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Newbie female looking for advice on gym / fitness routine

  • 14-09-2010 8:57am
    #1
    newbie211
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    Hi I’m a newcomer here looking for some advice on a gym / fittness routine.

    My background is I’m female 31 year old, lead a fairly sedentary life in recent years, I have been working in an office based job for the last 7 years, with little or no regular exercises.
    I’m approx 5’4”, 67kg and my goal is to get physically fit, tone up and hopefully shed a few pounds.

    I joined a gym a month ago. I have been doing some treadmill work (jogging, with interval increasing pace to running) , or interval 30:30 on cross trainer, followed by jogging on treadmill ( at speed setting 7.5 ) for 25 mins, and some swimming (Im not a very strong swimmer).

    I had an assessment last Saturday where I hoped the instructor would give me a plan/ routine to work on. In particular I asked could he give me a weights routine, and a general cardio workout to include some interval training (eg 30:60, 30:30, tabita). I also wanted to learn how to properly stretch pre / post workout.
    I’m going to the gym 4 evenings a week, and plan to keep up this level of exercise.
    From reading here and other internet sources weights sessions should be completed separately to cardio , which makes sense as I presume muscles will be fatigued and will not work to their max post a gruelling cardio session.
    He seemed to contradict all of this - so I’m wondering what is correct ?
    The program he gave me (after no analysis other than putting me on a weighing scales) was:
    1. 5 min cycle warm up
    2. stretch on a stretching bike (he only gave me streches for my upper body)
    3. 15 mins on treadmill. Elevation at 3. walking pace and setting 6 (I dont think thats either miles or km - its just a setting ) and running at 9/10 setting. His advice was to run for as long as I could at that pace and drop down to a walk on when I cant run any more. My goal should be to cover as much distance as possible over the 15 mins.
    4. 12 mins on cross trainer at resistance 6 keeping my steps above 130 /min OR 12 mins on a stepper (similar settings)
    5. Followed by 4 weights machines - 3 for upper body and leg press. I should keep weighs low initially and do 3 sets of 10 reps on each machine. (ie complete all reps on each machine before moving on to the next. )
    6. do 10 x 3 crunches on mat, and 10 x 3 reverse crunches.
    7. Finish with post workout stretch on the stretch bike or a swim.


    What if any are your opinions of this workout? Should I stick to it or do you have any better ideas?

    So My questions are:
    1. Do I do my weights in a separate session to cardio (different day or one in the morning , the other in the evening) or is it ok to do it all in the same session?
    2. I read somewhere here that it is benificail to do some HIIT (eg tabita) followed by a few minutes break, and then some lower intensity cardio (eg jogging / running for 25- 30 mins) Would this be more beneficial than his (run as fast/far as you can for 15 mins ) routine ?
    3. is there any good website to show me stretches, and also some good exercises to strenghten my core.


Comments

  • #2
    Transform
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,394 ✭✭✭Transform


    read this first then post questions -

    fat loss 101 -

    </mod snip> personal business link removed.

    this video on core work and importance of stretching will help lots also -

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTvBNEDg_oM


  • #3
    newbie211
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭newbie211


    Thanks for the reply Transform.

    I read your Fat Loss 101 article before I posted. In fact the reason I did post was from reading that article and others like it that.
    As I said, I had an assessment with a so called 'expert' on Saturday which seemed to contradict all that information.

    What I am looking for is a weekly routine - should I do weights with every session (as advised), or dedicate one or two sessions per week to just weights. What weights should I use?


  • #4
    Transform
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,394 ✭✭✭Transform


    How often are you going to be training? If its say 5 days a week the having weights only days is an option.

    If its 2-3 days it might be a mix

    There are and endless selection of exercises and the weight to use for each really depends on your current strength - start with what you can manage and work up


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