advice on gym programme

sharonl

Hi all,

First time posting in this forum but I have a question that I'm sure you experienced gym goers will know the answer to.:D I've just started my gym programme after joining the gym a week or so ago, last night was my 3rd night doing the full programme that the fitness instructor gave me as follows.

10 min bike to warm up

Squats 3x15 with body bar
bicep curls 3x15 4kg DB
tricep extensions 3x15 4kg DB
crunches on swill ball 3x20
shoulder press 3x15 4kg DB
chest press 25kg 3x15
lat. pull down 25kg 3x15

10 mins treadmill intervals
10 mins cross trainer
~5 mins stretching

female, 5"4' 59kg looking just to tone up big time, increase fitness, want my muscley arms and shoulders back after 5 years away from being fit and doing weights before, am not over weight so not looking to loose much but if some goes its a bonus.

My question anyway is, if I split the sets up, for example, one set crunches followed immediately by one set bicep curls, followed by one set crunches, followed by one set bicep curls etc. until all 3 sets of each are complete, is this any less effective than doing the sets of each excercise all at once and just taking a couple of seconds break between each set or am I decreasing the effectiveness by alternating the sets. I tried alternating the sets last night and found it a much better use of the time, after doing bicep curls or something to allow my arms recover between sets while doing crunches, and then back to the second set of bicep curls untill they are finished. It meant I wasn't standing around doing nothing for a couple of seconds between sets, but if I'm decreasing the effectiveness of the excersises I'll go back to doing the 3 sets of 15 back to back for each.

...or am I totally over thinking things unnecessarily:rolleyes:

sharon

BossArky

Sounds good. Doing different exercises back to back in a circuit will keep the intensity high.