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! ❤️

1 hour ago, SpartanMaker said:

I wanted to address this because it's just not correct.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from doing resistance training since there are a lot of benefits, but this idea that it helps you burn more calories is based on outdated science.

We used to think that adding a pound of muscle mass would on average burn an additional 50 or so calories in a day. More recent research shows it to be closer to just 6 calories per day. Considering that the average woman that strength trains might do well to add 10-12 pounds of muscle in a year, Strength training consistently for a year is only going to get you to a place where you burn maybe an additional 60-70 calories a day. For comparison, this is roughly the equivalent of 1/2 a scoop of your typical Protein Powder.

Yes, you do burn some calories as you do resistance training, but it's not even close to the amount you can burn doing moderate to heavy cardio such as running, spinning, etc. Resistance training does contribute to a higher level of something we call EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption, but the contribution there is also minimal. Even with the increased EPOC amount, resistance training simply can't touch the amount of calories burned in moderate to intense cardio.

Once again, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from doing resistance training. There are some tremendous benefits, from increased health and longevity, to being more capable (and bad a$$), to making you look seriously hot, but as a way to burn more calories? Eh, not so much.

Interesting. I always thought cardio burned more fat anyway, so when the doctor said this, I was a bit surprised.

1 hour ago, NeonRaven8919 said:

Interesting. I always thought cardio burned more fat anyway, so when the doctor said this, I was a bit surprised.

the reasoning behind the advocacy of muscle building is that just the fact of having muscle mass allows you to burn calories by just EXISTING.

meaning: someone with 85% muscle mass will burn way more calories just BREATHING ON THE COUCH vs. someone who has only 50% muscle mass.

the flip side of this is that someone with higher muscle mass tends to be "hungrier" than someone who does not (and im talking REAL hunger, not head hunger), so it takes a bit more effort to not pork out.

in the end, as always, it all boils down to how far and how hard you are willing to go. further, some may have to work even harder than others just to overcome genetics and medical issues they are saddled with.

in short: cardio burns more calories IN THE MOMENT; but weight lifting/muscle building is more LONG TERM. both are hard and require consistent effort. choose your hard.

good luck! ❤️

17 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

the reasoning behind the advocacy of muscle building is that just the fact of having muscle mass allows you to burn calories by just EXISTING.

But that's kinda my point.

We used to think that extra muscle mass burned a lot more calories per day than it actually does. Keep in mind too that fat is not completely metabolically inert. So on average, one pound of fat burns about two calories per day just existing, whereas one pound of muscle burns about 6 calories per day at rest. You're just not going to lose much weight from resistance training alone.

Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Sculpting beautiful bodies happens in the gym.

Edited June 27, 20251 yr by SpartanMaker

1 hour ago, ms.sss said:

so it takes a bit more effort to not pork out.

hahaha! the struggle for me ??

54 minutes ago, SpartanMaker said:

You're just not going to lose much weight from resistance training alone.

Agreed we need both! BTW I did not do cardio after my leg days this week! Hoping for a bigger peach ?

I am glad to read these posts here. I'm in really bad shape when it comes to muscle. Does anyone know about how much a person should have? I read like 30% of our weight?? I was 244 and had 26 lbs of muscle. Just doesn't seem possible I can walk around and carry that. Now I'm 183.8. But probably lost more muscle too. Every time I lost and gained 60 or 100 lbs over the years, I gained way more fat. So makes sense but scares me. Had eggs and half a protein shake so far today. Haven't liked the powder much. It's ok. But tried using it in cooking. Not really good. And don't like milk much to drink it. I'm doing resistance and small weights. But I feel weak and I work alot so not much energy left to do a full work out and go all in on that right now. Can't be good to have so little muscle. My heart is a muscle! ?

1 hour ago, Selina333 said:

I am glad to read these posts here. I'm in really bad shape when it comes to muscle. Does anyone know about how much a person should have? I read like 30% of our weight??

