Ok, I'm looking for input on my starter routine. As you'll surmise from my signature below, my primary goal is fat loss, with muscle development a close second. My research has taught me that it's not only difficult but also improbable that I will accomplish both simultaneously -- so for that reason I'm naming current priorities. At this point I'll be happy if I can increase my strength and joint/tendon mobility somewhat and prevent muscle loss while I'm burning calories to assist with fat loss. Later, once I've made some more progress with my weight loss, I'll focus more on building muscle.

I'm going to use a Cross Bow (like the BowFlex, if you're unfamiliar with the Cross Bow,) which allows full upper body workout, squats, leg extensions, and all lat bar exercises. I'm going to do 3 days resistance training and 3 days cardio. (I've got a treadmill and an exercise bike.) I've got dumbells, too, with some huge kinda weight capacity once you load up the plates.

Ok, enough of that, I'm interested in your feedback on this initial routine. If you're familiar with James Villepigue and Hugo Rivera's book, The Body Sculpting Bible for Women, it's their Break-in Routine #2, made up of modified compound supersets (for each, 2 sets and 15-20 rep's - increased rep's to acclimate joints and muscles to resistance training and to start creating neural pathways.) This routine is to be followed for the first 6 weeks, until my body's accustomed to the movements, recruiting muscle fibers and acclimating my cardiovascular system to this type of training. After this, I'll switch routines.

Day 1
Superset 1:
Back - Dumbell Rows
Chest - Incline Dumbbell Press
Superset 2:
Shoulders - Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Calves - Standing Calf Raises
Superset 3:
Biceps - Dumbbell Curls
Triceps - Overhead Dumbbell Extensions
Superset 4:
Thighs - Dumbbell Squats
Hamstrings - Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

Day 2
Superset 1:
Thighs - Dumbbell Squats
Hamstrings - Dumbbell Lunges
Superset 2:
Thighs - Leg Extensions
Hamstrings - Lying Leg Curls (I think I'll have to do Standing Leg Curls with the Cross Bow)
Superset 3:
Calves - Standing Calf Raises (one leg)
Shoulders - Upright Rows
Superset 4:
Calves - Standing Calf Raises (two legs)
Triceps - Triceps Kickbacks

Day 3
Superset 1:
Back - Dumbbell Rows (two arms)
Chest - Incline Dumbbell Flys
Superset 2:
Shoulders - Bent Over Lateral Raises
Calves - Standing Calf Raises (two legs)
Superset 3:
Biceps - Hammer Curls
Triceps - Lying Dumbbell Extensions
Superset 4:
Thighs - Ballet Squats
Hamstrings - Dumbbell Lunges

On Cardio Days
Superset 1:
Lower Abs - Leg Raises (2 sets, as many rep's as possible)
Upper Abs - Crunches (2 sets, as many rep's as possible.)

I anticipate tweaking a couple of the Day 1-3 exercises to make them Cross Bow-compatible.

Oh, and at the risk of having this post grow just interminable , I'll add that my eating plan is as follows, in a nutshell: I average 1500-1600 calories/day; macro breakdown has been about 35p/40c/25f; carbs are low gly and fat is unsaturated; I average 40 grams of fiber/day; I now supplement with EAS Precision Protein (whey isolate) drinks; my water intake is 120-160 oz.; I watch my sugar and sodium intake; and I eat 5-6 meals/day.

So, what do you think? Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this, and for your upcoming response(s). I'm really excited to get your feedback!

I was just reading over my post after submitting it, and I feel like I need to stress that, while I'm not expecting to have great success building muscle and losing fat simultaneously, I will lift as heavily as I can from start to finish. I'm really looking forward to seeing my lifting power improve and I'm not at all afraid of building muscle mass.....I'm just trying to be realistic and prioritize, that's all. I am looking forward to the positive impacts on my metabolism and resting caloric burn rate; that's all fabulous, I just want to make sure that I'm not wasting any opportunies to progress through conservative 3 day splits that give my major muscle groups a week to recover. My understanding is that when you first start out that's less critical. Ok, I'll shut up now....

