Tips for starting serious strength training

You will NEVER build muscle like male body builders do. There is NO such thing as 'toning' up. Buy and read The New Rules of Lifting for Women. It explains all this and will help you get stared. Or do a search. Lots of posts on here just like yours.

Check out the Stronglifts program. There's a link on here where a woman summarized it up since the pdf is a bit hard to muddle through. I'll include the link here for you:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary

Check out the Stronglifts program. There's a link on here where a woman summarized it up since the pdf is a bit hard to muddle through. I'll include the link here for you:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary

This. 5 x 5 is an awsome beginner strength program. It starts you off nice and easy and then gets you lifting some seriously heavy weight. Do it! You won't regret it!

Best part is that it's free!

Do you:

1. Want to look the best you EVER have?
2. Want to feel strong, both physically and mentally?
3. Want to be able to move like someone 20 years younger when you're 80?
4. Want that coveted cut in your arms?
5. Want that flat, tight tummy?
6. Want to run faster for longer?

If you answered yes to any of that, you should lift weights, and heavy ones at that.

Also, check out this article:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/girls-get-your-guns-why-women-should-lift-weights.html

You will NEVER build muscle like male body builders do. There is NO such thing as 'toning' up. Buy and read The New Rules of Lifting for Women. It explains all this and will help you get stared. Or do a search. Lots of posts on here just like yours.

Lol, well i meant i wouldn't want to look like a female such as jillian michaels completely...i want to be just 'toned'

Body builders have very very low body fat. To get significant (relative) muscle you need to eat at a cr*p ton of food and train intensively.

Good for you, a lot of women shy away from lifting weights but its THE BEST way to lose fat and gain strength.

Keep the workouts simple, focus on compound movements such as squats, lunges, pullups, pushups, rows, ect. I would recommend a 4 or 5 day split depending upon your schedule. That would mean you hit one or two different groups of muscles per day which gives a week of rest between. I also suggest hitting the weights before you do cardio, consider cardio of second importance in other words. You will also want to make sure your protein intake is about 1g per pound of body weight (can be less but try to keep it around there for the best results).

There are many great resources out there, I would google '5 day split' and see what you like. Good luck!

ps-this is all my opinion and what works well for me, you will need to find your own plan that works best to your own body.

1 gram of protein for each pound of weight? is there a reason why?

If i can't eat that amount...what kind of range would be appropriate? 70% ish?

its more like 1g per pound of LBM not weight.
you wont get bulky lifting and eating at a calorie deficit.

Check out the Stronglifts program. There's a link on here where a woman summarized it up since the pdf is a bit hard to muddle through. I'll include the link here for you:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary

This. 5 x 5 is an awsome beginner strength program. It starts you off nice and easy and then gets you lifting some seriously heavy weight. Do it! You won't regret it!

Best part is that it's free!

I'm only on my 4th week but love it! I like that it tells me exactly what to do and it's fun trying to lift more than the previous workouts.

Hello everyone,

I'm at the stage of my weight loss journey where I would like to start getting very serious about toning up and focusing a great deal of my workout towards it.

I just wanted to know your tips on strength training - for example does it help doing cardio before strength training?

How should a beginner start in terms of weight training? Cycling upper body and lower body? How often is too often to be working your muscles.

What emphases should I put on my diet plan if I'm going to be focusing a lot of energy towards this.

I don't want to build muscles to the point where I look like a body builder, I just want to tone up...but also get serious about incorporating it into my routine....as I very rarely did much strength training when I was losing weight.

I have heard the news rules of lifting for women is a good place to start.

Definitely find a good weight lifting routine. Apparently the new rules for women lifting is good, as well as many others and bodybuilding.com. I'm a runner too, totally addicted to running and lifting, but cardio just won't do as much for your shape as lifting. It's good for you, but you don't need as much cardio as people think and it really isn't the fat burner people think. Just look at all the people who do cardio year after year and never change their shape. Fat loss is all about calories. Cardio is good for you. And weight lifting changes your shape. I learned this this hard way running marathon after marathon.

Lifting weights is KEY. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am.

Start lifting now, lift heavy and change it up often, find a lot of weight routines with free weights, make it fun, embrace it, make it part of your life. Only 3 days a week is all it would take. Crank up your tunes and learn to love it, because your body will love it and it will make your quality of life better in many ways, especially when you get older like me.

Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

If you are female you don't have the hormones to get big naturally. I lift heavy and I'm still really tiny. My lean body mass is only 104 lbs and that is fairly heavy for a 5'1" female, and quite a bit of this is due to my having very dense bones from 30 years of lifting, not all muscle, and I'm still quite tiny.

