How often to do Pump and weights? Newbie here :)

rhan90

Hi there, so this is my first post It's pretty detailed, so I apologise if some people find it boring.

I've been going to the gym for 5 weeks now, between 4-6x each week. As a part of my membership, I get a session with a PT every 6-8 weeks to evaluate my fitness and write a new plan. Currently, my workout plan has 20 minute of cardio (on the bike) and roughly 40 minutes of weights/strength training. I have been doing this workout 3x week, with cardio days in between (and a rest day per week). I have noticed improvements in my strength and ability to complete the exercises.

On Tuesday I tried a Pump class for the first time. It was fun, but also quite hard. I didn't scale back the weights on the bar for the second lot of upper body exercises after doing lower body exercises. I ended up being extremely sore for 2 days straight. I could still get around, but I had trouble straightening my arms without pain in my bicep and forearm. With my usual workout, I am a little sore the next day, but it is usually gone by when I need to do weights again. This wasn't the case with pump. I'm not entirely sure if the soreness was directly due having too much weight for some exercises, but I'm guessing it's probably why.

My question is how many times should I do weights and pump per week? It is difficult to fit the pump class into my schedule due to work etc, and it looks like weeks where I do pump there is a chance I'll only be able to fit in 2 days of strength training (including the pump class). Would this be adequate for lean muscle growth and toning? Or would it be better to squeeze in 3x strength-training sessions a week? Even if I am still really sore?

I suppose I should state that my aim is to lose weight and get fit. To me, a part of getting fit involves having strong muscles. I'm not looking to enter body -building competitions - but a little bit of noticable muscle tone would be nice

Thank you for reading!

NightOwl1

You should wait 48 hours in between weight training sessions on the same part of the body. So if you do upper and lower in the same day, you shouldn't do weights at all the next day.

If you do upper body lifting one day, but don't do lower body lifting, you can do lower body the next day, and visa versa. Especially since you are a fairly new weight trainer, you don't want to overly fatigue your muscles.

PrincessNazareth

Hello Newbie, welcome! Congratulations on finding this community.you will not regret it!
It's a great motivational system with real people facing real weight loss obstacles with unique situations!
Were all very supportive of one another's efforrs.

Lyadeia

A lot of people just starting out do just 2 days a week of strength training. I would recommend doing a total body workout on each weight training day, but as the previous poster said, don't don them consecutively. I have never done a pump class, but I would imagine that you could actually count that as a third weight training day.

I typically do weights 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) with cardio 3 days a week (Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday) and yoga on Thursday in the middle of the week to give my muscles a good stretch. Flexibility training such as stretching and yoga is the most neglected part of fitness as so many people just don't do enough of it. It can actually aid to reduce soreness in muscles, as well. :flowerforyou:

rhan90

Thank you for the advice and for the welcome

I understand to leave 48 hours between my weight training, as I do a full-body workout. The irk moreso is that it was 78+ hours after pump that the soreness started to go away enough for me to weight train again. Does that sound wrong? I like to push myself, but I don't want to push myself too hard. Next pump class I'll be more careful with using the correct weights and then I'll have a clearer picture.

I'm concerned that if I only do 1x pump class plus 1x weight session per week, I won't make much progress at all. Urghhh, this is bothering me way too much! It doesn't help that the class timetable doesn't quite work for me either at the moment.

rhan90

Thanks for your help

I was following a similar format up until this week, weights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday then cardio on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday OR Sunday. The pump class with the most suitable time is on a Tuesday though, and I usually work on weekends and don't always have time to go to the gym on the weekend. They need to adjust their timetable to suit me :laugh:

I'm about to try my first yoga class on Monday I tried pilates yesterday and enjoyed that, but yoga might be more what I'm looking for in terms of stretching and flexibility. The calming aspect would be a bonus too I'm also going to try a body balance class, see what thats like then decide what I want to make a permanent fixture in my schedule.