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[redneckgrl]

Everyone knows that when you start bodybuilding you need to drop body fat. I am interested in natural body building but need to drop my body fat. I just had a child 6 months ago and this is now my routine 5 days a week.

(Supersets)
MONDAYS: 3sets 15reps each
Bicep curls
tricep bench press
shoulder press
REST 1/2 minute

Hammer curls
Tricep ext.
Side raises
REST 1/2 minute

cable bicep curl
cable tricep curl
fron raises

finish off with 45 minutes intense cardio
______________________________________________

TUESDAYS: 45 minutes intense cardio only

WEDNESDAYS: 3sets 15reps each
Stiff leg deadlifts
leg extensions
incline DB flys
rest 1/2 minute

Hammstring curls
rear lunges
flat DB press
rest 1/2 minute

exercise ball curls
leg press
exercise ball push ups

finish off with 45 minutes intense cardio
___________________________________________________

THURSDAY: 45 minutes intense cardio

FRIDAYS: 3sets 15 reps
cable rows
DB rows
Wide lat pulls
Hyper extensions

finish off with 45 minutes intense cardio

REST SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

Any input would be helpful. I am challenging myself every month to burn my body fat and gain muscle mass so that I can start body building. I eat VERY well and enjoy working out 5 days a week. I am finding that sometimes I want to go to the gym 7 days a week but I know that the body needs rest?

I took a week off and went on vacation and found it VERY hard to do my cardio at the gym. Everytime I go to the gym my shirt is full of sweat so i'm really giving it my all. So far I have lost over 10lbs. In two months. I was 178lbs and now I am 167lbs. I'm 5'5" I'm not noticing much difference on the scale these days but I am noticing huge difference in inches with clothes.

I set a goal for myself to loose 30lbs more by July. Does that sound reasonable? What about my routine? does it need to be fixed or am I doing the right thing?

[swanso5]

best things for fat loss:

deadlifts
squats
lunges
plyometrics
sprints
HIIT
free wt compound exercises
veggies
fruit
fish oil
solid protein
water
recovery

your training has too many machine and isolation exercises which only allow light wt which doesn't really do anything...the best way to burn fat is to burn muscle and that's best done with heavy wts

too much cardio will actually make you fatter as repetitve cardio is "energy efficient" meaning the more you do it, the easier it gets thus the less calories you burn doing it until the body barely recignises that it's doing anything at all...in that regard 45mins of cardio teice on some days is not gonna get the job done my dear...
- you need at elsast 1 full day off a week from anything...you can train hard but you can't hard all the time or for very long either
- you're building some muscle with some fat loss which is replacing overall wt which is why the scales haven't changed which is a good thing
- 30pds by july might be abit much...if you do actually reach it then you'll have also lost a lot of muscle which is the complete opposite of bidy building

[SarahPT]

Hi Redneckgirl! I'm excited to see your post. I have some experience with natural bodybuilding, so I'm glad you posted.

Congrats to you for having such a great goal.

I strongly suggest dropping supersets and dropping your reps and increasing your reps. It's very hard to build any muscle at a high rep range like 15 reps because you are not engaging a high percentage of muscle fibers, especially the fast twitch fibers, which you are most likely to see growth in. You should use weights that you cannot do more than 6-10 reps with. Also very important is that you increase the weight you are lifting as often as you can, while maintaining proper form.

Right now your focus should be more on building muscle. You'll be able to focus more on fat loss in the last weeks before you get onstage. To build muscle you need an excess of calories in your diet. This might mean increasing what you are eating now and decreasing your cardio a bit.

Also sticking to lots of the compound movements in your workout is good. Squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press, pull ups, bent over bb rows, with some isolation exercises at the end.

Any cardio you are doing right now should be low intensity. I've trained loads of female competitors (it's my favorite part of my job!!), some who have come from being quite overweight. Please drop me a line and let me know if I can help you more.

[redneckgrl]

[swanso5]

well it depends how much fat you have to lose...if you have a lot than focus on fat loss, if you have bugger all than focus on muscle building but if it's in between simply increasing muscle and eating clean food should drop some fat anyway