Good routine for the gym please

Artemis751

Hi

I have been exercising and eating well but I seem to be lost at what I am really meant to be doing when I go to the gym. I have a limited amount of time to exercise and I can usually manage 3 x 1-2 hour sessions a week at the gym or I have a bike at home that I can use when the weather is dry.

What would be a good cardio/weights session for me given the amount of time I have please? I have been using the cardio machines for about 30-40 minutes each time and then some weights for 20 mins and crunchies followed by a cool down. Does this sound about right or should I focus more on the weights? I need to lose around 8% body fat but I seemed to have hit a plateau after doing quite well.

Many thanks.

Artemis751

Thanks for all your answers. Much appreciated. :-)

Jtorres326

Are you doing steady state cardio (meaning one speed the whole time)? If so, try mixing in some intervals 2-3 a week (every other day or so, never consecutively). Interval training means for a period of time, this can vary from 20 secs- 1 minute, you work as hard as you can, you sprint or do a hill, then you recover for a few seconds (usually half the time you took for the interval, so if you did a 20 second work, you can rest for 10 seconds) and repeat. You can burn alot of fat in 20 minutes and this kind of exercise can raise your metabolism a few hours after exercising.

Work in weight training as well, try supersets: working two or more parts at a time. So do circuits with multiple exercise ex: lunges w overhead press, squats with bicep curls, leg raises w shoulder raise, plank rows and so on...

Sorry to tell you, you will need to workout more than 3x's a week to lose weight. Try to aim for 5 days a week if possible, even if you do some things at home.

TylerJ76

Sorry to tell you, you will need to workout more than 3x's a week to lose weight. Try to aim for 5 days a week if possible, even if you do some things at home.

Not true at all.

If you're working out 3x a week for 1-2 hours at time, like the OP said they were, and you are creating a calorie deficit, you will have no problems losing weight.

Jtorres326

More frequent shorter workouts are better than 1-2 hours of cardio. There is a point in cardio of diminishing gains. Longer does not mean better.

Jtorres326

Sorry to tell you, you will need to workout more than 3x's a week to lose weight. Try to aim for 5 days a week if possible, even if you do some things at home.

Not true at all.

If you're working out 3x a week for 1-2 hours at time, like the OP said they were, and you are creating a calorie deficit, you will have no problems losing weight.

But OP isn't losing weight, so it's not effective right now.

becon1022

try doing less cardio more weights. try out crossfit or something similar. the workouts are fast, full body workouts that use both weights & cardio. plus the main site gives free workouts & uses a 3 day on/1 day off cycle. i suggest you learn to do the movement properly first & scale the weights, rounds, reps to your level of fitness. your workouts will be intense, fast, and not spent on a boring cardio machine. also run outside, ride your bike, lift heavy, make it fun, challenging, & change it up so it does not become stale(change always your body to always have that shock factor so you dont plateau)

js370

If you want a good strength training routine, do a search for 5x5. 3 times a week using 5 compound exercises and it's a easy start. In the beginning you'll only take about 30 minutes to complete.