Routine advice

[Helene]

Hi, my name is Hélène, and i'm new to this forum. I started training in september (5 months). I'm currently weight-lifting and doing cardio. I need some advice on my weight-lifting and cardio routine. I read alot about fitness and training and the info is never the same everywhere so i'm confused about alot of things.

I eat incredibly well. If someone want's to know my eating routine i'll post if but, i'm more interrested in my workout.

I'm 117 lbs, i'm pretty skinny and i'm build fairly large (big bones). I'm already very strong too. I did the bodyfat test when I starting working out, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was too high, i'm suppose to redoo it at the beg. of feb.

I want to gain muscle mass and be toned and lose body fat, but I want to stay skinny.
Do you have to build muscle before toning it? are my sets and reps ok?

I lift heavy too, and I add weight everytime I can. Is that a good thing to build muscle and tone?

My goal is to have muscle, be tone and have less body fat possible.


MY WORKOUT

Monday: Chest/Back/Shoulders + cardio
Tuesday: Legs/Biceps/Triceps
Wednesday: Off or cardio only
Thursday: Off or cardio only
Friday: Chest/Back/Shoulders + cardio
Saturday: Legs/Biceps/Triceps
Sunday: Off or cardio only

3X12 for everything

Chest/Back/Shoulders

Chest
Incline dumbbell bench press - 50 lbs (2x25 dumbbell)
Incline dumbbell flys - 30 lbs
Pushups (sometimes)

Back
Wide-grip lateral pulldowns - 75 lbs
Cable rows - 75 lbs
Dumbbell rows - 25 lbs
Shrugs(trapezius) - 60 lbs (30 lbs per arm)
Hyperextensions(lower-back) and for obliques

Shoulders
Dumbbell shoulder press - 20 lbs
Front raises - 10 lbs
Lateral raises - 10 lbs
Rear raises - 10 lbs
* I feel like I should hit the 3 shoulder heads.



Legs/Biceps/Triceps

Legs
Leg press - 160 lbs
Leg extensions - 50 lbs
Leg curls - 50 lbs
Lunges (4x12) with 20 lbs dumbbell in each hand
Squats on smith machine (6x12) - 90-100 lbs
Standing calf raise on smith machine with step
Seated calf raise

Biceps
Dumbbell curl - 15 lbs
Concentration curl - 15 lbs
Dumbbell preacher curl - 12.5 lbs

Triceps
Tricep kickbacks - 10 lbs
Overhead tricep extension (1 arm at a time) - 12.5 lbs
Tricep pressdown with short straight bar - 40 lbs

My cardio is always about 45 min to 60 min everytime I do some. I usually do 25 min of step master and 25 min of cross-country machine. If I get bored i'll try something else. I don't like running, it hurts my legs.

Daily protein intake: 120g (food and protein shakes)

I'm not sure of doing the right thing, reps, sets. Maybe i'm overtraining even though each muscle has 3 days to recover.

Please let me know what you think..
Hélène

[cursor]

Yahoo! Another new member. Welcome to DiscussFitness.com, Hélène.

It looks like you have a pretty good plan (and it's good to hear that you're eating well). I can see making a few recommendations though:

ΠStart increasing your weights for each exercise so that you are able to perform at least 4 reps, but no more than 6 reps
� When able to complete 7 reps or more during any work-set, be sure to increase the weight (for that exercise) the next time.
Ž Reduce the number, duration, and intensity of running sessions. If you are going to perform aerobics, then hit it hard and heavy with interval (and much higher intensity) training (especially since you don't like to run).

Muscle comes toned. There is no separate toning process. That said, in order to gain muscle, you'll need to somehow tell your body that you just gotta have more! That's done by insisting that it do more work than it's capable—lift heavy, for fewer repetitions.

[Helene]

Okay, thankyou so I should decrease my reps? because now I'm doing 12 with the last 4 of every set always very chalenging and I always increase my weights even though I do 12 reps.

So I should do less reps with even more weight? what does 12 reps do?

What about girls who just want to tone, they say to go light? what does that mean exactly? Do they already have muscle mass? Doesn't going light do anything? don't you have to always challenge the muscle?


And my cardio are always high intensity.

thankyou.
Helene

[cursor]

12 reps will encourage stamina and endurance, but will not contribute seriously to growth.

