What's Your Workout Today VSGers? - Wild Wednesday
That's great! I would strongly suggest jumping right into learning how to use free weights, its a much better overall exercise than the machines, but most people feel more comfortable with the machines. Just make sure if you are going to use machines that you adjust the seat and other adjustments to your height and arm length, etc. otherwise you are doing more harm than good and could actually sustain an injury as a result. Free weights will feel awkward at first and you will likely feel self conscious around the other free weight users, but that will pass in a couple of visits. They are also very eager to help newbies, so don't be afraid to engage the people around you if you want to know how or why they do a particular exercise. Just explain you are new and would like to know what muscles they exercise, how many sets of how many reps, etc. Sets are the groups of repetitions of the exercise. You should be shooting for 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps.
Free weights are great! I have some at home to do on off gym days. I want to also learn machines so together we will do the circut- machines. Its 30 minutes so I will do that once a week, then mostly free weights which I can do at the gym or home, plus cardio. I have also been mowing the lawn which takes 35-40 minutes at home so that gets done on off gym days. Those days I can do free weights too. I love it. I get a rush now. No more excuses for me! I have him to help because he used to be that gym rat/jock so he knows it very well. I am glad I encouraged him not to cancel his gym membership. He says he wants VSG this year also but I dont know if that is just him being 'lazy' and not wanting to diet on a regular. My dad is the typial stubborn italian male. But I am happy he is going to the gym just 2 or 3 times a week. Good to know, thank you as always!
My aunt is now in a little debate with me about why to do weights before cardio machines. Is there a specific reason? She said theres much debate out there on if doing them in a certain order is better or not. Some say cardio then weights, others say weights then cardio. While doing the circuit my dad said you burn more fat on machines like that, is that true?
For fat burn, low intensity is better. As for cardio versus weights, it depends on what you are going for. If you are trying to build muscle (which all VSGers should be), then you want to do weights first because the Glycogen (energy) stored in your muscles makes your weight work outs more effective. You want to be able to lift more longer to build muscle. Whatever is left should be used for cardio because cardio (depending on intensity) is for increasing your endurance, not for burning fat. In fact you burn more muscle doing cardio than fat. This is why I always say for fat burn walking is actually the best or Interval because while our ultimate objective is to burn fat, we also need to work on increasing endurance/lung capacity/improved heart rate, etc. This happens through cardio. But for straight up fat burn, you want weights to build more lean muscle and low intensity cardio.
Anyone who tells you intense cardio is what you need to burn fat does not know what they are talking about. Even the cardio machines in the gym to hit their fat burn zone will be lower intensity compared to cardio. So this is a well established fact.
To boil all that down you want your muscles (and your energy level) to be at its peak when you are trying to build muscle (which burns more fat) and you want to burn off the rest of the glycogen in your muscles with cardio. If you are doing high intensity cardio after a work out keep it to 15-20 mins because at some point you start to burn muscle instead of fat or sugar in your body if you go much longer than that. That's why early out its almost better to split your weight training days and cardio days, never do them both on the same day.
on 8/14/13 12:08 am
Did not know that! Thank you. I always do my cardio first because people are grabby with the cardio machines so if what I want is open I run for it. But I will switch it up today. You're the bomb Keith