The average woman is going to be around 30%, but this obviously varies. Also, younger women will tend to have a little more and older women typically have less. Men tend to have more muscle mass, so on average, they will be anywhere from 30% to 45% based on age.

Men tend to suffer more from age related sarcopenia than women, though. What I mean is that 40-45% is pretty common for a man in his 20s, but once they get to around 75, 30% is about average. Women on average go from just over 30% in their 20s, to maybe 25% over the age of 75.

Keep in mind, these are just averages and it's not uncommon for people to be way under or over this. As an example, the average for my age would be about 33%, but I tend to be around 40-42% based on BIA readings (that can admittedly be off).

A lot of these variations are simply genetic, but if you're active, you will tend to have more muscle mass than you otherwise might have.

The 26 lbs you were told you had back before surgery does sound really low, but it could be off as well. Obviously I don't know what you had done, so I'm assuming they used something like an InBody scan, which is just a fancy BIA scale that you stand on and also hold some electrodes. If so, that number should be skeletal muscle, so it would not include your heart or other organs. Those all go into what we call Fat Free Mass, which is everything other than body fat. Quality BIA scales like InBody can be pretty accurate, but they're not perfect.

The gold-standard way to measure is something called a DEXA (Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry), scan, but it seems unlikely you had this done? If you did, you'd probably know it. For these, you lie on a table and the scanner either passes over you, or more commonly, the table moves under the scanner. It's a lot like having an xray or a CT scan, but it scans your whole body.

2 hours ago, Selina333 said:

I'm doing resistance and small weights. But I feel weak and I work alot so not much energy left to do a full work out and go all in on that right now.

It's not an all or nothing type of thing! Anything is better than nothing, but light weights don't really do a lot, especially if they don't challenge you. Rather than do that, it would be much better to spend the exact same amount of time you do today, but really push how much you're doing. It needs to feel really challenging.

If you feel like doing more of a proper workout, I'd be happy to provide something you could do at home to really work on building some muscle, but I'm not going to do it unless you promise me you'll actually do the workout! Deal?

Yes I'll do it! Send me what you think will help me build some muscle! Ty! And I had a Dexa Scan. At at nutritionist office. But stood and held handles with like cords attaching to the bottom? While it scanned.. ? She definitely called it a Dexa Scan but doesn't sound like what you described. This was way before surgery for me. Thanks for all the info! By the way I am SURE genetics has a lot to do with it for me. Nearly none of us are muscular at all. They aren't all like me, heavy since 3 yrs old, but some of my cousins have had surgery. Even if it's genetic, I am determined to be as healthy as I can while I age.

3 hours ago, Selina333 said:

Yes I'll do it! Send me what you think will help me build some muscle! Ty! And I had a Dexa Scan. At at nutritionist office. But stood and held handles with like cords attaching to the bottom? While it scanned.. ? She definitely called it a Dexa Scan but doesn't sound like what you described. This was way before surgery for me. Thanks for all the info! By the way I am SURE genetics has a lot to do with it for me. Nearly none of us are muscular at all. They aren't all like me, heavy since 3 yrs old, but some of my cousins have had surgery. Even if it's genetic, I am determined to be as healthy as I can while I age.

She may have called it a DEXA scan, but it wasn't. That was definitely a BIA scanner.

Here's the workout:

3 times per week, please dedicate time to do the following workout. It should take no more than 45 minutes and hopefully closer to 30. For all of the below exercises, I want you to start with the first variation of each exercise.

Week 1: Do variation 1 of each exercise for 2 sets of 10 (or the max you can do if you can't do 10) In between each set, rest for ~1-3 minutes. The exact time doesn't matter that much, as long as you feel ready to begin again

Week 2: Now I want you to do 3 sets of 10 or your max if you can't do 10.