To determine a target load for a specific exercise, experiment until you find a weight that will allow you to do 4 repetitions, but will not allow you to exceed 6 (so that you simply cannot do that 7th rep). This is the amount of weight that you should be lifting for your work-set, for that exercise.

Before performing that intense work-set, you'll want to make sure that your muscles and joints are properly warmed up for the intense load that you will require of them.

Toning is a silly word that really doesn't have much practical meaning. Muscle is muscle—and it's muscle that will most effectively control your metabolism ... which will, in turn, control your fat. Muscle is earned though intense work—you demand more of your body than it can execute (overload). That's how it gets the message that it needs to mature. Hey, if your mom never insisted that you had to keep your room clean ... why would you?

[Helene]

Thanks for all the info, but I have a couple more questions...

So doing that low of reps with high weights won't make me bulk or nothing like that? because I want to be skinny and cut..not large. How long do you think I should stick to that low of reps?

I also plan on starting Betagen in feb. have you heard of that? It's a mix of creatine and fat burning stuff (hmb or something like that).


And one last question..about cardio..sometimes I hear people say not to do too much not to burn your muscle,,etc..is this true? I mean what is too much cardio? I think this is a big contraverse...

Helene

[cursor]

Men are different from men in terms of muscle size—your natural balance of hormones simply won't allow it (at least not without a fair amount of intentional tweaking).

How long should you continue on the low rep cycle? Why stop? If you feel that your body needs a break from the intensity, then it might be wise to change things around some.

Intense aerobics performed a couple times a week should be plenty. What are your goals?

[Helene]

Thanks for your responses Cursor, I understand more now.
The idea is just making muscle with heavy weights and if you want to be "cut", you have to be lean(eat right)right?

I read this is Muscle & fitness Hers...can you tell me what she means?

<<For size, I think the best thing is to work on the basic movements, go heavy (6-8 reps per set) and the muscle will grow. In six weeks, you may be ready to lighten the weight and reduce your rest period to better define the muscle. >>

What exactly does better define the muscle mean?
Don't you just have to build muscle and how defined they are will depend on how much fat (or %) you have?

Helene

[Tuna Fish]

Hi Helene-

Another option would be circuit training with lighter weights and higher reps (like maybe 12-15 reps per set).

The idea is to go from one exercise to another quickly, so your heart rate stays high enough to derive aerobic benefit.

For example: start with leg presses, then go diectly to hamstring curls, then go directly to bench presses, then pulldowns, etc. The key is to avoid resting between exercises- that will keep your heart pumping fast!

Although it's not the best way to train for strength and size, it's terrific for improving your cardiovascular capacity and fat burning.

If you feel the need to gain muscle size (which will improve your resting metabolism to a greater degree), heavy training will accomplish that. Circuit training uses the existing muscle to burn fat. The more muscle you have before starting circuit training, the more effective it will be in the long run.

[cursor]

Great points Tuna Fish. I find it refreshing to regularly insert a circuit training routine to change things up just a bit. 30 minutes of it will make you feel great all day long!

Hélène: I think that your interpretation of the magazine statement, "In six weeks, you may be ready to lighten the weight and reduce your rest period to better define the muscle" is accurate. The last part of it simply doesn't make sense to me.

[Helene]

Thanks for your replies, yes i'll try circuit training one day, once I have alot of muscle but not right now.

One more thing..I how much warm-up sets and work sets do you recomment..I read your post earlier but I don't quite understand the %.

So you do 4 warm-up sets with different reps in each? (8-6-4-1)? Does the weight have to be very light?
I also do 5 min of cardio.

And how many work set, I was planning on doing 3.

What about 2 warm-up sets with a light weight and 3 work-sets at 6 reps each with really heavy weights?

I'm also starting creatine, so it will all be good.
thanks

[cursor]

Re-read the thread on warming up for your work sets. When, for instance, you perform that first warm up set, you do 50% of the amount of weight that you can lift at least four times (but no more than 6).

Here is reference to a study that was done to examine the effectiveness of multiple work sets.

[Helene]

And should I lift really heavy for every muscle?

To wide-grip lat pulldows to squats?

And what do you think about pyramid training?

Is it better to do 3x6(what I plan) or 1x10, 1x8, 1x6(or something close to that).

Helene

[cursor]

The number of work sets (heavy) that you do should be determined by how you get the best results. Some very knowledgeable people get great results with one, others insist on three or more. In the past, I have done three or more, but that plan is in the process of modification.