Hey i go to a gym 3 days a week but have never talked to a trainer. I usually run for 41 minutes on a treadmill and then do some low weight, high repetition weight training. I'm in my early 20's am 5'11" and about 160. I have sort of a pear shaped body being that all of the fat i want to lose lies in my lower abdomen and upper thighs. I'll probably get some slack for this but i dont want to build a lot of muscle. I simply want to burn the fat and tone the muscle i already have. Id prefer to stay skinny. i'm going to list my regiment now and im asking for advice on what to change in my routine.
I get on the treadmill starting at 4.0 mph and increase this .5 mph every 2.5 minutes until the ten minute point. At 10 min. i begin taking 1 minute breaks at 4.0 mph every 2.5 minutes. Time in between breaks continues to increase .5 mph. At 27.5 min. i begin to extend my break an extra 0.5 minutes(1 1/2 min. now). At 33 min. i run at 9.0 mph, 34 min. - 9.5 mph and 35 min. - 10 mph. I begin a 5 minute cool down at 36 min.
After that I will use an ab machine and do about 80 reps at 50 lbs
then i will work whatever portion of my body im doing that day at about 40 reps of 50 lbs on a few machines.
I work my abs again in the same fashion and then do a 9 minute cool down on the treadmill
I do the opposite.. 10-12mins warm-up on the stationary cycle, then weights, then the cardio. Since I'm going for endurance I find that already being tierd when I start the cadio.. I'm training endurance-wise even more.
Besides.. as tired as I am after the HIIT or the 60 min. cardio.. it would be dangerous to do weights..
i actually wanted to try a stricter hiit cardio regiment sometime soon. i developed mine after an article i read once but it currently is nowhere near where it should be
I have only a few suggestions. Don't worry about building too much muscle. Getting huge or bulky is a very long and dedicated process. Do not fear to lift heavy weights and workout with intensity. It will take a VERY long time to develop an amount of muscle that is more than you want.
You explained in detail your cardio routine. How often do you increase the speeds or decrease the rests? You should effort to improve from week to week, weither it be faster intervals, longer intervals, or shorter rests.
Also, it is pretty unlikely that you should be using the same weight for each exercise that you do. Do you do 40 continuous reps? I would suggest against that, up the weight and do 2 or 3 sets of 10 to 15. If you can do sets of 15 up the weith for that exercise next time around.
And trust me, you are not going to add slabs of undesirable muscle. Many of us have tried for years to do just that while eating mountains of food, it isn't going to sprout on you over night. Lifting light weights to "tone" is a marketing ploy to attract women towards fitness gymics and encourage the idea that you don't have to work hard. Lift as much as you can for a few sets of 10 to 15 reps, and again effort to improve.
Buk, this sentence:
Lifting light weights to "tone" is a marketing ploy to attract women towards fitness gymics and encourage the idea that you don't have to work hard.
(I think this is my first ever double post so I tried to split it into 2 readable parts)
I am not such a good speller, and I usually look up most of my words. I am using a laptop right now, and don't have a mouse so I was too lazy to check the spelling. Even when I just now tried to look it up, I needed help getting something close enough for suggestions.
Cool, just keep the intensity up and try to improve from week to week. Sets and reps versus amount of fat burned is hard to pin down exactly, there are a lot of variables. As long as you are working hard, the variablilty in amount of fat burned will be neglegable. You will want to change exerciese or rep schemes every month or two to prevent too much specific adaptation.
Look at your diet also, try eating 6 to 7 meals/day, getting in more protein. You can't spot reduce, but if you start building muscle then you might drop the pounds quicker.
If you're worried about bulking up, don't. I've been working out over a year and while I look different - I stand taller, my arms/legs/chest look firmer - I'm not one of the walking hulks by any means.
![\"[Frown]\"](\"frown.gif\" "\\"\\"")
Linear Mode
