For most of my weight loss so far it's been more about diet than exercise. I have been doing a lot more exercise in recent months, but it's been more about cardio than strength. Now that I'm nearing more of a normal size and my body shape is changing a bit more rapidly I'm ready to really start focusing on making sure I'm toning things up along the way so I don't reach my goal weight and look like a potato.

So I'm curious about some of the plans used by some of you who are serious about strength training and cardio. Do you have a schedule you follow for different muscles on different days, do you do strength and cardio on the same days or do you alternate? There is a lot of information online obviously, but there is so much that it can get a bit confusing. So yeah, if you wouldn't mind sharing your routine that would be great.

I'm the opposite, I'm alright with strength but have a hard time with cardio.

I've just been doing the exercise plans I've set out on sparkpeople. They have exercise videos and lots of strength exercises you can do.

I change it up.

Sometimes I do weights 3 days a week and then it can look like this:
Monday: Chest and triceps (push)
Wednesday: Legs and shoulders
Friday: Back and bicep (pull)

Sometimes I do 2 days a week :
M& Th: Full body in supersets Push/Pull/Leg/rest

Sometimes I do 5 days a week
M: push
T: pull
W: leg
Th: push
F: pull

Currently I am doing 4 days a week
M & Th : Push upper body + quads & glutes
T & F: Pull upperbody + hamstrings

When I get bored I change. I'll do 4-6 weeks of one plan and then change. I also change up whether I am on a low weight high rep plan with cardio circuit or a high weight low rep plan.

I do cardio 5-6 days/week after weights, 2 days a week I do high intensity, the rest tend to be moderate intensity.

I do 20 miles on my gym bicycle every day. It takes me 1 hour exactly now.

Then I lift light 2 pound weights on each hand and do aerobic excersize with them for 10 minutes twice a week.

third I do 100 sit-ups dispersed through the week.

When I first started out this was: 30mins of cycling thrice a week, 10 minutes of weights-aerobics once a week and only 40 sit-ups. I worked it up to this point little by little.

As soon as I felt comfortable in my training time I started pushing just a little bit further out of the comfort zone.

I must warn you though. I actually feel quite a bit of a happy rush everytime I excersize now and it does feel addictive. Before you couldn't have met a worse couch/computer potato than me. So training this much can change your character.

Toomany - are you a member of a gym or have access to a complete set of weights and/or machines?

My routine is just something I pulled out of a hat. I would LOVE to be able to hire a trainer to tell me how to do things to achieve specific results. But what I do does seem to make a difference, it just may not be the best/right way to do it.

6 days a week:

Elliptical, manual setting, level 10-13 (I work up in the first 5 minutes), 25 minutes, plus 5 minute cool down. Speed between 4 & 4.5 mph.

Treadmill, manual setting, 20 minutes plus 2 minute cool down. Speed and Elevation vary. I start the elevation at 5 and move it up as high as I can. I try to keep the speed close to 3mph

In between elliptical and treadmill I do weights, which I rotate day to day.
Days 1,3,5:
Rear delt
Fly
Lat pull
Chest press (but that machine is broken ATM)
Seated row
Leg press
Leg extension
Leg curl
Crunch machine (forget the name!)

Days 2,4,6:
Hip Abduction
Hip adduction
Rotary Torso
Back extension
Shoulder Press
Triceps extension
Arm curl

In 2012, though, I plan to do all that in one day, plus maybe 20 minutes on the stationary bicycle Kin between weights). I'm trying to amp it up!

John, I'm moving into a new apartment next week that has a pretty nice fitness room. I'm really excited about it actually. =)

I try to work out every single day I'm home and do both cardio and strength training every time (which is not typical or recommended by most professionals).

For every workout I do:
At least 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity cardio
Core work

For example, today:
18 leg raises on the stand (The stand is my term for the piece of equipment you hang from to do dips, raises, etc.)
15 pull-downs at 40lbs
18 chest presses at 40lbs
18 shoulder extensions at 40lbs (I'm blanking on what these are actually called.)
18 peck deck flys at 20lbs
12 rotating sit-ups on the stability ball holding a 8lb weighted ball
30 crunches on the stability ball with the weighted ball
6 V-ups with the weighted ball (Cheerleading exercise. Begin lying flat on your back. Simultaneously lift both your torso and legs up from the floor. At the top position, your torso should be straight up like you're sitting and legs are extended out in the toetouch or V position.)
20 bicycles with the weighted ball
An hour on the elliptical for a total of 4.55 miles

Start with whatever you can commit to doing. At the beginning my minimum was the greater of 20 minutes or at least 2 miles for cardio. Just work on doing it on a regular basis. Getting myself into the gym constantly and consistently whether I feel like it or not has been the hardest part. Any amount of exercise is better than none at all. Even on the days when I don't really feel like doing it, once I get to the gym I'll put forth a decent effort. Fortunately there's a positive inertia force once you get into the habit of going. I joined a gym at the beginning of November and have gone an average of 6 times a week since then.

Here is what I would suggest. Since you've been focused on cardio thus far you've probably built up a decent aerobic base. I would suggest you simply do some form of moderate cardio 3x a week for about 30 minutes with 5 minutes warm up and cool down for 40 minutes total. While you're maintaining your cardio adaptations you can bring up your strength and muscle "tone".

I would suggest 3x a week full body workouts. Start very light. Emphasis on very. Then every workout make small improvements. For example - you might start with a leg press of only 50 lbs. That's nothing. But you increase it by 5 lbs every workout. In a month's time you're leg pressing 110. Start very light.

Here is a link to a full body workout I created for a friend of mine.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...FJ3d29za0R3OFE

This will hit every body part.

You can print out this spread sheet so you'll be walking around with a clipboard and pen to track your progress.

I'd reccomend doing your cardio on off days but that means 6 days a week working out. If that is not possible do your cardio after you lift.

Form is critical. Read up on how to do those lifts.

You probably will be doing chest press, not bench. Hopefully your gym will have dumbells. Incline BD should be DB for incline bench dumb bells.

After a while you will be unable to increase your weight. If you start light enough you should be able to get 2-3 months out of this routine. Then you can decide what to do next, if you want to focus on cardio or weights.

Goodluck

I change it up frequently. I always do total body 3 times a week. If I do cardio, I do it in between (I haven't been cardio loving lately).

Lately I've been doing biggest loser circuit from the book. I've used Turbo Sculpt and loved it but was bored of it. I might integrate my old PUSH DVDs again (which isn't available now). In January, I'm going to focus on barre workouts, like Barre3, Xtend, and Bar Method.

I have more DVDs that I turn to when I'm really bored like Cardio Flex band, Power Sculpt, and Bob Greene Total Body Makeover.

Thanks everyone.

John that spreadsheet is great. Thank you. I'm going to have to get in there and take a closer look at all the machines. Hopefully they'll have everything I need, but if not I might be back looking for alternate suggestions for some of the body parts.