As the title says, I have a bunch of work out questions...

My work out is generally 35 minutes of the eliptical and 1.5 hours worth of weight lifting. I generally go every other day and just do a full body workout (well... legs and arms). I do most of the circuit area on the cardio area of DBAC and then some of the equips on the 1st floor by the entrance (chest flies, calves, and those 2 leg machines that work your hamstrings/quads/thighs)

a) I want to get strong, but not beefy. What's the best way to go about this? I generally try and do 5 sets of 12 reps of a moderately heavy weight...not enough that I'm STRUGGLING by the 12th, but enough that it gets really hard on the last couple of sets.

b) I have a lot of fat. Arm fat, boob fat, my thighs have a bit of excess fat but it's not gross or anything... What's the best way to trim? I heard building muscle is the best way to burn fat, but idk. Help pls.

c) I AM VERY HIPPY AND I HATE RUNNING. But I wanna trim my waist. Back when I was 16, I got down to about 110 pounds... I had a small[er] waist (I was probably around a size 8)... but ****, all I did was run and run and run. I don't wanna run, I hate it. What else can I do?

d) When I do arm exercises (especially when I'm on the last few reps), I find it REALLY hard not to tense up my neck... Like, I actually don't know how to push myself to complete the last few reps without tensing up my neck. I tense it so bad that I can normally feel something being pulled. Needless to say, I think it's pretty dangerous, lol. If I lower the weight, it's not challenging enough. If I up the weight, it's too much. I generally can't even finish 2 sets.

that's all I can remember for now.

[I know that "changing your diet" is an obvious answer to all of these, but... I eat kinda healthy and I'm not really interested in spending lots of money on meat and shit ]


Edit: by beefy I mean I don't want to look like a guy... I'm not scared of having muscle, I just hate scrawniness/skinnyness

Low weights, high reps and sets like you are doing is a good way. Endurance muscles are smaller than fast twitch muscles (I sadly forgot the correct terms for the muscles).

As for trimming, the only way I know is to work out that area of your body. So if it's your thighs then you'll want to do some thigh exercises. I have no idea what the names of the exercises are called, but there's the one where you close your thighs together (the one where you sit on the machine) as well as the one where you are standing and extend your leg sideways. Leg presses also work out your quads.

For chest, apparently bench presses can cause breast reduction. That's what I've heard, haven't really looked for research to back it up since it doesn't affect me.

For waist, ab exercises are best. Crunches, scissors, mason's hammer, plank twists (I don't know the correct term, but this one requires a lot of balance), leg lifts, the exercise where you hold a weight in your hand and you use your obliques to lift it (basically looks like you are moving your upper body from side to side).

Anyways, my explanations are probably horrible... hopefully someone posts with the actual exercise names. I'm pretty sure you can also ask the pulse workers for advice.

Yea, I unfortunately don't know of any ab exercises... will have to google the ones you named off.

But yep, one of the girls at the Pulse said that chest flies and bench pressing is good for the boobage fat. I need me a spotter though, if only for the sole fact that my right arm is wayyy stronger than my left and I'd need someone to help me control that haha.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Yea, I unfortunately don't know of any ab exercises... will have to google the ones you named off.

But yep, one of the girls at the Pulse said that chest flies and bench pressing is good for the boobage fat. I need me a spotter though, if only for the sole fact that my right arm is wayyy stronger than my left and I'd need someone to help me control that haha.

Spotters: All exercisers are responsible for ensuring they have a spotter during free weight exercises. Pulse Personal Trainers are available to help any time.

Now I'm not sure if you have to pay for that or not...

You can't spot reduce fat. Doing certain exercises will increase the size of muscles that exercise targets, but it won't cause a decrease in fat from that area. Doing bench presses does not target your chest to lose fat, when you lose fat, you lose it all throughout your body, it will cause the muscles in your chest to get more toned.

Originally Posted by Souldier

You can't spot reduce fat. Doing certain exercises will increase the size of muscles that exercise targets, but it won't cause a decrease in fat from that area. Doing bench presses will not cause only your chest to lose fat, when you lose fat, you lose it all throughout your body, it will cause the muscles in your chest to get more toned.

Research please.

I'm pretty sure your body uses the nearest source of energy in order to keep the muscles working. That would make the most logical sense and would serve as a natural selection in evolution.

Originally Posted by jhan523

Research please.

I'm pretty sure your body uses the nearest source of energy in order to keep the muscles working. That would make the most logical sense and would serve as a natural selection in evolution.

http://www.acefitness.org/fitnessqan...spx?itemid=341

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...clekey=79 563

"As for your question, the reason that you can't spot reduce during exercise, which is what you are really asking, is that you don't have any control over which adipocytes release fat. Norepinephrine and the other hormones released during exercise do not discriminate. That is, they stimulate adipocytes to release fat wherever they are located."

I personally find that using heavier weights and lower reps (between 8 - 12) is a lot more effective! I used to use lighter weights and hardly noticed any results, but after switching to heavier weights, I noticed the changes after about a month. It's practically impossible for women to gain the muscle mass that men do because we don't produce enough testosterone. The only way to gain that mass would be to take roids and only do isolation exercises. Trust me, I do this and I'm not bulky. You can even check out the women Olympic weightlifters in the lighter categories, who lift insane amounts of weight, and none of them look like the hulk or anything!

