eliptical

[idohair02]

Hey everyone! Just curious about something. I have been working out 7 days a week. Just doing the eliptical for 40 minutes a day. When I do it I seem to keep my heart rate in the range of 160-170. I have also been doing some ab exercises as well. I know i should be lifting weights too...but it's been so long since i've done it that I dont remember what im doing! Is just doing the cardio and the abs going to be effective for now? I was thinking of waiting to start the weights till i get down to 200. Thanx in advance for the input

 

[SarahPT]

Hi,
It's not a good idea to workout 7 days a week. Letting your body reast is just as important as exercising it. Let your body have one full rest day per week.
I do think it's ok to wait a bit before you start doing strength training, as long as that is your plan. You may want to think about changing up your cardio and not doing the same thing every time. It may be beneficial for you to do some long, slow state sessions, some short, fast sessions, and some intervals.

Let me know if I can help.

Sarah

 

[Kate3]

Hello,

I agree with the previous poster - take breaks to let your body rest. Or, if you feel the need to go, go, go, mix up your cardio. Switch between the eliptical and, say, swimming or jogging.

Hitting up the weight room can often be intimidating or just overwhelming. I've had success by pulling workouts of out magazines and trying those out. Eventually, I'll adapt them to my own needs.

For more info, check out .

Good luck!

 

[Iwan naloseit]

I have decided to resurrect this from page two instead of start a new eliptical thread. I too am starting the eliptical tommorrow for my cardio and tonight I started weight training. I do low-weight high repetition weight training meaning I use 5 lb weights and do many many reps. I do this to build more lean muscle then bulk, my sister of all people taught me this and I looked it up on google just to be sure cause I don't always trust her advice. I'm also sticking to the classics of sit-ups, crunches, leg-lifts and push-ups but I do those daily. I use dumbell weights for my upper body and I use ankle weights for my lower body. I also do things like no weight lunges and squats just using my body weight. Good luck!

 

[SarahPT]

I just wanted to give my professional opinion on that last post...there is no real benefit to doing weights light enough so you can do many many reps as you say, except that you will burn calories. Are you female or male? If you are female, plase don't worry about "bulking" no matter what you do. For a woman to bulk up she would have to take hormones or steriods, plus eat a very high calorie diet. I am assuming you are doing none of those! If you are male, building muscle is a bit easier, but still requires much hard work and extra calories.
Doing light weight high reps will not build you any lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is built by doing few reps with a heavy weight and taking each set to failure. Also, to build muscle you doneed to be eating extra calories. Your body needs the fuel to make the muscles. Doing the light weight high reps may make it appear that you are building muscle for a time, because this causes fluid build up in the muscles. This will go away in time.
One other thing that I wanted tomention is that it's not a good idea to do any exercises every day. Resting your muscles is just as important as working them. If you don't rest them they will not be able to recover from each workout and will eventually become overtrained, weak, and lose their definition. It's very important to let a muscle rest for 48 hours after it has been worked. That doesn't necessarily apply to cardio, just strength training exercises.
I hope my info was helpful to you, and please let me know if you have any questions I can answer!
Sarah

 

[VictoryOne]

I agree with the post above. I think it's good to do about 8-12 reps. If you can do more than 12, your weights are too light and you need to up them. Working out large muscle groups like your legs, chest, and back is good because muscle burns extra calories when at rest. But it is good to workout all your muscle groups because you don't want to look unbalanced.

One book that helped me learn the basics of weight training was Kathy Smith's "Lift Weights to Lose Weight." I think used copies are available for only a few bucks online. I also like to buy fitness magazines, cut out any interesting weight training exercises, and paste them in a binder.