Love some guidance on my workout routine

I'll contribute what I've learned with my own weightlifting experience:
I used to do a full-body weight regimen of 12 reps /3 sets of just about every exercise. Pretty standard stuff. During the covid years I lost all progress, and gained fat again. The first half of this year I lost 20 lbs and then began weight training again.
I took a completely different approach-
6 reps / 3 sets, weight at 75% of my one-rep-max*. This is heavy, hard work. Much more difficult than I did before. In the 2 months since I restarted, my strength is nearly back to where it was when I quit 4+ years ago.
As far as diet, I weigh about 175 and am eating 175g Protein daily, following the 1g per Pound approach. Im still counting calories, so Im reducing some carbs to make room in the budget for increased protein. Its pretty much a lazy keto diet.

*finding my 1-rep-max- I used weight machines. Select a weight that you know you cant do. Try as hard as possible to do the lift. If you cant, reduce weight 5lbs and repeat. As soon as you can move it once, you've found the 1-rep-max. Do your workout at 75% that weight. You dont have to repeat this test all the time- just raise your workout weight gradually as you gain strength.

Minor correction, the OP said "lose 6%" not "drop to 6%". As in go from 26% to 20%, for example. That said, the post by @ninerbuff remains valid.

As far as the OP's workout routine, my one suggestion would be to swap the Monday elliptical with the Thursday stairmaster, as doing a leg routine after elliptical will be a lot easier IMHO.

75% 1RM should be 10 reps.

6 reps should be about 86% 1RM, which is more suited for strength training than muscle growth.

https://strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator

You won't build any muscle with that routine. Pick muscle maintenance and fatloss or muscle building. Plus, do cardio after weights plus your weight training program sucks for adding muscle. You want to get on a good and proven weight training program. You need to be hitting muscles at least 2x per week and with the proper amount of sets and reps.

This also works for muscle maintenance when losing fat. There are some volume changes and diet changes however the weight training program for both is basically the same

ninerbuff wrote: »

Building muscle and getting to 6% body fat oppose each other. One is anabolic while the other catabolic. So you have to choose one or the other. Building muscle means gaining weight, so you surplus to do that. Losing body fat means a calorie deficit. Now there is recomp, but it's a long process and results take a long time to notice.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 40 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

If the poster has excess BF, there is a surplus of stored energy that can be used to build muscle, the OP does not have to gain weight.

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

@AnnPT77, thank you. You always catch the right intent for sharing the post. My intent was for someone to catch what muscle groups I was not hitting. Can you please share your POV, even if it is just something you suspect?

My priority is to lose 6% body fat, hopefully without losing muscle. My midsection could use some work. I like cardio first because it warms my muscles and helps me perform better when lifting weights. Maybe it's just psychological.

Great suggestion, everyone! Thank you! I sincerely appreciate all your comments. If there are any specific YouTube video channels or exercise programs to follow, please share. Thanks so much!!

I think you can piece some of that (bolded) together from what the more lifting-knowledgeable guys suggested above. I'm pretty strong on cardio questions, not great on weight lifting questions beyond the very basics. Personally, I'd encourage you to follow some professionally-designed program, such as one in this thread, rather than creating one on your own:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Quoting a couple parts of posts above that I think start to answer your bolded question:

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

You may have sufficient volume there for legs and abs, but not for chest and back. And that's fine, if that's your specialization preference. However if it isn't, then I'd switch out the isolation work for more pressing and rowing, e.g. a horizontal row will target most of your back plus rear delts plus some biceps, compared to a biceps curl only doing that. For growth, the sweet spot is about 10-15 working sets per muscle group per week, in 2-3 sessions.

nossmf wrote: »

As far as the OP's workout routine, my one suggestion would be to swap the Monday elliptical with the Thursday stairmaster, as doing a leg routine after elliptical will be a lot easier IMHO.

