Am I on the right lines?

Hi all.

Firstly my stats:
Female
5"3
125lbs

I am looking to reduce my body fat and gain a little muscle. I'm not too worried about the numbers on the scale as I know muscle is more dense than fat, so lifting weights may cause my weight to stay roughly where it is. I have calculated my BF% and it is roughly 25%. I would love to get down to around 18-20%.

I was just looking for some advice and clarification from those of you that know, whether my current plan is sufficient. I'm not working on any sort of timescale, i.e. I'm not getting married or anything, I just want to sort my body out!

My workout plan is as follows:
Monday = Strength training (shoulders and biceps)
Tuesday = rest
Wednesday = Strength training (back and triceps) and kettlercise class
Thursday = body pump class
Friday = Strength training (legs and glutes)
Weekend = abs

I also do a fair amount of walking everyday (at least 20mins fast pace)

I usually incorporate some ab exercises into all of my workouts, and try and do some cardio in the form of calisthenics and kettlebells. I also ensure there is progression so I plan to increase the weight I lift.

I have calculated my TDEE -20% and it is around 1550kcals, so I try to stick to this.

Will this plan help me meet my goals? Any advice on any improvements are welcomed :smile:

Replies

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,173 Member
    Sounds good. Just make sure your getting sufficient protein 1/1.2g's/lb/lbm and I would try around maintenance or slightly above going forward and let yourself stall into a new maintenance level from the increased weight resistance and or intensity, then repeat.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Your split routine looks fine, but you may wish to consider changing to a full body workout 3 x per week, such as Stronglifts, as your current routine only has you targeting each muscle group once per week.

    TDEE -20% is probably too aggressive as you don't need to lose weight per se and are looking to recomp. A 10% cut from TDEE should be enough of a deficit.
  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    Your split routine looks fine, but you may wish to consider changing to a full body workout 3 x per week, such as Stronglifts, as your current routine only has you targeting each muscle group once per week.

    Thanks for the advice. Where can I find information on Stronglifts? I am quite limited in terms of duration of my workouts as I go to the gym in mornings before work, so I have about 75mins to workout.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Your split routine looks fine, but you may wish to consider changing to a full body workout 3 x per week, such as Stronglifts, as your current routine only has you targeting each muscle group once per week.

    Thanks for the advice. Where can I find information on Stronglifts? I am quite limited in terms of duration of my workouts as I go to the gym in mornings before work, so I have about 75mins to workout.

    In that case Stronglifts should work fine for you. The workouts take around 45 minutes to an hour. So with a warm up and stretching afterwards, 75 minutes would be plenty of time.

    See here: http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/


    In short there are 2 workouts, A and B.

    A:
    squats x 5 sets of 5,
    Bench press x 5 sets of 5
    Rows x 5 sets of 5

    B:
    squats x 5 sets of 5
    Over head press x 5 sets of 5
    Deadlifts x 1 set of 5


    If you work out Monday, Weds, Fri, your regime would be as follows:

    Week one: Monday A, Wednesday B, Friday A
    Week two: Monday B, Wednesday A, Friday B
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    ps there is an app for tracking stronglifts workouts which is very handy.