Posts by karozel

I don't work out in the mornings.  I hate getting up any earlier than I have to, so that is part of it.  But also, when I tried my workouts sucked.  I could not accomplish as much as I could in the afternoon or evening.

Plus, working out in the morning seems to mess up my blood sugar.  I get cranky and tired, and I'm a ravenous eating machine. 

So working out in the morning is very counter-productive for me.  I enjoy my evening workouts though.  They help me work off the stresses of the day and I'm left pleasantly relaxed after a good workout and a shower.

If the weights are not challenging your muscles -- and I don't think they really could be -- then it's not going to have much benefit to your muscles. 

But it does seem like a good cardio type workout. 

Soreness is not a good measure of how hard your mucles are working. 

There are lots of other sources of protein than just meat. 

Dairy (milk, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt), nuts, pulses (beans and such), even some veggies such as spinach are decent sources of protein. 

Plus it is for the average person.  Someone who is trying to lose (or gain) weight may need more to prevent muscle loss (or encourage muscle growth!)

What I have heard is that with no spotter, it is actually a bit safer to do dumbbell presses from the floor.  If you do dumbbell bench presses on the bench, you can mess up your elbows/shoulders if you lose control. 

If you do them lying on the floor, your arms can't get pulled back too far. 

I'm not sure if it's true or not --- but since I work out at home, and don't have a spotter, it's how I do mine. 

I have a balance ball at work and I sit (and bounce) on it all day long.  I don't think it burns too many calories, but I do think it helps my posture a bit.  It's a lot harder to slouch while sitting on a ball. 

Effective in what way?

I didn't watch it all, but I think I got the idea.  It's more a cardio workout -- somewhat like complexes and is quick and fun to do.  I do Cosgrove's complexes at the end of some of my weight workouts.

It's a good calorie burner, but it's not likely to get you stronger or help in maintaining or building muscle. 

You are not wasting your time lifting weights. 

By lifting while losing weight, your body will try to retain muscle, so the weight you lose will be mre fat.  If you do not challenge your muscles while losing weight, you are more likely to lose existing muscle.

Also, but lifting weights you can still get stronger.  It (can be) a good cardio workout as wel.  Weight lifting definitely gets my heart rate going, much like intervals do.  You can also improve balance, and bone density by lifting weights. 

Lastly, if you are new to lifting weights, you actually may be able to add some muscle even while at a deficit.  This is a "newbie" effect, and doesn't last for long, but it can be rewarding. 

Make sure you challenge yourself, but be sure to fuel your workouts with quality food, get enough protein, and don't forget that rest and recovery are part of the process. 

^^^What amethystgirl said.

Yeah, you should be able to do heavy weights for low reps and not take too much time to complete a workout. It doesn't have to be take a long time and be boring.

Also, I find it exteremely challenging to compete against myself and try to lift heavier weights as I get stronger.  It's part of having an actual weight routine instead of just "lifting weights"

Yes, you have to adjust it down, but it's not much.  I would recalculate after losing about 10 pounds or so. 

Actually, if you enter your info on here, it will adjust it for you every time you input your weight. 

I'm just going to tell you my experience.  I had a timex HRM (don't know exactly the style) and I think it overestimated my calorie burn. 

I use to wear it on the treadmill and it would tell me I burned 500 calories for 3 miles or so, and when weight lifting it would tell me I burned like 800 calories for an hour workout. 

When I switched to a Polar F6 HRM it reporst my weight workouts as being 400-500 calories.  So the Times was overestimating by quite a bit.  The Polar also matches what you get from the estimators on this site and others, so I trust it a lot more. 

Honestly, you should sit down and talk to him and tell him how you feel. You can focus on it being about his health, or you can flat out tell him it's unattractive. 

But ultimately it is entirely up to him, so really there is nothing you can do about it except talk to him. If he want to do something about it he will, and if he doesn't he wont. 

It doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) nagging.  Just a simple conversation telling him you are concerned about his health, and then just drop it. 

You really think you lost all of the benefits of lifting?  Do you think the bone mass/density you accumulated for that heavy lifting all went away?  That's just the first thing I can think of off the top of my head.  I can't imagine that all the benefits would just disappear. 

Again, this is only my opinion, but light exercises for the arms is not going to have much affect.  If she's not challenging herself, then her muscles are not going to react, and there is no such thing ars spot burning, so essentially it's just cardio, and you can definitely get a better cardio workout using the big muscles. 

If the light weight and isolation exercises for her arms are of little benefit, how are we helping her reach her goals?

I agree that a weight workout is important if you want to be healthy.  And I don't think you should try to lose any weight.  Instead focus on losing the fat.  That will help with your problem areas.

My thoughts on weight lifting go a lot farther that miller's though.  I'm guessing your problems areas are much like most women's, hips, thighs, tummy.  And the way to make those firmer and fitter is by lifting heavy weights, and that means deadlifts, squats, push-ups, pull-ups, presses, etc. 

The arm exercises are okay, but light dumbbells are not going to challenging for long.  If you check out the fitness forum and Melkor's stickies there, there are lots og good suggestions on how to pick a good workout. 

It's hard to tell because some of the items you have listed could vary greatly in intensity.  It honestly doesn't seem like you are giving your body any chance to rest.

Part of that is the home construction which as you say is high priority.  Maybe you could modify the intensity of your workouts depending on the intensity of the construction.  Say if it's relatively light stuff, then hit the other stuff hard, but if it's heavy duty stuff, maybe take a break from the other stuff. 

It also depends a lot on how long you have been doing this.

Well, I don't really see how it would save you time, and I'm not really sure how you can challenge yourself in the same ways during a class as you can when you work out individually. 

I'm only guessing, but I can't imagine that during a class you would be lifting very heavy weights.  And if you are doing the same type of movements, why would it take longer to do them alone?

If you go in with a plan, you should be able to get done in 30-45 minutes.  Some programs may have workouts that are a bit longer, but you don't have to follow them 100% to get benefits. 

For instance, some who do NROLFW save the abs/core exercises for later in the day after the kids are in bed, or something.