charlesatlas.com

Greetings,
I'm very very new to the course and I'm having some troubles. The primary trouble is that there's a lot in the world that other people pick up on without a problem and I have trouble grasping unless I get very basic information. So I may not be getting the same 'information' when reading how to do the exercises as other people get when they read them.

I've been riding a bicycle daily for over a year, and started pressing it over this summer. I can do 15 miles in an hour and remain always in my top gears, so I'm not completely out of shape. I was able to get there in part by pushing myself on the bike, but then.. on a bike you're never really pushing as hard as if you were, say, trying to lift 150 lbs, you know?

I started the program a couple of weeks ago and instantly ran into trouble with phrases like 'until tired' and 'don't strain'.

I start with the dips and noticed very quickly that while I could do 5 or 6 (breathing right and all), after stopping for 10-15 seconds, I could only do 2 or 3 the second time. Well, I'm not Mr. Atlas, so I figured I'm just building up. I decided to do one set of dips at the start, then repeat that one set at the end, after all of the other exercises (week 1).. still much fewer on the second set than on the first.

Over a week I reached 12 dips on the first try, but never that many on the second set. Now my first set has dropped back to 10. When I'm doing the last few dips my arms start to shake and I can't seem to 'make' them push the way I've been able to make my legs push on the bicycle. I'm figuring that the 'shaking arms' thing is a sign that I'm straining.

I need to build up slowly, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to how.
My idea is:
Start with 2 or 3... do it slow, breath, and basically feel at the end like I didn't really do much work. Pause 10-15 seconds, do another set and rest 10-15. Repeat as long as 2 or 3 doesn't make me breath heavily, no arm shakes, nothing like that. As soon as it feels like I'm straining at all, stop and call it good. Proceed with the rest of the exercises.

I'm game to try it if you guys think it may help.

Also, I was tempted to try such an 'easy' regimen on waking, lunch, dinner, and sleep.. perhaps pushing a very little bit 3 or 4 times a day will help me build up to being able to use a more advanced circuit like the one described in this post:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13#p64

I'm concerned about pushing myself and over-working, but neither do I want to not push at all and get nowhere.

Any help would be appreciated,

Solon