Stationary Bike help

diamondcricket
diamondcricket Posts: 21 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello all! So at the gym I have a PT who helps with the weight lifting and resistance training. I've been seeing him for about a month. I haven't lost much weight, and I'm not complaining I feel better. I know my eating habbits haven't been 100%, but I still feel like going to the gym 3x a week should have produced a little bit more results? Maybe I'm way off base.

So I'm thinking between my two jobs and full time school I can go to my apartment gym in the mornings for 45-60 minutes. To increase my cardio to 5-6x a week instead of 3, and still meet w/ the trainer 3x. My question is right now the cardio I do mainly is the stationary (recumbent) bike or the elliptical because I torn a tendon on the back of my knee 4 months ago and it's still healing. Is it better to do more resistance at a slower pace or a faster pace with less resistance?

I find that I did a 12 resistance on the recumbent bike for 30 minutes and man it was hard but I pushed through, not going very fast but it ended up being over 6 miles!

Any advice is appreciated thank you. :)

Replies

  • halleymw
    halleymw Posts: 246 Member
    You don't really specify what exactly you are doing with the weight lifting. Are you lifting heavy or are you putzing around with 5 pound weights with 20 reps? There are plenty of threads on here about weight training.
    As to the cardio, the biggest thing there is the effect it is having on your heart rate. you can either go slow with a high resistance or fast with a low resistance as long as it is getting your heart rate up. At your age, about 140-160 would be a good goal to shoot for.
    As for the results, you would need to take measurements in addition to just weight, maybe you are losing inches.
    Another thing that is becoming popular is HIIT exercise, where you go as fast as you can for a short period then go at a slow pace and repeat for about 8 sets. There are many protocols out there. Personally, i started out pretty out of shape, so I started with 15 seconds fast and 60 seconds slow, and gradually over time built up to where I now do 30 seconds fast and 30 seconds slow. I do my HIIT 3 times a week on non weight days. I do 1 5 minute warmup, do the HIIT, then do regular cardio untl I have a total of 30 minutes.
    Good luck~
    Mike
  • diamondcricket
    diamondcricket Posts: 21 Member
    I am not lifting heavy yet I guess. I'm lifting between 45-60 lbs with 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps. I am a beginner I thought I was doing good with that part of it. Didn't feel like I was "putzing around"
  • halleymw
    halleymw Posts: 246 Member
    That certainly is not putzing, but you might consider going up in weight and down in reps to 8-10. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the putzing around phrase, but I see a lot of posts of women that are doing the pink dumbells.

    Mike
  • diamondcricket
    diamondcricket Posts: 21 Member
    No pink dumbells for me lol, I want to work out with the boys. :)

    I'll give that a try today since it's a weight lifting day. I'll give the HIIT training you talked about a try on my cardio days. When I sit and think about it my heart rate goes up pretty quick when I go super fast on the bike.

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