Week 3 (and beyond): Continue doing 3 sets, but now I want you to do the maximum number of each exercise that you can, up to 20. If it's 12. do 12. If it's 15, do 15. If you can get all the way to the point that you can do 20 of the exercise for 3 sets (a total of 60 repetitions), then stop there. Next time you do that exercise, I want you to move to the next variation listed to make it harder. Be aware that some of these may feel like big jumps, meaning you may go from being able to do 60 of version 1, to only being able to do 5 or 10 total of the next one. That's perfectly fine and to be expected. Just keep working at the new version until you can do 3 sets of 20 at that level. At that point, move on the the next version.

If you get all the way through one or more of these, there are even harder variations available. Reach out and I'll give you more. That said, after doing these for 2-3 months or so, we might want to switch things up a bit? Doing the same thing over and over can get boring and we also want to fight any potential muscle imbalances by changing things up with different exercises.

Be aware that you may feel sore a day or 2 after doing these exercises, especially at first. That's perfectly normal and should get a bit better over time.

Here we go!:

Exercise #1: Glute Bridge – Primarily works your glutes and lower back, as well as various smaller hip muscles

How to progress:

1. Standard Glute Bridge -- Both feet on Floor
2. Single Leg Glute Bridge -- Do a single leg at a time with the other leg held straight out. Be sure to work each leg!
3. Weighted Glute Bridge -- Time to add weight across your pelvis. How much is up to you and you can also progress here by adding more weight. Dumbbells work, but short of that, it can really be anything. Sandbag, milk jug, small child get creative!
4. Hip Thrust. This is a very similar exercise, but allows a higher range of motion, so actually works your glutes even better. Ideally you'd also add heavier weight than you were using for the glute bridge

Exercise #2: Push Up – Primarily a chest workout, however it also works the arms, shoulders, core and upper back as well.

How to progress:

1. Wall Push Ups -- It's what it sounds like, do a push up against the wall. Start by standing just over arms length away from the wall. You can change the difficulty a bit by moving further away
2. Elevated Push Ups -- Another push up motion, but now you're using something lower to support yourself. You can also gradually move to lower and lower surfaces. For example, start with a kitchen counter, then progress to a coffee table
3. Knee Push Ups -- Move to the ground in a basic push up position, but on your knees
4. Regular Push Ups

Exercise #3: Squat – Good leg exercise that hits the quads, hamstrings & glutes

How to progress:

1. Box Squat -- This is basically squatting down to sit on a box or chair, but DO NOT use your hands to get up or down. Ideally, the chair/box will be about the height where your legs are parallel to the ground
2. Supported Squat -- No more box. Now you'll hang on to something for balance. Again, try to shoot for getting your upper legs parallel to the floor. Also try not to use the support to aid you in standing back up. It should be there mostly for balance
3. Deep Supported Squat -- Now it's time to go as deep as you can, ideally with your butt hitting your calves
4. Unsupported Squat. Time to let go of the support and do a proper squat

Exercise #4: Row – Primarily a back exercise, but also can work the arms to some extent, especially the forearms.

How to progress:

1. Wall Pull -- It might be a little challenging to find a place to do this, but the idea is you'll find something sturdy like a stair rail, or something firmly attached to the wall that you can pull against. When you did the push ups against the wall, you stood further away. Here, I want you to start by standing maybe a foot or so closer to the wall so that you're leaning back when your arms are fully extended.
2. Wall pull with a towel -- We're going to increase the difficulty by using a hand towel wrapped around your stair rail or object. You'll hold onto either end of the towel. This will allow you to lean further back. If needed, you can progress even more by moving to a bath towel instead of a hand towel.
3. Inverted Row with Legs Bent -- Now things get even more complicated. Ideally to do this you'd have something like a suspension trainer, but it's possible to do this with a heavy wooden or metal rod suspended between 2 sturdy chairs or kitchen counters. Some city parks may also have a low bar that would be ideal for this, but you might have to look around?
4. Inverted Row -- Same as above, but now you keep your legs straight

NOTE: It may not be easy for you to find a way to do the inverted rows. If you're struggling, another option might be a "Plank Row", but this will require dumbbells. Simply progress this by adding more weight. If you go this route, you may want to go easy on the Leg Raises below or you may torch your core muscles.)

