need a little exercise (lifting) advice

felinaslp

I was doing a "hard-bodies" class 3x week and zumba 1-2 times. I now can only go to two of the hard bodies classes due to time restraints. Even though they do get me sore, I know they are generally considered more cardio than lifting because of the amount of weights and repetitions done. I like the class and was planning on continuing it on Wed and Fri. I have a bunch of workout videos I can do at home on the other days (I have insanity, p90x, turbo fire, ...), but not sure what to do. I was thinking of doing heavy lifting on Mondays now (starting with machines since I have no experience). Is once a week enough to make a difference? Would it be safe (useful) to add 10-15 min of lifting after my hard bodies class (max I can add on those days in the morning)? Since hard-bodies is more cardio is it safe to lift the day after (I know you're not supposed to work on the same muscles two days in a row in order to not injure them); if it is I might try to lift Tue and Thurs. I sometimes do get pretty sore after hard bodies though.
Thanks for all your input :-) Losing weight/fat can be really frustrating. I started at 184 (around Christmas) and have lost about 15 pounds, but only 1% bodyfat (started at 35-36%) according to my scale. At that rate, I'll never get in the 20s... ugh.

felinaslp

any suggstions?

dixiewhiskey

Doing some lifting is better than no lifting so just get in there and do it. You will have more energy if you do your strength (aka lifting) before cardio. So personally, I would lift before you do your classes/Zumba. Look into New Rules of Lifting for Women and Stronglifts - both have good routines and for Stronglifts there is a group for women on here.

I agree - I find the fat loss journey frustrating but with patience, reading and getting things done, you will reach your goals. I would suggest evaluating your eating while you look into adding lifting. You should definitely be eating more on days that you lift. I started off in Jan about 2.5lbs less than your starting weight and have also lost 15lbs since but I dropped 9% body fat in that time (from 32% to 23%. You CAN get into the 20%s just train hard, lift and eat right. You will get there if you remain consistent!

Also remember that when adding lifting, you may gain lb but lose inches (which means Body Fat LOST) so make sure you are measuring yourself regularly. Last month, I only lost 3lbs compared to 5 in Feb and 7 in Jan but I went down 2% BF and I am starting to look more defined in areas.

felinaslp

Doing some lifting is better than no lifting so just get in there and do it. You will have more energy if you do your strength (aka lifting) before cardio. So personally, I would lift before you do your classes/Zumba. Look into New Rules of Lifting for Women and Stronglifts - both have good routines and for Stronglifts there is a group for women on here.

I agree - I find the fat loss journey frustrating but with patience, reading and getting things done, you will reach your goals. I would suggest evaluating your eating while you look into adding lifting. You should definitely be eating more on days that you lift. I started off in Jan about 2.5lbs less than your starting weight and have also lost 15lbs since but I dropped 9% body fat in that time (from 32% to 23%. You CAN get into the 20%s just train hard, lift and eat right. You will get there if you remain consistent!

Also remember that when adding lifting, you may gain lb but lose inches (which means Body Fat LOST) so make sure you are measuring yourself regularly. Last month, I only lost 3lbs compared to 5 in Feb and 7 in Jan but I went down 2% BF and I am starting to look more defined in areas.

Wow, sounds like you did great! Thanks for answering!!! I wish I had lost more than just 1% body fat. I don't even know what I lost since I thought that hardbodies would protect the muscles to some degree. I do measure myself every week. To be honest, I don't care as much about the weight, as long as something changes, like % fat or inches. I have lost some inches, but not a lot (like two around the waist, two around hips, and I think 1-2 on the thigh). What did you do to drop your weight/%?

felinaslp

Oh, btw, I just made my food diary public (I think...), but I've only been logging like three days or so. And before, in January or something... Thanks for feedback :-)

dixiewhiskey

I started off with 30 Day Shred in January which definitely helped me lose inches.. if you haven't tried that, look into it. It's free on Youtube and if you do a search on MFP Forums/Groups, you'll find a lot of people who also share similar results. It is 20 minutes a day (some people do it a few times a week, some do it everyday) and you can do it at home (or at the gym if there is space?). Now I lift atleast 4x a week and do cardio/sports on days that I don't lift

I went through some of your diary and I think you will benefit greatly from logging everyday.. try doing it for a month, make it a habit. Do it everyday.. if you have to get the MyFitnessPal mobile app to make it easier for you to log, then do it. Logging your food and really looking at how much you eat (and what kinds of food) will really help. From what I did see, also make sure to eat atleast your BMR everyday. More cals if you workout. I aim to NET (so calories eaten subtracted by exercise cals burned) atleast 2100 a day. I have never been successful when I was 120lbs or even 181lbs only eating 1200-1400 per day.

Your protein intake for your weight could be higher and that will be important for when you add lifting.. I am 166lbs and I aim for atleast 166g per day but sometimes it's not always possible so I am for 120g everyday at minimum.

fitnessbuilding

Hi DixieWhiskey,
There are many Exercise DVD's available in market. Visualization grabs more info, when compared to reading.:)