Gym weights advice

[Dugganator]

I'm currently doing a lot of cv down the gym about 3 times a week and been losing weight for a while now.

I'm thinking of starting weights but worried that I'll start putting weight back on because of fat being turned into muscle.

Is there a suggested best route to go along with cv?

One of my friends suggested doing weights but his suggested routine sounded a bit hardcore for me as I’m looking to tone and burn.

His routine is to start at the heaviest he can rep until failure and then move down in weight until he fails at the smallest weight.

What would be your guy’s suggestions? Should I stay away from weights until I reach my goal weight or can weights be a good way of also burning fat faster along with cv work.

Cheers

 

[Dugganator]

Weights will accelerate fat burning significantly with a good diet and a good intensive lifting/workout regime. CV alone is only so good - weights and gaining some muscle actually helps your body accelerate it's metabolism.

You won't turn into Arnie over night, and you can only look "toned" if you have muscle to begin with.

Cheers freefaller. What would you suggest with regards to the type of work out.

On monday night I did my first weights on a brench press and was completely shocked at how much I could lift in a bad way. I'm not sure what is the max I could rep once but 50kgs I could only rep about 6 times before failure.

If weight lifting will help me burn fat ill be really interested at a suggested work out if there is such a thing.

Cheers.

 

[Dugganator]

I reckon the stronglifts 5*5 is a good intro into weights for most new starters, good compounds to biud strength, Im 3 weeks into the 12 week plan, and although I havent lost weight, Ive certainly lost inches.Im fasting at the mo, so Im not really doing cardio, but the fact im losing inches can only be a good thing

Thanks for the guide bud. This look like a great way to get me started.

 

[Dugganator]

Urr...is it me or is that not half bad for a first ever attempt?!

Cheers I guess . If i'm honest i'm completely new to this so you will have to tell me if this is good or not i dont really know

 

[Dugganator]

It's all relative. I'f your 7Ft 2" and weigh 150KG it's not. If your 5 foot and 40KG then yes it probaly would be.

Take regular pictures every few weeks and even slap some of them in the bodybuilding thread to log your progress. You might not see differences but others will. Don't worry there are pictures of people all shapes and sizes in that thread so don't be embarrased.

cheers bud. Well I'm 6 2 and about 17 stone 5 so like 111kg I think. I've got a knee injury that i'm trying to overcome at the moment so building this area up will be handy. It isnt stopping me doing exercise but I can feel thats its weak.

I'll get the gf to take some photos and take my stats when I get back from the gym tonight. Aiming for 3 times a week at the moment.

 

[Dugganator]

Weight lifting gets my vote for dropping fat.
Aslong as your lifting heavy and properly you will find that doing things like Deadlifts and Squats will get your heart racing.

Started my routine on 6th March at 15st 2lb.
Weighed myself Monday and Im now 11st 13lb.

I do a 4 day split and Cardio once a week.
*EDIT* I also walk home from work each day which is 3 miles and I always forget to mention that.

My change in Diet has probably been the biggest factor in it all and that is what will ultimatly effect your weight going up or down I think.

Depends what your long term aim is I guess.
Mine is to shift the fat and then put on some lean muscle, so getting involved early on and learning the lifts etc has been quite important for me.

....and I only bench 55, so 50 aint half bad IMHO.

Dude first of all massive well done on that weight lost. Please teach me your wise ways master

 

[Dugganator]

I'm 5'11'', 182 lbs and I can only bench press 18Kg dumbells after a month of working out (8x3, full ROM, strict form). I'm such a weak ass but hopefully staying disciplined with the exercise technique will see this shoot up quite quickly.

Well I used to box when I was younger and I've always been reasonable strong I guess if i'm compating myself against an average person not the fit gym folk in this part of the forum .

I'm not the best person to give advice but google that stronglifts 5x5. Cracking little guide i've been reading it since it was posted as a suggestion in this post seems like a really good routine to start with.

I'll go to the gym tonight and try and bench what ever the highest i can might get someone to video it for the laughing factor when I fail lol. Just the one rep though.

 

[Dugganator]

Right went to the gym last night and did the 70mins Cv.

30mins on the cross trainer level 8 on random
35mins on the treed mill speed 6.2 on fat burn (this adjusts the incline until you reach your target heart rate which was set to 170)
5mins on the rower (this was set to just row on resistant 7 not very got at rowing and this was the first time on one)

My spotting partner didn’t turn up last night so I couldn’t really push my on the bench press. But failed at 45kg on my own my chest is still hurting from Monday so I’m taking this as a factor.

I did 2 reps of 5 on the seated row pull up to the maximum weight of 88kg.

I left the gym shortly after this.

Do you guys think I should do weights twice a week until I start healing a bit faster today I feel pain in my all chest muscles. I left a day between as suggested but still feel the same as if my muscles aren’t knitting back together quick enough. Maybe this is just normal but I dont know.

 

[Dugganator]

Right I bet this is a noob question but can some one explain the best way to loose weight through Cv. The reason I'm asking as some of you have pointed out is that i'm setting my heart rate far to high. The issue I have is that I really dont feel pushed at a hate rate of 125 to 140 I have to up it to get the sweat pouring out . Now I could be doing this completely wrong and I really want to burn fat from cv. So please correct me if I should be taking it slower and the reasons behind this.

