Wish I could lift in evening, 'cause heavy squats or deads is enough to make ya' wanna' take it easy for awhile and sleep it off! When I lift heavy in morning kinda' zaps me a bit for the day! Cardio days, or lighter weight days, am workout get's ya' going though!

Wow, busy, busy, busy, I was writing my post and all of a sudden I missed 6 new ones and mines in the middle of it all. Very interesting about the shakes though.

Either of these would work fine for cardio. In fact, I'm gonna start jumping rope for HIIT - where do you get a good skipping rope BTW?

I personally don't like mixing weights with cardio, and ankle weights can TOTALLY destroy your hips because of the swinging. If you MUST put on weights while doing cardio, in a pack around your waist is safest. But really, I wouldn't bother.

And running doesn't agree with me, either. Don't fret - there are plenty of other forms of cardio to do. And walking is great.



Just go buy yourself some 3s, 5s, 8s, 10s, and 12s for now - they're sold by weight, so look for the best deal. You'll get PLENTY out of just that and a bench for now. And perhaps look into some sort of resistance bands for faking the pully exercises. Keep it simple and cheap - it may be all you need, for a while.

- Built

Oh, I KNOW! I just want to crawl off into a corner and SLEEP after quad night.

I haven't been doing a shake pre-lifting, but some do. You'll just have to fiddle with this.

I ALWAYS do 35g whey with 5g glutamine POST lifting, though.

And I generally get in about 1 g protein per pound of my weight, but this does vary up and down by about 20g of protein.

Best thing I can suggest for keeping lean mass is to reduce your cardio, focus on your lifting, and get in the pwo whey shakes.

I just bought mine from the exercise section in Walmart, "small town girl" here.


Thanks, for letting me know. I have been using the ankle weights for about 2 years. I will definately stop, but I wonder if that isn't why I got so swollen when I was running.

Thanks Built! I don't really want to eat if my workout is first thing in the morning unless there was some sort of benefit.

red

Oh - I didn't catch that part.

Do a whey shake before your AM lifting. Otherwise, you risk too much catabolism of muscle tissue by lifting empty.

Perhaps with some flax or other oil.

Anyone have an opinion on BoFlex, if I have to buy a system? Would this be better than a weight lifting system? I was looking into one in a town near by and found it to be about $1500.
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I believe that anyone can get a great workout with a bench and dumbells. As you get more advanced you will have to be more creative and work your muscles from multiple angels...
As far as Bowflex goes... I have one and it has been my main source of resistance training for about 2 years. It does work well.
If someone was serious about lifting, did not want to go to a gym, and had money to spend... I would recommend it. But it is expensive and it's not something you need to have.
My home gym consists of:
plate loading dumbells
large 'swiss' ball
bowflex ultimate

Every now and then I go to a real gym... I believe variety is important.

I would advise you first to go slooower...

The bench seems better to me without the 'foot thingy'. There are better exercises with the dumbbells for your legs.

Make sure you have a couple of adjustable dumbbells, try if you like to work out via some simple exercises. If you like the feeling of it all after a couple of weeks still, then proceed to fine-tune your program. Take one step at a time. If you don´t like it you can´t make it a habit, so go forward cautiously.

But a thing that works can give you pleasure for life!

Well everyone I got my first workout done yesterday, followed built's beginner plan workout #2.

Question: Are you supposed to do stretches after weight lifting?

I would. I wish I was more consistent, perhaps I would have less injuries.

Still trying to learn good stretches. I've got the lower body down, but the upper body I'm not sure about how to stretch certain areas.

Oh and great job on getting started!

I stole this from a website. The link is posted below.
Summary: Stretching while pumped can increase muscle growth.
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Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body.

But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Because fascia is so tough, it doesn't allow the muscle room to expand. It is like stuffing a large pillow into a small pillowcase. The size of the muscle won't change regardless of how hard you train or how well you eat because the connective tissue around your muscles is constricting the muscles within.

The solution: stretching.
By stretching your muscles under specific conditions, you can actually stretch your fascia and give your muscles more room to grow.

The key to effective fascial stretching is the pump. The best time to stretch to expand the bags that are holding in your muscles is when your muscles are pumped up full of blood.

When your muscles are fully pumped up, they are pressing against the fascia. By stretching hard at that time, you increase that pressure on the fascia greatly, which can lead to expansion of the fascia.

Check out http://www.theallineed.com/ad-health-6/health-044.htm to learn more.

Okay, this is what I was told about doing sissy squats after leg press - same idea.

Thanks mps - great post!