Exercise #5: Lunge – Another leg exercise, but these are done one leg at a time. This will continue to work your legs, will help with balance and will engage your core as well.

How to progress:

1. Supported Rear Lunge -- I suggest just googling all these as they are easy to do, but harder to describe. In this one, find something to hang onto for support.
2. Rear Lunge
3. Front Foot Elevated Rear Lunge
4. Bulgarian Split Squat

Exercise #6: Leg Raise – Primarily a core workout

How to progress:

1. Lying Knee Raise -- Another one I suggest googling. These are all done from the floor
2. Lying Knee Raise to Straight Leg Lower -- the idea here is you’ll raise your legs with your knees bent, but then straighten out your legs and slowly lower them down.
3. Lying Leg Raise
4. Seated Knee Tuck

Good luck!

Edited June 30, 20251 yr by SpartanMaker

Awesome! I am going to do these 3 times a week. Thank you so much. I hope this helps me! Amber and others have always given me good info too. And my husband just bought me some cards with instructions similar to this. He goes to the gym nearly every day and works a physical job. I just need to implement what I've been shown. I was walking and doing light weights here. But I need to commit to something more structured. I appreciate all your advice! Excited to get started! ?

I am a big fan of strength training.

I lift 4-5 times a week, and do a dedicated run and Pilates on the other 2 days.

I do legs (heavy) twice a week, back and chest, and arms (bis, tris and shoulders).

I also do 30 minutes of cardio daily after my lifts (jogging, walking , jumping rope, agility/endurance training).

While I love love love lifting, it isn't for everyone, and I would highly suggest that you don't force it if you don't like it, because chances are, you won't stick to it!

Do something you enjoy. You can build muscle swimming, cycling, doing aerobics, whatever, do what you love! And don't overdo it with crazy macro/calorie counting. Eat well, move your body and have fun!

Very true! Thing is I love lifting using weight machines. Especially leg day! I don't like going to the gym alone and my husband and I work opposite shifts. So it's hard to get to go together. I started my new routine this morning and excited to continue it. We swim about once a week. But rained the last time we were off together. So indoor things I can do myself is most helpful to me for now. Thanks for the advice!

54 minutes ago, Selina333 said:

Very true! Thing is I love lifting using weight machines. Especially leg day! I don't like going to the gym alone and my husband and I work opposite shifts. So it's hard to get to go together. I started my new routine this morning and excited to continue it. We swim about once a week. But rained the last time we were off together. So indoor things I can do myself is most helpful to me for now. Thanks for the advice!

Ohh, I didn't know you had access to a gym! I might have modified this a bit because I was trying to make sure these exercises were something you could do without equipment.

Here are some suggested modifications if you are using a gym:

1. If your gym has a hip thrust machine, feel free to use that instead of doing the glute bridge. As I mentioned, hip thrusts offer a bigger range of motion, so are an even better exercise.
2. Push Ups are probably fine as they are, but once you get to doing 10-15 knee pushups, you might also start doing the chest press machine, or doing a bench press with dumbbells.
3. Once you get to unsupported squats, you can start adding some weight. Some gyms have hack squat machines or leg press machines and both will work great here. Another one to consider would be a goblet squat (google it). The nice thing about this one is that it will emphasize your quadriceps a bit more, which might be good since we're hitting your glutes and hamstrings pretty hard with the hip thrusts and lunges.
4. As to rows, feel free to skip all the ones I wrote and do a seated cable row or do something called a bent-over row with dumbbells.
5. With leg raises, do them as listed, but if you get all the way through those, then the next logical progression is to move to hanging leg raises. These can be done on a dedicated machine (sometimes called a captain's chair).
6. The lunge exercises are probably fine as they are, but feel free to add weight (hold some dumbbells in your hands), if you get to where the versions I listed are not enough for you.
7. As an optional thing, if you wanted to add in one additional exercise per session, I'd do a Bicep dominated exercise one day, a Tricep dominated exercise another day, and a Calf dominated exercise the 3rd day. The actual exercise selection does not matter much, so do whatever exercise you like or whatever machine your gym has. You can even do a different one every week. Again, if you're happy without this, then skip it. it's not going to make a huge difference, because we are hitting these muscles some already.

