I know that both cardio and resistance training are important for weight loss, body strength and general well being. I walk for about an hour most days, and have been steadily losing weight.
Now, I want to/need to incorporate weights. I have a bowflex that I do see results with and enjoy when I use it.
My question is: Should I walk for about half an hour ( or use a cardio centered dvd )on days I do weights or should I just omit the walk on my weight days? I"m also concerned about doing too much with my legs on 'leg days'...
How does one go about building an exercise program?
Thanks in advance for any advice, opinion and help you can give me. I'm sure this isn't as difficult as I'm making it, but getting started can be the most difficult.
Last edited by Optical Goddess; 09-23-2007 at 04:29 PM.
Reason: spelling
Hi there!
I was wondering the same things a while ago. When I joined my new gym, I decided to try the free trial personal trainer. On my first day I tried to learn as much as possible about all those same questions because I knew I really couldnt afford to have one full time ()
What surprised me was that he told me I was doing too much cardio and not enough strength training. (I was doing 45 cardio and 15 weights) He told me it should be more 50/50. If you work out a total of four hours a week, two should be used solely for muscle toning. He also said that if you break it up by doing all cardio on one day and all strength training the next, you DO need to warm up with at least 15 min of cardio activity on the weights day to get your muscles properly warmed up to prevent injury
Hope this helps!
Personally, I have never warmed up with 15 minutes of cardio before I lift, and I've only been injured from lifting once- it had nothing to do with lack of warmup and everything to do with a small person attempting to use a machine sized for a 6 foot tall person.
Some warmup is great- you want to get synovial fluid into your joints and warm up your muscles, but 15 minutes of cardio would be overkill, IMO.
I think you need to look at your fitness level to answer this. I do about 45 minutes of cardio every morning before work, and lift anywhere between 4-5 days a week. Some weeks I do two leg days, one legs light (lots of balance and core along with leg exercises, and on Saturdays I do a heavy leg session. I never do cardio on heavy leg day.
It also really depends on your goals at any given time. Are you trying to build muscle? Do less cardio, but more intense, and devote more time to heavy lifting. Are you trying to maintain muscle mass and lose body fat? Keep about a 50/50 ratio. Trying to become primarily an endurance athlete with some muscle? keep the cardio high and varied and lift less.
Your body reacts differently to different types of training. You may want to train differently in different phases of your fitness pursuit. Think about what you want out of this, then design your training regimen
Thank you both for your replies. I guess I want to lose weight and tone up...nothing hardcore. As of right now, it's looking like it's going to be 50 % of cardio adn 50 % of lifting.
I just know that I feel really good when I lift, I feel strong and accomplished. Cardio isn't as fun, but I feel good when I"m done with it...
When I used to lift more, like at the Y, there were days I would warm up with some cardio and others not. I never really felt that the warm up did much good for me.
I wouldn't call myself an athlete at all right now, just a chick trying to get strong while getting small...
Hey Optical - I've got the same goal - building muscle while trying to lose weight, and I'm doing BFL (entering my 6th week, though week 5 was rough). I find that doing light cardio after I lift makes me less stiff and sore the next day, plus it has sped up my weight loss a little. It's even kind of meditative, I find, after I do a tough legs workout, to do a very easy 25 mins on the elliptical. I don't think it's a bad thing to do, though maybe in 20 years my knees will say otherwise...
Last edited by eastcoastgirl; 09-23-2007 at 09:47 PM.
Hello all,
I am going to begin again-today! I have recently purchased a home gym and really enjoy using it. I am looking for some opinions on a good starting point as far as reps and sets. I have alraedy established my maximum weight for each exercize. My goal is to improve strength and tone. I also have icorporated a 20 min elliptical warm up and 1o min cool down. Any other suggestions out there?
Hi there!
I was wondering the same things a while ago. When I joined my new gym, I decided to try the free trial personal trainer. On my first day I tried to learn as much as possible about all those same questions because I knew I really couldnt afford to have one full time ()
What surprised me was that he told me I was doing too much cardio and not enough strength training. (I was doing 45 cardio and 15 weights) He told me it should be more 50/50. If you work out a total of four hours a week, two should be used solely for muscle toning. He also said that if you break it up by doing all cardio on one day and all strength training the next, you DO need to warm up with at least 15 min of cardio activity on the weights day to get your muscles properly warmed up to prevent injury
Hope this helps!
That's great to know. If I keep to the goal of 120 minutes of cardio a week, it catches up to my amont of strength training which is 120, too. ^_^
What type of home gym?
What exercises are you currently doing?
When you say you have determined your maximum are you referring to a 1 rep max, a 1 rep max estimated from higher reps, a higher rep max, or just a maximum that you feel comfortable lifting now?
You say you are getting ready to start again. How much past lifting experience do you have?
What is your workout schedule and split?
Also, since your goal is strength, which usually means higher loads, It would also be best to know what age group you fall into and whether you have any present or past physical conditions or injuries.
All of these questions are going to factor into any rep/set advice I would give. For example for your goal of strength, if you have had a good deal of past lifting experience and have done maximal strength training in the past, I may advise incorporating a lot of lifts at or over 90% of your 1RM and trying to establish new 3RM on a couple of main exercises over the course of the training week. However, if you are somewhat experienced but not quite ready for this intensity, a 5x5 may be more appropriate. These would be on the main exercises. On the assistance, exercises, we would keep sets lower and reps higher.
And further, If you are relatively inexperienced, even training for strength, I probably would keep the reps higher because you need to establish a base first, making sure the joints and connective tissue are ready for the intensity that comes with strength training and depending on your level of experience, may suggest starting with a 3x10 or even a 2x12.
All this is a long-winded way of saying, "More information please".
I understand free weights are probably optimal, but I do feel more comfortable on this equipment. It is very user friendly. It is a simple universal gym which allows me to do about 13 different exercises. Upright and seated rows, bicep curls, press, pull-downs, butterfly?, leg extension, leg curl, ab crunch, and a few others I can't seem to come up with right now.
I think I mis-spoke when I said strength. I guess what I really mean is stamina/endurance. I want my body to feel strong enough to climb stairs or lift things, without my muscles feeling exausted. And I am not getting any younger. I know weight bearing exercize is good for the old bones.
When I said I have determined my maximum, I mean the maximum weight I can possibly lift or push in 1 rep. I read that I should determine that so I know what percentage of that max I should use for my reps. (40%-60% to tone??)
I understand that I need to weight train a muscle only every other day to allow it to rest and repair. I work 13 hours M/Tu/F. So I haven' quite figured out my sched yet. It is all a bit confusing. Thank you for your input!
With the available equipment, stated goals, work schedule, etc. my recommendation, FWIW, would be to start with doing 2 full body sessions doing each of the 13 exercises available to you for 2 sets of 12 reps starting at 70% of your 1RM. See how your body responds to the different exercises over the first 5 or 6 weeks. If you see your body seems to really responds well to some and others seem to do nothing for you, or worse cause real pain{as opposed to soreness}(you will stop doing these immediately), you can start to build your future program around the productive exercises and weed out the ineffective ones. Over time as the number of exercises reduces, you may go to 3 sets but for your situation/goals, I think 12-15 reps seems appropriate.
Thank you for your suggestion! Do you feel the cardio warm up/cool down is reasonable? isWhat is the (I) in FWIW?
FWIW (for what it's worth)
I think the cardio is reasonable, although, personally I'd flip it and do 5-10 minutes as warm-up before the resistance training and then do the 20-25 minutes afterwards.
Balancing cardio and weights ( i.e. I'm clueless)
) 
Thank you for your input!
