In need of workout advice. Please Help

leanettascott

I do full body workouts 5 days a week usually Monday thru Friday. Am I okay or do I need to change this? On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I do 1 hour workouts. But on Tuesday and Thursday I do around 25 to 45 minutes of training all before noon. I try not to do repeat exercises back to back. I workout at home and have various equipment (dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, weight ball, and bands) to keep things different. I want to tone but not bulk up, On the long days it's a lot of either upper body or lower body exercises. But a small mix for variations. Any help or/and guidance is greatly appreciated. Thanks

heavy day ex. one day 30 sumo squats, 30 lunges,15 weighted toe raises, tricep kick backs, deadlifts, hammer curls, upright rows, side and front raises, military press, and shoulder shrugs.

heavy day ex. jogging, walking lunges, abs, side lunges, bicep curls, push ups, lateral raises, more jogging, jump squats, and sprints

light day ex. jumping jacks, one arm rows, squats, ski jumper, knee bender, the engine, kettlebell twists, kettlebell swing,

UnicornRides

If you are working out within your limit (if you're comfortable) and are eating healthy on the side (have to get the energy, somehow)- then you should be fine! I actually envy your ability to do that.

If, for whatever reason, you start having ANY problems, maybe spread it out more. If problems persist, then change everything up and start slower or chill for a bit.

vorgas

Tone muscle: The continuous and passive partial contraction of the muscles, or the muscle’s resistance to passive stretch during resting state.

Please note, this isn't something you actually do to a muscle. It's a result of things you do. If you're doing 30 reps of any exercise straight, you are really only doing a form of aerobics.

When it comes to exercise, there are two types: aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic exercise is when your body combines fat with oxygen to produce the energy your muscles need to function. This is highlighted by primarily using the slow twitch (Type I) muscle fibers. Aerobic activity is things like jogging, aerobics, elliptical, etc.

Anaerobic exercise is when your body uses the glycogen stored in your muscles to power them. This is highlighted by primarily using the fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibers. Anaerobic activity includes things like weight lifting and sprinting.

Why do I bring this up?

Because if you are able to do 30 reps straight of something you are definitely using your slow twitch muscles in aerobic exercise. In other words, you aren't really lifting weights at all. You are getting none of the benefits that a weight lifting routine will provide.

To get that muscle tone you are wanting you should be doing about 15 reps AT MOST (really 10 to 12). That means a weight in which that's all you can do without having to rest.

You're not going to bulk up. Bulking requires a number of things to happen:
1 - You need a lot of testosterone. Since you're female, you probably don't have much.
2 - You need to have your body in an anabolic state. This means eating a calorie surplus (you probably aren't) or take anabolic steroids (I doubt you are).
3 - You need to train for muscle hypertrophy. This happens at 3 reps max. Not 15.
4 - You need to eat a bunch of protein. At least 1 gram for every lb of muscle. I doubt you're getting anywhere close to this.

Even in a bulking phase, if you really went after it, you would be lucky to add 15 pounds of muscle in one year. Doing 15 reps or so, you'll only see a fraction of that. Nowhere near enough to bulk. Spread out over your whole body, you're talking about just a couple ounces in each major muscle group.

So increase your weights. Strengthen those muscles. Make them so they stay partially contracted, even at rest. That's how you get the tone you want.

Women who lift HEAVY and don't bulk: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/987513-lifting-is-the-most-horrible-thing-to-a-woman-since-twiggy
Muscle tone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_tone
Aerobic vs Anaerobic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_exercise
Muscle fibers: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm
Muscle gains for bodybuilders: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=120712321
Reps and the effects: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/weight-training-how-many-reps-and-sets-to-do.html

cafeaulait7

It doesn't sound like too much if you enjoy it. Your muscles won't need the same kind of recovery as they would with traditional weight lifting, so full body every day (with a rest day a week or so) is great, imho. Watch for any overuse symptoms in tendons, joints, even muscles. Then you'd have to dial it back or do a split, yeah! Absolutely pay attention to your body's signals that way.

Don't worry about the exact classification of your workouts if you are aiming for general fitness and enjoy the moves, imho. If you are trying to build certain muscles (or retain the most muscle mass you can as you lose weight), look into more traditional weights work, and if you are looking to optimize your cardio performance, look into that. But if you just want to look like you are nice and active (not flabby in muscle tone) and burn some calories, your plan sounds great!

fivethreeone

Tone muscle: The continuous and passive partial contraction of the muscles, or the muscle’s resistance to passive stretch during resting state.

Please note, this isn't something you actually do to a muscle. It's a result of things you do. If you're doing 30 reps of any exercise straight, you are really only doing a form of aerobics.

When it comes to exercise, there are two types: aerobic and anaerobic.

Aerobic exercise is when your body combines fat with oxygen to produce the energy your muscles need to function. This is highlighted by primarily using the slow twitch (Type I) muscle fibers. Aerobic activity is things like jogging, aerobics, elliptical, etc.

Anaerobic exercise is when your body uses the glycogen stored in your muscles to power them. This is highlighted by primarily using the fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibers. Anaerobic activity includes things like weight lifting and sprinting.

Why do I bring this up?

Because if you are able to do 30 reps straight of something you are definitely using your slow twitch muscles in aerobic exercise. In other words, you aren't really lifting weights at all. You are getting none of the benefits that a weight lifting routine will provide.

To get that muscle tone you are wanting you should be doing about 15 reps AT MOST (really 10 to 12). That means a weight in which that's all you can do without having to rest.

You're not going to bulk up. Bulking requires a number of things to happen:
1 - You need a lot of testosterone. Since you're female, you probably don't have much.
2 - You need to have your body in an anabolic state. This means eating a calorie surplus (you probably aren't) or take anabolic steroids (I doubt you are).
3 - You need to train for muscle hypertrophy. This happens at 3 reps max. Not 15.
4 - You need to eat a bunch of protein. At least 1 gram for every lb of muscle. I doubt you're getting anywhere close to this.

Even in a bulking phase, if you really went after it, you would be lucky to add 15 pounds of muscle in one year. Doing 15 reps or so, you'll only see a fraction of that. Nowhere near enough to bulk. Spread out over your whole body, you're talking about just a couple ounces in each major muscle group.

So increase your weights. Strengthen those muscles. Make them so they stay partially contracted, even at rest. That's how you get the tone you want.

Women who lift HEAVY and don't bulk: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/987513-lifting-is-the-most-horrible-thing-to-a-woman-since-twiggy
Muscle tone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_tone
Aerobic vs Anaerobic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_exercise
Muscle fibers: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm
Muscle gains for bodybuilders: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=120712321
Reps and the effects: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/weight-training-how-many-reps-and-sets-to-do.html

ALMOST right.

This is full of great info, OP, except for the part about hypertrophy (actual muscle volume growth) which does not occur at 3 reps max, but between 6 and 12 reps. Training above 12 reps is endurance, training below 6 reps is pure strength training, which does not correspond to muscle mass.

vorgas

ALMOST right.

This is full of great info, OP, except for the part about hypertrophy (actual muscle volume growth) which does not occur at 3 reps max, but between 6 and 12 reps. Training above 12 reps is endurance, training below 6 reps is pure strength training, which does not correspond to muscle mass.

Guess it's just a matter of definition.

According to this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_hypertrophy "Strength training typically produces a combination of the two different types of hypertrophy: contraction against 80 to 90% of the one-repetition maximum for 2–6 repetitions (reps) causes myofibrillated hypertrophy"