Exercise ~ What is everyone doing to meet their individual g

Caroline Fitness....what you are describing to me is a plan to fail...NO ONE I know has that much time! (and what I mean by this is...if you are spending a couple hours you are more apt to not go on a day you just have too many other things to do~the goal is to make your gym time fit your lifestyle so you are more apt to continue doing it rather than not)

It's only my opinion, but I would suggest Circuit Training 3x a week. and set the weights so by the 10th rep you are at failure (meaning you just can't do another if your life depended on it) and that way you can start off by doing one set which will minimize your time in the gym.

On your non-weight days, hit the treadmill and I would suggest, again, no more than 20-30 minutes either at a high intensity or I really like the Hills & Valleys programs using Speed...start off comfortably but always challenge yourself ...your heart should be pumping by the end of 20-30 minutes or you are having a leisure tread.

Good Luck on whatever you choose!

Yeah I find heavier weights hurting my wrists too...in fact my hands even get stiff from "the push". A few years back, I invested in some great padded palm leather workout gloves and wear them on top of elastic wrist supports...It seems to have done the trick and there's no callousing.

Unquestionably, one will lose weight walking, especially if their heart rate is up.

The problem lies that as your body becomes accustomed to it..you will have to challenge yourself more by increasing your walk time or start walking uphill. You might also be losing some lean muscle which opens up the door for "strength training".

By using weights and developing lean muscle mass...your weight losses will be more sustainable with a minimum time of 20-30 minutes in the Gym, 3 times a week. Weight training will give you 85% of your required cardio.So with that and a moderately active lifestyle, your cardio requirements should be fulfilled as well.

Most of the articles I've been reading on this concur that the only way to sustain weight loss is to develop lean muscle mass so that your BMR eats those calories up in a resting state.

I would think that to MAXIMIZE the benefits of your strength training, it would be better done 3x a week and before I commit to a time I would need to see what you are actually doing. Usually when a program is developed on the basis of 3x a week and you are still in weight loss mode, its best to do a full body workout. I read somewhere, that if you strength train and let too many days lapse before you train again, you don't reap the full, if any benefit, from it (maybe a little toning but not much in the way of muscle development). Weight training is either designed to do a full body workout 3x/week or what is referred to as "Circuit" training where you exercise different muscle groups on a daily basis. RKJ is the expert in that area....and it works well for him. Muscles need at least 48 hours to recover from a good workout before they are ready to be used again.

Cardio can be done on your off days and is beneficial as long as that heart rate is up which you already know and are doing. According to the Bowflex trainers, they said never to mix cardio with weights and no more than 20 minutes of Cardio on your off days...of course those 20 minutes spent you should be pushing as hard as you are able. Whether to do weights & cardio on the same day is still up in the air...some say yess ...some say noo...some say cardio first. to warm up...some say cardio last to cool down...I think its gotta be left up to each individual on assessing what works best for them.

FOR ME PERSONALLY, thats just too much time in the gym. My goal is to work hard, lose the weight while developing lean muscle mass via strength training and then streamlining my workout to get maximum results in the smallest amount of time to maintain my ideal weight. .

AGAIN, if it works for you GREAT!

As long as you are building lean muscle mass, eventually you should be able to maintain your ideal weight only spending 20 minutes in the gym strength training 3x a week.

Its great that you are so active and if all of that fits into your lifestyle thats wonderful, I guess my question to you is...Will you always have this much time to commit to maintaining your ideal body weight?

What we all have to keep in mind when entering these discussions as well, is that there is clearly a marked difference between our ages. Another item to consider are health issues which anyone of any age can suffer from.