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loosing weight. / right routine.
so i want to loose 40lbs.
let me rephrase that. i need to loosd 40lbs.
i'm supposed to weigh 120 for my height. but 135 is good too.
i weigh about 175 right now.
but anyways, i've been going to planet fitness for about a month now.
my routine:
20 minutes arc trainer or eliptical
10 minutes tredmil or bicycle
15 - 20 minutes on leg and arm toning.
60 crunches. 20 on each side. 90 in total.
i recently started the slimfast diet.
do you think this is a good workout routine, or too much/too little
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Well, its a good start but it needs some tweaking in my opinion.
First off, you can do the slimfast diet, but you are better off with a reasonable balanced diet. Diets like slimfast are too generic and don’t account for individual differences, activity levels etc. Moreover, its always healthier to get your calories from actual food and also eventually you need to train yourself to be able to control your normal food intake. Otherwise when you get off the slimfast diet it will be hard to adapt.
Now, if you really cant do it any other way, then use it. Otherwise just consider a sensible diet.
Onto the exercise. Your cardio is fine both for health and weight loss. You can always add another 10- 15 mins later when you feel fitter if you want.
The other exercises I am not so fond of. I also dont really understand what you mean by arm and leg toning exactly. Girls use this term a lot and it has very little meaning. Muscles grow or shrink, fat is gained or lost (but never spot reduced/ targeted to an area)... Have a look at this article:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
The crunch training is also a bit off. One of the basic principles of exercise is that you must train opposing muscle groups. If you do crunches, you should train your lower back to avoid posture/ back problems. Also, considering that spot reduction is impossible, I think this is disproportionately emphasised in your routine.
I think doing some resistance training is an excellent idea, but I would do it differently. You are much better off with a full body routine. It burns more calories (including affecting you metabolism), it makes you fitter and stronger (not just in your arms) and you will not have to worry about creating a disbalance in your muscles.
So I would suggest this:
- Start with a short warm-up.
- Then do resistance training. Choose a full body workout which starts with the big muscle groups first and, as much as possible, sticks to free weights. Machines generally produce worse results, increase risk of overtraining and injury, and ignore supporting/ stabilising muscles groups.
I don’t know how often you train, but for resistance training you should always have a day rest between training the same muscles. A full body routine can be done say Mon, Wed, Fri.
- Next you do the cardio routine you have above. You can of course do cardio on days where you do not do resistance training (just make sure to take at least one full rest day per week).
Well that’s my suggestion anyway. If you want help with your routine or anything, you can always drop me a question. Otherwise the trainers at the gym can also help you there.
Good luck with the weight loss.
Alin 34/m
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