I would start with a full body twice a week. Jeff nippard has a good one that you can buy. But there are many floating around the internet for free that are great.

As a noob even the most basic attention to consistency and diet can get you great results for the first few months.

And to be honest, from a muscle building point of view, most people will be very happy with just the beginner results. Most of the anesthetics of a good body come from having relatively low body fat and this is best achieved from attention to diet and moderate exercise

I have the same experience of personal trainer, although I was extremely happy with mine overall. It is just expensive.

I do think a lot of people need a people-based source of motivation, whether it's a human connection such as a PT or a friend who nags you to go with them, or an upcoming sporting event you've told people about like a marathon, or an online community.

Example of the latter: I had friends who after we moved apart post-Uni did 100pushups.com for a time with a shared spreadsheet to track progress against each other. That was quite fun.

People who can David Goggins their way through without any of that are fantastic, but I don't know what their secret is. Mine have always been people-based.

I’m one of those people who goes to the gym regularly without anyone telling me to (and have seen multiple gym partners come and go). The “secret” is that I enjoy it and the gym is less than 10 minutes from my place (walking).

Yeah, I don't enjoy it at all, I'm afraid. I've even done some crossfit for a year, and at some point I was going 3 times a week. Still hated it, but I somehow managed to get some discipline and regularity behind it.

I did enjoy how it made my back feel, but then Covid hit and everything went out the window. It's really hard for me to work up the will to do it and then build up the regularity to keep doing it. I hate it too much. But I do love the result.

>I don't have a pull-up bar because I don't see the point: I couldn't for the life of my lift my own bodyweight;

Put a chair/stool in front (not under) of pullup bar, rest one leg on it - now you will be able to do at least one pullup. After couple of weeks you will be doing normal pullups. Absent great genes your organism will do anything in its power to conserve energy and resist gaining muscle mass without signaling the need for more strength. The more weight you lift the stronger the signal.

I have never tried a TRX and good luck on your journey.

I would like to add for others, you can go from 0 to pull-ups with just a bar, which I imagine is much cheaper too. I certainly did and my fitness level was minimal.

It's a case of progressions. For instance starting with negative pull-ups:

- Use a stool or just jump to the top position of a pull up

- lower yourself down with control, as slow as you can. At first this might be 1 second!

- Repeat for sets and reps

- when you hit 3 sets of 8 reps, slow down your descent another second or two

- Repeat until you've built up to 10 second reps, 3x8

At that point you should have the strength to be able to do a pull-up. You may need to ease into the technique, if so, introduce a resistance band to help train the motion, and gradually reduce your dependency on it.

> you can go from 0 to pull-ups with just a bar, which I imagine is much cheaper too.

How is a bar cheaper? It's a solid thing that needs to be attached to something solid. A TRX is just a strap you can hang on a door. (I actually want to attach mine to a wall or ceiling, which makes it a bit more complicated, and at that point, maybe I might as well go for a bar.)

Hanging from the bar with arms bent for as long as you can and doing negatives are good ways to build up to a pull-up