gym regime advice

hot fuss

Hi there,

Just looking for an advice on my gym routine.. I'm looking to tone up/lose weight or both!

At the moment I'm going three times a week and.. jogging for 25 minutes on the treadmill (about 4k), rowing for 1000m and doing 3 sets of 12 on the bench press, leg press and lat pull down - this takes about 45 minutes in total.

I also cycle for an hour five times a week.

Do you think I need to add/take away/vary anything in the gym workout?

Thanks

comad

I'll make a couple of points.

1. I reckon you'll get bored of that very easy, vary your workouts
2. You should try something like
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=795366
3. Your diet is way more important than what u do in the gym. Read the sticky's on what to eat or have a look at
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=243tdawg2

rubadub

You should definitely do the weights before the cardio, you will be exhausted otherwise and not lift to your true ability and hence not stimulate muscle growth enough. If you are limiting yourself to only 3 exercises then at leadt add in squats and deadlifts but probably on alternative days, but get more variation in there, don't just do ones you like.

How long are you in the gym altogether? 25+45mins or only 45mins 3 times a week.

If I was you I wouldnt bother with cardio in the gym at all, I would just do heavy weights for that time (even if it is 70mins), you are probably getting enough cardio from the cycling if you are going fast enough.

hot fuss

Thanks for the tips..

I take your point about varying machines, which I will definitely start doing.

I do want to stick to cardio in the gym though. I don't want to bulk up which I feel would happen if I did that many weights/heavy weights... don't want to look like a man

Thanks

rubadub

hot fuss wrote:

I don't want to bulk up which I feel would happen if I did that many weights/heavy weights... don't want to look like a man

Wont happen, simply not physically possible unless you are taking sick amounts of steroids and working out for hours every single day. If you ever did get "too big" you can simply stop lifting and the muscle reduces in size again. The biggest you could ever hope to get naturally would be something like those women you see on late night TV doing ads for abdominser gimmicks or other dodgy machines. Most women you see that you would consider "toned" are most probably lifting big weights.

hot fuss

Good to know.

Someone told me it's better to life light weights quickly for more reps, than pushing yourself with heavy weights. Is this correct?

rubadub

hot fuss wrote:

Good to know.

Someone told me it's better to life light weights quickly for more reps, than pushing yourself with heavy weights. Is this correct?

Light weights quickly at high reps is really just cardio, think of what cycling is, pushing a force quickly for many reps, walking is pretty much the same, so moving your arms quick will make you lose weight but not really build much muscle, otherwise the shelf packers in tescos would be walking around like hercules.
High reps, low weight can build endurance. Low reps, high weight can build strength.
I lift to loose fat and maintain my weight. The more muscle you have the higher your metabolism is so you can eat more each day. I like my food, only want to workout 3 hours a week, want to maintain a normal weight and am not that concerned about being strong (e.g. a fly weight boxer wants to be strong at a low weight so wants strong but small muscles). My main focus is muscle growth simply to add more muscle which allows me to still eat a lot while not putting on fat. For this I use the highest weight I can manage for 8-12 reps, 3 sets.
I have been lifting heavy for almost a year now and to look at me you would probably not guess I lift at all even though I have added muscle, as a woman you would put less muscle than me in a year doing the same lifting. A lot of people seem to think you will erupt like the incredible hulk after lifting weights. It takes many years of very hard training to get "too big".

If you are on a calorie controlled diet you also risk loosing muscle along with fat. Doing heavy weight lifting on a calorie contolled diet will really just maintain your muscle, might add just a very small amount more muscle, but you will loose fat. Remeber muscle takes up about 1/3 the volume of fat. If you went on a diet with no exercise and lost 14lb, then 10lb could be fat and 4lb could be lost muscle. If you then started to eat the same you would put on the 14lb again, but this time it would be 14lb of fat. This means you weigh the same as before, but have 4lb extra of fat, the fat takes up more space so you actually end up fatter (bigger volume same weight) than you started. Also the fat is added to more "undesireable areas" than muscle will be.

Weight lifting is important for strong bones for women too, fights osteoporosis etc.

Try searching on google.
http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&q=female+bodybuilding+myths

davyjose

rubadub wrote:

Light weights quickly at high reps is really just cardio, think of what cycling is, pushing a force quickly for many reps

I think this is why it's ideal for a lot of people though, particularly women, because it engages the muscles whilst raising heartrate. Certainly, for my money, a lot more effective than going through the motions on a threadmill 3 times a week.

hot fuss

Rubadub,

Thanks a million for that advice. That makes perfect sense now. I really don't have much of a clue about weights but it sounds like I need to change up to heavier weights if I am to expect any results from weight machines over time.

I'll stick to my cardio too, but vary weight machines.

Thanks

rubadub

Originally Posted by rubadub
Light weights quickly at high reps is really just cardio, think of what cycling is, pushing a force quickly for many reps

davyjose wrote:

I think this is why it's ideal for a lot of people though, particularly women, because it engages the muscles whilst raising heartrate. Certainly, for my money, a lot more effective than going through the motions on a threadmill 3 times a week.

This is very true, most peoples cardio workouts consist of just leg work- walking, jogging, cycling. Some might neglect specificially exercising the upper body completely. Some will jog as their sole form of exercise, no weights or anything else.

hot fuss is doing 5 hours cycling a week, so is probably getting in enough cardio. No harm doing light upper body weight work as a form of cardio instead of this. I cycle about 5-6 hours a week too, but this is functional, i.e. I am cycling to work. If I was doing it simply for exercise then I would probably vary it and do some upper body cardio work. I have started doing pushups on my off days.