Fitness scheduling suggestions.
 

WeBeFit.com Articles - How Often Should YouomgWorkout?

I read this and it kinda hit me just how much work/effort that can be for some people, but in hindsight, how little work it is for such an awesome benefit.

I'm 30 years old, I've never been a "regular" when it comes to workouts.

I've been getting more and more in to it as my gym membership continues to tick away on the bank account :) (incentive plan)


So with cardio every single day being the plan for weight loss, intermingled with resistance exercises. Which would you do first? say you're going to spend an hour at the gym. 30 minutes cardio then 30 resistance? or the other way around?


what time of day would yield the ideal results? 1st thing in the morning? or late evening?

before you eat breakfast? or after you eat dinner?

or do you burn the wick at both ends and workout in the morning and again in the evening?


lots of questions I know :) just trying to fine tune my plan to the best results and get the most out of my efforts. I'd hate to be wasting my energy by doing it wrong.

i can only tell you what works for me...

i can not work out on an empty stomach i just have zero energy if i do that, so i prefer to eat about an hour before i work out...i also prefer to workout before work, i find it boosts my energy levels enough to get me through the day. i also find that i get it out of the way that way. if i wait till after work i find myself more likely to make an excuse that im am to tired to goto the gym.

if your trying to lose weight you cant do it wrong...

so i prefer working out within the first 2-3 hours of starting my day...

also i dont think you should work out every day...you need to take a day or two off each week to rest your muscles and every 6-8 weeks take a whole week off to rest...

i try to keep my workouts to 45-60 minutes...

i am kinda on the opposite side of the spectrum as you i am trying to put on weight so i stay away from traditional cardio...i just purely lift weights but i try to only rest for 1 to 1.5 minutes between sets...that keeps my heart rate high enough that i burn calories yet gives me enough time to rest that i can get thru my workout.

if i did the cardio thing i would prolly do cardio for 15 mins to raise my heart rate and warm up then do 30 mins of lifting then finish by another 15 minutes of cardio...these last 15 minutes would be the time i would push the cardio to the higher end...

i hope this gives you some ideas...

I would start with exclusively cardio as it will get you in all-around better shape. After you have a base, I would start to lift a little.

When your cardio is where you want it to be, taper it off and lift most of the time....it only takes a couple days a week of cardio to maintain, but it requires a lot of work to build it up. After you are where you want to be on cardio, do a 30 minute cardio workout a couple days a week and focus the rest of your time on lifting...unless you notice your cardio starting to slip.


There are dozens of techniques concerning what to actually do while you are lifting, etc. G5 Todd gives some good advice. When you try something new, stick with it for a few weeks so your body can adjust, but it doesn't hurt to switch your routine up every couple months either.


I am lucky with respect to being able to fit fitness into my schedule (unless I am away from home), but I have found that it is much easier to go in the morning before you feel tired and have a dozen things on your mind. I am far more likely to find an excuse to skip a day when i plan my workouts for the end of the day.

I've heard that an hour of cardio 3 times/week is maintenance. If you want to drop weight, do more. I've also heard that cardio is about endurance, not intensity, for weight loss. I've tried HIIT in the past and had better results from longer, lower. Get a heart rate monitor and learn how to use it for your conditioning level.

As for lifting, during the first 6 months or so a circuit will work fine, doing two runs through a circuit every other day, 3 times/week. The machines at your gym will be fine - just get someone there t show you a decent circuit to follow doing sets of 15 reps for fat burning. I also think 30 minutes cardio before gets your heart rate up and also, believe it or not, gives you some energy to make it through the lifting routine. At least do 10-15 minutes before and then 15 after on your lifting days.

I'm not at my home computer to share a good heart rate chart but you can go to the Lifetime Fitness site (I no longer belong but the chart is great) and look for the PDF file that gives you heart rate zones. A second page will describe how to use the chart and determine your own zone which really has nothing to do with age like you might have heqrd previously. Thishould be the link: lifetimefitness.com: Life Time Heart Rate Zone Chart


Good luck.

well the machines at the gym have build in heart sensors in the handles. So like if I hop on an ellipitical/bike, or stair machine, all of them have them. They also have me punch in my data to calculate my target heart rate so thats already taken care of.

