I excercise 4-5 days a week. 30 - 60 min of mod. to intense cardio ( usually 40 - 45 min). I weight train for about a half hour.
I have a hard time pushing myself sometimes. How much time is reasonable to spend on weights (busy schedule!! like everyone else right?)
Don't worry about the time spent on weights but rather what you do w/ the time. You have 30-60 min for cardio -- which IMO is way too much for where you are at and what you want to accomplish. A guideline is to figure 3 exercises per bodypart, 3 sets per each exercise of 8-12 reps per set. That can give you an idea -- Usually if I'm doing 2 muscle groups together I will do one heavier / more and the other lighter / less and then reverse them on the next day Im' scheduled to do those bodyparts together. That way you can work both of them but not over work either. (That's just one way to approach... but the point is to give an idea of a way to quantify "how much" to do.) Or look at a couple days of the Shadow Project and use that as a guide to count the total number of reps / sets / exercises roughly for one day's workout. But time-wise, generally expect 45 - 60 minutes. I find I take a little longer on leg day but it usually ends up about 45 min (excluding talk time, waiting for eqpt, etc.) But don't cut your workout short or anything because of the time it takes (unless u do have to leave) - the point is to make the most of the time and to do your scheduled workout. Keep it intense, don't sit around and chat, etc. But also as you do the workout more, you will be able to speed up, get more comfortable w/ the different moves, etc. And always push yourself --- even ask for a spot if you need it -- that's always the way I challenged myself -- can i keep my form tight and complete at least 8 tight reps? Eventually you start to see just how strong the body (esp the female body!) can be.
I'm doing something Ive never done before. Im going to the gym and heading straight for the weights. I'm going to try switching it up. 45- hour weights and 2-3 days a week HIIT. Its going to be a huge change for me but I need to gain muscle. I've looked over the shadow project and eventually I'm going to jump into that but I need to spend more time (time, whats that LOL) to look at it.
Its always wild when you change how you are comfortable doign things - trust me -- I've been WEIGHT lifting for 25 yrs. I LOVE IT. Its addictive. I get off on how much I can lift and what my body can do and how it looks. It gives me a stress outlet like nothing else does. And I feel COMFORTABLE in the gym. Like its my natural environment. And yet I really need to do cardio now. I"ve got enough recurring aches & pains that I can't lift heavy unless I schedule a trip to my chiro & massage therapist to push everything back into place. And I detest cardio. And that's really all I should be doign at this point. BLAHHHHHH! LOL So yes I do understand! IMO however, cardio is cardio is cardio. Its fairly boring & repetitive. LIfting, however, presents a hyuge variety of exercises and challenges to keep it interesting. (I"m sure other people thing lifting is more boring than watching paint dry...) But its different and like I said - if you give it 3 weeks of honest effort, you'll see results. Anyone can give a commitment of 3 weeks to try something new. (I will continue telling myself that as well....!!!!)
But what you are doing is exactly what you should do to get where you want to go. The cardio is going to be your enemy because what it produces is exactly contradictory to what your goals are. And its more important to fuel for and train for what your goals are. You can always go back to the cardio or modify it again some other way later but for now you have a different goal that you will not meet if you keep doing an hr of cardio every day.
I've gained 2 pounds since I started which freaks me out (yes, I'm a slave to the scale but it DID help me loose 55 lbs!)
This is one of the big mental challenges of "fitness" - the scale is not an accurate measure of "goals" and because we've been raised to consider an accurate measure, we draw many of the wrong conclusions from it that can actually affect how we feel about ourselves. Some people can deal w/ it, some can't. Feel free to use the scale, but please remember what it is telling you - a 2 lb change can be from water. And what does that imply about you as a person? You are now a 'fat ass'? Hardly. Its water for cripessake.
If you want to use that number in a meaningful way then also get your bodyfat done or pay attention to how your clothes fit - e.g. -- tight in the waist, loose in the waist? Tighter in the quads / legs? etc. That gives you an indication of WHAT that weight is made up of -- muscle or fat or water. That's really what's important.
Does anyone have any suggestions. I want to gain a few pounds of muscle and loose the roll of fat around the middle.
If Im diligent about how long do you think till I start seeing results.(I'm a should have done it yesterday kinda girl..)
What you are doign is exactly correct. Give it 3 weeks just to see what the change in diet & trainign can do. It takes 2-3 weeks for your body to show distinct changes due to diet & training - you can see transient changes over a couple days' time but that can easily be water or your body recovering from training or whatever. It really takes 2-3 weeks for any significant change in your daily life to show itself.
The other mental challenge is to not get ahead of yourself and start digging around for quicky changes. Someone may say - sure you can drop 10 lb in a week --- well yes you can -- you can do a water depletion, do a crapload of cardio and take a diuretic like dandelion root and drop 10 lb of water weight in a week - physique competitors do it all the time for competition -- but they EXPECT to rebound a couple days later - always remember that your body deals in trying to maintain an equilibrium - that's why it takes a couple weeks of makign adjustments in your diet & routine, letting your body receive those changes and accommodate them and slowly adjust itself up or down to respond to consistent changes. Any wild changes (i.e. yoyo dieting) will result in a forced response for a while, but then your body will eventually so "nope I can't support this anymore, I ain't gonna do it, screw you, we're doing what I say now" and then your metabolism slows down, you start to not loose weight anymore, probably start to gain weight or get sick, feel like shit and end up worse off than when you started.
And w/ the 2-3 week thing- its important to give what ever you are trying a real 2-3 week change to work - if you get impatient and start changing other things you won't really know what works or may again stall your progress by introducing conflicting components of diet / training because someone said "do this - you'll get quick results". Your body can't respond consistently to conflicting messages so it will either freak out or just stall and do nothing.
I think you are completely heading in the right direction -- your goal is to build muscle -- don't worry about the bodyfat -- that will take care of itself in the process. Focus on teh GAINING part first. That means:
- eat (aka "fuel") for your goal -- that means enough protein to support muscle growth - AT LEAST 1.2 x your bodyweight in grams of good protein -- and in the mix of your diet it should come out about 40% of your total -- protein / fats / carbs. Also get enough good quality fats & carbs to support the energy needed to lift. If you feel tired or can't sleep well w/ the change in training, look first at your carbs - make sure you are getting enough complex carbs and when you eat them to fuel your training & recovery.
- training - LIFT! Don't be scared of it. Make it your own. Women so often cheat themselves out of strength because they think only sweaty musclebound meatheads use the free weights and women are supposed to circuit train. BULLSHIT!!!!!! Make that gym YOURS!
- Cardio -- just a little - even the switch to HIIT will be a different sort of challenge. You may also notice a change in how your body responds to it instead of steadystate.
- Enjoy it! Sometimes the day to day changes can be frustrating but if you focus on noticing how your body responds to each day's program -- i.e. its an experiment -- and it isn't over until 3 weeks from now. See how you feel, your energy levels, how well you sleep, etc. Its all very interesting to watch because you are making changes to the very fundamental things that make up you & your body -- your moods, how efficeintly your body burns energy and builds itself. Its really an amazing machine when you treat it the way it wants to be treated because it wants to run efficiently!
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But For the first time today I did not do cardio!!! and holy crap I'm sore!!! yeah!!! Feels good.