Best of luck!

I thought I replied to this earlier from my phone but don't see it here. So if you see it somewhere else, tell me! LOL!

Thank you for the info! I will keep that in mind. Probably when these four levels are done and the last one is easy for me I'll start going to the gym again, even alone. LOL! I had been going alone. Just gets boring and I stopped. But we don't talk or even work out near each other when we go together. I just like it. He does too. Ah well. It's ok for now.

I have a goal of losing more weight by my follow up appointment, one year from surgery. Dec 2 and it's already scheduled. They said I should be around 166 but my own goal is 154. One lb less than I've ever been since Jr High. LOL! Excited to get there this year! So once more weight is off of me, I really want to begin sculpting my body as much as it'll let me. I KNOW weights are the key. And I'll really need to do a challenging level and push myself but maybe that will be easier when I'm not as heavy. Things are easier when I am lighter. Pretty shoes don't hurt me feet too. Lots to look forward to! LOL! And I should be happy to lift weights every other day for an hour, compared to carrying them with me 24/7 for 48 years. :::sigh:::

Thankful for all the great advice and info I have read here. I hope you all are enjoying your Monday. Mine went well and I'm home now. I also have decided I am going to hit 10k steps 5 days a week. Right now I have 7829 just from work. So it will be easy to do on work days. But I am going to rest some on weekends. Well, try to! I get our groceries and meal prep then clean the whole kitchen and fridge on Sunday and clean house and run errands on Saturdays (last few I've worked at a client's home because they are on vacation and had some special projects needing done.) But most weekends I am off so if I'm not doing an open house, etc then I'm still busy with our home and life.

Walking 10k steps a day did a world of good for me when I lost weight all those others times. I feel sure the extra weight won't come back this time because I had surgery. Sooo glad I did it. I have severe osteoarthritis in my low back on the right side and degenerative disc disease in my neck and low back and often sciatica down my right leg so some days I'm in pain worse than other days. (Ha ha, my friends and I joke. The older we get the more we share what's ailing us every day. LOL!) But overall I am ok! I have many friends with diabetes and I worry for them. I'm lucky I don't. I don't even have pre-diabetes and I stay grateful for that. My dad had it. When he passed at age 73 he had had both legs amputated and had had congestive heart failure for 25 years as well as diabetes. He went many years not addressing his diet at all. He wanted to do what he wanted to do. Bless his heart. We have learned what not to do, at least. My brother is a carnivore and is doing well. Labs are great. His weight stays managed. Everyone must do what works for them. We miss Dad and wish he was still here. He taught us many positive things in life too. But we are trying hard not to go through what he did at the end. My husband had pre-diabetes, but has made it much better with diet and exercise.

I am super excited to get to my first main goal weight of 154. Then I'd really love to work to get into a healthy BMI to hopefully have smooth sailing into my 60s, 70s, and beyond. My bariatric doc said lower end is 115 lbs for my height and high end is 125. I feel that the less weight that's on me, the more years I have left to live and enjoy my family and friends. Certainly worth putting in the work! ?

On 6/25/2025 at 5:57 PM, WendyJane said:

My take on lifting, I hired a personal trainer, and we laugh through it all the time. Having a partner with you really helps to make the time go by, and your partner counts the reps because you have to focus on the good form. But yes, sexy muscles, not a 6-pack please. LOL

Maybe one day I'll do this. Not until what I do at home becomes easy thought! So we will see in a few months!