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i had gastric bypass and have reacently begun a workout program (im a 25yr old female btw)
i do 1/2 hour of good cardio 6 days a week without fail and im loosing weight steadily...
but i need to add resistance/weight training into the mix...
i have NO desire to bulk up, instead the plan is toning.
i have acess to the nautilus nitro machines at the gym, free weights currently seem too overwhelming as i have noone to tell me if my form is correct, at least on the nautilus machines there simple to understand easy to use and kind of force you to do it right lol.
the current plan is to break up my workout on the weights into 3 days taking a day off between (still doing the cardio) and doing chest/triceps/shoulders one day, back and biceps another and legs/hips/butt the 3rd.
and abs all 3
now ive been told that i need to focus on LIGHT weight, multiple sets at higher reps.
but the question comes up as do i do 3 sets of 15, 2 sets of 30 or something else?
the past week ive been trying the machines to get a feel and kind of adjusting the weight to the point that i can do a set of 15, by 10-12 it gets harder, by #15 im struggling. and i try to give myself 2 minutes between sets (doing 3 sets)
right now im averaging 20-35lbs on my arms depending on the machine
and 45-65lbs on the legs depending on the excersize, anything less than this i feel like im just going through the motions, (i could probbaly go even higher on the leg press without any real stress)
abs im currently moving 50lbs.
but someone today tells me instead i should focus on doing 2 sets of 30 at an even lower weight if i realy want to tone to burn the fat.
i dont want to do too much and add bulk, i dont need bulk lol, i just want to strengthen and tone the muscles to help support the skin a little more and of course healthy muscle helps burn fat...
and while were on the subject is it better to go slow and controled on the reps or fast? i see both methods and have had a few people tell me slow and controled a few others say go fast, "power' through them...the machines seem to suggest a slower controled pace is better but i wanted some more experienced opinion...
hiring a personal trainer is NOT in the budget right now, there are people at the y who will show you how to use the machines properly/safely, but in order to put together a program (which id have to redo frequently because of my rapid weightloss) is going to cost me $60 an hour and im on a very limited budget that isnt going to allow for that.
since i kind of started this week i found that the following day the muscles i worked the day before are achey in a good way, which im told is good...but this is all so new to me, ive never done any kind of weight training before.
I am a former GB patient (going on 8 years) and I will tell you what worked for me. As for the cardio, JMHO, but you need more than 30 minutes. I still do a minimum of 45-60 5 days per week just to maintain my weight. When I was trying to lose, I was doing anywhere form 60-90 minutes 5-6 days per week.
For weights, I did hire a personal trainer in the beginning and he had me doing 3 sets of 15. It should be a struggle to get to 15 in each set. That is what he told me!
whenever it comes to special conditions like peoples heredetary deseases, bypasses, anything else you got surgery for, car accidents, god knows what; you should try find your information from a professional source. half the readers(and writers) on this forum hardly know which way a pair of jogging shoes goes on the foot.
The only things i can say straight away is: you don't have to worry about bulking, ever.
a ur a woman, your test production is but a fraction of that of a mans, and even less than that of the roiders most bulk-afraid people don't want to look like.
b to bulk while losing weight is damn hard if you went for it with intension.
As for cardio ammount, intensity, etc I have no idea how you GB is effecting other things so I can't really tell.
But like I said; you'll wanna get you info from a source you can trust.
You really need to speak with your doctor on what types of exercises are best for you. The fact that you've undergone the bypass suggest that you were on the extreme obese side and in danger of losing your life. In this case, its best to get recommendations from your doctor on what to do.
I know a couple of women who had the surgery and they really are unable to eat well enough to fuel a good enough workout to "tone". As Sportsgeek20 said above, you DO NOT have to worry about bulking from lifting weights. It just is NOT going to happen because you have to eat a LOT AND train specificially for it to happen.
Also, NEVER listen again to those people who say do light weight high reps. They do NOT know what they are talking about. This is a good example of people giving advice on something they know nothing about. Its called resistance/weight training because you are USING WEIGHTS. Lifting can of soup weights 30 times is doing NOTHING to tone you.
Talk to your doctor first and see what he/she recommends.
