what's your workout?

Hi,

I know there's probably been tons on this, but just thought I'd add my bit too. At the moment I am 21, just finishing my fourth and final year at university. I currently weigh about 154 (put on 20 pounds over last four years, mostly through drinking) and I'm 5'8''. I really want to get back to around 126 or thereabouts, but I also want to get fitter - I'm a serious event rider, and I have to be fit to compete effectively and school the young horses. I am not unfit, I've got quite good stamina, but I really could get fitter. I eat between 1350 and 1550 depending on how much exercise I do- it's almost always around 1400 though.

So, my question is (at last!) what ought I to be doing at the gym? I work pretty hard there, but I'm worried that I'm not doing enough. At the moment I try to go by the way I feel - i.e. stop when exhausted (!), but generally I just count off the calories. Is this the best way? It does make me clockwatch quite a bit....I've posted below what I do - I know I should be doing weights more....

2 X per week: power yoga - 1 hour.

3-4 X per week: Gym - rowing, elliptical, step machine and exercise bike all adding up to  about 1 hour and burning between 550 and 750 calories per time. (I also walk there and back which burns 100 on top of that.) I try to do weights twice per week, but can only manage about 15 mins total.

Anyway, I've gone on far too long - suggestions would be great.

Thanks people.

 How often do you go riding? That's prolly quite a lot of cardio and some strength training right there - possibly more strength endurance than maximal strength, but controlling the horse takes muscle.

 I would imagine that you could benefit from easing off on the cardio machinery and start including more strength training into your gym time - you probably don't need a whole lot of cardio on top of the horse riding.

  The nice thing about strength training is that you don't need to spend an awful lot of time on it to see benefits, though 15 minutes is probably a bit less than optimal. Sounds like you don't have a specific program you're following, though - could you elaborate a bit on what you're doing for strength training?

Are you trying to do weights AFTER all that cardio? If so, then that's why you can only manage doing 15min of it, do weights before cardio. If not, then why can't you manage more than 15min? What exactly are you doing?

Thanks for the comments guys, all very helpful. At the moment I'm not riding because I've got exams. However, I ride about an hour a day at home, but then of course I can't get to the gym as much, so its swings and roundabouts really. I do do my weights after cardio, which is probably a mistake....

In terms of what I do, I'm a bit lost really. I just go on all the resistance machines and do 3 reps of 8 at the most I can manage. I'm thinking of buying some free weights to do in my room though, do you think this would help? I feel like I'm really going for it on the cardio and cutting back on food, but I'm seeing no results really, apart from increased stamina!

Thanks!