Need help with my fitness routine - pic inside

cptorres

Hi Everyone. This is the first thread I've ever started on this board, but I've been a long time lurker. I need some advice on how to achieve my fitness goals. I've been eating better and exersizing over the last 2 months and have lost approximately 12 lbs (I'm 5'2" and 108lb but I think I look about 120lb due to my lack of muscles)). I have never been much of an active person although I am trying to be, but my stamina and endurance is really lacking. As you can see in the pic below, I have NO muscle tone, but I desire that look so badly! I have no idea what my body fat is, but I'm sure it's up there in the mid 20's. My goal is to build muscle, especially at my lower body (especially my butt, which is a disaster), and lower my body fat to 17-18%. I'm beginning the C25K program and have been doing the BBL videos, but I don't see results yet. Most of the reason I'm sure is that my cardiovascular health sucks and I can't finish the videos fully. That is why I'm starting the C25k program, in hopes that I can build my cardivascular endurance.

Please give me your opinion if you think this is a good idea, and what I can do to build more muscle and lower my body fat. My diet is pretty clean. I eat about 1200 calories a day, and am satisfied with that. I don't want to eat more, but I know that I probably should.

iWaffle

My goal is to build muscle, especially at my lower body (especially my butt, which is a disaster), and lower my body fat to 17-18%.

Same exact goals as me. Well, nearly the same. I'm lowering my body fat and trying to keep/add muscle in the process. The best workouts for you lower body are squats, lunges, and for the hamstring and glutes(your butt) Romanian dead lifts. If you want muscle tone you'll need to use real weights. It should be difficult but not impossible to lift the weight much more than 8 - 10 times without resting. Hard should be hard for you and be honest because you only get out of it what you put into it. You can probably lift more than you think. For your upper body focus on compound movements. Bench press, shoulder press, machine rows (for the back) and once you master those you can work on adding in specific targeted exercises like bicep or tricep days.

I'm not sure what all is included in those programs you're doing but you need to be careful about the amount of cardio you do if you're trying to add some muscle tone. Excessive cardio is the enemy of muscle unless you want everything to look extremely lean. That is you would possibly have maybe even skinnier legs but you would sacrifice even more muscle mass to achieve this. I would limit your cardio to 30 min segments and once you can do those well switch to to HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

For instance I do 30 minutes on the treadmill with 5 minute alternating periods at 0 incline and a 5% incline. I've actually just cut back to 3 times a week but I wouldn't go past 5 days a week with this for sure. Your body needs time to rest.

If you're a noob at strength training you can make some pretty good progress even if you're on a very slight calorie deficit. Expect to be sore, sore, sore at first but rest assured that this gets better each time you exercise. Take a couple days between strength training to allow for recovery. Maybe stagger your workouts so you do lower body one day, rest a day, upper body, rest, lower body... That gives you 3 days rest for each muscle group.

The only thing I'm puzzled here with is your weight. Typically you would need to be at a slight negative calorie intake to drop body fat % but you weigh so little already. I'm going to have to defer that to someone with more experience but perhaps you need to start cycling periods of eating maintenance (eating back your exercise calories) and periods of a slight negative calorie intake.

Check out some of the programs that people here keep raving about. The 5x5 stonglifts and New Rules of Lifting for Women. There is no one perfect routine for everyone. You're going to need to experiment and find out what works best for you but structured programs like the ones mentioned above can give you guidance while you're sorting out just exactly what you should be doing.

Best of luck.

EDIT: Forgot to mention. If you do cardio and strength together, do strength first for sure.

MalSponseller

I just wanted to say:

Holy HELL, you look A-MAY-ZING!

mamamudbug

Since you're primarily wanting to drop bodyfat, I would stop cardio and start lifting. There is an excellent stronglifts summary here~> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4601-stronglifts-5x5-for-women