Alright, here's the deal. I'm 18 years old. For the past year I've done nothing but sit in front of a computer, no exercise at all. I'm worried for my health, and although I'm not fat (other than a beer gut), I'm very weak. My brother-in-law has offered me a job working for him in construction and I'm worried that I'll be too weak to do the job.

My question is this, what sort of exercise should I start with without going too far and prepare myself to work in this field?

As long as I can get in reasonable shape in the next month or two (not perfect, just strong enough to start out, and the construction work should be sufficient exercise to keep me in shape) then I'll be happy. Is this possible?

I also eat a lot of microwaveable and fast food.

p.s. I'm still stiff from doing 15 pushups yesterday

you're still growing so go super slowly.

Definitely start with bodyweight stuff like dips, pushups, chinups (wide grip and narrow), crunches, squats, lunges, etc.

I would start by working out 3-4 days a week, using a full body workout.

And even though you're young and your metabolism is fast, I would take out the fast food and microwaveable foods (probably high in salt). At any age, especially for a growing teen, these aren't the best choices.

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Best wishes,


Chillen

sorry for the off topic question, but did you play counter-strike under the alias Loki?

Why do you keep telling people this? There’s a reason you have trouble lifting bottles of water and that’s because your training sucks. Sorry but someone had to say it; you shouldn’t be giving people advice

To the OP; Am I right in guessing that if you’re weak you’re also under weight? If so then post your height and weight and I’ll give you an estimate of how many calories you should be consuming to gain size.

As for training, do you have access to a gym or any weights?

Read the weight training 101 sticky and come up with a training plan; make sure you add a lot of compound movements in there. This is extra important for you as you’ll be working on a construction site so there’ll be a lot of strain on your entire body. I imagine squats and sled pulls would be good preperation for that kind of manual labour

I keep telling ppl this because it's TRUE.

if your feeling stiff after 15 push-ups that you did the day before, i'd say your unfit.

First off, start eating healthy,

start doing small exercises like walking or light jogging, after a few weeks join a gym and get advice from people there.

If you're worried about your health etc, go see your doctor.

Best of luck.

So when he gets to work on a construction site should he tell the foreman not to push him too hard because he’s only 18?

In addition to eating a lot and eating right, I suggest GPP (general physical preparedness) exercises like shoveling dirt, car pushing, and some sandbag work. Maybe work with a barbell but since you're a newb and there is a learning curve you can opt to stick to the easy stuff. Also, find heavy things that may or may not be barbells. Pick them up, then put them down. Repeat.

As for the job, you will either get stronger and adapt to the demands of the job, get put on a job more suited for you (machine operation). After doing construction projects (roofing, building, flooring...) the lifting is the easy part. It's all the little bits of the labor that are annoying.

He should come over and help me build a new deck and backyard fence then.