Wanting to workout smarter not harder

Just wanting to streamline my exercise so it doesn't take up so much time but I am not sure which element to cut out, walking or running.  Or even if I should change the whole damn thing LOL.  Any comments  or help would be much appreciated.  My current exercise plan is:

Monday - weights 30 minutes + 1 hr walk

Tuesday - Run 1/2 hour (walk and run intervals)

Wednesday - weights 30 minutes + 1 hr walk

Thursday - Run 1/2 hour (walk and run intervals) + 1.5hrs yoga

Friday - weights 30 minutes + 1 hr walk

you can burn the same amount of calories in 10 minutes on the eilptical that you're burning in an hour of walking.  and maybe you're into the whole yoga thing but i'd much rather spend an extra half hour lifting weights. 

Original Post by leanerandmeaner:

you can burn the same amount of calories in 10 minutes on the eilptical that you're burning in an hour of walking.  and maybe you're into the whole yoga thing but i'd much rather spend an extra half hour lifting weights. 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. 90 minutes of yoga is A LOT of time when weights are right there waiting for you

Yeah, the yoga is only there for my mental health.  I think I would be divorced and in an asylum if I didn't do it.  I thought you should only do 30 - 45 minutes of weights in any session and you should have at least 1 rest day between your sessions hence you can only really do 3 sessions a week.... is this true?

Each of my sessions is full body ie. I do exercises for all the muscle groups not monday - arms wednesday - legs ect ect.

I would love to do more and get greater results as I LOVE what they have done for my body so far.  I up the weight regularly (as much as I can take and when it is getting too easy) so I can get the best results as well.

You aready have two interval sessions, so thats good.  Walking is wonderful but low intensity and takes a long time.  You can replace one of the 1 hour walks with 30 minutes medium-intensity rowing - burns the same calories, uses different muscles.  Or 30 minutes walking uphill - somewhat higher intensity, less time. And replace on of the long walks with run/jog, building up to 30-45 minutes jogging, so you save 15-30 minutes, and have a nice long run.

Given what you want to do... I'd change to something like:

M: Weights (30min), Run (45min)

T: Rest

W: Weights (30min), Run (45min)

T: Yoga (1.5hrs)

F: Weights (30min), Run (45min)

This cuts down the time by just under 2 hours for the week (plus one day is now an off day).  Since you walk run, I think it would be better to up that and cut out the overall long walks.

Just my view.  I don't know your goals, weight, ..etc... or I'd tailor it more.

Instead of 3 sessions of steady state cardio, you'd be better off with at least 1-2 shorter interval sessions and 1-2 sessions of moderate to longer distance.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Nightc1 - I am 5' 1" about 136 lbs.  I am 30.... oh crap... 31 in 12 days lol.  I seem to stay around this weight give or take a pound but I notice my body changing shape and muscle mass increasing (yay).  I lost about 25lbs earlier in the year with no exercise but now want to mainly tone and get rid of the nasty cellulite

I originally wanted to get down to 120lbs but not sure I am going to be able to.  Really I see the scale as only a number I would rather be lean and actually have muscle definition rather then be "skinny fat" or stick thin with no curves!

Just bumping this up in hope that nightc1 will see it again

While I'm not night1c... ;)

Whole-body weight training - good. It's not so much the time spent as the exercises you perform and the load/intensity level that's the key to effective resistance training, and a program centered around compound exercises will outperform isolation exercises for most goals. So a bit of detail on that would be nice.

I'm not sure of the rationale for doing running and weight training on the same day though - if you're still on the walk/jog stage like Couch25K and working your way up to running the full distance you might get away with it, but you tend to run into issues with fatigue management and localised overtraining if you try to push your body in too many directions at once.

 So... details. The Devils' in'em, as always. What's your lifting program like? Knowing that, it gets easier to plan out a cardio program that will help you ;)

 Squats hits legs, so do deadlifts, so do running, so do sprints. Do too much of them, and your legs never get the chance to recover. If you're deliberately trying to overtrain to lose muscle mass that might be compatible with your goals, but it doesn't sound like something you're interested in doing.

 Lower-intensity runs (down in the much-loathed "fat burning zone") are useful for increasing your energy turnover without overloading recovery or overtaxing your legs, high-intensity not so much. Which suggests to me that taking Alevins' advice and planning for a variety of intensities - and planning high-intensity running on days when you aren't doing high-intensity leg training - is more likely to prove useful for you.

 It gets complicated even when you're just looking at the basics, if you're like me and overthink things ;)

Completely my opinion and I am NOT an expert.  But I'm someone who didn't like exercise before.  I would not cut the walking.  How fast do you go?  I would walk at least 4 to 4.5 mph for 3 miles (45 min).  I would substitute the running for elliptical (25 min) which you can get a hard workout on without the potential for injury.  I takes less time too. 

This is just based on my own experience with needing decide what's more accessible and how high my interest is. 

I'll take the opposite tack here--the walking is great exercise for the long haul. If you are simply strolling, it's good for you in some ways, but if you are pushing the pace, it is great for burning cals and for shapely legs. IMHO, nothing can beat the natural high of outdoor aerobic exercise, preferably in a pretty place! But it all depends on your goals. If you have the time, relax an enjoy it and start a habit that can really be life long!