There's a bit of a dispute up above about whether it's important for you to hit each muscle group 2x a week or not. My ignorant impression is that a once per week program is typically a more advanced kind of program, but 2-3x per week maybe more suitable for beginners.

You haven't said whether you're a relative beginner (as I might guess contextually) or intermediate/advanced. Indicating how long you've been lifting regularly might help knowledgeable folks give you more concrete advice.

Ditto for the question of what your current body fat percent is, even if it's just an estimate. It will be very approximate, but you can get a very basic, very rough estimate from a calculator like this one:

https://www.calculator.net/body-fat-calculator.html

If I had to guess (as a woman of similar size), I'd say the average 5'4" 137 pound woman would likely be in the upper 20s to 30ish percent body fat, but that's just a guess based on statistical averages. You're an individual, and individuals vary from average.

Finally, another thing that might elicit more detailed, helpful answers would be if you say what exercises you're doing when you say things like chest, triceps, back, abs/core, biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs. You have some pretty long time spans in there for some of your lifting sessions, so it sounds like there might be a lot of different exercises? It isn't obvious whether you're doing the most effective, efficient specific things to advance your goals.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

nossmf wrote: »

@tomcustombuilder your suggestions are great suggestions, but do not qualify as mandatory rules. Especially your demand to hit each muscle 2x per week, which is something I adhere to but is not required for a great physique. Just ask @ninerbuff who does each body part once per week, and nobody can deny he looks great.

As far as cardio-before-weights or weights-before-cardio, that largely depends on the goals of the person. Whichever is done first will usually have more energy and thus better training performance, so if the goal is to mostly lose weight but have muscles, do cardio first; if the goal is to build muscle with enough cardio for heart health, do cardio after or on a separate day entirely.

nothing is mandatory however some ways are just generally better.

2x has been proven time and time again to be superior overall to bro splits. Someone may have a decent physique however maybe it would be better with a different approach?

To maximize weight training I have never known anyone that was serious that did cardio first unless it was a short warmup. All do cardio after or on a day they’re not lifting this is a 50 year observation.

It all comes down what a certain person feels is working for them whether it’s an optimal approach or not is here nor there.

OP also isn’t strength training legs which is unfortunate probably due to the cardio before weights.

Yes she is: 50 minutes on Thursdays. After stairmaster, which nossmf already observed is likely not the best combination with leg day.

Got it musta missed that and yes leg training after a big stairmaster session and legs are too fried to strength train legs properly.

BodyTemple23 wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Yes, I'm a female at the beginner level in weight lifting. I'm mostly doing some basic exercises while gradually increasing the weights.

Here's a sample of exercises I'm doing:

Biceps and shoulders: 10 pounds weights variations mostly bicep curls, hammer curls, shoulder presses
Triceps: 15-17.5 pounds free weights; 25-30 pounds when doing with a machine

Chest and back: I do chest presses, bench presses, chin-assisted dips, and back deltoids using the machines available at my gym. Chest about 35-40 pounds, and back about 40-60 pounds.

Legs: I do inner and outer thighs at about 130 pounds, a leg press at about 100 pounds, and back leg curls for hamstrings and glutes at about 40 pounds. I know I can go heavier, but I only have a little strength. I need to add more targeted exercises for the glutes and hips. I'm also not doing deadlifts and squats at the moment. To your point, I injured myself because my instructor pushed me to do deeper squats and hurt myself. That kept me from lifting for several months. I do get some lunges in my pound class, but I need to do more.

Abs and core: I don't use weights, but maybe I could. I just use body weight for planks and such.

Time seems to fly when I'm at the gym. I manage about 5-6 machines fully in 50 minutes, but I know I can do better. I'm eager to improve and I'm open to any advice or suggestions you might have.

I have been working out for a while, but probably not my optimal best. I did recruit personal trainers, who didn't do me any good.

Thank you for taking the time to reply in detail!

Truly, I shouldn't be giving anyone detailed lifting program advice: Not my wheelhouse!

