I joined a gym.  I've been working out daily at it for the last week but was just able to meet with the trainer to get a 'professional' work out routine.  

Perviously I was running 30 minutes on the Tred Mill and doing 30 minutes on the Stair Stepper.  I then was mixing weight training between my arms and legs.  I would do both my arms and legs daily but different groups so that I give each muscle a day off.

Well my trainer wants me to do this:

He wants me to do a series of sit ups/crunches with this exercise ball machine [its a pretty good exercise - I lay flat on my back, sit up and toss a 9 pound basket ball into a hoop and retrieve another ball].  Crunches on this big exercise ball [pretty difficult for me with no coordination what so ever but I'm getting it done] and then leg lifts.  He says I can do these daily.

Then He has me doing exercises for my tricepts [two different tricept pull down machines and one tricept push backs with a dumbbell].  

Than I do 10 on the tred mill and 10 on the stair stepper.  Tomorrow same routine except no tricepts but he has me working my legs [I don't have that routine memorized yet].

I am at my target weight.  I want to replace about 5 pounds of chubs with muscle.    My target area is my abs, inner theighs and my tricepts.

I'd appreciate any review/suggestions.  Q

Side bends, for your obliques.

If you want to get stronger, you need to be doing squats and deadlifts.

Also, lose the machines and do bench presses and overhead presses to increase your arm strength, with some chinups and dips thrown in.

Okay, thank you for your advice.  I do not feel that I'm getting an adequate work out for my legs so the squats will help.  My abs and arms are very sore today so I weenied out and just did 30 minutes on the stair stepper and 30 minutes on the tredmill and called it a day.    I'll ad the side crunches.  Admittedly I'm not strong enough to do pull ups.  I never have been really.  When I went to the police academy when I was in my 20's I had to do two pulls ups to get in and three to graduate.  I worked really hard at building upper body strength but never reached that goal.  I ended up cheating.    What can I say?  I have bony arms and a hour glass figure.

On the squats, do 3 sets of 5, 3 times a week, and add weight to the bar each workout.  Squats will help your abs also.

If you really want to gain muscle, the treadmill or other long, slow distance training (such as jogging or cycling) won't do it.  The best way to gain muscle is to lift weights that works lots of muscles, such as squats and deadlifts.

I was skinny myself until I started "Starting Strength" by Rippetoe.  I've been very happy with the results.  Do a google search or read the sticky thread for more info.

Also, instead of pullups, you could do chinups (palms facing you) instead to increase your upper body strength.  Benchpresses, overhead presses, and dips will help too.

There is nothing professional about paying a trainer.

You can get the same routines he is providing you by reading a decent weight lifting book for free.


Stick to compound movements, no fancy dancy machines/bullshit.

Im not sure if you mean you are overweight or not, but if not, drop the cardio. If you MUST do cardio b/c you are fat, slow cardio is the best cardio for keeping muscle. Uphill walk, moderate stair master etc.

I run a routine such as below:

Monday : Chest
bench press
incline dumbbell press
dips
decline bench
flys

Tuesday: Back
Deadlifts
T-bar rows
Bent Rows
lat pulls
pullups

Wednesday: Legs
squats
sled press
lunges
stiff legged deadlifts
ham-string curls (obviously uses a machine which I cannot avoid)

Thursday: Deltoids / traps
Arnold press/military presses
Front lateral movement
Side lateral movement
rear delt pulls
dumbbell shurs
barbell shrugs

Friday: Biceps/Triceps
Dumbbell curls
Barbell curls
Pull downs for triceps
rope pulls for triceps
close grip bench press for triceps



My routine is geared for weakest parts done first(chest), strongest done last in the week(arms).

Best of luck to you.

not really on the subject but...not so negative, only 1% of the population can do one rep of a body weight exercise, the fact that you feel you are not getting a good enough workout means you are improving, you are doing fine keep it up.  keep in mind working out is slow steady improvement gained from consistency.

Here is an important bit of info from Pete Koch

Myth:   "If I do crunch's and sit ups, I'll loose my gut"

Reality: For the record there is no such thing as "spot reduction".   In fact, as someone performs a sit up it is likely that the energy required to perform the movement may come from stored fat in the persons arm.   Additionally doing too many sit-ups and crunch's may lead to the over development of the hip flexors leading to muscle imbalances and chronic back pain.

Okay thank you for the info.  I'll study it closely.  For the record, I'm not over weight, I just need to firm up.  I am a professional hunting guide by trade so I'm outdoors hunting/guiding all day so I'm in decent shape.  I went through a divorce recently and really let my guard down so to speak on the goodies and now I'm a bit more flabbier than I prefer.  I would guess if you squeeze all my chubbies into a sack it would weigh less than five pounds.

I do not want to look like a he-woman, I just want to firm up.  My triceps area is a little flabby [I'm carrying about 1/2 inch of extra flab behind my arms.  I have never had flabby arms before so that has to go pronto].  On my stomach again I've always been very thin [well except when preggo] and now I'm again carrying about a 1/2 inch of chubbies there.  Same with my inner thighs [except about 1/2 that size].

I'm 44 6ft tall and I weigh 160 pounds.  I'm sorer than a dog tonight.  I have a touch of a cold and it hurts to cough.  I don't feel as if I have really worked my abs from my belly button down.  I hurt mostly from around where my diaphram is [hopefully that's the right spot and not some medieval form of birth control] to the area right above my belly button.  My legs don't really feel as if they're tired or sore.  My arms are a little tired/sore but I took today off.  I really hate being sore and tired since I have to walk all day at work but I'll do what ever it takes to get into shape.

Queen

crossfit



brutal if you're not used to it....will definitely leave you sore the next day. a good friend of mine runs a "garage" and i'm convinced he's sadistic. my first workout was a "chipper" (i guess b/c you feel like you went through a wood chipper):

for time (i.e. - he's yelling at you the whole time)
400m run
20 pullups
20 burpees
20 tire jumps
20 wall-balls
20 ring-dips
20 situps
400m run