After leading a pretty sedentary life for the past 10 years (extremely sedentary for the past 3 years), I am starting to realize how horribly unfit I am. I am 31, and although I am not overweight, I am extremely weak. In the past when I was better at exercising, I focused on cardio but never on strength training. Any suggestions for a complete newbie? I really am basically starting at level 0. I have very little upper body and core strength, which I would like to change. Also might be helpful to mention that I am female.
How long do you think it would take me to reach a reasonable level of fitness? I can commit to working out 3 days a week and cleaning up my diet. Thanks in advance for any advice!
What's your definition of fitness?
I'd focus on creating habits and getting better every day more than I'd focus on achieving some level of fitness. Partly because your goals maybe way under/overshooting what you're capable of, and partly because your goals may totally change once you get there!
As for what you should do, my biggest recommendation is this: do whatever keeps you active! I'd love to have everyone do lots of Olympic lifting and play 12 different sports, but that's not practical. The advice of basically "the decent program you stick to is better than the great program you don't do" is very true. That said, if you were my best friend, here's what I'd vote for. If you can afford it, I'd find a trainer of some sort who can teach you compound barbell lifts (squat/deadlift/press/bench/and throw in some pullups). This may be heresy in the eyes of some around here, but a crossfit gym that has a distinct, dedicated lifting program would be a great option. I say this for two reasons:
1) crossfit gyms are used to teaching women how to squat/deadlift/etc.
2) crossfit gyms tend to be incredibly supportive places.
You can try learning this stuff with a gold's gym membership and a lot of hours on youtube, but I think lifting is one of those skills that's way easier/safer to learn with a teacher. A good teacher will both show you how to do the lifts and put you on a program to get stronger pretty quickly. There may be some conditioning to go along with it, but it's not 100% necessary. You could probably do nothing but lift for 6 months to a year+ and constantly improve. From there? You'll know a lot more, possibly use lifting as a gateway drug into other things, and the world will be your oyster.
Does that help? Happy to explain any of that further if it was jargony.