I haven't been in a gym since December and today was my first day back. Over the break I bought a new pair of much needed workout pants, because my other ones were just really big and getting worn out. It's the little things like a new pair of nice looking pants from an actual fitness/ sports outlet (I can fit in those clothes now!) that keep me happy and motivated.
During the break I gained 4 lbs and then lost them, so that's a maintain which is really good, however, today I realized I have fallen back in another aspect. I had made cardiovascular fitness gains before and have pretty much lost them or at least it seems so.
I always worked out at 80%/ High Intensity
Before break: My speed was 3.5 and the Incline was 11.0
Today: My speed was 3.0 and the Incline was 4.0
So at both of these, my heart rate is the same. I hope I'm making sense.
This semester I am actually going to start a Small circuit on the weigh machines, seeing as I had lost half fat and half fat free mass in 3 months last time. This semester I want to gain muscle and lose fat, hopefully keeping my fat free mass where it is currently.
I'm adding all sorts of little things to keep me motivated - another chart, different recipes, more music to the ipod (I really love fast paced music and pop songs for working out)
Ok, so as it looks right now, I am going to work out 5x a week (M-F), 30 minutes of cardio each day, and 3x a week weight training (M-W-F). The little guide I got for it says to leave 48 hours in between each session but no more than 96. It also says not to lift weights until the muscles are warm so I will do the cardio first and then get on the machines.
2 comments:
Great job losing the weight that you put on over the holiday keep up the great work. Those are some great goals that you have for this semester. Keep it up and don't give up!
Doing cardio first will also help you burn more calories while you are weight training. It also doesn't hurt to throw in a bit of cario (3-5 min) every now & then during weights to keep your heart rate up & keep burning extra calories, according to my trainers (makes sense, but I must confess I am quite bad at doing this myself).
Doing strength training first then cardio is supposed to make your muscles work more efficiently. However, I tend to have a crappy cardio workout when I do that because my muscles are so worn out from the strenght training. So, I prefer to do it like you. I probably ought to do 15 min of weights then my 30 of cardio then another 15 of weight. Then I guess I would make both camps happy. But, I'm sure someone would tell me I wasn't doing something right. Hehe
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