Problem I had was I was just churning away at the elliptical for 30 minutes and it said my target rate was 160, but I floated around 180 the entire time and wasn't really feeling like I was being exerted at all.

edit: also, I don't think some of you read the article I posted.

When I was going to the gym, the instructors there always told me something that made alot of sense, and I kept at it:

Do a stretch, and then a little cardio as a warm-up, but no more than that.
Then do your resistance training according to the goal you want to.
always include a little resistance on legs/back even if that's not your program
Then do cardio for half an hour to 1 full hour, maximum.

The reasoning was:

stretch --> necessary, but don't overdo it
warmup--> get the blood flowing (and oxygen) so you can go all out on resistance
cardio after --> because during resistance, you should have burnt up all the sugars in your blood, meaning if you do an aerobic cardio, you'll be able to start burning body fat much quicker.

and 3 times a week, at interval mon/wed/fri. Meaning you gave your body time to recover after workout.

It did give me some great results, back then. I should try and follow that again some time soon :)

I didn't read the article or really much of the rest of this thread, but I can add something here:

"Target Heart Rate" comes from averages for folks your age, etc. It is entirely plausible that your natural heart rate is at the higher end of the bell curve. I know this because I'm at the other end with an unusually low heart rate. When I was in really great shape, my resting heart rate would easily be under 30 - the lowest it ever got was 26 I think. When I'm in terrible shape, it's still around 55 if I sit still for a minute or two.

Twenty beats/minute is a little higher than would be explained by being at the higher end of the spectrum, so the machines are probably programed with a higher level of fitness than you currently have. If you continue to work out, these should start to even out.

I hope my half-assed attempt helps.

Yeah I figured, I do peek at other peoples screens to see what their heart rate floats at. I don't think they're programmed with 6'6" 300 lbs football jock sized behemoths in mind.

It's always amazing to see some fit as hell dude/chick just violating those machines, just BAMBAMBAM pacing and they're heart rate is steady and dandy. I go 1/2 their pace and i'm just like "whooo breathe in, breathe out, you can make it! ahhh!" and the only thing going BAMBAMBAM is my heart rate. lol.

Shauk, that's a difference in fitness when you're watching others. They've trained to be able to do that. Just because you're a big guy doesn't immediately mean that you'd be able to do the same. Just because I used to be a runner doesn't mean that I can either. You kind of have to "earn" it.

And body type rarely has much to do with resting heart rate and more to do with how efficiently your heart can pump blood around your body. Really good endurance athletes typically have a slightly larger heart than the norm (note: not enlarged, just naturally larger). You could have a slightly smaller heart for your body type than the norm, which is going to result in a higher resting heart rate.

And resting and max heart rate are directly linked, by the way. The little charts on the machines are for the center of the bell curve, and not necessarily everyone is going to fit the chart.

So, 1000 words later, here's my point. Stop worrying about other folks and what the machines are telling you, at least until you develop a decent fitness level. That's when you'll be able to tell what it really means.

If you read my post about the heart rate chart you will understand why the monitors on machines are worthless.

The chart I recommended allows you to determine your own key zone for each workout based on you, how you slept...all sorts of things. Most important, it allows you to base you zone on your level of fitness, regardless of age and silly thngs like that.

Come on: how does the eliptical know what your target rate should be? Besides what you input it has no idea of anything else about you. Plus, if you use the chart you may find out you are working out too hard at times and not getting all the benefits of a managed training plan.

A heart rate monitor is the only way to go to allow you to manage your overall workout.

Despite what you read, you can build a decent amount of muscle with resistance training just once a week. Just be sure you are lifting with intensity, and go to muscular failure (or just below if you prefer) on no fewer than 8 reps and no more than 12. My initial muscle gain ever was done on a "stick to the basics" full-body routine that focused on big exercises (i.e. compound movements) and 2 or 3 sets. Hit each major muscle group with one exercise and you're done. Especially if you're just getting started, any more than that has a huge drop in returns for your efforts. You can even build muscle only doing one intense set each.

So...my recommendation? Do 3 to 4 cardio sessions (interval training: 30 mins or so), and throw in a session of resistance training once a week. Just be sure to give it all you got to be sure you're giving the muscle the overload they need to grow. You can even do the resistance training on the same day as cardio if you plan it right.

Sometimes less is more.

Yes, even with exercise.