But I hope maybe some of the guys above may have more expert feedback for you. I know they got to disagreeing a bit amongst themselves on a small tangent about body fat and calorie deficits/surpluses (which wasn't your question), but they're all knowledgeable, experienced guys who are very helpful on lifting threads here.

It does sound like you have a mix of compound and isolation exercises, which is good. I can understand proceeding cautiously after an injury, too. I'm sorry your trainer worked out so very poorly for you!

I'm not sure it's been adequately explained for the OP's understanding, so here's my stab at putting on my teaching hat:

Let's say I want to follow the advice of @Retroguy2000 and want to do 10-15 sets for chest per week. There's lots of ways you can do this, but first, let's define a "set".

A "set" means moving the weight one or more times in a row before resting. If I pick up a hand weight and curl it 10 times before putting it back down, that's one set with ten reps. After a minute I pick it up and do 10 more curls, that's now two sets of ten. Realize that not all sets are the same; a person who lifts a massive weight a single time before resting has done one set; a person who lifts a light weight a hundred times has done one set.

Now, back to the original question of how to get in 10-15 sets per week. I can do choose to do all 10-15 sets on the same day, say every Monday. By the end of the workout my chest is very tired, and it may not feel ready to exercise again until the following Monday. This pattern of working a muscle group once per week is often referred to as a "bro split", so named from the days of young jocks on the beaches of California lifting massively to flaunt and flirt with the ladies.

But @Retroguy2000 is suggesting instead of doing 10-15 sets all at once, instead break it up into two workouts, say 5-8 on Monday and another 5-8 on Thursday. By doing less volume in a single workout you are not as tired/sore and can recover faster, plus there's scientific evidence that by doing multiple smaller workouts per week you get better overall results than if you do it all in a single day and nothing else. Some advanced lifters may even do chest three times per week, but for beginners the advice is usually twice.

So ok, we're doing 5-8 sets of chest on Monday. I can now pick a single exercise (chest press) and do 5-8 sets of this exercise. But just like with splitting the sets across multiple days is good, so also is splitting the day's sets across multiple exercises. So instead of 5-8 of only chest press, let's do 3-5 sets of chest press and 2-3 sets of pushups for example. Theoretically you can continue to split across even more exercises, say four exercises with two sets each, but there's a limit to how much good further dividing will do.

So let's wrap it all up in a bow for chest:

Monday:
Chest press 3 sets
Pushups 3 sets

Thursday:
Machine press 3 sets
Dips 3 sets

This is only an example, you can select whatever chest exercises you prefer, but this shows how you get a total of 3+3+3+3=12 sets for chest (right in that 10-15 range) split across two workouts. You can now choose whether you want to lift super heavy for only 1-5 reps per set, or medium heavy for 6-10 reps, or light for 10-15 reps, or any combination. Some people do heavy for the first exercise of the day, medium or light for the rest; some people (myself included) choose one day to go heavy on all exercises, the other day to go all medium or light; some people go all light for a few weeks, then all heavy, and back and forth. It's all personal.

What about other body parts? If you want to hit every body part twice per week, you will have to do multiple body parts in a given workout. How you divide is entirely up to you, here's just a few ways people have scheduled their lifting:

Monday - Full Body, Thursday - Full Body

Mon - Upper Body, Tues - Legs, Wed - Off, Thu - Upper Body, Fri - Legs, Weekend - Off

M - Push (chest, triceps, shoulders), T - Pull (back, biceps), W - Legs, Th - Push, F - Pull, Sat - Legs, Sun - Off

M - Push, T - Pull, W - Legs, Th - Off, F - Full Body, Weekend - Off

...and so on. As you get more experience lifting we can start to talk about total volume, alternate angles, periodization (a fancy word for changing your weights/reps from one workout to the next), and a host of other minor improvements. But for someone starting out, your goals should be:

1. Determine what days per week you want to lift
2. Divide your sets across those days so each body part is hit twice, with a total of 10-15 sets per week
3. Decide which 2-3 exercises you want to do for your sets and a comfortable weight for each exercise
4. Get to work!

nossmf wrote: »

I'm not sure it's been adequately explained for the OP's understanding, so here's my stab at putting on my teaching hat:

Let's say I want to follow the advice of @Retroguy2000 and want to do 10-15 sets for chest per week. There's lots of ways you can do this, but first, let's define a "set".

