OK, lets design a workout, shall we? You know what your goals are, right? Not get in better shape.
Lose weight, add muscle, run a 5k do a triathlon, whatever.
We will start with the easy one, lose weight
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1st, please check with your doctor before starting any workout plan. Side note, I love side notes, does anyone check with their doctor? I have to say that so you don’t go work out, get injured etc and sue me because I’m a trainer and clearly said it was OK to work out. Alright back to our regularly scheduled programming.
If you want to lose weight here’s your first lesson. Consume fewer calories, burn more calories. All righty, I guess that’s about it. I’ll see you next time.
Ohhhhh, you want more details. Alright, just remember, you asked for it.
Cardio, the answer beyond controlling your eating is C-A-R-D-I-O. Get your heart rate up, keep it up. Cardio is the gift that keeps on giving. Do 45 minutes of cardio, your body will keep burning calories for about another 45 minutes. There are many, many good ways to get cardio.
Jog, bike, elliptical, arc trainer, treadmill, step class and on and on. But, did you know that you can count weight lifting as cardio? If you either do your weight workout in A) a circuit, but what is a circuit? I’m glad you asked. In a full body workout lets say I’m going to do lunges, squats, bench press, lat pull down, shoulder press, biceps curls, triceps push downs and crunches on an exercise ball. I can do 1 set of every exercise with no rest. Then a short rest then another set, rest and repeat. I should do weight that allows me to do 12-15 reps of each exercise. Start with weight you can only do 11-12 times, as you get stronger and can do 15 reps, increase the weight and go back to 12 reps.
On the B) side you could also do 3 sets of 12-15 of each exercise, 15-30 seconds between sets and a 1 minute break every 3 exercises.
Here is a quick example of one of my early workouts:
10 minutes on the elliptical
The circuit described above (2 sets of each exercise)
16 minutes on the elliptical
Remember, if you are trying to lose weight, you want to do low weight, high reps when lifting,with elliptical, treadmill, bike etc as a warm up and at the end of the workout.
If you plan to work out on consecutive days, split the lifting into 2 workouts so you don’t work the same muscles on consecutive days. You can do cardio (elliptical, bike, whatever) every day, just change it up so you don’t get bored. You can also work your abs any day they are not sore.
If you split the workout, add some alternative exercises, for example, add some pullups (with assistance) to go along with lat pulldown. Add incline bench to regular bench, the possibilities are endless.
2 final things:
1. if you’re a regular reader, feel free to subscribe, It helps me to know who I’m talking to, I know, so much for this being my diary.
2. Always remember, I can’t do this all on my own, I’m no superman. (Random sitcom theme song)
3. I guess it was 3 final things. I am still doing 2 spin class/ab days per week and lifting 4 days per week (moderate to heavy) 1 muscle group each day.
That’s all for now,
I’ll see you at the gym