If you don't like endurance running I suggest that you check out high intensity interval training on google! You can use it during sprints or cardio machines at the gym like bikes, stepmaster, etc. and the workouts usually only take 20 minutes with rest periods. It's supposedly just as effective as endurance cardio, but takes a lot less time. Again, this is what I use personally and it seems to work for me, plus I'm too lazy to run for more than 15 minutes .

Also, if you use free weights, you probably won't have to do a lot of ab exercises, because you're constantly using your core to stabilize the movement.

Originally Posted by jhan523

As for trimming, the only way I know is to work out that area of your body. So if it's your thighs then you'll want to do some thigh exercises. I have no idea what the names of the exercises are called, but there's the one where you close your thighs together (the one where you sit on the machine) as well as the one where you are standing and extend your leg sideways. Leg presses also work out your quads.

Doesn't work that way. Bodyfat generally goes away throughout entire body. You have areas that lose faster, but overall, you can't "spot reduce" fat. Working out thighs doesn't reduce fat in thighs, though it firms it up (after 2 weeks that effect stops) and then its back to just building muscle. If you want to lose weight, 1) eat better. 2) lift weights 3) cardio.

for more info, http://forum.bodybuilding.co m , but make sure you actually research what you are learning instead of taking people's word. Learn alot more that way, plus people tell other people random crap they heard from a friend of a friend. Lots of it is not true. (Like spot reduction, or getting bulky without wanting to. Unless you REALLY try, you aren't gonna accidentally put on 10 pounds of muscle)

agreed, you want to do high reps and sets, low weight. Most people can get a very good workout just using their own body weight. Also most body weight exercises are for toning muscels, perfect for you.
Pull Ups - Upper back (better posture), Biceps
Pushups - Biceps, triceps, chest, core (abs)
Pushups (with hand closer together) - Focus on triceps
Squats, Jump-squats - quads

For losing fat, build muscle in the area you want to lose the fat.
Three things you can do (other than running) to lose weight is:
-Swim: swimming is one of the most effective calorie burners (better than running)
-Interval training: when your on the eliptical go max resistance/max speed for 30 seconds, then break for a minute, then go max again. Try a schedule like 30s Max, 1m rest, 30s max, 1m rest, 40s max, 2m rest..then ballpark based on energy. Rest is not stopping, just going to an easy setting. Interval training trains your body to convert fat to easily usable energy. It makes it easier to lose fat when you are say swimming or simply walking to class.
-Dont rest during weights! Ever done 2 hours in the weight room? A very common mistake is to rest more than actually lifting (this is proper for building heavy muscle but not toning). Try working the chest, then without resting switch to the back, then immediately to legs, then to biceps, then to triceps. Now that the set is done you can rst for a few minutes. Guarteneed you will be breathing Very hard. Doing a full body workout with interval rest is amazing for weight loss and endurance.

What do you define as low weight? For example, the chest fly machine: I did 3 sets today of 12 reps at 45 pounds (and I think I only did 8 reps on the last set). It was difficult, and I probably couldn't have done another set (let alone 2 more).

And yea, when I work out alone, I generally do a bunch of different muscles/machines before resting... I count that as one set, then restart. I don't like to do one muscle/one machine and rest, and then another set, rest... It doesn't seem to do anything for me.

I've been doing the former for a couple days now and I can definitely tell it's a way better way of working out.

So, it's true that building muscle will burn fat?

I'll definitely try the interval training on the elliptical. I really hate running/swimming.

Originally Posted by Souldier

http://www.acefitness.org/fitnessqan...spx?itemid=341

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...clekey=79 563

"As for your question, the reason that you can't spot reduce during exercise, which is what you are really asking, is that you don't have any control over which adipocytes release fat. Norepinephrine and the other hormones released during exercise do not discriminate. That is, they stimulate adipocytes to release fat wherever they are located."

Fair enough, but I wasn't actually looking for those. but I made your life easier and looked for ACTUAL research:

http://www.annals.org/content/74/3/408.abstract

So you're right, spot reduction doesn't exist. Sorry about that Cheri. But as others have mentioned high reps and low weights will still consume a lot of energy while keeping your muscles smaller.

You could also look into things like aerobics. Also, I think people also use a high intensity form of kenpo to burn fat (I think it's kenpo, it some sort of fighting art).

That's okay. xD

Speaking of which, how are aerobics? I always look on at the classes while I'm doing my circuit... is it actually a good workout? That's probably mad good cardio. XD (And those classes are free, right?)

Originally Posted by lawleypop

What do you define as low weight? For example, the chest fly machine: I did 3 sets today of 12 reps at 45 pounds (and I think I only did 8 reps on the last set). It was difficult, and I probably couldn't have done another set (let alone 2 more).

And yea, when I work out alone, I generally do a bunch of different muscles/machines before resting... I count that as one set, then restart. I don't like to do one muscle/one machine and rest, and then another set, rest... It doesn't seem to do anything for me.

I've been doing the former for a couple days now and I can definitely tell it's a way better way of working out.

So, it's true that building muscle will burn fat?

I'll definitely try the interval training on the elliptical. I really hate running/swimming.

Low weight is generally the amount of weight you can do at 12 reps. If you are really concerned with crazy muscle gain, you can even do weights that allow for 15 reps. But 12 reps is usually the norm for low weight.

You burn fat while exercising because your muscles use the energy to perform actions. Since your muscles have been working, there are tears and what not. Your body repairs and strengthens your muscle which leads to muscle building. So building muscle does burn fat.