A month into workout routine, looking for advice

ryanq1864

I started a month ago at my local gym with the aim to reduce body fat and gain muscle. Its the first time I’ve used a gym so I started with a full body (machines only) workout I found online.

I do each exercise for 4 sets 10 reps 3 times a week.
5 minutes exercise bike
Leg extension
Leg Curl
Leg Press
Chest press
Shoulder press
Seated Row
Reverse Fly

I’m not sure it I should continue doing as I am or if I should change to things up.

rick123321

Brother if you want to gain muscle keep it simple . Also gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is difficult - but it depends on your current condition and body fat levels.

If building muscle is more important to you, I suggest

Keep the SAME routine with the SAME exercises for at least 3 months, to see if it works. Remember progress takes some time

1. Focus on maintaining good form and technique (not perfect )
2. Make sure u track every workout and try to do more reps or weight every week. (Most important is to gain strength weekly)
3. Keep in a calorie surplus daily, eat about 200 more calorie then u burn
4. You will gain muscle , it is not complicated it just requires discipline every
day

This is just a rough guide. I have no idea who u are , your lifestyle or what u look like. But keep things simple brother it is not
complicated

don’t give up , just stick with it and u will see results

Sammi_x_

For fat loss I have been doing jump rope! It has been amazingly good for it.

ninerbuff

Sammi_x_ wrote: »

For fat loss I have been doing jump rope! It has been amazingly good for it.

Jumping rope is good cardio, but cardio ISN'T for fat loss. You're just burning calories. If you burn more calories than you consume, you'll lose weight regardless of whatever exercise you're doing.
If you consumed the same amount of calories you burned in a day, there wouldn't be weight loss. You'd be more FIT, but in order to lose, you have to be in a calorie deficit.
Also, specific cardio exercises DON'T target fat loss. Not saying that you shouldn't continue jumping rope. If you like it continue. But realize that if you don't continue burning the same amount of calories doing it daily, then once you stop and continue eating the same, you can regain the weight back.
Do exercise you enjoy and balance out your diet to fit the calories you burn in a day to fit whatever goal you're trying to reach.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Sammi_x_

ninerbuff wrote: »

Sammi_x_ wrote: »

For fat loss I have been doing jump rope! It has been amazingly good for it.

Jumping rope is good cardio, but cardio ISN'T for fat loss. You're just burning calories. If you burn more calories than you consume, you'll lose weight regardless of whatever exercise you're doing.
If you consumed the same amount of calories you burned in a day, there wouldn't be weight loss. You'd be more FIT, but in order to lose, you have to be in a calorie deficit.
Also, specific cardio exercises DON'T target fat loss. Not saying that you shouldn't continue jumping rope. If you like it continue. But realize that if you don't continue burning the same amount of calories doing it daily, then once you stop and continue eating the same, you can regain the weight back.
Do exercise you enjoy and balance out your diet to fit the calories you burn in a day to fit whatever goal you're trying to reach.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Oh bless thank you for you r response Im not an expert so I wouldn't know the ins and outs. I am on a calorie deficit and working out and have found skip is working well for me.
Thank you for your advice

Retroguy2000

ryan, you should be able to get some noob gains while in a small calorie deficit, i.e. losing fat and gaining muscle, provided your weights there is progressive overload and you are getting adequate protein.

If you are closer to obese though, your primary goal should be fat loss first, which means a higher calorie deficit. You can keep doing the weights program, it's very good for you, but maybe temper your expectations about muscle growth if you're losing weight at a faster pace.

That's a very good list of exercises, and a perfect amount of volume for a beginner. I might do the leg press before the two leg isolations, because you want max effort for compounds, but that's nitpicking.

You are missing a hip hinge though, which is a functional movement that's very good for you. That is typically something like deadlift or Romanian deadlift or dumbbell RDL, but if you don't want to deal with free weights for now I completely understand. You can do a cable pull-through. That's standing facing away from a low cable, and pull it through your legs while extending from bent over to standing. Good for glutes, lower back, posterior chain.

If you add that, and time becomes a factor, I'd suggest take off 2-4 sets from the legs, mostly from the isolations (extensions and curls, especially the curls since the hip hinge works the hams).

You should target at least 0.7g-1g per pound protein, sliding scale based on if you're obese (0.7g) to lean (1g).

Remember that progressive overload is key. My spidey sense tingles when I see mention of every set there being 10 reps. Each set should be about 1-2 RIR (reps in reserve before form failure), and new lifters often don't realize where their failure actually is. They bang out 10 reps casually, week after week, when perhaps they could do 16 reps. I would suggest for your leg/chest/shoulder press and row, once a week in your final workout do an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) on your final set, so you can gauge where failure really is and use that to judge moving up in weight.