I'll change my work out to cv after weights now and see how I get on from there.

Cheers

 

[Dugganator]

Sure I have read somewhere regarding weights burning of glycogen stores and therefore helping you burn fat, aswell.

As Benny said HIIT is very good.
I used this site to learn about it:
http://www.intervaltraining.net/hiit.html

I dont do much cardio, but when I do, I tend to stick to light 'fat burning zone' stuff or HIIT.

Ta thats a really cool link I might have to try this the next time I'm at the gym

 

[Dugganator]

cheers for the replies. Some really great replies I hope this post will help others to if your reading this and thinking of starting do it now

Right I'll try and explain a bit more to give an understanding of what i really want. I would like to loose weight but I think i'm brain washed into thinking that you only lose fat by losing weight. Now i'm happy to convert fat into muscle if I lose inches. Now my biggest area of "epic fail" is my beer belly of doom lol. When I was at school I was big lad after leaving I got into boxing and lost all the weight which was good up until I had to have a temp bolts put into my jaw (long story) but this stopped most sport for some time. Anyway over the years i've not really pushing my self and enjoyed cider far to much

So really I'm happy to turn fat into muscle no issue what so ever but really I would like to lose some weight at the same time. I dont think the idea of being well built with lots of muscle and still being in the 17 stone group would be good for me. So as complicated as i've made this sound maybe I would like to lose some weight and lose iches as well (main in the belly zone lol). So i've guessing i need a good mix of both to reach my goals. If i happen to lose weight as a results of all the weight lifting I'll be happy but as i'm at the early stages i guess ill have to try a mix of things to see what works for me.

Ill get some pics up tonight when i get home to show you the bomb damage you lot have to work with

 

[Dugganator]

You have said you dont mind turning fat into muscle.

Just wanted to make sure you realise that fat doesnt litteraly turn into muscle.
Its an expression that gets thrown around a lot and because Body Builders tend to eat more than your average Joe, its kind of become one of those Myths that hangs around.

Here explains:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/matt2.htm

If you already know this then just disregard my comments....just wanted to make sure you understand it correctly and dont fall into the same trap as others.

I'll be honest I didnt know that. But cheers for the link thats well helpful in explaining. Ta for pointing that out as well.

 

[Dugganator]

SHIELD YOUR EYES LOL.

 

[Dugganator]

that your handbag?

well it was the weekend

 

[Dugganator]

Well this week i've started my gym work out a little bit different taking some of the advice thats been posted here.

I've changed doing my cv to heart rate of 127 which is meant to be my target for my weight and age etc. Problem I find with this is I feel like I'm really not working out but I understand that keeping your heart rate at 60-70% helps to burn fat more. well thats the hope at least.

On the brench I havent been counting the bars weight at all and it turns out that its a lot heavier then I thought. So when I was lifting 50kg I was lifting 65kg. Kind of happy with that in a way but we will see how I go I guess.

Yesterday started at 55kg repping 5 times then increasing by 5kg up to 70kg which I completely failed at. Lucky I had a spotting partner otherwise I would have been very stuck. Move on to seated row pull started at 88kg doing 5 reps droping the weight by 10kg each time down to 20kg which I repped about 30 times. I moved on to another machine not sure of the name but its what I guess would be called arm curling on free weights. I couldnt do much on this machine so started at 45kg and worked my way down. I think I need to get away from the machines and stay with the free weights abit more.

After this as a cool down I did 5 mins rowing. Now i'm not sure but today I feel great where as last next i felt like my arms and chest were about to explode. I'm wondering if it was the fact that i did 5 mins rowing as a cool down helped my muscle or was it the spag bow I had for dinner and the potein if any in that help my muscles to repair quicker. I had a terrible nights sleep thou not sure if that had anything to do with it. Or could it be that I've just got used to the lifting very quickly. sugggests would be good to why but I guess it could be tomorrow it hits me

Roll on tomorrow for my next pain session down the gym

 

[Dugganator]

Cheers RB

if I'm honest I havent followed a set plan yet because I just wanted to test the ground first and see what areas I find hard etc.

I'm going to follow the stronglifts guide. One question which maybe be a really stupid one but when they say 5x5 reps they mean 5 reps of 5 so 25 total. Do you work from the highest weight and go down from there or rep the same weight 25 times. Also how long would you suggest as a rest period between sets.

 

[Dugganator]

Hi Duggan,

5*5 is 5 sets of 5 reps (25 reps total) with the same weight IIRC. I belive the rest time varies for Stronglifts and can go up to 5 minutes (although other gym users may not like this much). Usually 1 -> 1.5 minutes is more common or 30 seconds if you really want to push yourself.

I would save the pyramid (building up weight set by set) / dropsets (working down weight set by set) / supersets (two complementory exercises rotated for each set) for later when you hit a block. It will give you somewhere to go to break through.

Cheerrs
RB

Cheers RB that makes sense thanks