Better routine?

[tanabanana92207]

I've been going to the gym steadily for the last 4months and have managed to lose about 25 lbs. I haven't really changed my eating habits just incorporated exercise. I work out 6days a week and what I need help with is my routine. I walk 4 miles on the treadmill in an hour at a 15% incline and then move on to the weight machines. My question really concerns number of reps and weights. I tend to do a lot of reps. For example, on the lateral pull-down, I do 60 reps @ 60 lbs without a rest. I do this with all of the machines I use and by the end of the set, my muscles are fatigued. People have told me that I'm wrong for doing it this way, that I'm doing strength training as if it were cardio. Does anyone know if this is true? It's worked for me so far but if there is a better, more efficient way with better results, I'd rather be doing that.

Thanks.

[tman666]

First of all, congratulations on making a healthy lifestyle change, and congrats on your weight loss!

 

Depending on what your goals are, you may want to start incorporating some heavier resistance training into your routine. The high rep, low/moderate weight stuff you're doing is good for burning a few extra calories, and you've probably even built a little bit of muscle.

 

However, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind. The first is what is known in the fitness world as "the law of diminishing returns". Simply put, it means that your progress will decelerate as you get more advanced. Another saying that you might hear is "Everything works, but nothing works forever". While this expression isn't intended to be an excuse for poor training programming, it basically means that you will need to vary up the different training modes in order to reap the full benefits.

 

The Soviets developed block-style periodization to train the different modes. For example, 2-3 weeks would be spent doing maximal effort strength training, followed by 2-3 weeks of hypertrophy (muscle-mass building) training, followed by 2 weeks of lighter speed training, all leading up to whatever weight lifting competition they were training for. The different training "modes" were split into "blocks" of 2-3 weeks, hence the term "block-style periodization".

 

Another way to incorporate periodization into your training is known as the Westside Conjugate System, developed by American powerlifter Louie Simmons. Without getting into too much detail, the basic premise of conjugate periodization involves training maximal effort work, speed work (known as dynamic effort), and high repetition work all within the same week, all the while training movements that carry over to the bench press, deadlift, and squat (the three Powerlifting movements).

 

Since you've been lifting for 4 months, you don't need to concern yourself with stressing over periodization styles. However, you can take some of the basic concepts of conjugated periodization and incorporate them into your training.

 

For example, you could structure your workout to start with a good warm up, followed by Low-Rep/High Weight (such as 5 sets of 5 reps each) strength training, followed by High-Rep/Lower Weight (such as 3-5 sets of 12-15 reps) work, followed by your cardio/treadmill work. In this way, you're not only minimizing your injury potential, but you're maximizing the efficiency of your workouts and training 3 different modes.

 

As far as exercise selection, your strength training should be focused on compound movements. A compound movement is an exercise that incorporates multiple muscle groups working in conjunction with each other to lift the weight. Examples include squats, deadlifts, pressing movements, push ups, pull ups (or lat pull downs), rows, sprints, etc.

 

For your upper body days, start off with a pressing movement combined with a rowing movement. It's very important to combine pressing movements with pulling movements in order to avoid creating muscle imbalances in your shoulder joint.

 

After you've performed 5 sets of 5 reps on each exercise (using pretty heavy weight), you could then move on to picking a couple of exercises to do, but using lower weight and higher reps (3-5 x 12-15). Good choices for this would be push ups combined with lat pull downs (pull ups would be better, but that will come in time).

 

Finally, you would do your cardio at the end of the training session. If you can swing it, try experimenting with splitting up your weight training and cardio sessions. Ideally, you would be doing your incline walking in a fasted state, such as first thing in the morning. Weight training would then be done later in the day after you've eaten a meal or two.

 

Another important key to a good training program is forward progression. Progression can be measured in different ways, including how much weight is being lifted, how many reps you're getting at a certain weight, how fast you can move the weight, etc. For example, if you can bench press 225 lbs for 3 reps one week, and then after a month of good, hard training you can bench 225 for 7 reps, you've gotten stronger and made forward progression. It's not necessarily about adding weight to the bar every session.

 

There are many different ways you can structure your training to benefit your goals. What I've written above is only one potential combination. The important things are that your training is structured in such a way that minimizes injury potential, trains multiple modes, and has planned forward progression.

Edited December 30, 2011 by tman666

[fitgirl]

vary vary vary. work every part of the body. lower, upper, core. females should be lifting heavy. put down the 5 lb dumbbells and push beyond your limits. you won't look like a guy unless you take drugs.

[fitgirl]

always stretch. don't forget stretching. you can be strong and flexibe.