Few good workout days

kknitter

Hi All,

I would really appreciate if anyone could throw some light on this.
I workout 5 days a week. 4 days of approx 20 min Cross trainer, 10 to 15 mins Cycling and 15 to 20 mins of weights. and one day of 30 mins spinning class.Well some days the above can vary in time. Some days I wont have time to do Cycling.

I started working out 8 months back. But since 2 months I can just have 2 days a week of good workout i.e. keep up with the above routine, I am very tired the other 3 days i.e. wont be able to complete my usual cardio. I am ok with weights, but wont be able to get through the cardio for other 3 days.
After 8 months I was hoping my fitness level would have increased. But it's not increased that much. I am not sure if 8 months is enough time to increase fitness, i know people workout for years to really have high fitness level.

I am not sure how to improve my other 3days of workout.
Forgot to mention, I am 29 yrs old female weighing 61 kgs, 5 feet 7 inches tall. My aim is to increase fitness and toned body.
Any suggestions/reasons for this are welcome.

Thanks a lot

deegs

How often do you deload?

And how do you know your fitness hasn't changed?
Is it based on personal feelings or some benchmark (fitness test, or time etc.)
How will you know when you have achieved your fitness goal?

squod

Your diet could be holding you back. Not eating enough, sleeping enough, not finding the gym fun etc.

Take a look into doing something different maybe. Thought of taking up a sport?

kknitter

Excuse my ignorance deegs, but what does deload mean?
Well, no, I didnt do any fitness test, but improved fitness I mean, the higher level of cross trainer you can do and without taking a break the time you can do cardio...
By achieving fitness goal I meant, able to run/ working out on cross trainer for say 30 mins without being completely exhausted. Thats just the basic test i mean. I know very vague...

kknitter

Thank you squod for your reply. I do like going to the gym.. so I am assuming that's not the problem. eating enough? well i havent counted my calories intake but I eat at regular intervals and enough to not to feel hungry. I have 10 pistachios and 5 almonds daily in addition to fruits and regular meals.

leggit

kknitter wrote: »

Thank you squod for your reply. I do like going to the gym.. so I am assuming that's not the problem. eating enough? well i havent counted my calories intake but I eat at regular intervals and enough to not to feel hungry. I have 10 pistachios and 5 almonds daily in addition to fruits and regular meals.

exactly!!!

I'd assume that you're doing too much and try cutting down to 4 days for a while to see how you feel but your routine doens't sound that exhaustive but it would depend on level of effort.

Other reasons could be, not eating enough, bored of routine, sleep, lots of different factors to condsider really but you should try and change certain aspects to see if it garners results.

Instead of competely lower body cardio, why don't you try rowing one day instead of cycling and cross trainer? Also, try splitting your weights into upper body one day, lower body the next day. This will give different muscle groups time to recover while working other ones.

deegs

kknitter wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance deegs, but what does deload mean?
Well, no, I didnt do any fitness test, but improved fitness I mean, the higher level of cross trainer you can do and without taking a break the time you can do cardio...
By achieving fitness goal I meant, able to run/ working out on cross trainer for say 30 mins without being completely exhausted. Thats just the basic test i mean. I know very vague...

No problem, its discussed here (and a few other threads / webpages)
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055632164

Important for muscles in strenght training, maybe not so much for your routine, but there are lots of other positive reasons to take a break from your routine, espcially after 8 months. Short break (a week?) then start fresh?

Many different elements to fitness, and many different training plans to achieve your goals. Many different ways to get where you want?

30minutes at [what intensity level] would be a pretty good goal.
How close can you get to it now?

Have you talked to a personal trainer about a plan that suits you? Might be overkill, but maybe what you are doing is helping you in other ways (like body composition / toning etc) and is not best for your fitness goals etc (its possible to do both but maybe its not the routine your on).

I dunno, diet is also pretty important as you really need fuel to improve fitness levels, which may seem at odds with body composition changes.

Sounds like a change of diet could help the body, and maybe more variety in the workout and intensity levels could help fitness.

The option of sport as mentioned above is another great idea as its exercise desguised as fun!

But I would suggest being more specific with your goals. Give yourself a time period to achieve this particular goal and have sub goals along the way. As the time goes by you can keep a training log and figure out for yourself what works and what doesnt... try to keep introducing small changes to your plan and diet and keep track of if they make positive or negative (or no) improvements.

squod

kknitter wrote: »

Thank you squod for your reply. I do like going to the gym.. so I am assuming that's not the problem. eating enough? well i havent counted my calories intake but I eat at regular intervals and enough to not to feel hungry. I have 10 pistachios and 5 almonds daily in addition to fruits and regular meals.

