Newbie needs some advice!

[supozakura]

Hello everybody!

I'm brandnew to the forum and I hope that the more experienced among you can give me some advice!

I used to be quite sporty when I was younger (until jr. high/high school). The last few years I haven't done anything at all, though.
I'm 30 yrs., female, 1.74m, 59kg.

My goal(s):
I don't wanna lose weight (though 2-3kg would be nice).
My main goal is to become fit (again) for a better health condition. Currently I don't have any health problems, but I just feel it's time to start things again.
I also want to get my body into shape.

The reason for posting is that I'm not sure how I should plan my training.

Thus far I've started with some light cardio, mainly aerobic and step aerobic for 30 minutes around 3-4 times a week.
I also want to start running soon. 5K program at first.

My situation:
I live in Japan and I don't have a car, so I don't have access to any fitness center or the likes. Starting in May the temperatues will go up like crazy and soon it will be super humid and hot making any outdoor exercise impossible. There are also no lakes or swimming pools close by

So, I wanna do my workout at home.
I live in a small apartment with only one room (and we're talking about Japan here, so it's really tiny!!).

My equipment:
Aerobic stepper
jump rope (can't use it inside, no space)

Want to get soon:
heart rate monitor
1kg dumbbell x2
fitness mat
hula hoop

So, although I'm highly motivated, I get frustrated because I have no clue how I should go about my training.
I just wanna have fund and do something for my health, but after googling around for a whole week, my head hurts and I'm just totally confused.
So, I should do cardio AND strength training?
I shouldn't do them on the same day?
3-4x cardio and 2x strength training is okay?!
I'm all alone and actually I'm extremely worried that by doing something wrong I might harm my health more than anything else!
Can I always do the same cardio (aerobic / step aerobic) or should I try to do different things?!
Is strength training even possible with almost no equipment?
How can I work on my body flexibility?

I'm really very confused.
I hope you guys can give me some good advice.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[almeeker]

I wouldn't recommend doing exactly the same workout day in and day out, that just gets boring and old quickly. I mix it up all the time, my only goal is that I try to exercise 30-60 minutes/day. One program I found that fit me pretty well is EA Active 2, mine is for the Wii, but you can buy it for other gaming systems. It has a 9 week program that you can do on "easy", "medium" or "hard" and it gradually works you up to a fairly decent level of fitness. It comes with some strength training bands and a HRM. The other thing you might want to look into is a local class, I would think that you should be able to find a martial arts program or maybe yoga. Or maybe a yoga DVD. Do you have a lending library? Maybe you can check out some exercise videos to mix things up a bit.

[rmdaly]

When I was 30, I moved and started working out again after about a decade of being mostly idle. What I did was make a goal of 60 minutes of exercise a day. Since that wasn't possible at first, I tried to work up to 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening.

I would run in the morning and go to a gym after work. Can you run in the morning in Japan before it gets too hot and humid? If you want to stay in your apartment, you could do some pretend jump roping - the movements without the actual rope. That would get your heart rate up.

I've seen a lot of recommendations for the Couch to 5K program.

In the evening do strength exercises. Some people don't recommend doing the same muscle groups two days in a row, but you can do legs one day and arms the next. You might want to mix in some yoga as well.

These are just some ideas to get you started. Good luck.