my own workout, need oppinions and/or advise

[DartFrog]

I have been wanting to post my workout for a while now. I have been a little hesitant since some flaq another member got on their homemade workout. Keep in mind I have really only started weight training over the past 4 months or so. Unfortunately I keep getting so busy I haven't been able to keep it up in a long enough stretch to increase my weights.

I have started out low because I wanted to be able to do at least 3 sets of 10-20 depending on ability, and intend to increase every so often. I also do not want to build much bulk, I want to tone, period. My diet is in check, and I have increased my protein and decreased bread, cereals, pasta etc.

Here it is: lbs sets@reps

Chest Press______________10lbs 3@15
Inclined Chest press_____10lbs 2@10
Declined Chest press_____10lbs 3@15
Pec Fly__________________10lbs 3@15
Tricep Pushdown__________20lbs 2@15
Close grip pull down_____30lbs 3@20
Preacher curl____________10lbs 3@15
Back Extention/ twist_________ 3@20
Leg Press________________60lbs 3@20
Decline crunch________________ 4@20
Roman Chair knee lifts________ 4@15
Side Bends_______________10lbs 3@15
Lunges________________________ 3@20

WHEN I CAN'T GET TO THE GYM:
Push ups______________________ 3@10
Tricep Extensions________8lbs 3@15
Swiss ball crunches
Swiss oblique crunches
Swiss Pec fly
Swiss Squats
Elastic row

When school starts I intend to add leg kickbacks, Lat pull downs, and leg extensions.

I want to add in there something for inner thighs, in and out of the gym (my school gym has weird hours) Any Ideas?

And I am concerned about building out toned love handles. I have heard that it can happen with some people, so do you think I am safe with my side bends or is there something I should be careful of?

The areas I want to majorly tighten are my upper abs, Lower Glutes, inner and outter thighs. Any suggestions?

Should I be focusing more on increasing my weights or increasing my reps/sets?

I am ebarassed by the weight that I am using right now, but I AM just starting, and I have never weight trained in my life. If you have any helpful criticism I would appreciate it.

[Lost Dog]

You've got an awful lot of exercises there, with little balance to the routine.

You'd do better in picking a routine from the Fitness FAQ section. Unfortunately, none are "flagged" as beginner level, so it would be hard for you to wade through them all.

Maybe someone else can recommend a beginner level routine?

However, here's a sample of a Turbulence Training workout.
Sample TT Workout

You could start with this workout immediately. If you like it, Craig's got a great program at his site.

If you're concerned about love handles and toning, it sounds like you might have a bit of fat to lose. TT is designed for that, specificially.

[DartFrog]

it's not that I have fat to lose at the love handle area, I don't want to create them with muscle. (if you know what I mean)

I am down to 115 lbs, and I want to be closer to 120 (less fat more muscle) Although the weight doesn't concern me too much.

Thanks for the routine suggestions

[spankdat]

Dartfrog,

I'll leave analysis of your routine to others on this forum far more qualified than I. My two cents worth is about something else in your post.

Don't let the a**holes who offer only derisiveness and contempt in their response keep you from posting. Many others here will be only too happy to help. Don't be afraid of appearing ignorant or inexperienced. The first step to understanding is acknowledging that 'I do not know'. And please don't be embarrassed about the amount of weight you are using. That will improve with time. (As someone on this forum says at the end of their posts, "just remember, somewhere there is a little Chinese girl warming up with your max".) Doing the best you can right now and applying your best efforts are all any could ask. Be proud you are doing this, especially when the vast majority of folks in this country are sitting on their ever widening behinds and stuffing their faces. I'm proud of you, even if you are from Illinois .

[LeafofDeath]

So much to say... good thing I'm stuck here at work and have plenty of time to say it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Your workout is severely imbalanced. It basically looks like a "beach-muscle" bodybuilder type workout. Here is a breakdown of your upper body work (I'm ignoring your legs and core work for the moment):

1) Horizontal Push (Chest, ant. shoulder, triceps)
2) Horizontal Push (Chest, ant. shoulder, triceps)
3) Horizontal Push (Chest, ant. shoulder, triceps)
4) Isolation Movement (Chest)
5) Isolation Movement (Triceps)
6) Horizontal Pull, close grip (lats, biceps)
7) Isolation Movement (Biceps)

So let's review how evenly you're directly hitting the various muscle groups:

Chest -- 4
Triceps -- 4
Biceps -- 2
Lats -- 1
Lateral Shoulder - 0
Posterior Shoulder - 0
Upper and middle traps - 0

or let's break it down based on movements:

Horizontal Push: 3
Horizontal Pull: 0
Vertical Push: 0
Vertical Pull: 1
Isolation: 3

Basically, I would highly recommend following a professionally designed program at least until you've acquired enough knowledge on how to build your own. You want to try to do only compound movements and equally balance all of the 4 movement types (hor. push, pull, vert. push, pull).