Sarah,
I think your plan looks great with 2 comments:
I would reverse your protein and carb ratios. I think you need more protein to build muscle. And you can build muscle and burn fat at the same time. Your scale progress will be slower, but your bodyfat ratio will be dropping.
My other suggestion is to keep your reps lower than the 15-20 range. That's not a muscle building range, but a leaning out, muscle maintenance level. To achieve a balance between building muscle and burning fat, I think you want to keep your reps more in the 12-15 (tops) range. Below 10, if you are lifting to failure, you are really in the mass building range so I wouldn't suggest less than 10 reps. If you are a beginner, you don't want to lift high reps because you don't have enough muscle yet, particularly in upper body if you are like most women. As a beginner, you have a golden window of about 6 months when building muscle and getting stronger is easy- after that, the gains in terms of muscle mass get slower and you have to work more for it. I'd take advantage of that time and build muscle. It will raise your resting metabolic rate and enable your body to burn more fat just sitting there!

Let us know how it goes

Mel

Yuppers, I'm with Mel... UP the protein and bring DOWN the reps...

AND, AND I cannot believe that a beginner is NOT AFRAID TO BUILD MUSCLE MASS!!! I love you already Sarah WELCOME TO LWL!!!!

Mel -- that was very good info I didn't realise that "golden window of six months" interesting...

Thank you, Mel and Ilene, for the input! I really respect and appreciate your input. On the topic of protein -- I know those percentages need to be flipped -- I'm really concentrating on that now. (Even an extra protein drink helps considerably when your calories are low, right?) My DietPower software is invaluable in this regard, as one of the many awesome things it does is to allow you to get both macro- and micronutrient totals for the day, the week (a rolling 7 week total,) the month (likewise rolling,) the quarter, the year, and then, I guess, since you started using the program. So my protein percentages have gone up, and will continue to do so -- I'm going to keep it at 40-45p/35c/20-25f. I think my calories are too low since my metabolism's in the toilet. My overall kcal average since March 1 is 1535, but lately I've gotten it up to more like 1660. Given my stats below, any thoughts on that? I'm clear on Protein = GOOD for the hungry muscles, and so will feed them accordingly (for example, I really try to consume it at every one of my 5-6 meals every day, trying never to have just carbs on their own.) I'll just pump it up some. As for the calories, I'm not sure how to get them up much, since I'm avoiding the calorie-dense foods like sugar and fat. Tomorrow I'll have my first full weights workout, and so I'm thinking that by ensuring that I'm consuming protein before the workout and both protein and simple carbs afterwards, I should be able to increase my calories in a way that makes productive sense for my body. Thoughts?

As for the reps, it's a little confusing......I had consistently heard that 12-15 were recommended, as you two said, but in these trainers' initial/first 6 week "break-in" workout, they call for the increased reps for, and I quote here: "(1) getting the joints and muscles accustomeed to weight training exercise while preventing injuries and (2) creating neural pathways between the brain and the muscles so that you start gaining better control and feel of the muscles in your body." At the conclusion of the 6-week break-in routine, they recommend a routine of 2 giant sets of four exercises, with only 60 seconds' rest between the giant sets and no rest between the exercise sets, and they reduce the reps to 12-15, except for the calves, at 15-25. It's still a full body, 3 day, routine, with one exercise per bodypart each day. Hope that makes sense. Actually, now that I think about it, I think that I saw Karen (Mrs. Jim) mention these trainers and their book here once, so she might be able to offer more experienced insight into their credibility and/or approach.

I understand these authors' point, but in asking for input on this routine here and at my Cross Bow-user message board, I've heard opinions which differ from those of Villepigue and Rivera. You guys both say 12-15 reps, and so does another personal trainer (hello Mel!) who uses the CB as well. Still ANOTHER personal trainer (who also uses the CB) is advising me to do circuit training, but I doubt that's feasible for me, given the equipment I have at hand.....although I don't know enough about it to know for sure.

Mel, I hear what you're saying about the muscle-building "golden window," although I think I heard it in less poetic terms and that's definitely worth considering, since my lifting goals are long-term ones. I very much want to build substantial muscle under all this fat, so that as the fat is falling off (Gotta love THAT visual, right?!) there's something lovely and firm beneath! I have a Tanita BF scale, so I'm all set to see that body fat number pick up speed in going down. (I've lost 4% BF so far -- and gone from a size 26 to a 22.)

With all this said, I'm sure anything I do at this point will be a huge step in the right direction....dare I say it: a big old heavily weighted LUNGE in the right direction! Now I KNOW it's time for me to go to bed when I'm actually finding that even remotely amusing!

One final mention...I played with the Cross Bow this night for the first time since assembling it, and it was a BLAST!! I LOVE IT! Tomorrow I'll do a full workout on it, and am looking forward to coming here and giving you a full report. I'm so excited!!!

Thank you again for taking the time to read through my posts, and for your kind and generous responses. I really, really appreciate it.