My muscles really are not that big, but they show a lot of definition because I'm quite lean. If I gained some fat then I would have a softer more toned look (which is OKAY too!). Then if I gained more fat I would look bulky and hefty like I did most of my life until last year. YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER YOU WANT. Lean and ripped, soft and toned, or hefty, it all depends on how much fat you leave on your body. Calories are the only thing that changes fat. Exercise is for changing or maintaining your lean body mass only. Lifting weights will give you the best bang for your buck for shaping your body. I finally changed my shape by putting lifting first and cardio 2nd. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

Here's a list of exercises I do (I did not design the workout, I just do it). I don't do all these every day but I do most muscle groups every day, some weeks some splits but not often. You can search most of these exercises on youtube.

The routine I do consists of weight lifting first and cardio second, but I still do cardio (mainly running). I change up everything all the time. My running is sometimes long easy runs, sometimes HIIT, sometimes shorter medium pace runs. My weight routine changes each day, each week, Circuits, Intermittent Super Sets, Fibonacci Pyramids, X-sets, Progress Venus Pyramids, and some splits, constantly changing it up, everything a variety of Strength, Hypertrophy, and Endurance.

Legs; In addition to Deadlift's, Stiff Leg Dead Lifts, Sumo Dead Lifts and Squats I do Bulgarian Split Squats, Lunges, Reverse lunges, Curtsey lunges, Step Ups, Crossover Bench Step Ups, One legged Deadlifts (T-Bend), Lunge Matrix, Bowler Squat, One Legged Get Ups, Bower Squat and Calf Raise, Bowler Squat + Stiff Leg Deadlift, Curtsey Lunge + Dumbbell Squat, T-Bend + Y-Squat, Reverse Lunge & Step Up, Curtsey Lunge + Step Up, Y-squat, Narrow Stance Squat

For upper body I do Standing Shoulder Press, Standing Dumbell Curls, Lying Tricep extension, Pullovers, Bent Barbell Row, Standing lateral Raise, Standing front Raise, Curl and Press, Shoulder Press + Curl, Dips, Lying Tricep Extensions + Flyes, Venus Raise (a type of snatch), Bent Row + Standing Lateral Raise, Pullovers, Pushup + Dips, Standing Dumbbell curls + Overhead Tricep Extension, Bent Lateral Raise + Pullovers, One Arm Dumbbell row, Flyes + Pushups, Seated Curl & Tate Press, Seated Curls + Overhead Tricep Extension, Pushups, Pullovers + Dips, Bent Barbell Row, Lateral Raise + Full Front Raise, Venus Raise + Dips, Standing Dumbbell curls + Lying Tricep Extension, Upright Row + Dips, Bent Barbell Row, Flat bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Bent Row Narrow, Bent Row + Kickback,

Then some upper and lower combos; Squat and Front Raise, Step Up & Press, Step Up + Standing Shoulder Press, Squat & Press, Squat & Swing, Curtsy Lunge + Standing Shoulder Pres, T-Bend & Row, Pike Front Rais + Curtsey Lunge, Flat Bench Press + Step Up.

Core: Bar Bell Rollouts (you can start out with Stability Ball Roll Outs), Swiss Ball Pikes (you can start out with Stability Ball Curl Ups), and planks. As you advance Swiss Ball Pike and pushup.

I probably forgot some but you get the idea.

Best of luck to you and great job making the decision to lift!!
Bobbie

Good for you, a lot of women shy away from lifting weights but its THE BEST way to lose fat and gain strength.

Keep the workouts simple, focus on compound movements such as squats, lunges, pullups, pushups, rows, ect. I would recommend a 4 or 5 day split depending upon your schedule. That would mean you hit one or two different groups of muscles per day which gives a week of rest between. I also suggest hitting the weights before you do cardio, consider cardio of second importance in other words. You will also want to make sure your protein intake is about 1g per pound of body weight (can be less but try to keep it around there for the best results).

There are many great resources out there, I would google '5 day split' and see what you like. Good luck!

ps-this is all my opinion and what works well for me, you will need to find your own plan that works best to your own body.

1 gram of protein for each pound of weight? is there a reason why?

If i can't eat that amount...what kind of range would be appropriate? 70% ish?

It is recommended to get 1g per lb of LBM - which is usually roughly 0.8g for each lb of total body weight.

ETA: as a beginner you should be doing a full body workout 3 x a week if you can. A split routine is not ideal for beginners.

Why is a full body workout 3 x / week better than a split routine?

And what should these full body workouts consist of? (eg. two upperbody - a core workout- two lowerbody?) something like that?

A full body workout is working the whole body - upper and lower. With a split, you are usually only working one muscle group a week - and you work that group intensively. As a beginner, you will get better results as you will be lifting lighter and can take advantage of newbie strength gains (as well as neuromuscular adaptation) by hitting the muscle groups more than once a week. Also, as your lifts will be lighter, there is less stress to your CNS and you can cope with the volume better.