Trust me, lifting weight will not bulk you up. You need to lift weights heavy enough to challenge so you can maintain as much muscle as you can. Talk to an exercise physiologist if you can. Your bariatric surgical center should have one on staff. Don't bother with the personal trainers at your typical GLOBO gym.
unfortunatly other than the ymca personal trainer theres noone available to advise me, i have a dietician and my surgeon and her team but no physiologist on the team...
and i flat out cant afford a personal trainer (even through the ymca)
the weight im currently doing i do adjust so that by 12-13 reps im tired and #15 i can barely lift it...
by the second set i get tierd earlier and i have to push myself very hard to get to #15 and then by the 3rd set im generally done by #12 which fits in with the whole 3 x 15 theme...
all my surgeon can realy tell me is that im clear for normal excersize including weights, no overdoing it still on a restriction as to nothing over 70lbs on the legs, nothing over 50lbs on the upper body...but other than that...
thanks for the imput...
i know ive got a very long way to go but im down almost 100lbs from my highest weight and 57lbs from my surgery date weight in only 11 weeks.
and right now i must agree, i dont think im consuming neer enough calories to have to worry about bulking, while im just about managing my 60 minimum grams of protein a day im lucky to hit even 500 calories at this point lol.
you also need to lift weights to help your skin. With you losing weight now, if you dont your skin will fall off your bones and you will look terrible. Not over the top super heavy, but heavy enough to stimulate your muscles and so your skin goes with your weight loss. You dont need to lose further elasticity of your skin weightlifting will help with this!!
I'll start by repeating the advice others have given you. Since you've been cleared by your doctor to exercise at the intensity you're doing now, that's one piece of good advice you're already following. The other advice I'll repeat, because it's good advice that bears repeating, is that you don't need to worry about getting bulky, for reasons Lao and Sportsgeek have explained, and you don't want to go too light on the weights. You said it yourself when you said that weight light enough for 30 reps made you feel as if you were going through the motions. That was your body telling you that this weight was too light to have the kind of conditioning effect you lift weights to attain.
Regarding your question about explosive motions versus slow and controlled, I'd advise going with slow and controlled. You don't need to make it super-slow, just slow enough so that momentum doesn't do the work for you. If you're going slowly enough to actively feel resistance through the full range of motion you use for an exercise, then you know you're working those muscles through the full normal range of motion.
People who are very serious about taking weight training to a highly advanced level, or who compete in certain sports where explosive power is an advantage, will usually do a mix of explosive movements and more controlled movements, but this is really specialized stuff. If you should happen to get seriously interested in weight training, maybe you'll want to give these workouts a try at some time in the future, but as long as your goal is to lift for health and basic fitness, stay with slow and controlled.
One other piece of advice I'll give you is to make sure you maintain good balance in the muscles. Work all the muscle groups, and don't over-focus on one part of the body. The most common mistake people make that can lead to imbalances is to over-focus on pushing/pressing exercises with the upper boddy, while doing little or nothing in the way of upper-body lifts that involve a pulling movement.
I can't say for sure whether your present workout accomplishes good balance without knowing the specific exercises you're doing, but it sounds as if it most likely is good in that regard. As long as you're dong the basic circuit on all the standard machines you should be fine in this regard. As long as you're doing leg presses, you're probably doing fine on maintaining balance in the legs. Leg presses, squats, and similar movements are good compound exercises that hit all the large muscles in the legs. An example of the kind of workout with the legs which would risk a msucle imbalance would be to do only leg curls while doing no exercise for the quads. Keep doing those leg exercises involving compound movements, and your legs should develop in a nice balanced fashion.
With the upper body, just make sure that you work all the muscle groups, and that you're fairly close to a balanced number of both pushing and pulling motions.
ogre, thank you for that responce, thank everyone of course but your the first to adresse the slow vs fast.
i think given the information from you all im on the right track, i may add a little more weight to the areas that were a tad to "easy" now i know i dont have to worry about bulking lol.
i have absolutly no delusions about the skin issue...im hoping the resistance training will help support the skin sag as much as possible, but i also know that no matter how much excersize you do, weights will not increase elasticity or change your gentics...ive also been so big for so long that i will need surgical help eventually....
but having a good muscle base under the skin helps with the recovery after plastics as well as bypass.
im more interested in health right now than vanity :P
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