Effective gym routine. Help!

[VoldemortsNipple]

Every time I go to the gym I wander from one piece of equipment to another doing 5 minutes on one thing or 10 minutes on another. 50 reps of this 100 reps of that. But I really don't believe its doing me much good so I get fed up.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who does this but without committing to a personal trainer, which I cant afford, I don't know how to change it. Its a no frills type of gym so the staff are friendly and will show you the basics but that's about it.

I want to lose about 1 stone but more importantly improve my fitness. I'm really unfit and have never felt good at sports (think last to be chosen in team games at school) but I have got stamina if I'm pushed.

Please can somebody help me use the gym effectively.

Have you ever done the classes? I do spinning, body pump, body combat and pilates.

I haven't used a piece of gym equipment in years.

The classes don't really fit in with my day. Their either too early or too late. I have to use public transport so prefer to be able to go at a time that s and do my own thing.

Ok, well to lose weight I would ensure you do 30 mins cardio (running, cross trainer, bike etc) everytime getting your heart rate up around 150bpm. Although your diet is more important really for weight loss. For example I do 45mins on a spinning bike, dripping sweat and I only burn about 400 cal, not even a costa muffin!

For the weights side of things could you afford one session with a personal trainer who could show you what to do?

If you're not against lifting heavy weights, The New Rules of Lifting for Women is great. I did this combined with HIIT (High intensity interval training) in the run up to my wedding and although I didn't lose loads of weight on the scales, I looked awesome Best thing is it all takes less time than aimless gym-going as HIIT is only around 20mins and the weights routine took around 30 minutes or so. Will look for link for HIIT.

Here's a link about [[http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/interval-training-short-workouts-really-pay HIIT]

Oops here

Agree about a session with a PT to learn the techniques.

If you can do 50 reps, the weight you're using is too light - you need to make the exercises harder and do less. You should be exhausted by 15 at the most - so you need to be using heavier weights or doing more difficult core exercises. Three to five sets of each.

There are some monthly magazines which have gym routines in - Women's Fitness, Zest, Health & Beauty spring to mind. Even Men's Health or Men's Fitness would give you a good idea for programmes.

There are also books, some of which may be at your local library - Anita Bean's strength training book is a good one, but there are loads of others.

Speedos Thanks, I am planning on eating more healthy. I can spend 30 minutes on cardio equipment now, but usually ten minutes on each with cool ups/downs for each machine and going at an easy pace for some of it. Although my heart rate is above 150 for most of it.

Johnny I don't know if Im up to heavy weights training but I do want gain good core strength. I will have a good look at your link thanks and buy a fitness magazine too

Lordemsworth I think you've hit the nail on the head. More weight less reps. Ill try that tomorrow.

I would agree that 50+ reps are too many unless you are doing this at the end of a heavy lifting phase to specifically increase stamina.

I'm following a Navy Seal plan at the moment for building strength and am doing 5 sets of 12/8/8/6/6 reps with weights that I can just about finish each number of reps. This lasts for 8 weeks with increasing weight each week and will finish off with another 6 weeks of low weight and 2 sets of 30 reps.

You need not do this plan specifically but the great thing about strength training is that it helps focus on achieving an end goal and you get to see some decent progression.

I do this Mon/Wed/Fri and do cardio/core on Tues/Thurs.

You don't have to pay for a pt - any good gym will get the instructor to set you a programme at your induction if you tell them what you want to achieve.

I used to work in a gym many years ago.

If you want to achieve endurance, toning etc etc it is more reps, less resistance and if you want to achieve muscle like a body builder you do less reps, higher resistance.

So, just for general fitness, toning etc you should be doing say 3 reps of about 12, something like that. Doing 50 is madness unless it is ab crunches or something like that.

I do 3-4 gym sessions per week and 1-2 combat/pump session plus I also do pole fitness as well. I have to say, the gym has been brilliant for me and you certainly get good results if you have a decent programme.

Thanks everybody. I've been to the gym for the past 3 days and done the following.
10 mins rowing machine at an easy pace as a warm up.
30 mins slow running and walking. I'm doing about 3.2k with an aim to improve my running to a point where I can run 5k
3-4 weight machines with 3x15 reps on a heavier weight
This takes me about an hour and I do feel like I'm working harder.

Cool.

Just remember, when you can complete 15 reps then increase the weight and start again. You should be aiming to only be able to just squeeze out the last few reps.

If you feel like you're on a plateau then do some leg presses or squats before doing your 30 min run. Your legs won't thank you for it but it'll make it harder and (in theory) will burn more fat.