I've mentioned this in my journal, but I don't get that much traffic in there (much thanks to those who do pop by though!), so maybe I'll ask here and get some good advice.
What is a good routine for the gym? I'm hovering around 175-180lbs (at 5'6"), I'd like to get down to 150ish, but that weight is entirely flexible because I would like to develop an all-over good tone. I will never be skinny, at least, not according to wrist measurements collaborated with the fact that I haven't been able to fit into a "small" anything since before I stopped growing even though I was a pretty fit kid. I'm okay with not being thin, but I want to be healthy.
Areas that I know I want to focus on include pecs (hopefully to help D's be at least "less" saggy), abs, and butt/thighs. Even though these are my "trouble spots" I think it'd be nice to have a little bit of tone everywhere.
So anyways, I go to they gym tonight, and try to work on this, I went to the, I don't know, bar push-up machine? Like pull-ups, but you push yourself up. I had it set so I was lifting about 20lbs of my weight, and could only do that for a couple of minutes, I think about 40 reps (am I using the right terms??) - I am still feeling the burn on that one 3 hours later
Then I was on an "abdominal isolator", and I felt like I was more successful on that one. I had 50lbs of resistance and was able to do 80 or so reps on that (I lost count at one point). Then leg curls with 20lbs of resistance and for some reason I stopped counting, but I didn't get far, and moved the weight to 10lbs and did another 20 - I felt pretty lame in every sense of the word at only being able to manage 10lbs.
This whole set of exercises took about 20 minutes, with several breaks in the middle to stop, readjust my seat or positioning or stare at the instruction plate or play with my mp3 player... I don't think I did more than 15 minutes of actual exercise, and wouldn't be surprised if it was 10.
So, the point of all this rambling is, should I just suck up the pride and do a bunch of reps on really low resistance and gradually work my way up the weights, or should I plan for short bouts on weight machines like I've been having and slowly stretch the time out? Regardless of any sort of weight-based exercises I'm doing, I'm also doing cardio of at least 20 minutes (though tonight was only 15 because I was really tired )
Apologies to anyone who actually read through all that
What is a good routine for the gym? I'm hovering around 175-180lbs (at 5'6"), I'd like to get down to 150ish, but that weight is entirely flexible because I would like to develop an all-over good tone. I will never be skinny, at least, not according to wrist measurements collaborated with the fact that I haven't been able to fit into a "small" anything since before I stopped growing even though I was a pretty fit kid. I'm okay with not being thin, but I want to be healthy.
Areas that I know I want to focus on include pecs (hopefully to help D's be at least "less" saggy), abs, and butt/thighs. Even though these are my "trouble spots" I think it'd be nice to have a little bit of tone everywhere.
So anyways, I go to they gym tonight, and try to work on this, I went to the, I don't know, bar push-up machine? Like pull-ups, but you push yourself up. I had it set so I was lifting about 20lbs of my weight, and could only do that for a couple of minutes, I think about 40 reps (am I using the right terms??) - I am still feeling the burn on that one 3 hours later
Then I was on an "abdominal isolator", and I felt like I was more successful on that one. I had 50lbs of resistance and was able to do 80 or so reps on that (I lost count at one point). Then leg curls with 20lbs of resistance and for some reason I stopped counting, but I didn't get far, and moved the weight to 10lbs and did another 20 - I felt pretty lame in every sense of the word at only being able to manage 10lbs. This whole set of exercises took about 20 minutes, with several breaks in the middle to stop, readjust my seat or positioning or stare at the instruction plate or play with my mp3 player... I don't think I did more than 15 minutes of actual exercise, and wouldn't be surprised if it was 10.
So, the point of all this rambling is, should I just suck up the pride and do a bunch of reps on really low resistance and gradually work my way up the weights, or should I plan for short bouts on weight machines like I've been having and slowly stretch the time out? Regardless of any sort of weight-based exercises I'm doing, I'm also doing cardio of at least 20 minutes (though tonight was only 15 because I was really tired
)Apologies to anyone who actually read through all that