To all my people out there who have a passion or knowledge for fitness/strength building - any tips on where to start in terms of pushing yourself?

I know I have mentioned on here before about my exercise regime, but I feel that it was more centred around weight loss, and now I want to somewhat shift that in order to maximise some muscle gain & definition.

I am not saying I want to be a complete muscle mummy, but I'd definitely like more muscle definition in my arms and legs

My current exercise regime:

Monday:

Legs @ Gym

4 x 10 leg press 100kg

4 x 10 Leg extensions

4 x 10 leg curls

4 x 10 weighted hip thrusts

& Les Mills Legs, Bums & Tums class

Tuesday:

30 mins on treadmill at a 12% incline, 4.8, 3mph speed

Wednesday:

Chest @ gym

4 x 10 assisted bench press

4 x 10 tricep pulldowns

4 x 10 face-pulls

4 x 10 bicep curls superset with lateral raises

4 x 10 upright flyes

& Les Mills Legs, Bums & Tums class

Thursday:

30 mins on treadmill at a 12% incline, 4.8, 3mph speed

So far Fri, Sat & Sunday I do nothing...maybe I need to change that ?

Anyway...any advice is appreciated! ❤️

Following because I'm in the same boat.

I've been doing cardio only because I hate weight lifting and that kind of thing and because I ride my bike everywhere which is fun and cardio, but i need to try and firm up the arm flab and I can't put it off any longer.

I think your regime is a good starting point for me.

It's really hard to properly design a workout program remotely since a lot of the things I would normally recommend would require some instruction. I also have no idea what sort of equipment you have available. That said, I'll try my best.

Workout Splits:

• You really need to hit all the major muscle groups at least twice a week and preferably three times. Currently you're not doing this since you're doing an upper/lower split and training twice a week. That means most of your muscles are only getting hit once a week which is not sufficient for growth.
• If you can only lift twice a week, each of those days needs to be a full body routine. If you want to continue doing upper/lower splits, you'd need to lift 4 days a week (2 upper & 2 lower).
• There are other ways to break up workouts such as a Full/Upper/Lower, but those are really considered to be more advanced techniques so not really needed at this point.
• Out of all the possible options, I'd probably suggest Full Body on Mon/Wed/Fri as the most sensible. You'll get the best hypertrophy from that as a newer lifter.

Exercise Selection & Programming:

I'm going to base my suggestions off the premise that you'll be doing a full body workout as suggested. I also mostly picked from the exercises you were already doing because there's nothing wrong with those exercises and I assume you already know how to do them.

Day 1:

1. Lat Pulldown -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
2. Leg Press -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
3. Chest Press -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
4. Hip Thrust -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
5. Bicep Curls -- 3 x 12-15 @ 65-70% of 1RM with 2 RIR
6. Calf Raises -- 3 x 12-15 @ 65-70% of 1RM with 2 RIR
7. Tricep Pulldowns -- 3 x 12-15 @ 65-70% of 1RM with 2 RIR

Day 2:

1. Upright Row (Cable or machine) -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
2. Hack Squat (or Leg Press if not available) - 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
3. Incline Chest Press (flat is also fine if this is not an option. I mostly picked this because it will hit the upper pecs a bit more, as well as pull in the shoulders) -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
4. Smith Machine Elevated Reverse Lunge (if needed, Hip Thrusts will be fine as well but single leg work is great for a lot of reasons) -- 3 x 8-10 @ 70-75% of 1RM with 1-2 RIR
5. Machine or Cable Fly -- 3 x 12-15 @ 65-70% of 1RM with 2 RIR
6. Pallof Press (Cable or Bands) -- 3 x 12-15 @ 65-70% of 1RM with 2 RIR
7. Kickbacks (Machine or Cable) -- 3 x 12-15 @ 65-70% of 1RM with 2 RIR

Notes:

