Changing focus from cardio to strength, advice please!

PlunderBunneh

I'm starting to become more interested in weight lifting. With the summer coming up, I'd like to see more toning and less flab in my arms and back. I still have 20-30 pounds until my goal weight. Currently, I am 5'8, 184 pounds, with a larger body frame.
Will it stall my weight loss if I start lifting more than my current once-a-week hour session? I was thinking about changing to a 5x weekly 45 minutes cardio, 45 minute lifting.
I don't necessarily want ripped muscles or anything, just want to be stronger. I'm worried that if I start lifting more without eating more, I'll make bad things happen. I don't know what, but *shrug* I'm kinda clueless about weight training.
I guess I'm looking for "That sounds like a good plan!" or "OMG Noooooo! Do it this way instead!!"

snowstorme

That much may be overtraining. It is important to give your body time to recover. You will also want to make sure you are getting in an adequate supply of nutrients and rest. My husband and I started a new lifting program called stronglifts 5x5 which is simple enough for beginners but gets good results. When I started lifting my weight loss did stall until I upped my protein intake. You will very likely also see a stall with water retention in the muscles, but this is not a fat gain and only temporary. More important would be recording your body fat percent and measurement, and hiding the scale for awhile.

adswillis27

I strength train 3x per week with cardio or yoga/core the other days. I am doing Les Mills PUMP now and love the schedule that comes with the program. Just remember that when you start lifting more that you may be quite sore and retain water so the scale isn't going to be your best friend. Take your measurements for progress as well.

jarrettd

Bodyrecomposition.com or the book, New Rules of Lifting for Women, by Schuler and Cosgrove.

You don't necessarily have to work out more; just make your workouts more efficient. Your body adapts to steady-state cardio, and you won't make any more progress with it. Try high intensity intervals for your cardio, instead.

And I highly recommend lifting heavy. You can't bulk up; females don't have the right hormones for it. NROLW has a 3x per week program, with some HIIT built in, and some sensible nutrition advice. (Yeah, you will need to eat a little more on lifting days.)

Good luck on whatever you decide.

PlunderBunneh

Guess I should stop dragging my feet and get my body fat % tested. Thanks for the advice! I think I'll see if I can get husband to let me get the New Rules of Lifting for Women for my birthday, I keep hearing great things about it.

meshashesha2012

since you're that close to your goal, you can probably do something like lift hard 3 days a week (that's about 30-45 minutes) and do cardio (primarily HIIT) 2 days a week. that way you can get 2 days rest to really focus on strength.

and you wont get ripped unless you eat well over your maintenance calories, lift like she hulk and take steroids