Hi All,
I'm starting out on some weight training and wanted to ask some advice on how best to group exercises for best effect. I am not interested in bulking up too much (i'm fairly heavy-set already) and am just wanting to tone and tighten. To this end I am going to try out 4-days a week, essentially splitting a routine over two days twice a week - Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday, with Cardio or swimming thrown in a few times a week. however, which weight exercises to group together is becoming a bit confusing.
As I see it, I have the option of doing large muscle groups with similar arm exercises to compound the workout (i.e. do seated row on the same day as bicep curls), or I can do alternative muscle groups on the same day to get a better overall workout more often (i.e. doing Lat pull-downs on the same day as tricep pushdowns). Which would people recommend for toning up and just putting a bit of size on? Which would gain more effect in overall metabolism increase for weight loss as well??
Lastly, in terms of losing weight and toning/tightening up, it is commonly taught that you do lots of reps with lighter weights to lose weight, but surely building up a bit of muscle with heavier weight sets boosts overall metabolism?? Again, what would people recommend. Just after some opinion on this to help decipher all the literature out there which often seems to contradict itself.
Cheers
Advice on exercise groupings from those in the know.
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
Re: Advice on exercise groupings from those in the know.
1lb of added muscle burns an extra 45-50 calories a day.
Low weight, high reps is a rubbish method. Many women do it and frankly their wasting their time, as the end effects are next to useless in the long-term and the same would apply to men including you obviously.
At the very least aim for a high weight low reps system and doing around 8-10 reps a set would be fine.
As for the 4 day split you have two options.
1. Do an upper body / lower body split, obviously doing both routines twice a week.
2. Do a big muscle / small muscle split, doing the small muscle one after the big muscle one both times, as you need small muscles to synergise and stabilise big muscle movements, so fatiguing them the day before a big muscle split, might impair your performance in some way, the next day
Low weight, high reps is a rubbish method. Many women do it and frankly their wasting their time, as the end effects are next to useless in the long-term and the same would apply to men including you obviously.
At the very least aim for a high weight low reps system and doing around 8-10 reps a set would be fine.
As for the 4 day split you have two options.
1. Do an upper body / lower body split, obviously doing both routines twice a week.
2. Do a big muscle / small muscle split, doing the small muscle one after the big muscle one both times, as you need small muscles to synergise and stabilise big muscle movements, so fatiguing them the day before a big muscle split, might impair your performance in some way, the next day
Re: Advice on exercise groupings from those in the know.
Thanks, it makes sense to me at least that you work all the same muscle groups at the same time, as you say do a small muscle group related to the large muscle group which is what I had in mind by doing Biceps after Lat pull-downs for example. And yes, building lean muscle to boost metabolism sounds fair, just needed to check and you have verified understanding, much appreciated.