Melkor - It is complicated isn't it.  Okay so my weight training regime looks like this:  2 sets of 8 reps (if I can get through the reps then I up the weight)

• Lunge
• Squats
• Chair raises (not sure on the technical name of these as I got them from joey atlas - you stand on a chair or raised platform and lower one leg to touch your toe on the ground then do the same but out to the side repeat on each leg)
• Bench Press
• Row
• Shoulder Press
• Curl
• Push Crunch (60 of these - build up number of them as I get stronger)
• Side Slide (again don't know the tech name but you stand with feet slightly apart and lower weights down one side then back up and repeat on other side)

I up the weight often ie. if I am able to do the exercise and not be pushing it at number 8 then the weight goes up.  If I don't feel like vomiting after the workout then the weight goes up.  If I am not sore the next day then the weight goes up.  I also am doing this set of exercises for 4 weeks then I will change them. 

I definately don't want to loose muscle mass... I desperatly want more and way less fat... Wow.... Sharing your workout program like that feels like your bearing your soul   Go easy on me... It was something I developed after countless nights of research and getting more and more confused on the RIGHT thing to do!

Oh no.... I think I killed Melkor....  He died from laughing so hard at my weights routine

 sorry - got caught up a bit in some other things.

 You know, I really don't see much of anything you could possibly improve on in your lifting program beyond learning the common names for the exercises you're doing. The "Chair raises" are commonly called step-ups, and the "side slide" sounds like either a suitcase deadlift (for when you use one dumbbell), or a side bend (for when you use two).

  I mean, you've got - lunges which are good for balance and correcting strength imbalances between legs, squats, and stepups. You might want to add a deadlift variation where you lift the weight in front of you, but you don't really need it, the stepups are also glute/hamstring-dominant and will do nicely. You've got a horizontal push(bench), a horizontal pull (row), a vertical push (shoulder press), and a deadlift variation that's more core focused than normal.  About the only thing you might want to look at would be a vertical pull like a lat pulldown, face pull or a chinup variation to balance out the vertical pushing, but since you've got a row in there it's not critical to do it.

 And your intensity approach is absolutely amazing - can't think of much to tell you there either, except that you're possibly at risk for overreaching at times so you're definitely going to need some deloading weeks in there where you cut your training load by 75% to allow your body a chance to catch up.

 Oh, yes - one more thing: are you doing an A/B-split or are you doing all those exercises each workout?  If you are doing an A/B split, a slightly counter-intuitive bit of advice is to do the more intense cardio on leg-dominant training days. That way you're not pounding your legs with hard exercise on what's supposed to be an off day from leg training, which could otherwise hamper your recovery.

 Do you have any specific cardio goals - complete a 10K, bike a century, swim a mile?  The details of that depends on your goals as well - if you're going to run a marathon you'll get more functional carryover from the treadmill and elliptical, if you're looking to take up biking a spin class is probably a better choice. If not, a generic 30 minutes of whatever is available to you post-lifting (treadmill, spin bike, elliptical, rower, jump rope) will help you burn off the free fatty acids your intense strength training just mobilized from your fat stores without significantly hampering recovery.

Well... that went better then expected!  (pats herself on back)

I am not doing an A/B-split.  I do that each workout for 3 x a week for 4 weeks then change exercises.

Other then needing to take the dog for a walk I would cut out most cardio if I could.  I only do it because from what I have read you should.  I started the C25K so I could get some HIIT in.  I don't have any cardio goals.  The only goals I have are to cut down my BF % and build muscle / add muscle definition to my body.  Do I need much cardio for that?

I have had amazing results from what I have been doing (original post) so don't want that to stop but am wondering if I cut out the cardio, would I continue on with such great results?  Or could I cut SOME of the cardio out and still maintain the results? 

 Cardio helps in as much as it makes it easier to have a calorie deficit without going insane from restricting food too much - I'd rather have an exercise-created deficit than a diet-created one because I get to eat more that way - and there's very good reasons to do something cardio-based for health reasons, you'll live longer.

 Couch2k isn't exactly HIIT, it's more of an aerobic interval thing up until you run the whole distance, but HIIT is overrated anyway - yes, it's a harder workout than most, but working harder isn't always working smarter as you've noted. HIIT tends to be harsh on the legs, and it's amazing how fast you overtrain if you're doing heavy squatting 2 times a week and then add in sprints 2-3 times a week. Not to mention how fast you sprain ankles and develop stress fractures if you haven't worked up to doing intervals.

 Thinking about it - for weight loss your results are down to how religiously you count calories anyway, so you can conceivably drop formal cardio totally and just stick to walking the dog if you want. It would probably not be ideal if your goal-space includes being able to run a 5K, but for general health and well-being that plus your absolutely amazingly intense approach to lifting should be sufficient in theory.

 However, theory is always just a starting point - trying it out and seeing what actually happens always trumps theory ;)  So with that in mind, just replace all cardio in you plan with (Couch25K), keep the yoga and lifting, try it for 2-4 weeks and see what happens. By then it's going to be time to change programs a bit anyway, only then you'll have learned a bit more about how your body responds to a particular combination of diet and training ;)

Thanks for that.  I will cut the walking and keep the running as I enjoy that more.  Gets confusing with all the conflicting info you read!  It's also always nice to know your on the right track... thanks again!