Help with Gym Program

[lozza]

Hi everyone! I joined up here because I need a hand with a gym program.

I'm 23yo female 61kg and 165cm and have been going to the gym for about 6 months now without any results because I haven't been doing any weight training, mainly because I'm with Fitness First and they don't give you much help or any programs. I was with a gym about 2 years ago that gave me a program and I saw results quickly.

I do cardio and have been reading up on HIIT and plan to kick that into action this week. I want to lose 6-8kg and I want to tone up all over but definitely want to focus on my upper arms, chest and stomach. I want to do weights but don't know where to start, and since Fitness First don't do anything for free I have no one else to ask for any help.

Can anyone give me any advice, I have no idea what machine does what or what anything is called! Sorry for the cluelessness. Thanks!

 

[Shrek]

Hi,
Could you supply a bit more info?
What type of weight training, sets reps exercises.
Also what does your daily diet consist of?

Thanks.

P.S. Get out of Fitness First, the blood sucking rip-off merchants. $#@&%

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Where are you, lozza? Perhaps someone in your area could recommend a better gym, or even - sshh, Shrek! - a trainer.

And like Shrek says, tell us everything! What are your measurements, what you eat, what sort of schedule is your work, do you have other sports you want to be better at, have you ever had any injuries, all that.

The more information, the better. And then you can figure out some more specific goals.

For example I had "lose fat, gain muscle" but that is too vague, I had to make it something like "110cm chest, 80cm waist" and "12% bodyfat". So then starting with the 100cm chest and 97cm waist I could when I gained or lost a centimetre see where I was going.

 

[katie]

Hi Lozza

Welcome! We seem to be pretty similar. I'm 24 yo, 164cm, and 59kg. First of all can I encourage you not to think about losing weight. I once lost 4kg through doing lots of cardio and bodypump (I know, I know, for shame) and at 55kg I was definitely unhealthy

If you concentrate on losing weight you might lose muscle mass, which lowers your metabolism, which means it will be easier for you to gain fat. A vicious cycle!

Rather, how about you focus on how your clothes fit you? eg. losing belly fat will mean that your pants are too big for you, etc etc.

There are 3 main things to focus on if you want to "tone up" ie. gain muscle tone: in this order

1. diet
2. weights
3. cardio

Re: 3 - HIIT is a great start for cardio.

re: 1 and 2 - as shrek says, we need a bit more info before we can help

 

[Zarkov]

Are FF really that shitty?
Every gym I have ever been to give you a walk round and a run down on all the equipment and usually give you a program to start off.
Get out of there quick smart is the first thing to do.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

Many gyms have the issue that they're very keen to sign you up and get you to commit to 12 months, but that once they have that commitment in writing, they lose interest.

The bad gyms will do absolutely nothing for you from then on, the staff will give off "don't bother me, I'm having coffee" vibes, walk past without comment people with terrible form, and so on. If 90% of people didn't drop out in the first three months, these gyms wouldn't know what to do, the places would be very overcrowded.

The ordinary gyms will discuss your goals, write a workout for you, and walk you around making sure you know how to use the machines. They may measure your bodyfat and the like with the first session, and be available for reassessments every couple of months.

The good gyms will really listen when you mention your goals, and make sure you have a simple workout you can follow - no untrained person can possibly do 12 different new exercises properly, and have staff always available to advise and assist.

In practice, many of the large chain gyms have a lot of complaints about them, along the lines of the bad gyms above. The community centre and university gyms will tend to be the ordinary ones, and the small garage or studio gyms, or old-style boxing gyms owned by the same person for thirty years the good ones.

But really each place is individual. One very conscientious or sloppy manager can totally change the feel of a place. That's why decent gyms offer you 7 days free trial - and if you have more than one gym convenient to you, you should definitely shop around.

 

[lozza]

Wow thanks for the all the reply guys! I go to Fitness First because of convenience and and its fairly cheap since I have a Platinum membership so I can go to all of them which I need. I know they are ridiculous rip off merchants with no customer service whatsoever but it is my only option right now since I work in the Melbourne CBD but live about 40 mins away so I need to be able to go the gym when I'm working and on my days off so FF is the only way I can do that unfortunately.