• Make sure you introduce this workout plan SLOWLY. For the first two weeks, only do exercises 1-4 on each day. It's also fine to do a bit lighter weight than what I listed for those first 2 weeks.
• Make sure you're warming up properly. One of the biggest mistakes newer lifters make is not understanding how to warm up for lifting. Do some light cardio for 5-10 minutes, then do some dynamic stretching. Also, before starting your work sets, do one set at ~20% of 1RM, one set at about 40%-50%, and then maybe another at about 55-60%. This means you'll end up doing five to six sets total for each exercise. I'd probably suggest 20-40-60% for the first 4 exercise, and 20-50% for the last 3 exercises.
• The numbers like 75% of 1RM mean to do the exercise at that percentage of your 1 rep maximum. In other words, you need to determine what the maximum amount you can lift is and then do the math to determine how much weight you should be lifting for that exercise.
• RIR means Reps In Reserve. If it says 1-2 RIR, the idea is you need to be going until you think you can only do 1 or 2 more without failing. This is important because we don't want to go all the way to failure most of the time. Doing so creates a lot of load on our central nervous system and makes recovery more challenging.
• You'll notice that I changed the # of reps, % of 1RM and RIR for the last few exercises. This is because these are what we call "accessory exercises" and are somewhat less important. I want you to focus on the first 4 exercises the most.
• I didn't prescribe rest intervals on purpose. Between sets, just take a few minutes to let your body recover. If you find you can't get through the next set, try resting longer next time.
• Because there are day 1 and day 2 exercises, but 3 days a week you'll be lifting, you need to simply alternate. This means week 1, you'd do Day 1 on Monday, Day 2 on Wednesday and Day 1 again on Friday. The next week, you'd do Day 2 on Monday & Friday and Day 1 on Wednesday.
• it's important that you continue to push yourself in terms of the weight you are doing. We call this progressive overload. If the exercises start to feel easier, you need to increase the weight. If you don't, you'll stop growing.
• Rest is CRITICAL, so I'd suggest skipping the Les Mills classes. I just don't think you can properly do the above exercises at the weight you should be doing them at, and then turn around and participate in a class like that. I'd expect you to be worn out after the above sessions, and if you're not, then you're not lifting heavy enough.
• Don't do this for more than ~3 months. At that point, you need to change things up again. No lifting program is perfect and all of them will have some areas that could be done better. Further, some people respond better to certain exercises and not others. This is why having a trainer is honestly the best way since they can judge how well you are responding to certain things . We change things every now and again to even out imbalances, as well as make sure you are not stagnating.
• If you just don't like any of the exercise selections, there are always alternatives because regardless of what social media may have led you to believe, there's no such thing as "the best" exercise for any specific body part. This means if you find that one of these just isn't working, or you just can't stand doing it, we can change it.
• If you do stop the Les Mills classes, you may need to up the cardio work. I'd ideally like to see a minimum of 3 hours a week (3 one hour sessions), though don't try to jump to that amount right away. It would also be good to mix up the type of cardio you're doing, While uphill walking on a treadmill is good for you, it's pretty one dimensional. I'm obviously a big fan of running, but if that's not something you want to do, maybe biking or the elliptical would be good choices? Rucking would also be something for you to look into as there are lots of benefits to getting outside the gym for at least some of your exercise hours.
• As you can see, I could probably go on for a lot longer here, but this is enough for now.

Best of luck and let me know if you have questions.

Edited June 23, 20251 yr by SpartanMaker

@SpartanMaker I was hoping to summon you!

Genuinely thank you so much for such a detailed response - I will be using what you have said, I plan to print it out and work it into my weekly routines!

Incidentally my Les Mills classes are coming to an end this Wednesday, so I will have more time on my hands.

The cardio is something I do need to up, I agree. I have a bicycle at home and I should probably use that more!

Again, thank you so much

28 minutes ago, Bypass2Freedom said:

@SpartanMaker I was hoping to summon you!

Genuinely thank you so much for such a detailed response - I will be using what you have said, I plan to print it out and work it into my weekly routines!

Incidentally my Les Mills classes are coming to an end this Wednesday, so I will have more time on my hands.

The cardio is something I do need to up, I agree. I have a bicycle at home and I should probably use that more!

Again, thank you so much

Absolutely, I'm happy to help!

