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What exercises and how much?

Old 05-21-2010, 05:37 AM
  #11  
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anderson02,

Muscle definition is controlled by fat loss. Since it's relatively hard to lose fat on the arms (compared to hips and thighs), you won't have noticeably bulging arms, unless you go way beyond your fat loss goals. Muscle only grows in two ways, like I described above, so I'm still convinced that going heavy with fewer reps is more likely to build the hard, dense ("firm") muscle than anything else. The best part is, if you feel you're getting too "defined" you just have to scale back the weight you're using by a little bit and you reach a happy maintenance level.
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Old 05-21-2010, 06:08 AM
  #12  
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Well I don't skip the upper body workout so much because I am worried about building mass, but it's more of a time thing. If I only have 30 minutes, I want to focus on the part of my body that needs the most work. I know you can't spot reduce and that working all muscles creates an all over calorie burn...I just have trouble getting out of the mindset that I need to work my trouble areas to see results.
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Old 05-26-2010, 11:27 PM
  #13  
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With time being an issue, I have a few suggestions that will take some time to get used to. What I included with treadmill walking was an upper body routine. Now you may need a few more pounds of weight than your walking weights, but I found this highly effective, as a man, for toning and lean muscle mass. For a woman I think a 2 or 5lb dumbell set would work fine. Basically the work out is like this;

Start up the treadmill and warm up until you are in your usually walking routine...I would say about 5 minutes.

Then as you walk, do bicep curls with the dumbbells alternating arms to your pace for a minute

Then switch to tricep extensions (hold weights at waist with arms slightly bent and elbows pulled back, then extend weights backwards by bending at elbow to a straight arm position behind you...not very far behind you) to your pace

Then front lateral rises (Raise your arms from a hanging position straight out to about eye level...like to a steering wheel position) to your pace.

As you walk keep going through the cycle changing arm motion every minute for as long as you can. Once you can go through the three movements 5 times (15 minutes) do the movements for 2 minutes for a total of 30 minutes. And then once you can do this go for 3 minutes. This will help you build the lean muscle mass you are looking for and these movements will help with overall stretching.

The super bonus...workouts like this have been scientifically proven to increase caloric burn by over 150%....so that 350 calorie burn walk just turned into a 525 calorie burn
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Old 05-27-2010, 04:01 AM
  #14  
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Originally Posted by gungac2
For a woman I think a 2 or 5lb dumbell set would work fine.
But don't feel limited to 2-5lbs if you feel you can do more! Also, for triceps, I'd recommend overhead extensions if you do this treadmill routine. Push the weight up over your head so your arm locks out, then gently lower the weight back behind your head while keeping your upper arm vertical. Use your other arm for support if necessary, holding your weight arm near the elbow. Then move to the "pace" as described in the previous post.

I feel like this is a better triceps movement because it places less stress on the elbow joint. Kickbacks were really uncomfortable for me, now I avoid them entirely.
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Old 05-27-2010, 07:20 AM
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Definitely agree T...There are a bunch more exercises that can be done....like alternating shoulder presses. Being 6'4" I have to phase out those overheard movements or else prepare myself for repairing a ceiling...lol.
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Old 05-27-2010, 09:25 AM
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Originally Posted by gungac2
Definitely agree T...There are a bunch more exercises that can be done....like alternating shoulder presses. Being 6'4" I have to phase out those overheard movements or else prepare myself for repairing a ceiling...lol.
Do the shoulder presses as Seated shoulder presses. No more worries about the ceiling! I always do tricep presses seated. I also do concentration curls seated and resting my elbow on my knee. Tandoorichicken and myself are always telling women to not fear the weights. You will not get bulky but you will look more toned.
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Old 06-05-2010, 12:07 AM
  #17  
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Default About tone vs. bulk

