[Gumbygirl]

I am not new to weight training however I haven't touched a weight since November. I was following Jari Love's "Get Ripped" (www.rippedworkout.ca). I then fell off the wagon completely and would like to get back at it. I am getting to the point where I would rather do my own program rather than following a video. I am within my healthy weight range however would love to lose 10 lbs and desperately need to tone especially my lower body. I am a classic pear shape. My question is: What is the best way to start up again and how many reps and sets should I do? Jari Love's workouts are light weights with many reps but after following this program faithfully for 6 months I never saw much change and was disappointed. What kind of workout should I do to achieve my goals??? How many days a week? I was training entire body 3x per week. Sorry for such a long winded question but you ladies all seem so knowledgeable

[sportmom]

Hi gumby, since November's not tooo bad - at least you caught it before a year! Personally, I favor a dumbbell workout and follow along many books available at libraries, such as body for life-women, lee labrada's workout, beach bible workout for women, etc. If you hang out at the 613 non-fiction section at your library, you'll see what's out there. Even Jillian Michaels from TBLoser has a couple now. I think 3xweek is very good. I do 3 sets of each exercise, decreasing my reps and increasing my weight with each set: ex = 12 reps of 8 lbs, 10 reps of 10 lbs, 8 reps of 15 lbs. That's the formula called for by BFLife, but many others have their own recommendations. I think as long as you are doing 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps, you are hitting a good mark.

[Depalma]

Given that your goal is to "tone," I would favor a 3x per week total body workout, about 6 compound exercises, done in 3 supersets for 3 sets and between 10 and 12 reps. Keep rest periods relatively short, about 45s to 1 minute between supersets. Create two workouts and alternate between them.

1A. Horizontal Push
1B. Horizontal Pull

2A Quad dominant
2B Hip Dominant

3A Vertical Push
3B Vertical Pull

The exact exercises depend on what access you have to equipment and which exercises you know how to do with good form.

If you have a lagging body part, or just want to include some isolation work into your routine. Give yourself 5 minutes at the end of your workout to do as many of an isolation exercise of your choice for as many reps you can do in that 5 minutes (rest as needed).

I would also recommend 20 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training on 2 off the non-lifting days. Give yourself at least one full day off from training to rest and recover. Add in some steady state cardio if you desire but try to separate it from your lifting and if you must do it during the same workout, do it after lifting.

After 4 to 6 weeks, swap out the exercises or change the set/rep scheme .

[Gumbygirl]

Thanks for your replies I have thought about the BFL idea - I already have Bill Philips BFL book but is Pamela Peeke's book similiar? How many exercises should a person do for each body part? I know it has been said that women won't bulk that we don't have the testosterone etc.... but I find my thighs quickly bulk, is it because I am pear shaped??

[sportmom]

BFL-W is different, but I up the cardio to 6x/week and do 2 exercises per muscle group. My thighs build quickly too, and I think there is a bit of crossover time where your muscles plump but you have yet to get rid of alot of fat, so you will peak, but then you should see real nice form coming to the surface as you burn away the fat layers.