Exercise Routine - Sanity Check

paddyryan355 wrote: »

Hi there,

So I’m 4 weeks into a weight loss and toning regime. I've gotten great advice on diet over at the nutrition forum. What I would like is some advice on an exercise routine I’ve put together.

I’m 41 years old and in reasonable good health. My goals are to drop from 210 to 182 pounds, tone up and improve my flexibility and core strength.

I’m currently doing 30 minutes of resistance training (squats, step ups, push ups, lunges etc.) followed by 10 minutes of free weights 3 days a week.
Then on alternate days I’m doing 30 mins of yoga to improve a weak lower back (I sit a lot as part of my job) and improve my overall flexibility and core strength.

I’ve put this routine together myself based on past experience but would like some of the fitness experts on here to review and give me any advice/criticism you deem fit (excuse the pun)

Thanks in advance.

This is generally a good indication that the training plan is going to be missing some key things.


My suggestion?

Pick a plan that's been developed by a professional who has experience creating workout plans. Something like Starting Strength might be a good place for you. This should take 30-45 minutes. Afterwards you can add in 10-20 minutes of cardio.

Yoga is great for flexibilty, and i believe flexibility if incredibly important as a part of your overall routine... but this is not going to fix your posture alone. You need foam rolling and corrective exercises as well. For this, i am more inclined to suggest hiring a trainer to assist you with this before going into an extensive exercise program.


Following a program when you still have postural problems increases your chance of injury, developing maladaptive patterns, and more.

So... to recap...
Get a trainer if you can to assist you with your postural issues
Flexibility, foam rolling, and corrective exercises
and THEN
Begin a progressive lifting program developed by a professional + cardio
Continue on with yoga if it's something you enjoy

Well, you don't NEED to develop your cardiovascular fitness unless you have a requirement to be able to, say, sprint 100m or run for miles. Personally, I drive to the gym.

TavistockToad wrote: »

darrensurrey wrote: »

Well, you don't NEED to develop your cardiovascular fitness unless you have a requirement to be able to, say, sprint 100m or run for miles. Personally, I drive to the gym.

yeah, whats the use in a healthy heart... wait, what?!

The OP wants to lose weight and tone up. Don't need a healthier heart than normal to do that.

Edit: changed wording as we're assuming the OPer doesn't have a healthy heart otherwise.

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

There's a lot of evidence to suggest that the vast majority don't have particularly healthy cardiovascular systems.

Given that the big three causes of death are heart attack, stroke and cancer I think there's a good argument for a bit of CV work.

exactly. USDA recommendations just for a NORMAL healthy baseline are 150 minutes (5 x30 minutes) of low intensity cardiovascular exercise OR 60 minutes (3x 20 minutes) of high intensity exercise per week.

This isn't to have a "healthier than normal" heart, this is just to be "normal".

paddyryan355 wrote: »

rainbowbow wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

There's a lot of evidence to suggest that the vast majority don't have particularly healthy cardiovascular systems.

Given that the big three causes of death are heart attack, stroke and cancer I think there's a good argument for a bit of CV work.

exactly. USDA recommendations just for a NORMAL healthy baseline are 150 minutes (5 x30 minutes) of low intensity cardiovascular exercise OR 60 minutes (3x 20 minutes) of high intensity exercise per week.

This isn't to have a "healthier than normal" heart, this is just to be "normal".

Does Resistance Training (Circuits) count as high intensity exercise? I'm very out of breath during it....

it depends on your heart rate.

I believe they use the following:

Low intensity: 65-75% of HRM
High Intensity: 76-95% of HRM

paddyryan355 wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

Not particularly as far as CV is concerned.

What would you recommend?

Would 2 or 3 sessions of spinning a week be a good idea?

The right selection of activities and the balance between them depends on your objectives. Essentially weight loss is about your calorie intake, and expending more than you consume, exercise is cimplimentary to that. Resistance training hhhhelps to retain lean mass whilst in deficit, while CV training improves endurance and supports a healthy CV system. The guidelines for general health are prety consistent, around 3 sessions of CV and 3 sessions of resistance work per week, each of around 30 minutes or more. Beyond about 60 minutes you're into diminishing returns unless you have a performance objective.

I would agree with the suggestion above around selecting an established plan, rather than making it up as you go along. You get something that deals with all the optiobns, although there is a health warning that most authors have their own agendas and biases as well.

If you enjoy the bodyweight work, then personally I quite like You Are Your Own Gym, although Convict Conditioning is also respected. If you have access to the kit then Starting Strength and Stronglifts are both regularly recommended.

With respect to CV work, then Spin can be pretty good, although personally I loathe indoor training and run or cycle out in the real world, If you are stuck indoors lots of people will have ideas about how to distract yourself from the boredom and interval work, as you'll get in a spin class, can help. I'll put my road bike on a turbo trainer now and again and do some form of lactate threshold or maximal effort session if getting out in the real world isn't an option.

Ignore pretty much anything recommending High Intensity Interval Training, there is more bollo* written about it than meaningful contribution, and most people who claim to be using it are only doing aerobic intervals. It's not got the claimed magical properties and you get far more CV benefit from just doing moderate intensity work. Most people advocating HIIT are only doing moderate intensity anyway, so it's predominantly a boredom breaker for people.

Going back to the point about bias, that's all in the context of me being a trail marathoner, so my training is to support objectives in that and long distance cycling.

The movement for the Starting Strength Novice program is as follows:

Workout A
3x5 squats
3x5 over head press
1x5 deadlift

Workout B
3x5 squats
3x5 bench press
5x3 power clean or 1x5 deadlift

You lift 3 times per week on non consecutive days alternating between Workout A and Workout B. The recommended starting weights are 45lb for squat, bench, and OHP and 95 for deadlift and power clean. Scale those to something that is heavy for you.

Jtalaskamom wrote: »

You lift 3 times per week on non consecutive days alternating between Workout A and Workout B. The recommended starting weights are 45lb for squat, bench, and OHP and 95 for deadlift and power clean. Scale those to something that is heavy for you.

if the op has a weak lower back i really recommend getting guidance of some kind from a pro while starting out doing deadlifts and squats, if nothing else. starting strength is great as a book and i did my first year of lifting based mostly on that for form, sl for programming, plus the innawebz for random ideas along the way.

it worked out okay for me as a new lifter at 49. but a) i'm contrary, b) i'm an analyzer and figurer-outer anyway, c) i was being paranoid as hell the whole time, and d) i didn't have that much to lose from learning by making little mistakes and waiting until those mistakes started to hurt. really, i would have made the same progress a whole lot faster if i'd lucked into the trainer i waited a year to pick out, right away.