Nope...that wasn't me who recommended that book - I've not read it myself. I've never used a machine like the Crossbow or Bowflex either - I'm definitely an addicted gym rat.

When I first started this whole weight thing, I did a couple of cycles of BFL, but then got bored with it halfway through the second cycle and started reading up on other types of splits. Krista Scott Dixon's website http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html is a great place to start. Personally I 'mix it up' - some days I do low reps (8-10 reps per set)/heavy weights, some days I do the opposite. Except for calves and abs, I don't do more than 15 reps in a set.

I do have a bunch of books and fitness mags (I don't buy fitness mags very often these days, but I have bought Hers recently - I think it's the best out there that I've seen right now - very readable) and when I need a little variety or 'new stuff' I'll flip through and find an exercise to add just to jive things up a bit. It's kind of "take what you need and leave the rest".

Sarah,

Since you're a relative beginner go with what feels good for you... If you feel good doing 10-15 reps do it... I see no problem with that IMO, you can switch later and a switch is always good after 6 weeks anyways...... But personally I get totally bored with so many reps...Gimmee power and instead...

Hi Sarah! Great to see you here at LWL!

I was thinking about what you wrote about fat loss and muscle gain and about achieving both simultaneously. If you’re interested, here’s how it worked with me: when I joined a gym, I weighed a little bit more than you do. I started working with a trainer there who told me that although my primary goal was fat loss (like yours), I needed to build as much muscle as possible while losing the fat. So I did a lot of cardio to burn the fat as well as lifting as heavy as possible to build muscle.

My trainer explained that I would inevitably lose some muscle along with the fat since it’s impossible (he thought at least) to lose 100% fat and no muscle. So that’s why we concentrated on building as much muscle as possible so that I’d still have some extra at the end, when I was done losing fat. We did BF% every four weeks so I have a record of where my lean mass was all throughout the weight loss. My lean mass started at 108 pounds, peaked at 136 pounds, and ended at 118 pounds. In the end, I added 10 pounds of muscle while losing 132 pounds of fat (net loss 122 pounds) so it is possible to add some muscle (not a huge amount) while losing fat.

So hopefully you’ll be able to both also!

Looking it over, your plan sounds just about ideal! I do agree with Mel about the reps and protein. I think you’ll be surprised at how strong you are right off the bat, without having to worry about acclimating your muscles and joints to the weights. Many of us who have been overweight (especially for a long time) have built very strong bones and muscles without even realizing it, due to our lives being one big weight-bearing exercise. If you tweak the protein and carbs in your food plan a bit, it’s pretty much what I did to lose and let me tell you — it worked!!! Oh, and I started at 1600 calories (about where you are now?) and lost very well there. Never went above 1600.

Lots of luck and we’ll be looking forward to hearing all about how it’s going for you. Be sure to join us on our weekly thread!

Yay! Meg's here, Meg's here! I'm very glad to get your input as well!

Ok, here's the update:

I DID MY FIRST FULL WORKOUT!! I feel great -- sore, but great! I ended up making the change to 12-15 reps, and my eats today ended up at 1543 kcal, 43p/34c/23f. It took me longer to complete the full body workout than I will next time, since I had to figure out both proper form and adaptation to the Cross Bow. I hit 15 reps without failure on all my first sets, but didn't make it to 15 before hitting failure on all the second sets -- on most I did 15 again without failure, but not all. (I think partly because I didn't always remember to rest between sets! Woopsie! ) I used a combination of Cross Bow/dumbbells, and GET THIS: my FAVORITES were the squats and the stiff legged deadlifts! Amazing. Maybe I need to increase the weights on those I completed without failure at 15 reps? FYI, I did 20 minutes of moderate cardio this morning, and then 15 of light cardio after the weights. Tomorrow it's back to HIT cardio.

Thank you, Meg, for sharing your experience w/fat vs. muscle loss -- I will heed what you and everyone else said about building the muscle; that's been my plan all along, but I thought I needed to do the higher reps at the onset because those guys said so. Anyway, I would truly love to get as close as possible to achieving what you have insofar as losing minimal muscle as you lost all that fat.

And thank you, Mel, Ilene and Karen, for your thoughtful input and feedback. You guys are great to help me! How could I do anything but succeed with this kind of support and guidance?? Ok, off now to have a quick protein drink before bed. I wonder if I'll be hurting more tomorrow? G'night ladies!

Hey Sarah -- how's it going for you? Are you liking the Cross Bow? Sore at all?
We'd love a report!