For the record, this isn't necessarily a "balanced" program. A balanced program that methodically hits every muscle isn't typically what most women want, so I did make some assumptions here. I admit I over-rotated a bit toward the glutes, since in my experience that's what most women want to prioritize. That said, we don't want to hit your glutes so hard that you can't recover, nor do we want to completely neglect all your other muscles. That's why we're hitting glutes hard twice on Day 2, but only once on Day 1.

I didn't touch on nutrition above, but I did want to point out it can be REALLY hard to grow new muscle mass if you're still eating in a deficit. This is even more true for women since it's a lot harder for women to grow muscle in the first place. Just keep this in mind as you progress through this.

I also don't really recommend supplements that often (even though I take a lot of them personally), but if you want to grow some muscle mass, Creatine Monohydrate at 5mg per day would be strongly recommended. This is probably the single most studied supplement there is and it's both very safe and very effective. It's found naturally in many foods, but to get to the recommended amount of 5mg, you'd have to eat WAY more food than any of us can realistically eat.

1 hour ago, NeonRaven8919 said:

Following because I'm in the same boat.

I've been doing cardio only because I hate weight lifting and that kind of thing and because I ride my bike everywhere which is fun and cardio, but i need to try and firm up the arm flab and I can't put it off any longer.

I think your regime is a good starting point for me.

Strength training is strongly recommended for everyone just from a general health perspective, though I hear you about hating lifting. Some people love it and some don't, and that's okay.

Keep in mind the recommendations above for @Bypass2Freedom may not (in fact probably are not), appropriate for you. Depending on your goals for wanting to lift, and what specifically you do or don't like about lifting, I might be able to come up with something a bit more appropriate?

One other thing I should have added is to schedule in a deload week every 4 to 6 weeks. For the deload week, I want you to do ONE of the following:

1. Just do the 4 core exercises and skip the accessory exercises
2. Reduce the working weight. In other words if you were doing a particular lift at 100kg, you might do this particular exercise at 70 or 75 kg instead. Do the same for all the exercises
3. Keep the weight the same, but reduce the number of sets to two instead of three for each exercise

The main reason for this is to program in some additional rest since it's actually when resting that you grow and get stronger. It's totally up to you which one of the approaches above to use. Pick whatever sounds best to you.

This is something I’ve grown so passionate about — becoming the fittest, strongest version of myself!

One of my goals has been about feeling fit, looking strong, and proving to myself that I can do hard things.

One of my favorite compliments is when someone hears my weight loss journey and tells me:
“You don’t even look like you’ve ever weighed over 300 lbs.” That one hits me so deep. That just tells me that every drop of sweat, every literal tear, every moment of self-doubt that I had to push through. reminds me that this journey is all WORTH IT.

Here’s my current weekly routine:
Mon/Wed/Fri – Lower body days focused on growing the glutes (my booty is a major work in progress but hey, we’re getting a little hump ?)
Tues/Thurs – Upper body strength training
Saturday – Long walk/run with my pup (around 5.5 miles)
Sunday – Active rest (still aiming for 10k+ steps some way somehow) Although I will say there are days where we do not do anything but hang out at home and watch movies. Very rare but sometimes needed!

Each strength day has minimum of 30min of cardio

Also, I wanted to share the Google Doc of workouts I made when I first started this journey! It really helped keep me consistent and definitely played a big part in toning up. I still add to it too!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H5JdcB6dXU3gAx0mf2QrzG2ZvscRlnVF3xjBfx8M74A/edit?usp=sharing

The journey is not easy but damn its worth it!!

@AmberFL thanks for posting.

You are definitely working hard (maybe too hard? ) I can definitely see the influence of crossfit into your workouts. I'm personally not a fan of crossfit, but you do you. It seems like most of the workouts emphasize supersets or short rests in order to make them burn more fat. Nothing wrong with that approach as long as fat burning is the main goal, but it does mute strength and hypertrophy gains. Some of those also have way more sets and reps than I'd consider ideal for muscle growth. It order to get that much volume in, you'd have to use lighter weights than what I would typically recommend for hypertrophy. The net effect is that those workouts are a lot more focused on muscular endurance. Nothing wrong with that, but it may not be what you actually are wanting from your workouts, especially since you're already doing a fair amount of cardio work as well. After all, one of the main benefits of cardio is not just strengthening your cardiovascular system, it's in increasing your overall muscular and aerobic endurance, which is highly correlated with an increased lifespan.

