laurashapiro: a woman sits at a kitchen table reading a book, cup of tea in hand. Table has a sliced apple and teapot. A cat looks on. (0)
laurashapiro ([personal profile] laurashapiro) wrote in [community profile] lifting_heavy_things 2011-08-22 11:37 pm (UTC)

For hiking, either the treadmills or the elliptical machine can help you build stamina.

For building overall strength, there's a lot you can do without any equipment at all, using the weight of your own body for resistance. You could start with planks and gradually work up to push-ups; you could start out squatting with no weights and work up to the 10-lb dumbbells, you could do some serious yoga -- all of these will build core strength as well as targeting major muscle groups.

Machines can be good to begin with, but I would advise you to do some online research to learn what the machines in your gym are actually for (if the brand name and name of the machine is visible on it, you can copy that down and then look it up), and how to use them properly. If you're smaller or larger than average, you'll probably need to adjust them, too.

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