Another option is look at dynamic double progression. That's about having a rep range, say 10-12. If you can do 10 reps one week, try to get to 11 next week, then 12. With simple progression you might say keep going until you can do 4x12 then raise weight next time. With DDP, if you get 12 on set 2 say, then on set 3 that day and also set 2 the next workout, increase the weight for that set. If you can't get 10 reps, lower the weight on the next set. This pushes up the volume faster, while also taking into account auto-regulation.

ryanq1864

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

ryan, you should be able to get some noob gains while in a small calorie deficit, i.e. losing fat and gaining muscle, provided your weights there is progressive overload and you are getting adequate protein.

If you are closer to obese though, your primary goal should be fat loss first, which means a higher calorie deficit. You can keep doing the weights program, it's very good for you, but maybe temper your expectations about muscle growth if you're losing weight at a faster pace.

That's a very good list of exercises, and a perfect amount of volume for a beginner. I might do the leg press before the two leg isolations, because you want max effort for compounds, but that's nitpicking.

You are missing a hip hinge though, which is a functional movement that's very good for you. That is typically something like deadlift or Romanian deadlift or dumbbell RDL, but if you don't want to deal with free weights for now I completely understand. You can do a cable pull-through. That's standing facing away from a low cable, and pull it through your legs while extending from bent over to standing. Good for glutes, lower back, posterior chain.

If you add that, and time becomes a factor, I'd suggest take off 2-4 sets from the legs, mostly from the isolations (extensions and curls, especially the curls since the hip hinge works the hams).

You should target at least 0.7g-1g per pound protein, sliding scale based on if you're obese (0.7g) to lean (1g).

Remember that progressive overload is key. My spidey sense tingles when I see mention of every set there being 10 reps. Each set should be about 1-2 RIR (reps in reserve before form failure), and new lifters often don't realize where their failure actually is. They bang out 10 reps casually, week after week, when perhaps they could do 16 reps. I would suggest for your leg/chest/shoulder press and row, once a week in your final workout do an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) on your final set, so you can gauge where failure really is and use that to judge moving up in weight.

Another option is look at dynamic double progression. That's about having a rep range, say 10-12. If you can do 10 reps one week, try to get to 11 next week, then 12. With simple progression you might say keep going until you can do 4x12 then raise weight next time. With DDP, if you get 12 on set 2 say, then on set 3 that day and also set 2 the next workout, increase the weight for that set. If you can't get 10 reps, lower the weight on the next set. This pushes up the volume faster, while also taking into account auto-regulation.

Wow that's a response and half, but the information provided is outstanding! I've had a look on youtube for the cable pull-through, I'll add it to my workout. I've found the first 1/2 sets is usually quite easy but sets 3/4 I have to push for the 10.

Thanks for all the help, I'll put it to good use.

Retroguy2000

ryanq1864 wrote: »

Wow that's a response and half, but the information provided is outstanding! I've had a look on youtube for the cable pull-through, I'll add it to my workout. I've found the first 1/2 sets is usually quite easy but sets 3/4 I have to push for the 10.

Thanks for all the help, I'll put it to good use.

You're welcome.

Yeah, all of your tracked sets should be working sets. It sounds like your first set or two should be aiming for 11 or 12 reps, or be at a higher weight and still at 10 reps. If you can get 12 reps, raise the weight next set. If you can't get 10 reps, drop the weight next set. Remember to have 1-2 RIR though, don't go to failure except maybe your last set, and maybe not even that. As a beginner, you don't need to go to failure.

You'll probably need to track this stuff. I use a spreadsheet on my phone. For that, each row is a set of each exercise, and I track the weight and reps of each set that way. New workout, insert two columns near the left of the screen: one column for the weight in each set, one column for the reps. I can easily see progression this way. There are free aps on iPhone and Google for this stuff too.

nossmf

I use a good old pencil and paper. Still have log books from when I started lifting 13+ years ago. Personally, I don't automatically go up in weight if I make a set number of reps in a workout, because I have some workouts where I feel like a beast and everything feels light, and other workouts where simply breathing is a chore. If I make all my reps one week, I add a plus sign "+" to my log. If I cannot repeat the same performance next week, no sweat, I just remove the +. But if I can do it two weeks in a row, then it's a legitimate new strength level, and only then do I increase the weight. Slows progress down, but helps prevent the situation where I increase prematurely and get injured. (Ask me how I know about this phenomenon...)