Am I lifting enough

tracymcdonald4358

I work out 5 days a week, 2 days are for lifting for about 1 1/2 hours and the other 3 are basically for cardio with light lifting and abs. Is this enough? By the way I am 51 years old.

DawnEmbers

There is no specific required amount and in part will depend on what you are trying to achieve. Some people lift weights just two days a week, others more. Some lift heavy for an hour or less, some take a little longer. It all varies on schedules, goals, the program being followed and other personal factors.

What are you trying to achieve and are you following any particular program?

tracymcdonald4358

I would love to have muscular arms and back. I do boot camp, kick boxing, & spin to mix things up. I have noticed that I have gotten stronger and my endurance is increasing but I am not following a specific program just doing what I have learned o'er the years.

janet0513

Those are some long lifting days. Have you thought of breaking it up? I find that when I do that I have more strength and can lift more plus I give my muscles needed rest. I do 4 lifting days on Mon, Tue, Th, Fri (2 upper/2 lower although I may switch it up and cycle push/pull/legs). I do a 15 -20 min elliptical warm up and 35 min weights (mostly supersets). Wed is cardio and I may do some core exercises. Weekends are my rest days but I do walk in the morning and evening as well 5-7 days. I would suggest finding a plan so you are balancing out your workouts. Bodybuilding.com has some good ones or talk to a trainer. I find that too much cardio can be counter intuitive.

DawnEmbers

I lift over an hour 3 days a week since I added a few accessories to the stronglift routine. I'm trying to pick another program to follow but it's a tough decision at times. Some don't mind longer time in gym but less days. Since I moved, I have a longer commute to get to the gym so prefer keeping it to three days instead of a four/five day split.

I can't say much on routine since you do your own thing but you could consider looking at a few different programs and see if one of them really works towards your goals. Of it could be just finding lifts that you may not use yet that might work on the areas you want to target. I looked through the bodybuilding.com exercise database when I was trying to figure out some accessory lifts to do for specific areas (shoulders, back, hamstrings, etc).

Part of it also depends on how much muscle you currently have, if you're trying to lose fat or if you want to work on gaining more muscle. Those affect nutrition more though as there are some people who follow the same lifting routine for years and the thing that changed their body shape in either direction was how much they ate at the different times. If you have enough mass and just a little fluff, you could lift and eat a small deficit to lose a little. Or, if you want to gain more muscle you could eat at a slight surplus and lift weights. The women on bodybuilding.com who coach and have the experience tend to recommend just gaining 1-2 lbs a month when trying to gain since it cuts down how much fat comes with the muscle.

There are lifting routines that are specifically geared to be more effective depending on goal. They aren't just the types of lifts, though many focus on compound moves until get to the more intermediate level, but also rep ranges and for some percentages of how much to lift each day/week. Some are focused on strength, like stronglifts. So, one might be helpful or you can keep doing what you do and find lifts that work your arms and shoulders more. It's up to you.