For those that lift.....

How many days a week do you lift? What is your general routine on any given week? I have started lifting weights and am new to all this. I want to gain strength and muscle but am somewhat clueless as to where to start. Any advice you could give me would be awesome. Thanks ;)

Replies

  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    How many days a week do you lift? What is your general routine on any given week? I have started lifting weights and am new to all this. I want to gain strength and muscle but am somewhat clueless as to where to start. Any advice you could give me would be awesome. Thanks ;)

    It all depends on your goals, how lifting fits in with other exercise you do, and your age. Either way, allowance for soft tissue recovery between sessions (if working the same muscles) is key to the training effect. I do lower body on Mondays, upper body on Wednesdays, and core work on Fridays. But I also do 8-12 hours a week on a bike in addition to that, so my lifiting needs at age 52 take a backseat to the cardio burn I do.

    I have read some interesting articles about the frequency of lifting and the actual time it takes for one to recover from the session being longer than what most tout or practice. One study I read suggested that it could be between as little as 48 hours to as long as 9 days!!!! The longer duration recoveries in the study were frequently tied in with the over 40 crowd. Again, it depends on how hard one works the muscles, what their lifting experience is, their genetics, nutrition, recovery process that is coupled with other exercise, etc... . I would say that allowing 48 hours minimum is a good rule of thumb. If you still feel the soreness (DOMS), then wait another day or two or more until that subsides so that maximum growth in the training effect is allowed to work.

    Plenty of opinions and thoughts, but listening to your body always seems wise and easy to do before working the same muscle groups in lifts. I don't think anyone would question 2-3 sessions per week, nor would they questiong breaking it up into what parts of the body you are working on in your lifts.

    Plenty more will chime in...
  • rauljg42
    rauljg42 Posts: 30
    I would suggest bodybuilding.com...a whole slew of weight lifting plans depending on your age and goals. I started of slow with light weights. I now lift 5 days a week. I mix up the routine every several weeks.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    starting strength
    strong lifts
    new rules of lifting

    start there.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    How you go about it really depends on you. How intense are you training? Do you recover well? How good is your nutrition? How much time to you have to dedicate to lifting? How much time do you have to dedicate on recovery?

    If you're lifting to a moderate or high intensity, it is likely going to take 48 - 72 hours for recovery. So, hitting each body part twice or three times per week should be optimal. If you've got the time, you can break your workouts into splits that allow you to work each part harder (more intensity).

    For most new lifters, I'd do a 5x3x6 - 10. Five basic, compound movements (squats, deadlifts, bench press, bar rows, standing overhead press), three sets of each in the 6 to 10 reps and resting 90 - 120 seconds between sets. With a good warm up and a good cool down/stretching, you can get that done in less than an hour. Once your gains start to plateau, change things up.

    Hope this helps.
  • ktkdmommy
    ktkdmommy Posts: 95 Member
    Great advice, thank you everyone. I was thinking about starting with 3 days a week as that's what ive read and don't wont to over do it starting off. I do cardio 6-7 days a week about 45min-1 hour a day. Should I still stick with that or do more or less? Also for someone that is lifting 3 days a week, what should my calorie intake look like, as well as my protein and carbs? Right now I am at about 1300-1500 calories a day (more if you add in calories lost from cardio) and maintaining my current weight.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    are you training for something? 7 days a week of cardio is over kill- you should always have a rest day.

    I don't do any "designated" cardio. so for me- 6-7 days for an hour or more of cardio is way to much- but 2-3 times a week at 30-45 is probably manageable.
  • charleigh78
    charleigh78 Posts: 247 Member
    I love New Rules of Lifting for Women. It is a great place to start.
    It will answer all of your questions about calories, cardio, etc
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,661 Member
    Great advice, thank you everyone. I was thinking about starting with 3 days a week as that's what ive read and don't wont to over do it starting off. I do cardio 6-7 days a week about 45min-1 hour a day. Should I still stick with that or do more or less? Also for someone that is lifting 3 days a week, what should my calorie intake look like, as well as my protein and carbs? Right now I am at about 1300-1500 calories a day (more if you add in calories lost from cardio) and maintaining my current weight.

    if the idea is simply to put on muscle then the cardio is not necessary, and if your not eating enough it will even hurt your progress.

    not sure of your stats, but your going to want to eat about 200-300 cals extra a day on top of what your total energy expenditure (including exercise).

    using MFP to tell you what to eat should be fairly accurate
  • ktkdmommy
    ktkdmommy Posts: 95 Member
    I love New Rules of Lifting for Women. It is a great place to start.
    It will answer all of your questions about calories, cardio, etc

    Awesome. I am going to get this!!!!

    I am not training for anything, honestly I am clueless when it comes to all of this, that's why I am asking, thanks for all the great advice. I will cut back on the cardio (I really don't do it for anything other than the fact that I enjoy it.) I want to put on muscle but as well maintain my weight (the only weight I want to gain is from muscle.) Im going to readjust my goals and go from there. Thanks all.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Strong curves by Bret Contreras is also really good (I love this program) and Nia Shank's stuff looks good too (I haven't done it myself but I love her)
  • ironrat79
    ironrat79 Posts: 273 Member
    I mix it up with light/reps and heavy/fail and rotate weeks. I'll also mix up the exercises I do. Anything really to shock the muscle. Someone mentioned bodybuilding.com, great advice and worth the browsing! Good luck
  • teaparty75
    teaparty75 Posts: 170
    Strong curves by Bret Contreras is also really good (I love this program) and Nia Shank's stuff looks good too (I haven't done it myself but I love her)
    I started w/strong curves....I thought it was a great intro to lifting .....I've since moved on to strong lifts 5x5 , 4 days a week plus 30 mins of cardio as I am trying to lose fat
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Yeah, I am currently doing it (the gluteal goddess for advanced lifters program) and my glutes are finally activated and being worked properly, Love it!
  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    I love New Rules of Lifting for Women. It is a great place to start.
    It will answer all of your questions about calories, cardio, etc

    Awesome. I am going to get this!!!!

    I am not training for anything, honestly I am clueless when it comes to all of this, that's why I am asking, thanks for all the great advice. I will cut back on the cardio (I really don't do it for anything other than the fact that I enjoy it.) I want to put on muscle but as well maintain my weight (the only weight I want to gain is from muscle.) Im going to readjust my goals and go from there. Thanks all.

    You could easily cut back to 4-5 days a week of cardio with the weights on the other days. Recover includes "active recovery" as well as "passive recovery". So a day that has a Zone 1 HR cardio workout for 30 - 60 mintues could be counted as an "active" recovery day. You could also mix on lifting days so you did 30 minutes of weights, followed by 30 minutes of "recovery cardio". However you do it, it's not bad to have at least one day off per week. And it's not bad to do nice 2 or 3 weeks of hard training, then slip in a 5 - 7 day "recovery week" where you still workout, but durations and intensities are/can be less. Read up on the "training effect" as this is all typical stuff to know.
  • ktkdmommy
    ktkdmommy Posts: 95 Member
    Thank you so much everyone for all the great advice