more reps or more weight?

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nicolen160
nicolen160 Posts: 197 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have recently started using the machines at the gym for strength, but I am just wondering if I should be doing more reps with less weight or more weight with less reps? I would love any help on this. Thanks

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  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
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    Less reps biases towards strength, more reps biases towards size or endurance.
  • nicolen160
    nicolen160 Posts: 197 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Also If I want to do cardio as well, should I do it before or after strength?
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    You should find a well developed beginner program and follow it. If you do that, you will get the best results with the minimum amount of work.

    SL5x5, ICF5x5, Strong Lifts, Strong Curves, New Rules of Lifting for Women are all good programs suggested for beginners.
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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    hill8570 wrote: »
    Less reps biases towards strength, more reps biases towards size or endurance.
    nordlead2005 wrote: »
    You should find a well developed beginner program and follow it. If you do that, you will get the best results with the minimum amount of work.

    SL5x5, ICF5x5, Strong Lifts, Strong Curves, New Rules of Lifting for Women are all good programs suggested for beginners.

    Both of these are valid points. It depends on your end Goals, OP. Do you have a goal? If so, what is it?
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    If you are looking for a machine based workout, Lyle McDonald has one here. Instead of doing 1 set of each exercise, I would do 2 or 3.
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
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    nicolen160 wrote: »
    Also If I want to do cardio as well, should I do it before or after strength?

    A bit of cardio before the strength workout is good for warmup, but you don't want to do so much that you're too tanked out to put forth max effort on the strength portion. So you could do cardio after weights, later in the day, or on your non-lift days.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    Why not both?
  • nicolen160
    nicolen160 Posts: 197 Member
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    I have lost 120 lbs over the last year and I have about 20 to 30lbs more I want to lose but I want to start incorporating strength into my cardio workouts. I am a member of planet fitness (I know a lot of fitness people don't like that place but it's inexpensive and close to me). I just wanted some honest advice on what I should be doing to get the best results and not waste my time. Thanks again for any help!
  • BZAH10
    BZAH10 Posts: 5,709 Member
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    DopeItUp wrote: »
    Why not both?

    I think doing both is beneficial. I alternate - one day heavy weights / low reps, the next lower weights / higher reps. I also take the shortest break possible (or none at all) between sets to keep my heart rate up and that suffices as cardio as well.

    OP, congrats on your success! Fitness goals are great and keep you progressing.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    nicolen160 wrote: »
    I have lost 120 lbs over the last year and I have about 20 to 30lbs more I want to lose but I want to start incorporating strength into my cardio workouts. I am a member of planet fitness (I know a lot of fitness people don't like that place but it's inexpensive and close to me). I just wanted some honest advice on what I should be doing to get the best results and not waste my time. Thanks again for any help!

    It depends on goals. If you believe endurance is what you want to focus on, lower weights more reps. Of course this does not mean 1 lb dumbbells and 100 reps, or you end up doing just a different routine for cardio. If you want to increase strenght, you need to focus on heavier weights.
  • braves3134
    braves3134 Posts: 64 Member
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    Also in case you didn't know, if you belong to planet fitness already, all their memberships include free personal training. You can set up an appointment for the "design your own program" session and there certified trainer will get an idea of your goals and tailor a work out to that and show you how to perform the exercises (how much weight/how many reps/form etc). Congrats on the weight lose! Good luck going forward and keep it up!

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