I've mentioned this in another post, but read New Rules for Lifting and New Rules for Lifting for Women. Each of these books will dispel a number of myths concerning weights, tone and bulk, that people seem to have. Heavy lifting is a great fat burner, just as good as the machines at the gym. You will not get bulky, especially as a women. Based on the information out there, lifting is an almost perfect exercise for every aspect of good health. These books have dozens of workouts to choose from depending on your goals and body type. Interval training on the machines is best to lost fat, sprint for a minute, walk two, or crazy incline for a minute, walk two, or heavy resistance on bike for a minute, regular for two.
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Old 06-13-2010, 04:57 PM
  #18  
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i love to lift but for some reason (more so genetic reasons) i tend to; I won't say bulk but I find that if i lifted as often as I wanted to I end up feeling large...i did this during a year in school and the following year a colleague was like you were so buff last year. so I tend to stick with plyometrics 4 days a week (i.e. i do a lot of soccer drills and jumps) to tone and use light weights (5-10 lbs) on my upper body 2x a week. as one member mentioned, I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do but it has worked in the past and well working now. However I have been working out non stop (well with the exception of the reg. scheduled days off) for 10 years...I'm serious...even when I'm sick I get some sort of exercise in. Since 2001 and even then I was doing sports in school so probably more than that....and I'm now starting to feel the consequence of over training. Anyways so I've been debating the option of switching to a 4 day a week workout plan vs. 5....bc at the end of the week it equals out. Anyways so my workout consists of 4-5 days of cardio with plyometrics and 2 days of upper body strength with free weights with a 1600 calorie plan. I recently went back on this plan fully to get back in shape for soccer! oh and YES I definitely do upper body as I'm on the treadmill walking on an incline...or walking stairs...A)it saves me time so I don't have to take another 15 minutes after cardio to do upper body and B) I guess it burns more calories :which I believe as I heart a heart rate monitor which confirms this with an increase HR when I do these moves!

Last edited by DecemberBlue; 06-13-2010 at 05:03 PM.
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Old 06-24-2010, 07:27 AM
  #19  
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I am a woman and I lift... I prefer it over cardio, but I do my cardio twice a day...

anyways... who wants to be a skinny fat girl! When you lift weights you tone up and burn more calories. if all you do is cardio you only burn calories while your doing the cardio once you step off the treadmill thats it. But when you lift weights you build muscle and the more muscle you have the more calories you burn and not just while your doing the exercise you burn calories all day!

Why do they tell women to lift light with high reps? Because women are afraid to bulk up... Thats not gonna happen. Your gonna get a tighter more leaner look. I do 12 rep max... if your starting out I wouldn't try to do heavy 6 rep max because form is extremely important when it come's to lifting. so if your lifting heavy and you compromise form you will injure yourself. NO swinging like you see some people do at the gym. Keep your core strong.
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Old 06-24-2010, 08:44 AM
  #20  
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i lost the first 75lbs just doing a westside split: upper and lower body once a week each for max strength and another time for max speed. Total 4 weight lifting sessions.

After that the weight loss slowed to a crawl as I was unable to make any more mass gains on a caloric deficit (deadlift was at 455, squat 365 and bench 285). I slowly lost 10 more lbs in the span of a few months and 2 weeks ago I decided to change it up, now I dropped all lower body work in favor of endurance training. I'm running 6 miles 5x a week and doing three upper body workouts (with a focus on muscle maintenance) a week. I've already dropped 7lbs.

Compound moves - stay around 3-5 reps for 3-5 sets. Isolation work (curls, triceps extensions, etc) - do a couple of sets of 10. The important thing is that you push yourself, if you aren't getting lightheaded after your last set of squats or deadlifts then you're probably wasting your time. Obviously a lot of beginners are in the mental state of "I can't" so they have to take a few months to work up from doing "power walks" to once weekly doing an actual workout that resembles a training session until they can eventually train 4-5x a week. I personally train 8-10x a week but I have a great sense of knowing when to back off and avoid overtraining, so I wouldn't advice this to other people.
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