+1 to whoever said rowing. Also at this time of year outdoor activity is so important. A ten minute lunchtime walk lets you absorb whatever natural daylight there is.

Kevin Duffy

8 months is plenty of time to see a noticable difference, but your programme doesn't seem very challenging or varied. Obviously it depends on what you do in the time, but 15 mins of weight training is probably not much work unless you're giving it socks. You also have to make sure the weight training has the right balance.
Maybe have a look at a more intense and comprehensive programme by doing a couple of sessions with a trainer, or doing something like crossfit, or maybe finding a sport that will push you.

Go through your diet with a critical eye too, 'cos what you've said about it here suggests you put little thought into it - a few nuts a day in addition to "regular" meals really means very little. Perhaps you've given it more thought than you've said here, but if not, work out your calorie, carb, fat, protein and micronutrient requirements, 'cos that's a bigger part of what you're looking for than training. Have a lok at the stikies in this forum.

You've given it 8 consistent months - fair play, now it seems like a good time to start getting more of what you want out of the next 8. Good luck with it.

Barry.Oglesby

deegs wrote: »

How often do you deload?

And how do you know your fitness hasn't changed?
Is it based on personal feelings or some benchmark (fitness test, or time etc.)
How will you know when you have achieved your fitness goal?

Srsly? Have you looked at the programme the OP is doing? There really is no need for deload.

deegs

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Srsly? Have you looked at the programme the OP is doing? There really is no need for deload.

Ya I said that to her....

Deegs wrote:

Important for muscles in strenght training, maybe not so much for your routine, but there are lots of other positive reasons to take a break from your routine, espcially after 8 months. Short break (a week?) then start fresh?

I think a break after 8 months of the same routine is a good idea? Sorry if you don't. You don't have to lift heavy to benefit from a deload. A change to the intensity and volume can still be beneficial for the op.

rock27

Give yourself a goal such as running a half-marathon or something like that, something that you can actually track you're progress.
Just make you're training trackable, 2k on a rowing m/c for example for time and try to beat that next week, etc, etc.
Doing the same thing day in day out will suck the life out of you if you're not aiming for something.
Apart from that as said by others review you're diet make sure you're getting enough kcal, enough sleep..

temmecash

If you have been doing the same workout for 8months your body is probably sick to teeth of performing the same routine :eek:. One of the main components of fitness is overload , Your body adapts to the stress you put it under and while in the beginning this workout was challenging, after a couple of months of the same routine your body can carry out this workout with ease. It sounds to me like you have lost motivation as the workout has become a choir and not a challenge, speak with some of the instructors in your gym and get a new program and change it up every 4-6 weeks to keep getting gains. 8 months is plenty of time to get fit best of luck with it

kknitter

Thank you all for your input. I agree with almost everything everyone's posted.
I would speak to the trainer tomorrow and get a new routine, sounds good to me. I would try and keep the track of the calorie intake as well. May be that's the problem here.

Really appreciate all your replies (The reason I love the forum, people are so ready to help )

kknitter

Thank you leggit, yes, I will try rowing instead of cycling... I did think initially I was doing too much of lower body workout (but ignored it )

Barry.Oglesby

deegs wrote: »

Ya I said that to her....

I think a break after 8 months of the same routine is a good idea? Sorry if you don't. You don't have to lift heavy to benefit from a deload. A change to the intensity and volume can still be beneficial for the op.

yes I see that now. Apologies, I didn't read down. Rookie internet mistake.

I would say that the 20mins cross trainer, 20mins bike, 20 mins weights thing is your bog standard gym trainer programme in any case, has very little effect on body composition after a period of about a few weeks and is just handed out out of laziness/that's what everyone else is doing.

kknitter

Hi All,

Just to update you all. Thank you very much for all your replies.

According to your suggestion, I spoke to the trainer to in the gym, she gave me new workout plan which includes 10 mins warm up cardio, 30 mins weights (Squats, lunges, Shoulder press, back extensions, hip abd +add, leg press, abs workout, bicep curls, triceps, chest press), after that 10 min cool down cardio and then 5 mins strecting.

I will continue with this new one for some time and see how it goes.
She told that may be I was overdoing the cardio which was causing the tiredness, hence try this new one for some time and see how it goes. I will continue with one day a week of spinning and she recommended to workout 4 days a week instead of 5 days, as it seems I was overdoing (not sure though as I like going to gym).

Any feedback is welcome

Regards