Hello, I have been lurking here for a while, just wanted to say everyone here is so nice and helpful. I've learned so much already. Anyways, I have just started to lift seriously (well I'm trying to at least) and just have a few questions. I have been spending many hours at stumptous.com and am trying to make it work for me. How do I know how much to lift starting out? Yesterday, I did upper body, and today, I'm not sore AT ALL. Should I be? Do I need to increase my weights? Add more reps? I want to feel like I did something! I do this routine 3 times per week, for two weeks now. Ill just list upper body here, cos Im definaly feeling the lower body

dumbell press 3x12 @10
lat pull 3x12 @40
seated shoulder press 3x12 @10
tricep pulley exercise with the rope? does that make sense? 3x12 @30
Dumbell curl 1x12 @10, 1x10@8, 1x6 @8 failed at six
shoulder fly 3x12 @5

I'm paying attention to form, moving slowly etc. At the end of the third set I was at failure, or very close to it on all the exercises. So, should I stick with this for now? I'd apprieciate any advice, comments, insight etc.

Thanks soo much!

verna

Hmmmmmm...how much to start out with when lifting. That's a question that comes up a lot...and it's pretty much unanswerable since everyone is different.

I'd say, if you can lift a certain weight more than 12 reps, it's time to move up. For example...if you're doing bicep curls...and you're using 5 pound dumbbells, and after 12 reps you aren't aching (going to failure)...it's time to move up to the 7.5 or 8 pound weights. And so on...

Also, just a word of advice...you shouldn't be doing the same routine three times a week - you need to give each muscle group a chance to rest. Additionally, instead of lifting the same weight each set, increase the weight and lower the reps. Kind of like a pyramid set (this is why I recommend the BFL book for beginners; it's pretty much all laid out for you). If you keep lifting the same amount of weight, your muscles will quickly become accustomed to that weight and you won't make progress. There are a lot of different weight training plans out there...but I'll use BFL as an example...the splits are set out as follows each week:

Mon: Upper body workout
Tues: Cardio
Weds: Lower Body Workout
Thurs: Cardio
Fri: Upper body workout (see, your upper bod gets three days rest - gives your muscles a chance to recoup which is when you make progress)
Sat: Cardio
Sun: Rest
Mon: Lower body workout
Tues: Cardio
Weds: Upper Body Workout
Thurs: Cardio
Fri: Lower body workout

Etc...

And like I stated before...here's how I would do those sets...

Dumbbell press - 3 sets: 12 reps@ 10#, 10 reps@ 12.5#, 8 reps@ 15#, plus a drop set of 12@ 12.5#

And so on. Can you see the pattern? in each set, you increase the weight and lower the number of reps, then in the last drop set, you DROP the weight and raise the reps.

I'm sure the other gals will chime in with their thoughts.

Wow! thanks for the fast response MrsJim! hmm, I think I need to lift heavier on some of the exercises. For most of them, I dont feel challenged until the third set, the first 2 sets were fairly easy. On the dumbell curl I started at 10lbs and hit failure on the first set at 12, so my next set I switched to 8 pounders. Should I have stayed at 10, and done 2 more sets to failure? I like the pryamid idea, I think I will try that next workout. I just joined a gym last month, and this is the general plan I have been trying to stick too. Is it too much? The gym is before work and yoga after. I guess I could space out the weight traing better.

M-warm up, upper body, 20 min cardio
Tu- lower body, 20 min cardio yoga class
W- warm up, upper body, 20 min cardio
Th- lower body, 20 min cardio yoga class
Fri- warm up, upper body, 20 min cardio
Sat- 60 min cardio
Sun-outdoor activity

I do pretty active 'power' yoga. Heart rate is stays up for most of calss, so I count that as cardio. Thanks again, I can't even say how much this forum is helping me!

Hi Verna welcome to our lifting world.....

Now this is strickly MY OWN opinion, OK? I feel that you are doing too much cardio... But this is totally up to you... Some ppl on this board LOVE cardio (Like our own cardio Adrianna) ... and that's totally ok...

As for myself I prefer to do HIIT cardio for 20 minutes only 3 times/week.... (WHEN I do it that is...) You see I am the weights ... and I LOVE Yoga too!! Now I think you are going to ask me what HIIT is , am I right? Here is a link for you to read, rather than my explaining it badly : http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

Good reading....

Hi Mixerchick -

I'll jump in here with my amateur opinion...

There's a school of thought which believes that doing weights and cardio on the same day are not good - that when you're doing weights, you're doing weights and working as hard as you can, and when you're doing cardio, you do short time, hard intensity. So you can't really work 100% on both weights and cardio in the same session.

I lifted weights for quite a while (years...) without seeing a whole lot of body changes. It was only when I switched my focus from lifting weights to growing muscle that I started to see amazing changes very quickly.

If you want to grow muscle, you have to take each body part to exhaustion, then rest it for a few days (as Mrs. Jim said). So for upper body, you would do five different body parts (chest, shoulders, back, triceps, biceps) and work each of those in a pyramid set moving up to heavier weights with each 'step' until you can't lift even one more rep. Finally, you do total exhaustion of each body part with a final 12 reps, switch exercises (same body part), do another 12 reps, then rest for 5 minutes before moving onto another body part.

It's intense: you will be sore both the day after, and likely the day after that. That's why you don't try to do cardio as well, that's why you need the rest days.

There's some great info out there on how to grow muscle - you can start with the Body for Life book for basic info - and move on from there as you want to personalize your program.

For example, here's one part of my upper body program:
(for chest)

Barbell bench press:
6 kilograms * 12 reps
20 lbs. * 10 reps
10 kilograms * 8 reps
12 kilograms * 6 reps
10 kilograms * 12 reps

Incline Dumbbell press
8 kilograms * 12 reps

Congratulations on starting your weight training and joining the gym! Hope it continues to go well for you!

BethO

Thanks for the advice. I think I do too much cardio too LOL! But I do for 2 reasons, I am a recent ex-smoker and exercising hard every day helps to remid me why I CANT have another cig. and 2, cos I havce about 70 lbs to. Starting next week, Im going to re arrange my workourt schedule, and do the splits and pyramid sets you have reccomended! Hopfully, Ill be reporting back with sore muscles! Thanks again!