New to weightlifting, need some advise.

stephylynn190

Hello, I'm new to all this and hoping to solicit some advise. I am 31 years old and just shy of 6 feet tall, currently 241 lbs. I was at my highest weight after having my second baby, 293 lbs 17 months ago. I managed to lose 45 lbs without much effort but then stalled and now I'm tracking my food and actually exercising. I've started lifting weights, doing sit ups, and using an old total gym but I haven't a clue how I should be structuring my sets.

So far I have been doing a range of 7 different exercises in a rotation. I do each one for one set, then go back and do all 7 exercises again for a 2nd set, then a 3rd, and then a 4th. However, my husband seems to think that I should do all sets of one type of exercise before I move onto the next. Which is better? I want to build muscle and tone, but not bulk up very much.

I appreciate all positive input!

Dragonwolf

Either way works. The circuit style that you're doing is particularly common among body weight strength trainers, but is used sometimes even in weight lifting circles. Doing all the exercises of one item is generally more common for weight lifting, particularly heavy barbell work, though I think that's largely to do with the fact that there can be a lot of downtime while swapping out weights.

If you like the way you're doing it, then there's not much reason to change it. The important part is that you're progressing in your workouts. So if you can do 4 sets of 10 pushups, then try to up it to 20 pushups per set, or graduate to diamond pushups, etc. It's challenging enough when you're at the point where you don't know if you'll be able to get the last couple of reps and even fail entirely once in a while (especially on later sets). It's the progressive challenge that will improve your strength and, by extension, physique.

That said, "build muscle" is "bulk up," but as a female, you will not suddenly look like Arnold in his prime (nor will you ever, really, without steroids). Women simply don't have the testosterone levels to support the kind of muscle building that men can do. Also, if you maintain a caloric deficit, you won't really gain muscle mass, anyway (barring some initial "newbie gains"). Even if you could build enough muscle to be truly "bulky" despite these two facts, it's very hard to do and doesn't happen over night. It does not happen by accident. Just ask every lifter around. To get that really ripped body you see on men's fitness magazines, you have to have a very strict diet tailored to keeping lean mass up and body fat low, and a lot of hours under the barbell, doing routines specific to that goal.

Also, "toned" is just lowered body fat. What many women consider "bulky" is actually "defined." That doesn't happen just from weight lifting, but also the aforementioned strict diet designed specifically to drop body fat.

This is what happens when women lift heavy weights:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

stephylynn190

Thank you so much for the advise! I didn't realize that it would take so much work to "Bulk up". That's good to know as I have been increasing the number of reps per set but I've been hesitant to add more weight for fear of getting too big. Now I can mix it up with # of reps and adding weight.

To try to tone up I have been watching what I eat. I cut soda, juices, alcohol, sweets and now eat less processed foods and trying to up my calories to 1600-1700 per day. It's a lot harder to meet that goal when you're eating healthy rather than eating junk. I also do 30-60 minutes of cardio a day in order to burn the excess fat.

I would be over the moon if I worked my way to a body like Staci's by next year!