Workout Regimen

Don't be afraid to lift heavy. :bigsmile: So many women think they are going to bulk up, and I wish I knew who started that lie...but it won't happen.

When I lift weights while not doing a prescribed program such as P90X, I use the principles in Tom Venuto's book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle." You can find it online and download it for a small price. Using his book, I created a program for myself where I would lift every other day and alternate muscle groups as well so that in one week I would have done a complete total body workout just split up on different days. I also lifted as heavy as I could possibly stand to do for each exercise, and I stayed between 8-10 reps. When I could make it to 11 reps, I upped my weight. If I couldn't do 8, I decreased the weight. I prefer to do 3 sets per exercise, but some people say you only need to do one concentrated set...huge debate on which is better, but I say do whatever seems to work for you cause lots of people have success with each way. Also, I try to keep my heart rate elevated while lifting weights, so it's more like circuit training that I do rather than just straight lifting. That way I get a calorie burn and a cardio effect. This can easily be done simply by hopping on a treadmill for 3-5 minutes every 15 minutes or so to make sure your heart rate doesn't fall.

Before I got slack, this is how I was able to add lean mass without gaining "weight." Basically, I was chaning my body composition and my weight stayed about the same. I stayed the same size, but you could definitely see and feel a difference in the muscle groups.