To be honest, I also don't love doing 30+ minutes of cardio after strength training, especially on leg days. I know a lot of people do that, but the science is pretty clear that doing so can reduce your gains. If growing your glutes is a major goal, I'd probably advise skipping cardio on your leg days and maybe doing more cardio on non-lifting days to make up for it. Remember, you don't actually get any stronger or grow any muscle when you're lifting. It's AFTER your strength training when you're resting that your muscles and nervous system adapt to the training you've done. By following strength training with cardio, you're basically turning off certain metabolic and neuromuscular pathways and suppressing the very systems that should be focused on repairing and building new muscle tissue. Is it a huge issue? Honestly probably not. If you like doing that, more power to you as long as you do understand that you're not going to see quite as much muscle growth.

@SpartanMaker I have never done crossfit so I am not sure if it is like that, I just did research online to find what works. But it is fair to mention that these workouts were based on the beginning of my journey. It has been a good starter to get into form, getting used to those exercises, and finding what works. Its rare I do superset now or only if I am on a time crunch. Now I will spend 30-45min lifting heavy. I have seen better results doing cardio afterwards than doing before. When I was at the beginning of my journey I would start with cardio and end with strength, It wasn't until I switched it up I noticed a difference in my body composition. Maybe that is not the same for everyone? However, now that I am a year plus out I am curious if I switched it again if I notice a different. I am going to do this experiment and get back to you!

I also eat anywhere from 150-175g of protein a day, so maybe that has something to do with it?

@Bypass2Freedom I can also add what I do now in order to gain more muscle if you want. I'm not ripped but my arms gets lots of compliments HAHAH!

20 minutes ago, AmberFL said:

I have seen better results doing cardio afterwards than doing before. When I was at the beginning of my journey I would start with cardio and end with strength, It wasn't until I switched it up I noticed a difference in my body composition.

Agreed on that point!

If body comp is your goal, cardio before would generally be a bad idea and would be worse than after, as you discovered. My point was it would be even better to not do any cardio AT ALL on your leg days. Not before and not after. Now if you can maybe separate it by 6-8 hours then the negative impact would be significantly reduced. In other words, if you really feel like you HAVE to do both on the same day, then I'd suggest lifting in the morning and doing your cardio that evening.

@SpartanMaker I will give that a go then- I am always willing to try anything. I don't want to stay too stagnant

Woooooooweeeeeeee.

Ouch.

In the restarting phase now. Resuming gym time.

Forgot to start off with high reps and lower weight. The results have been painful tendons and ligaments.

Going back to the gym later today....will be inquiring on the location for the kiddie dumbbells.

Slooowing my roll.

One thing I did remember to is bring my BCAA drink mix along for the ride home.

@Dub stretch! Even for 5min before and afterwards, I have been there where I can even sit hahha! You got this!!

31 minutes ago, AmberFL said:

@Dub stretch! Even for 5min before and afterwards, I have been there where I can even sit hahha! You got this!!

You are supposed to stretch ??????

Who knew.

Clearly not my ignorant azz.

Further evidence I need a damsel...a kind hearted....but mostly patient damsel to take the wheel and put me through my paces around the track.

31 minutes ago, AmberFL said:

@Dub stretch! Even for 5min before and afterwards, I have been there where I can even sit hahha! You got this!!

The current recommendation would be a dynamic full body warm-up followed by slowly ramping up the weight for each specific lift. If you want to do static stretching, please do it after lifting, not before. There's quite a bit of evidence that static stretching before does not reduce injury risk, but it does limit maximal force production. In other words, if you do static stretching before resistance training, you are going to reduce how much weight you can lift. That will negatively impact the training effect.

https://www.nsca.com/education/articles/kinetic-select/static-stretching-and-performance