I mostly use freeweights too. They're the best, actually, for most things.

Keep up the good work!

- Built

Oh - the dreaded rear delt.

Couple of things.
Face pulls: stand at the lat pull down pully, but put the rope attachment on it.

Hold the ropes so that the knot is at the outside of your fist (ie near the pinkie finger). If you were to pull your arms apart at this point, it would be like you were gripping a pole overhand - ie palms down, thumbs facing each other.

Pull the ropes open and toward your face.

Another one: do a bent over row, like a back row, but instead of keeping your elbow near your body, stick it out at a right angle. This hits the rear delts.



Another one: lie face down on the incline bench, and do side raises. This shows it on a flat bench, but I like it better on the incline bench:

Probably not much. You'll just have to try and see. Oh, and the face pulls - it almost looks like this when you do them:



(I LOVE face pulls)

Hi Guys

This is what my workout schedule looks like, let me know if you recommend any changes

Monday
Upper Body Weight Training
20 Minutes HIIT after

Tuesday
5 minutes on abs
30 min on elliptical
30 min on treadmill

Tuesday Evening
20 minutes Pilates - does wonders for my abs

Wednesday
Lower Body Weight Trianing
20 minutes HIIT

Thursday
5 minutes on abs
30 min on elliptical
30 min on treadmill

Thursday Evening
20 minutes Pilates

Friday
Upper Body Weight Training
20 minutes HIIT

Saturday
50 minutes Pilates
Jump Rope/Jog/Treadmill - whichever one I'm in the mood for

Sunday
Rest.

If I train my upper body twice in one week, I train the lower body twice the following week. I just changed my routine from a schedule of Shoulders/Chest on Monday, Legs on Wednesday and Back and Arms on Friday

I use mostly dumbbells and barbells.

So what do you think of the program I am now following?

Good.
The pix come from here: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
(To insert a pic, right click on the image, go to properties, and copy the url to insert between the "image" tags like I've done)

assisted chins also hit the rear delt

My personal suggestion would be to add a second leg day and do upper twice and lower twice a week. Hit your legs VERY hard with higher volume weights than your upper body, which still means HEAVY lifts, but heavy given you are going to do 5 sets of 15. You should feel your legs for DAYS.
Upper, stick to shorter sets – 3 sets of 6-8 reps, again, as heavy as you can given the reps.

I think you are doing too much cardio to get much fat burning – cardio isn’t actually all that great at it. It burns some while you’re doing it, but the fatburning stops once it’s done. You will get an increased metabolic rate if you lift hard and heavy – and since legs are such a large muscle group, the harder you hit them, the better they will work as fat-burning engines for the rest of the day, and even into the next day.

Make sure you are lifting hard (with breaks, of course! This isn’t a circuit!) for ¾ of an hour to an hour for each of your lifting days.

If you can still do 20 mins of HIIT after leg day, you aren’t working them hard enough.

How about Monday and Wednesday do your legs, Tuesday and Friday do upper, keep your Tuesday and Thursday Pilates classes, do HIIT after upper body on Friday, and do another HIIT on Saturday, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach (OR with only a small amount of really fatty protein (ie an egg) so it doesn’t glycolyze) and ditch the Saturday Pilates.

Monday: legs
Tuesday: upper, pilates
Wednesday: legs
Thursday: Pilates
Friday: upper, HIIT
Saturday: am HIIT
Sunday: even HE rested.

Oh, yes they do. Lats too, I think.

yes, primarily lats.


HIIT should be reserved for non-lifting days OR be separated from workout by at least 8 hours.

imo, if you are going to separate cardio from lifting, you can do brisk cardio in the morning instead and do just as well.

anyway, i ALWAYS recommend brisk/light cardio after 3 lifting sessions for 20 mins plus one hiit session on a non lifting day. that's it.

i agree with built about two upper two lower. just make sure to give that part of the body 72 hrs of rest in between workouts. i suggest low reps at max weight and more sets.

Actually, this might be good for legs for a while too, upon rereading. I really like volume work, but my version of volume work is squatting 100 pounds for 10 sets of 10 rather than 135 pounds for 3 sets of 6.

Ya really gotta hit leggies HARD. After all, they can take it. They carry us around all day anyway.

When you get stalled on legs, try a higher volume approach, but still lifting heavy.

They WON'T get huge! I promise!

What WILL happen is they will get DEEP rather than WIDE.

And hard, and lean.

yep!

if you want proof that women don't get huge, check out my legs in my profile.