Could someone please critique my strength training regimen? I feel like it isn't enough...but I can't afford to go to the gym or find a personal trainer, so I'm basing everything off of online research. I've read through stumptuous.com, which has aroused my suspicions that my routine isn't conducive to strength gains.

I'm 130 lbs and interested in building a moderate amount of muscle so that when I shed a couple of fat pounds I'll be nice and toned. I have a medium-large frame (for a 5'2" chick) and an hourglass shape (well, without these extra pounds) so the muscular look is essentially what I'd like to obtain as I don't mind being curvaceous...I just don't want to be skinny-fat anymore!

Here is my routine, which is done entirely at home with 5lb dumbells and resistance bands:

EDIT: Based on the feedback below I've omitted some of these and added new ones. New techniques are in bold, old techniques that I want to take out are in italics. Stuff in normal font will stay

Legs:
-Squats (10 lbs) 4 sets of 20
- Sumo Squat (10 lbs) 4x 20
- Side Lunges (10 lbs) 4x 20
-Rear Leg Lifts (bodyweight) 4 sets of 30
-Lying Side Leg Lifts (5 lbs) 4 sets of 20

Abs:
- Planks 5x 60sec (or however long I can per rep)
-Weighted crunches (5lbs) 4 sets of 20
-Diagonal crunches (bodyweight) 4 sets of 30
-Seated oblique twists (5lb weight) 4 sets of 20
-Double leg lifts (bodyweight) 4 sets of 20

Arms/Upper Back/Chest:
-Double deltoid flies (5lbs each) 4 sets of 8 (OW!)
-Tricep extension (5lb) 4 sets of 10 (OW!)
- Rows (red band) 4x 10

- Pushups 4x ??
- Shoulder Press (5lbs) 4x ??
- Chest Press (red band) 4x ??
-Bicep curls (10 lbs each) 4 sets of 10



(My hope one day is to get the right equipment to do back exercises...)

Sometimes I'll do a muscle group all at once, with about a 2 minute rest between sets, other times I'll do a circuit where ill go something like squats-crunches-squats-crunches so that the 2 minute rest is essentially taken up by the next exercise.

My primary reason for doubt is that I'm not working till failure except on the arm workouts...I get a bit of a burn on all of them after my first set, but I'm not about to collapse until the very last set.

I've been doing these for about 2 weeks...it feels good and I'm breaking a bit of a sweat but I don't want to be wasting my time! Do I need to kick it up a notch?

ANY advice is greatly appreciated!!
EDIT: THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSES!

NEW QUESTION: Is it better to do full push-ups, even if they kill your back, or is it sufficient to do push-ups from knees with some resistance (I'm thinking resistance band across back). I'll be doing planks for core work so whatever core stability I short-change myself by doing sissy knee pushups I will try to make up by doing planks. What do you think?

NEW QUESTION#2: Would I be best served by splitting my lower-body/abs from my arms/chest/upper back into different days, or is it 'okay' to do it all in one day assuming that the next day will either be cardio or rest?

Hmmm. I'm not into critiquing routines cause I'm no expert, but some things that I see that I would drop/change are the rear and side leg lifts. Maybe do some sumo squats, hamstring/glute bridges, isometric wall sits, and lunges instead. I don't see much for shoulders or chest. For the back, do some rows. I'd drop all those crunches and do planks for the core. Oh, and pushups!!!

I'm sure someone with more experience will offer more specific help.
Good luck

Like I said ANY advice is helpful! I'm interested in doing more squats but I'm not sure how far they'll get me if I don't have heavy enough weights...are bodyweight sumo squats worthwhile? And true, I could use some more shoulder workouts. My chest is actually pretty lean right now...given that I'm quite busty to begin with the extra definition may or may not help...but I guess it can't hurt!

Hi there, once again the disclaimer of in no way am I an expert, but you might need more than 5lb dumbells. I know you're on a limited budget but in order to build muscle you're going to need more than 5lbs resistance. It seems like you want the lean muscular look instead, and that is the catch 22, in order to have visible muscles (especially in the abs) you need to lower your body fat to expose what's already there, if you want to be strong, you will need to be lifting more weight.

A couple of notes,
squats at bodyweight or while holding your 5lb dumbells on your shoulders are still effective, I would guess more so than the leg lift because the weight of your entire body distributed over both your legs is still more than that of one leg plus five pounds.

definitely add in a shoulder press, it can be done with the equip you have and will help in your shoulders and your upper back.

You probably don't need as much ab work as you're doing. Devoting time to the abs will not make them more visible without that drop in fat percentage. The time you put in to that can be put in to stretching or a warm up run/walk if you want.

You're in luck. I AM an expert. Well - I'm a relative expert - which means I know more than my relatives.

Here is what I would suggest. Go to Walmart. They sell this crappy little weight set for $20 which has the ugliest goofiest looking weights you've seen. (I own a set)

There are a variety of weight routines you can use. To save time - I'd suggest combining a little cardio/hiit into your weight routine. The spartacus 2.0 workout is pretty solid. Takes 40 minutes and will work every part of your body. It's a little light on the arms so if you feel the need you can do a couple sets of curls for the biceps and arm extensions for your triceps.

Here is the workout

Soundtrack to go with workout

Don't wait until you have equipment to do back exercises! Strengthening abs while neglecting the back is not good for the health of either.

