Hi, I am a 35 yr old female 5'6" 184 pounds trying to lose and tone. My goal is to hit 130 in 6 months. I'm new to all this and am trying to come up with a good routine at the gym. I started at the gym Tuesday and have found myself all over it.
I have been starting out with 20 - 30 minutes on the treadmill (I go a mile in 20 minutes normally) then to the bike which I like to do at least 20 minutes on then to the weight machines that I am all over in. I have been doing arm and legs on the machines and heard this is not the way to do it. After the weights I go back and do the treadmill at least 2 more times at about 20 minutes switching from the treadmill to the bike again at least 2 more times.
I have found that I enjoy the gym a lot and have a friend going with me which makes it easier but she really doesn't know what she is doing either.
What I'd like to do is go to the gym Mon - Friday (we work out in the mornings) and walk at least a mile on weekends. Just not sure how to do the gym time. We have been spending 2-3 hours total there. Work out about an hr and a half and then go eat a 6" at subway and back to the gym for another hr to hr and a half.
Am I doing too much? I am not hurting from this and actually feel really good when I leave. If someone could help me I would really appreciate it. I hope I am posting this in the right place.
Another thing I am wanting to do is make my arms smaller (I gain weight in my arms) and used to be really active so I have a pretty good muscle under there... lol but I don't want to make them larger just tone and slimmer - any ideas?
At your BMI I think it is OK to go as low as 75% as your unadjusted RMR (which is 1546), that works out 1160. So you can stick to the general guideline of eating no less than 1200 calories. (if you feel you need more because you're working out - perhaps if you're feeling depleeted, do eat more - but as a guide no more than half of the calories you're burning with exercise - you're trying to create a deficit after all).
If you chose to focus on cardio to burn more calories you should nevertheless keep weight training at least twice per week - and keep it 'balanced', making sure to do some work on all major muscle groups (legs, back, chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders, abs). About workout intensity, it is great that you're able to give about an hour to cardio. Obviously if you worked out harder you might not be able to stay on for as long so you would burn fewer calories overall and that won't be great - but as time goes past you'll find you're able to go harder or quicker without sacrificing workout times. For the weight machines a good goal is to pick a weight you can do 12 to 25 repetitions. If you can do 100 reps it is probably too light, if you can only do 8 reps it is too heavy. At the 12-25 range you're working towards muscular endurance (for example the marathon runner look).
If you haven't found it already, the tutorial is a great place to start. (It covers the concept of 'spot reduction', too)
