Mixing it up and avoiding burnout

2 Hell and Back

Mixing it up and avoiding burnout

I am doing circuit training classes for an hour on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.

To complement this and to help improve; I was thinking:

1. Do running/jogging (hilly) and stretching (giggs yoga dvd) on a Tuesday and Thursday. Might do the jogging on a Saturday or Sunday too.
2. Work on abs, pullups, rowing and some other stuff in the gym on a Saturday.
3. Rest-day Sunday

Could I do abs-work on the Tuesday/Thursday too? Or do you definitely need a rest-day for this?

How can I build on my strength?

Could I do some extra weights work on a Monday/Wednesday night?

I have some weights and barbell/dumbbells at home so don`t necessarily have to go gym again.

Hardonraging

2 Hell and Back wrote: »

Mixing it up and avoiding burnout

I am doing circuit training classes for an hour on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.

To complement this and to help improve; I was thinking:

1. Do running/jogging (hilly) and stretching (giggs yoga dvd) on a Tuesday and Thursday. Might do the jogging on a Saturday or Sunday too.
2. Work on abs, pullups, rowing and some other stuff in the gym on a Saturday.
3. Rest-day Sunday

Could I do abs-work on the Tuesday/Thursday too? Or do you definitely need a rest-day for this?

How can I build on my strength?

Could I do some extra weights work on a Monday/Wednesday night?

I have some weights and barbell/dumbbells at home so don`t necessarily have to go gym again.

What are you trying to achieve over all ? or do you have a goal in mind ?

2 Hell and Back

Hardonraging wrote: »

What are you trying to achieve over all ? or do you have a goal in mind ?

Overall just lose fat and add a bit of muscle. I`m not to pushed about getting big. I enjoy doing a run around a mountain where I live, theres a good route thats about 8.5km and a serious amount of elevation in certain parts. There is an event called Hell & Back that I would like to run a good time in (this involves some obstacles that upper body strength would be a benefit too - big walls and haystacks etc)

During the circuit training classes when doing the exercises I want to gradually increase the weight I am using. But at the same time I need to hurry up as the other guys finish a bit quicker (but are they doing the full reps!?)

We do anything from 12 to 25 reps so its more about endurance than overall strength.

I am terrible at the ab exercises like crunches and also not great at pressups end up doing the half pressup (knees resting).

We also do this exercise called burpees which is mayhem :pac:

Hardonraging

There's a few fundamental rules with weight loss, muscle growth etc , and it all comes down to food initially, you wont grow in size, if you dont eat enough, to start with.

Secondly, if you want to loose fat, you would be wise to reduce your cardio to a warm up session, and maybe one full session a week, i'd have concerns about cortisol level's being too high due to said cardio, altho it does sound like you are doing HIIT related stuff sometimes ? is that right ?

2 Hell and Back

Hardonraging wrote: »

There's a few fundamental rules with weight loss, muscle growth etc , and it all comes down to food initially, you wont grow in size, if you dont eat enough, to start with.

Secondly, if you want to loose fat, you would be wise to reduce your cardio to a warm up session, and maybe one full session a week, i'd have concerns about cortisol level's being too high due to said cardio, altho it does sound like you are doing HIIT related stuff sometimes ? is that right ?

HIIT as in High intensity workout you mean? Well we do a round of different exercises, for example

1. Sprint 250m
2. 20 overhead squats
3. 20 Thrusters
4. 20 pushups
5. 20 burpees
6. 20 airsquats
7. Sprint 250m (and so on, do as many rounds as possible, so its pretty intense as you don`t want to fall way behind the others so ya tend to push yourself)

Hardonraging

Oh so essentially Cardio circuit 3 times a week, and you want to gain a bit of muscle ..

Long and the shot of it is if you want to gain size, in relation to muscle, you need to be in a calorific surplus, and you need to be in a weights program.

Even the simplest of changes will give you results, but right now, cardio HIIt 3 times a week, sure that will keep you lean, and prob with still fat around your mid section ..

Start small, enough cardio, eat more, light weights, expect to feel sore after, if you're not sore, you're not working hard enough ..