A "set" means moving the weight one or more times in a row before resting. If I pick up a hand weight and curl it 10 times before putting it back down, that's one set with ten reps. After a minute I pick it up and do 10 more curls, that's now two sets of ten. Realize that not all sets are the same; a person who lifts a massive weight a single time before resting has done one set; a person who lifts a light weight a hundred times has done one set.

Now, back to the original question of how to get in 10-15 sets per week. I can do choose to do all 10-15 sets on the same day, say every Monday. By the end of the workout my chest is very tired, and it may not feel ready to exercise again until the following Monday. This pattern of working a muscle group once per week is often referred to as a "bro split", so named from the days of young jocks on the beaches of California lifting massively to flaunt and flirt with the ladies.

But @Retroguy2000 is suggesting instead of doing 10-15 sets all at once, instead break it up into two workouts, say 5-8 on Monday and another 5-8 on Thursday. By doing less volume in a single workout you are not as tired/sore and can recover faster, plus there's scientific evidence that by doing multiple smaller workouts per week you get better overall results than if you do it all in a single day and nothing else. Some advanced lifters may even do chest three times per week, but for beginners the advice is usually twice.

So ok, we're doing 5-8 sets of chest on Monday. I can now pick a single exercise (chest press) and do 5-8 sets of this exercise. But just like with splitting the sets across multiple days is good, so also is splitting the day's sets across multiple exercises. So instead of 5-8 of only chest press, let's do 3-5 sets of chest press and 2-3 sets of pushups for example. Theoretically you can continue to split across even more exercises, say four exercises with two sets each, but there's a limit to how much good further dividing will do.

So let's wrap it all up in a bow for chest:

Monday:
Chest press 3 sets
Pushups 3 sets

Thursday:
Machine press 3 sets
Dips 3 sets

This is only an example, you can select whatever chest exercises you prefer, but this shows how you get a total of 3+3+3+3=12 sets for chest (right in that 10-15 range) split across two workouts. You can now choose whether you want to lift super heavy for only 1-5 reps per set, or medium heavy for 6-10 reps, or light for 10-15 reps, or any combination. Some people do heavy for the first exercise of the day, medium or light for the rest; some people (myself included) choose one day to go heavy on all exercises, the other day to go all medium or light; some people go all light for a few weeks, then all heavy, and back and forth. It's all personal.

What about other body parts? If you want to hit every body part twice per week, you will have to do multiple body parts in a given workout. How you divide is entirely up to you, here's just a few ways people have scheduled their lifting:

Monday - Full Body, Thursday - Full Body

Mon - Upper Body, Tues - Legs, Wed - Off, Thu - Upper Body, Fri - Legs, Weekend - Off

M - Push (chest, triceps, shoulders), T - Pull (back, biceps), W - Legs, Th - Push, F - Pull, Sat - Legs, Sun - Off

M - Push, T - Pull, W - Legs, Th - Off, F - Full Body, Weekend - Off

...and so on. As you get more experience lifting we can start to talk about total volume, alternate angles, periodization (a fancy word for changing your weights/reps from one workout to the next), and a host of other minor improvements. But for someone starting out, your goals should be:

1. Determine what days per week you want to lift
2. Divide your sets across those days so each body part is hit twice, with a total of 10-15 sets per week
3. Decide which 2-3 exercises you want to do for your sets and a comfortable weight for each exercise
4. Get to work!

This makes me wish we could request a post within a thread to be stickied. So clear and (IMO) helpful!

Apologies for the digression, @BodyTemple23.