I do these chin-ups every once in a while and I've gotten pretty good at it. I used to be able to do 5 in a row, and do 3 reps of those. That's not crazy impressive or anything, but it takes a LOT of upper body strength to even do 1 chin up. That's why I've included chin-ups in my routine, it's pretty much the only thing I know.. and it seems to tire me out QUICK.
Ah, that's fine.
If you'd not be able to do any at all, then I'd not recommend directly, but you're already there, that's fine.
I do want to try more machines and other things at the gym but I really feel out of place there. I do not belong. I also dislike crowds, and this place is always teeming with people.
Check different times and days.
In my gym the Sunday noon is always empty (obviously), whereas Monday evening is always full to the max.
It can make a difference if you go directly after work, or first go home and have a break for 1-2 h. Or go in the morning and shift your work time into the evening (if that's possible for you).
Great idea! This gym here is actually the university gym. That's why I get a discount, I'm staff. I pay more than students but less than walk-ins. It's very affordable. Anyway, they seem to have a lot of different classes, so I could probably find an "intro to the gym for morons like warpus" type class to join. I've actually been also interested in self-defense and "hip hop dancing" type classes in the past, but I never really looked it up. I think they do "stuff like that". I'll look into it, we'll see what sorts of stuff I'll end up signing up for.
They should definitely have.
My gym (also Uni) has a general introduction lesson (for the machines), an introduction to free weights, and different weight lifting classes.
For general fitness also stuff like TRX or dumbbell exercise classes can help.
You will also need to figure out what type of sports guy you are, to keep your motivation.
Some people work better with different kinds of sports.
For me it seems it boils down to 5 types (haven't done any research on that though ^^)
- people who go on their own, and are happy with it (go strength training, or running on your own)
- people who need a buddy
- people who go to classes (spinning, team running, whatever)
- 1-on-1 competition (martial arts, squash, tennis)
- team sports
e.g. I can just go each day to the gym and do my workout, but I cannot be arsed to fight through an MMA lesson (despite having the power and energy) or to play a team sport. One of my acquaintances on the other hand finds the gym boring, but goes twice per week for boxing. And the student in my office goes twice per week for rugby training, but cannot be bothered to go running on their own.
So figure out how you work, that will help with the long term motivation.
EDIT: You might want to ask the gym staff for some specific exercises for the lower back.
For your hike, you'll need endurance and leg muscles, which you'll be training with probably most exercises you can think of yourself (be it running, a team sports, a martial art or plainly going to the gym). But the for the backpack you'll need back muscles. Training the upper back (shoulders and big back muscles) is also easy (e.g. the pull ups), but the lower back is a) relatively weak, in general, and b) something where you do not have many options to train it separately. This might be a weak spot, and is probably good to focus on (also given that you're sitting the whole day for your job, you should train it anyways).