I've been reading a lot of debate about how much exercise is enough and at what rate, etc.
In college P.E. I was told a something that keeps being contradicted on this site: You shouldn't do above what you're conditioned to do. For instance, I'm 5'6" and 222 lbs, I should not be trying to RUN or do INTERVAL TRAINING b/c I could seriously hurt myself at this stage (knees esp.!). In this class we created sample exercise programs based on our stats and mine (15-20 pounds ago...) was to start with WALKING and LIGHT resistance training with, of course, stretches and stuff for flexibility.
Here, I've read stuff like you HAVE to do interval training to lose fat, etc.
Was the info I recieved in P.E. outdated or something? I understand that science is always changing...

How do you improve what you're "conditioned" to do, if you don't push yourself beyond what you're "conditioned" to do?

I'm not trying to be flip here, but merely pointing out the logical fallacy in this approach. If you only do what you're used to doing, the body will eventually get more efficient at doing it. So in effect, if you keep doing exactly the same thing, at the same level of intensity, you will in essence regress, not progress.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful about how much to push yourself. For example, you don't just jump from a walking routine right into HIIT. You start with some lesser intensity interval training, for example. Similarly, with weight training, you just add a little weight at a time. The idea is to change up your routine just enough so that you are pushing yourself.

And by the way, that doesn't mean pushing yourself ALL the time. You have to rest, too.

I agree with Tom. BUT...My biggest thing is listen to your body. There is no reason for you to wake up sore after a workout. What your body is telling you is you over did it. I like to say wake up with awareness. You are aware you worked out but you can get out of bed and go on with your busy day. How do you get to this point... well you have to start somewhere. If you are using light weights I would suggest going up in weight but then again listen to your body. If you can only complete 6 or 8 repetitions in good form and your muscles say enough... put those weights down and pick up the lighter weights and finish your exercise until the muscles are fatigued. The next time you do that specific exercise you will be able to add in 1 or 2 more repetitions.

As far as aerobic activity walking verses running... start out walking and let the body get used to it. Warm up and walk 10 minutes then jog for 20 to 30 seconds and see how that feels. go back to your walk for a few minutes then add in 45 seconds to a full minute of jogging again. walk for 3-5 minutes and then go for another minute of jogging. If you build the body up slowly you will avoid injury and you will be training your body for future running.

The next time you walk instead of 1 minute try for a minute and a half to 2 minutes. with walking inbetween. Any client that I train that has more than 20 lbs to lose I train them this way. the additional weight on the joints can be harsh. This again will prepare the body and you can avoid injury.

I hope that this helps.

Who said you have to do HIIT?

Programming should always be customized and personalized to current health status.

To lose fat you simply have to create some magnitude of calorie deficit. That can be achieved through diet alone - i.e so in theory, you never ever have to use cardio or resistance training in order to lose fat.

However, if you're a newbie, and you opted to take on cardio and weight training as well as diet changes to lose fat, common sense would suggest you would simply start off easy.

Take cardio for example - depending on what sort of cardiovascular shape you're in you might start with walking, then a combo of walking & light jogging, light jogging, jogging, jogging with mild / moderate intervals, jogging with hard intervals and then HIIT of course. So in that context, " You shouldn't do above what you're conditioned to do "makes a lot of sense in my view.

In the case of HIIT, I think it is ill-advised for anyone on this forum to suggest anyone else undertake HIIT unless they know they have established some sort of solid base of aerobic fitness first - but that's just me.

TY everyone. I understand that I have to change the intensity of my workout occasionally.

IT doesn't mean killing yourself. You can do it on the elliptical ("Thank You!" says the knees) or by walking faster then walking slower. It's just raising your RPE to where you can't say more than two words together for 30 seconds to a minute then going back down to catch your breath.