Let me give you an example of my current upper body routine to give you an idea:
1) One-armed Row (Horizontal Pull)
2) Dumbbell Bench Press (Horizontal Push)
3) Dumbbell Pullover (Vertical Pull)
4) Dumbbell Upright Row (Vertical Push)
5) Cable Row (Horizontal Pull)
6) Swiss Ball Pushup (Horizontal Push)
7) Pull-ups (Vertical Pull)
8) Lateral Raises (Isolation, Vertical Push)

Your core movements look pretty decent and balanced overall. Lower body looks imbalanced as well, but I don't have the energy go into all that just now, but I will say this. If legs and abs are a priority for you (like you said), then you want to do those movements first in the workout and make sure you're not doing more chest work than you are leg work [img]smile.gif[/img]

=====

On a different note, you're a girl... you don't need to worry about getting too big, including your obliques. And for the sake of argument, even if they did grow a lot, it wouldn't happen over night. There's also no such thing as "toning." There's muscle and there's a fat. And the appearance of your body is based on how much of each you have. If you want firmer arms, for example, then you just have to lose the fat on them and lift enough to make sure you have some muscles underneath that fat [img]smile.gif[/img]

[DartFrog]

Spankdat, that's encouraging, thank you!

Leaf, Sounds good. I did forget to mention the various pilates workouts that I have been doing for a year or so. It does help incorporate core strength and a number of lower body excercises. Although I don't know how well it satisfies what your talking about with resistance balance though.

I can't do any pullups yet, I am hoping the close grip pull down is preparing me for that.

I do have push ups in there. They are girl push ups granted and I can hardly do many yet (I have a shoulder problem that I haven't been able to get help with) but I plan to graduate to regular push ups eventually. Would the swiss pushups come after that or are they easier than I am thinking?

P.S. It looks like I did forget to put my Seated cable row in there.

[DartFrog]

I just got "TT for Women" Thanks all for the advise! I have been having a hard time finding time to workout because it takes so long to do all those excercises, the workouts so far look like they will be much easier to fit inbetween work, school, and the intermitent school gym hours. At the same time it should give me a better workout!

I am excited to get started, thanks!

[chris_f]

TT kicks ass.... You should love it!

and dude...

Don't let the a**holes who offer only derisiveness and contempt in their response keep you from posting. Many others here will be only too happy to help.

where the hell is that coming from??

[Lost Dog]

Originally posted by sharkbait:
and dude...

quote:

---

Don't let the a**holes who offer only derisiveness and contempt in their response keep you from posting. Many others here will be only too happy to help.

where the hell is that coming from?? [/quote]There HAVE been many negative responses to posted routines. I would be afraid to post my routine, too (if it wasn't a Waterbury workout, of course).

[spankdat]

Originally posted by sharkbait:

and dude...

quote:

---

Don't let the a**holes who offer only derisiveness and contempt in their response keep you from posting. Many others here will be only too happy to help.

where the hell is that coming from?? [/QB][/quote]To be fair, I should mention that I have been recently doing a search here for routines and many of those threads contain a response that is unnecessarily negative or downright rude. Reading these in this compressed sort of time frame rather than spread out over real time as they occur, I'm sure makes them seem more prevalent than they really are. Still, the second sentence in DartFrog's initial post states "I have been a little hesitant since some flaq(sic) another member got on their homemade workout." Lost_Dog adds "There HAVE been many negative responses to posted routines. I would be afraid to post my routine, too (if it wasn't a Waterbury workout, of course)." And occasionally JP or another moderator posts a reminder to be a little more considerate in our responses. So it's not just me.

Uncalled for, deliberate rudeness often springs from the sorts of attitudes I mentioned. My statement was not intended as an indictment, but rather as encouragement to DartFrog to disregard that possibility and post anyway.

[TrainingGirl]

DF, good luck with Turbulence Training. I just started it today and I have some shoulder issues as well. But I think you'll like the program. Have fun with it!

[DartFrog]

Thanks TG!
I was reading through the book today and in the nutrition tips it kept listing good sources of lean protein, one being whey protein. I already have been incorporating soy protein powder in daily consuption. Is Whey better than Soy in any way?

[LeafofDeath]

Whey is faster absorbing and has a higher bio-availability. Some studies have shown that too much soy can be estrogenic and do various weird things to women's bodies like mess up their menstrual cycle. I have no clue how much soy we're talking about here or what the exact side effects are, because I don't typically pay any attention to women's nutrition. hee hee. I don't see supplementing 30-40g of soy a day being a problem, but if you ask some people out there, they make it sound like soy is the devil for men.