Help! Figuring Out a Gym Routine

stinastudios

Hello everyone!

I've been working on my weight loss and getting healthy since April. Right now I've been working out at the gym by my office (About 30-40 minutes a day) on weekdays and another workout on the weekend. I've been doing three days of cardio (I'm now starting on HIITs) and three days of weights.

The thing is, my best friend has a membership at the same gym, and she wants to workout more, but she wants someone to go with her. I was thinking that I could go with her a few nights during the week to our home gym and do some resistance/strength training, but now I'm wondering where that leaves my lunch routines.

What I'm wondering is how to allot my time at the gym. I don't want to do a ton of cardio, I'm trying to learn the HIITs and don't want to hurt my joints or overtire myself, but I don't think I want to do strength training twice a day.

Got any ideas for me?

Help and advice are always appreciated.

-Stina

BeautyFromPain

At my gym we have instructors who we talk to about what we want to get out of the gym (i.e. weight loss, toning, etc.) and they will make a program for us. Check out to see if your gym has that?

MarieNevada

dont work the same muscle groups back to back. your muscles need time to recover. i do a full body workout mon, wed, and fri. you can split up your muscle groups and work back and biceps for example on mon, shoulders and tri on wed, etc. but it really does pay to get a trainer to set up a program for you and take you through it. . there are also some really good books on strength training. Right now I'm using New Rules Of Lifting For Women.

as for cardio, you can do that as often as you like. and you can keep it under 45 minutes. i try to hit 30 mins each time but on alternate days i do cardio twice a day. i also take circuit classes twice a week. but i'm never in the gym more than one hour. except on days where i slept in and didnt do cardio in the morning so i do it after my weight routine. but even then it's 90 mins tops.

ladygloria

Obviously you can't do HIIT routines or strength training of the same muscles two days in a row (both are recommended as an every other day issue and HIIT is recommended as your only cardio for a day). With that in mind, I'd find a way to break up your strength training perhaps or add non-HIIT cardio that you and your friend can enjoy together on non-HIIT days. So basically it would be something like this:

Day 1-lunch HIIT (on days you won't be going with her)
Day 2-lunch strength, afternoon cardio with friend

Repeat until day 7 which is your rest day and then repeat.

Switch up the cardio together and have fun. Try new things, do things you can do together like tennis/badmitton or a cardio class. Of course, you can also go the more traditional route and both do different machines. Either way, make it low impact so you don't kill your knees

The other option for day 2 is lunch upper body strength, afternoon lower body strength (but this one doesn't sound like something worth going to the gym with a friend for).