squats harder as well.

Any more than 35 reps is too easy in my opinion, and any lower means that you'll have trouble reaching the limit of your strength. And remember, squats and push ups will serve to tone your muscle and build up your endurance -- not increase muscle size (at least not in the way that weight training machines are meant to).

Some general comments:
First of all, I'm not sure how old you are or how much exercise you are used to doing, but getting a physical from your physician is always recommended to make sure you don't kill yourself.

In response to one of UncleKracker's suggestions:
Although I see why you'd suggest using a cement block to increase the weight, I'd recommend NOT using a cement block during push ups as it increases the likelyhood you will hurt your back/spine with the added weight. It would also be somewhat awkward to get it on your back. If regular pushups are too easy, there are some variations you can do to increase the difficulty/work slightly different muscles:
a) Widen the spacing between your hands
b) Place your hands together right beneath your chest (forming a diamond with your thumbs and index fingers)
c) Have your feet raised on a platform of some sort
d) Use push-up bars

I am assuming you want to do a general fitness workout to just keep in shape and that you don't want to build serious muscle or become an endurance athlete, but you just want to tone and strengthen your muscles, as well as gain some cardiovascular endurance. Personally, seeing as how you would have an entire room to yourself, I would recommend doing circuit training.

Circuit training involves setting up various exercise stations and proceeding from one to the next in a circuit. The benefits of circuit training are that it incorporates both strength and endurance training together, so you get a good mix of everything, and it does not require any equipment, although if you have a locker or something, a skipping rope is always a bonus.

A simple circuit should alternate body groups (upper body, lower body and core, cardiovascular) so that you can rest each group while you are working on a different one. Here is a sample circuit:
1) Skipping Rope
2) Push-ups
3) Squats
4) Sit-ups
5) Squat-Thrusts (a.k.a. Burpees)
6) Toe Raises
7) Dips
The goal would be to do each exercise for 60 seconds and then switch. Have the stations set up as a loop so you must jog (or run) from one to the next. After completing the circuit once, take a break for a few minutes to catch your breath, grab a drink, and then repeat.

When you start a new exercise program, the key is to start out easy!! This is one of the main reasons people get injured is because they start out doing too much, too soon, and their body has not had time to prepare to the stresses introduced by the exercise, resulting in a variety of injuries (torn muscles, sprains, knee injuries etc.) For the first week or two, simply doing the circuit twice is sufficient (even if it is only about 20 minutes) as it gives your body time to adjust to the exercises and reduces the likelihood of injury in the future (2 weeks of easy workouts are better than 6 weeks of recovery... trust me, I know from experience). Another important point is to stretch, but only when your muscles are warmed up! Before you start your workout, jogging a few minutes around the room, or light skipping rope to warm up, and then stretch each muscle (20 - 30 seconds). At the end of the workout, you are already warm so you can just do some more stretching.

Anyways, after the initial period, the circuit can be made harder by introducing more stations, increasing the length of each exercise (2 minutes each) and by doing more than 2 circuits. You can change up the circuit every week or every two weeks to keep it interesting and different, and having a stereo or something to play music to keep you hyped up is always a plus. Also, if other people want to join in, it's easy enough as everyone can start at a different station, and working out with a group of friends is a lot more fun than working out alone.

I've tried to put a lot of information in a very short amount of time (despite the fact that this message is super long). Starting a workout routine can take some work to set up, but it is worth it in many ways. If you have any questions about anything I have said in here, please reply to this post or PM/CM me or whatever and I will get an answer to you.

Just so you know a bit about me, I am a cross-country runner, and have been running on the university team for the past 5 years, and did it in high school and elementary school as well, so I have quite a bit of experience with setting up exercise programs.

And if anyone cares, I ran up the stairs (145 stories, 1776 stairs) of the CN Tower today in 17 minutes and 30 seconds. Lots of fun, but man am I tired. I'm going to stop talking now. Seriously!

Thank you all very much for the time you spent answering me. Putting all your responses together gives me a good idea of where I can start my whole workout thing :) These informations may help a wee bit. I'm 18, and I am absolutely not overhweight, and am pretty healthy, only...vegetable-like right now, exept for some very light exercise every day. Also, as Kultur said in his post, I am just trying to be in shape, not gain 100 pounds of muscle :)

Ask G_Beee or Sukotto, they have run a series of threads with exercises and weight plans.

To add to Kultur's brilliant advice I would say it is probably go
with a certain amount of sit-ups and press-ups rather than a
time limit.
It can be so easy to try and do as many as possible in the
allotted time and cause some damage, so for those I would
recommend starting at 5 of each a day until you are
completely comfortable with it and get no strain from them,
then move up in increments of 5 each time waiting until the
effect is near nullified :)