I try not to think about how crap they are as then I just end up getting very frustrated!! I used to go to a gym in Fitzroy which was great and that is where I saw results as I got a gym program and the trainers there were really helpful. This was about 2 years ago now, but I really loved that gym and that's where I started loving weights! Unfortunately I moved workplaces so I couldn't go there anymore. FF made me pay for 3 pack PT session when I started (which they said they would reimburse but didn't) and that included my assessment and pretty just tried to sell me more PT sessions. Argh!!

Katie - I do want to lose some weight as this has been the most I've ever weighed. I usually weigh only 56-58kg so I've put on over the last couple of months just due to a bad diet and not much excercise due to being busy at work.

In the past week I have completely revamped my diet. On a daily basis this is what I eat. Please let me know if there are any changes that I can do to make it more effective.

Breakfast - Oatmeal, cup of black tea with honey and lemon

Lunch - Steamed carrots, broccoli and corn or Mixed Leaf Salad with some low fat Italian Dressing. Sometime I'll steam some fish with my lunch.

Snack - Almonds, some fruit

Dinner - Salmon sashimi or Chicken breast and Salad or Mixed Salad or Steamed Vegies or Steamed Fish.

Right now all I'm doing is cardio really, I did the Hiit for the first time the other day and absolutely loved it! Couldn't do if for very long though! SO unfit. At the moment I'm not doing any weights as I don't know what to use or how to use them. Should I buy another PT triple pack from FF so I can get the hang of the machines and weights again?

I do some Pump classes from time to time though. Is maybe there any other classes I should try out? My real problem areas are my upper arms and stomach.

Thanks in advance for all your replies guys I really appreciate

 

[PTC]

That diet is ideal if your looking to lose muscle, lower your basic metabilic rate, and progressively get fatter as you age.

The absolute best way to lose fat is to raise your BMR. This is done by adding muscle to your frame. You will then burn more calories while standing around.

You do this by lifting heavy enough weights that give your muscles a reason to change, you then feed your muscles protein every 3 hours to ensure you have a positive nitrogen balance.

The gym is for getting strong, the dinner table for losing fat.

Far too many place too high a caloric cost on exercise. The absolute hardest session you can do, one that will leave you sick, will burn maybe 500 calories in an hour.

One kilo of fat is 9000 calories.

The average calories burnt by a FF client would be under 200 calories per hour, because electronic cardio equipment and machine weights have a much lowr caloric cost than heavy free weights.

Heres a program that works for all my female clients at my gym in Frankston.

Squats 3 x 10
Military press 3 x 5
Deadlifts 3 x 5
Bench press 3 x 5
Power cleans 3 x 3

They then finish off with a kettlebell complex for the last 15 minutes. You cant do this at FF unfortunately.

Brittany has lost 10kg whilst deadlifting 135kg. I have over 12 girls that can now deadlift over 100kg. Around 6 of those also squat 75kg and 10 bench 50kg or more.

They are all their to lose fat and shape up. These are the goals of every female client I have.

I hope this helps.

 

[lozza]

Hey PTC thanks heaps for your reply. Pretty awesome what your female clients can do, something to strive for. With your comments regarding my diet what about it is bad? What do I need to do to change it? I dont want to get fatter as I get older and lower my metabolism! Eek! I wish I could go to a proper gym. Fitness first so crap! Thy frustrate the hell out of me!

 

[PTC]

Lets say you have dinner at 6.00pm. Within 4 hours, you are in a negative nitrogen state, your body is catabolic. Two hundred and fifty grams of cottage cheese would put you in a posive nitrogen state for another 4-5 hours, due to the casein. Eggs or a protein shake upon waking would put you positive again. A tuna salad 3-4 hours later etc

Instead, you are in a negative nitrogen balance for 20 hours a day if you dont eat fish for lunch, almonds aside.

