I need tips to maintain my weight but tone up.

melissamtz90

I'm at the weight I want to be and now just want to tone up. I'm pretty much new to all this so what do you guys recommend? I've being doing elliptical 3 times a week for 30 minutes or so but I have begun to notice my backside is slimming down way too much. I recently started weights for my biceps (5 lbs) and do squats with the bar.

TavistockToad

Recomp

cwolfman13

Eat at maintenance and follow an actual lifting program in the gym. Doing elliptical and arm curls isn't going to do much. You should be focused on compound movements that work the largest muscles in your body...you can follow that up with some isolation work, but isolation work shouldn't be the foundation of your programming.

Maybe look into New Rules of Lifting for Women or Strong Curves...both good programs. New Rules is a particularly good read for a woman who's never lifted as it explains what you're doing and why and dispels a lot of myths that women typically hold onto in regards to lifting weights and using barbells, etc...

ETA: cardio is fine, and IMO it's essential to overall fitness, but cardio isn't really going to give you substantial body composition changes...that's what lifting weights or otherwise doing some form of resistance training is for.

sijomial

Start lifting properly.
Pick a proper program or get a (good) PT to set up a program for you otherwise you will be wasting your valuable time. From the tiny amount of information available you might want to look into the Strong Curves program.

Sorry to say but this is a classic waste of time "I recently started weights for my biceps (5 lbs)". You can get so much more done in the same time if you follow a well designed program.

Cardio is fine but it's the strength training that will see you make progress at a decent rate.

BTW - the elliptical will work your glutes but you need to add a reasonable amount of resistance.

melissamtz90

Thank you! This is definitely helpful because like I said I don't know I'm doing

richardgavel

One note on trying to get your backside better...muscle activation! Many people don't naturally fire their glutes and when doing squats just let the quads do all the work. I'd recommend some stair climbing as an exercise to help focus on using your glutes. That will help to translate to squats and deadlifts.

kdiamond

Yes, as others said don't waste your time on isolation exercises. If you are new to lifting New Rules of Lifting is a great book - you'll have (as the bros call it) "newbie gains" - it changed my perspective on lifting and really got me started, and I had a lot of success with this program. GOOD LUCK