Leg day, arm day, etc

Ang_from_Colorado

So I am a serious newbie to the gym and when I go I feel completely lost lol I know some of my fitness friends do all leg exercises one day and then arms the next then cardio only another day but is this the best way to get full body results? And if so, how long should I plan to spend on each area? Thanks for any help I really am just not sure what to do. My overall goal is just to tone up and have more energy. Losing weight will just be a bonus

CrabbyCancerMama

when you lift you are creating little tears in the muscles so to.let them heal and recover alternate upper and lower e/o day. I do cardio 5x a week, legs MWF, Upper body T Th

sammyliftsandeats

If you are a complete newbie, you should look into a progressive lifting program that uses compound movements. I think you will see better results with an established program than putting something together yourself using isolation exercises.

Example programs include New Rules of Lifting for Women, Stronglifts 5x5, Strong Curves, and Starting Strength.

xvolution

What I did with lifting is start at the lowest weight possible, then try to do 3 sets/20 reps of an exercise [or until failure]. If I can push myself to do 3x20s without failure, then I know that next week I should up the weights a bit. So far it's helped a lot with regaining lost muscle mass and strength.

As for muscle zones, you shouldn't do the same muscle group two days in a row. At most muscles need 48 hours to fully recover from a workout. Doing each group every other day [or better yet, every three days, which is what I do] helps ensure that any tears or injuries from the last workout day will be repaired.

megan_elizabeth8

I began by doing full body about 3 times a week. However, I found that after a while once I was increasing the intensity I was too sore to continue working the same body parts every workout. For this reason, I decided it was time to try something different. Now I still strength train three times a week, but I do one lower body, one upper body and one full body session per week. I've found this much better now. For example, my legs are still killing me from a workout two days ago, but that didn't affect my upper body workout today at all.

However at the start full body was quite effective, as long as I mixed up. There's lots of different opinions about what is the best way to go. I think that everyone has to find what works best for them personally. And at the end of the day, doing something, regardless of what it is, is a lot better than doing nothing. Good luck!