There are lots of non-equipment back exercises you can do. I have a few tried and true I fit into my routine but I don't feel expert (or relative expert hehe) enough to recommend a back regiment to someone else. Still, tons of resources out there so try to ensure you squeeze a few into your daily workout, no need to wait

On stumptuous, there are quite a few workouts on the site:
http://www.stumptuous.com/category/t.../workout_ideas

Also, there are a few books that have workouts you can do with minimal equipment such as "The New Rules of Lifting", "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" and "Body for Life". You might want to see if your library has a copy.

Things like pushups (or modified pushups) will get you a lot further than your current arm workout. You can look at various row workouts to work your back or you can look into investing into bands (they are relatively cheap) and hooking them around some high point and doing lat pull downs that way.

Things like lunges mixed in with your squats (and looking at variations of squats) would be better than things like leg lifts.

Also, what about lat exercises? Looks like you're missing both upper back in addition to lower back. Don't forget about that area! Seems like you have resistance bands- there are some good lat exercises available with bands- check YouTube

WOWWW Thank you for all the replies! To address everyone who took the time to give me feedback:

Done and done! I looked up the exercises on EXRX and replaced my leg lifts with some other types of squats, and added a shoulder press. I'm wondering if that'd effectively take the place of deltoid flies...

Ok, I'll try planks as mentioned by someone else. I definitely know I need to lose the fat to see the definition, but I didn't want there to be nothing there to work with!

Duly noted, thank you!!!

I do a bit of HIIT on my off days...I'm currently working up my work capacity. I'm extremely shy and don't enjoy working out in public places/outside, so I've taken to doing an interval routine with burpees indoors. I warm up for a couple of minutes, then alternate sets of 10 burpees (forcing myself to remain at a constant tempo) then 30 seconds of light jogging in circles or in place or kick-backs depending on how much my quads are burning. I absolutely love it, I'm already seeing huge gains in my vital capacity, and in 2 weeks I've gone from barely being able to complete 4 cycles to pushing through 6. My goal is to get up to 15 minutes, and beyond (with warm-up and cooldown). I used to be a martial artist so I prefer high-impact cardio to long-drawn out and boring cardio sessions.

I'll definitely look into it. I want to try doing deadlifts but I don't have enough weight to do them (yet!)

I added rows and pushups, I can also do some lat-targetting single-arm extensions with resistance bands if I don't feel like the rows are doing enough.

I've definitely noticed the 'New Rules' philosophy being discussed on the boards here, so I'll be looking into it.
Added push-ups. I hate how they make my lower back feel, but I suppose that'll go away once I gain overall strength. Do you think it's worthwhile at all to try maybe pushups from knees, but with added resistance? I could put bands across my back to make me work harder without putting me in lower back pain...

I have been doing P90X for a month now and I'm still doing my push ups on my knees for the most part. Even so, I'm seeing changes in my arms and core from it. So, I would definitely think sticking with your knees is fine. Then as you strengthen you can switch to your toes. You can keep making it harder by putting your feet on a chair, or by staggering your hands, or by bring your knees in between push ups... so many options!

I know you're on a budget... but for $20 at CVS you can purchase the Iron Gym. It doesn't work in everyone's doorways, so that's the caveat. It works at my home, though, and it is an AMAZING workout. After one month I can do a solid 3 unassisted pull ups, lol. But, you can use a chair to assist yourself. It is a FANTASTIC back and arms workout.

If pushups are hurting your lower back, then your form is probably compromised. Work on just holding the plank position and keep your body tight and rigid. No swagging of the back. Think of a straight line from the top of your head to your feet. Don't do anything that's going to hurt you.

Original Q: Up the weights and lower the reps. Keep researching different lifts to mix it up and keep the body balanced.

Push up Q: It is better to have good form and a full range of motion so knee push ups are fine. Just do more of them.

New Q #3: To each his own on that one. Time is often a deciding factor. If you have 90 minutes 3x wk, do full body. If you have 40 min every single day, you can split it up. Just make sure to rest that muscle group the next day.

Keep in mind there are experts in the field that do things differently so sometimes info seems to contradict. The most important principals for weight lifting are:
Overload - make sure you fatigue the muscle enough.
Form - make sure you are doing it correctly
Range of Motion - lift a weight that you can do the entire range correctly for 8-10 reps
Recovery - rest the muscle 1 minute in between sets and rest the muscle for 48 hours between work outs.

You can also do your pushups on an incline or steps to build you up. If your back is hurting, then I'm guessing your back is sagging a bit. Doing on knees is fine but I find my form is better when I'm on an incline.

Thanks for giving it to me straight, you guys! I kicked my own butt with HIIT tonight...I'll be trying the new routine tomorrow and will let you know what my reps come to on the new techniques!

So sad to be talking about not being able to do push-ups and pull-ups. About 7 years ago I was able to do 100 real push-ups in a single clip with no breaks, and could do 15 pull-ups. That's what I had to do for my black belt test...and now look at me!!

I do have one last question--I really want to incorporate deadlifts, but I don't have the equipment. Rather than go out and buy something only The Governator would get use out of, what's a good, safe weight for someone my size to start deadlifting?

I'm sure you'll get differing opinions on how much weight you can safely deadlift.
I asked on a mostly guy forum once and they told me that half your bodyweight 'should' be safe.
I went through a brief deadlifting period but have since stopped.