You need protein every 3-4 hours.

Chicken, eggs, steak, protein drinks, canned tuna, fish etc, every 3-4 hours.

Negative nitrogen balance = catabolic
Positive nitrogen balance = anabolic

Hope this helps

 

[katie]

Lozza

If FF works for you, then fair enough. I looked into joining them too because no other gym is as convenient as them. (Didn't in the end because they were just too money-hungry for me)

Is it possible for you to eat more frequently during the day? I work in an office so luckily I can do this. My typical eating times are 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm. It seems like a lot but I'm eating small-moderate portions each time (with the exception of breakfast which is generally big, and my post-workout meal as I feel I've earned it!) And once you start this, your metabolism should go up quite a bit. I'm eating a lot more than I used to and keeping a stable weight.

Bear in mind that a meal is not pizza, KFC, whatever. I don't know what your current diet is like but each meal should have a decent serve (aim for 30 g) of protein in each meal, some veges, and some carbs. If you want to burn fat, try not to eat carbs after 4pm.

For classes - try Attack or Combat. However I firmly believe any classes should be limited to twice a week at most. They're great for stress release and cardio, however you need to be in the weights room building up those muscles so that you can look toned. And classes like Pump ultimately take away from that time in the real weights section of the gym (due to recovery time from DOMS etc)

Consistency is the key!

Good luck. Keep posting please, we want to hear how you go.

 

[Shrek]

It's refreshing to see a post like this from a female.
Lozza, you will do well if you follow katies eating / training structure

 

[katie]

Thanks Shrek I've seen the light and I do credit ausbb forums with helping me along.

I used to be a cardio gym bunny - I joined a gym just so I could use the treadmill (I can hear Markos saying "is the road outside your house broken?") and go to bodyPump classes. I also cut my calories drastically so that I could look "skinny". After a while people asked me if I was ill.

Basically I hang out on a women's forum (mainly in the fitness section) and the kind of stuff you see there is shocking. Pilates is very "in", people swear by it for toning up, as are 100 crunches, pink dumbbells, that sort of thing. So I'd like to think that I can understand where a new girl is coming from.

Lozza - maybe you could sign up to another Triple Pack from FF and get them to take you through some basic exercises. Give them a list of exercises otherwise they'll just do bicep curls and tricep kickbacks with you. Off the top of head, I'm thinking things like
- squats
- overhead press
- deadlifts
- bench press

Alternatively there are HEAPS of videos of exercises on youtube or ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Net if you google for them.

 

[breebreerocks]

The PT Triple packs have changed at FF. I did mine 5 years ago and got the PT pitch. now they have to give you a series of booklets with recommended workout, diet, etc.

I love my FF, but have trained at others that I hated and made me understand why so many people can't stand FF. But mine has a bucket load of weights, plenty of helpful staff and a lifting platform coming soon. There were kettle bells, but insurance issues mean they are now chained up only to be used under supervision.

Listen to PTC about diet. I strayed from my weight lifting path and started eating a diet like yours and doing a massive amount of exercise. The result was weight gain, extreme tiredness and loss of strength and muscle tone.

With Katie on limiting classes. I am allowed one Spin class per week. During my crazy cardio stage would sometimes do two a day, then some weights for good measure. Combine this with a very low calorie diet, and you'll end up frustrated that you aren't getting any results.

And remember that HIIT shouldn't be done for an extended period. 20-30 mins should absolutely kill you!

 

[katie]

And remember that HIIT shouldn't be done for an extended period. 20-30 mins should absolutely kill you!

Absolutely! Although I reckon if you can do HIIT for 30 mins, you could've put more intensity into it. 20 mins is my max.

I did HIIT sprints the other day. 1 min sprinting, 1 min walking. I struggled with maintaining the "high intensity" for the required minute, so maybe 30 seconds of sprinting would be better for next time.

A beginner could do 30 second sprint, 1.5 min walk;
next time I try them I'll do 30 second sprint, 1 min walk.