A tough weight loss question this week. Let’s dive straight in
I want to lose the extra fat, strengthen and tone my muscles (tummy, arms and legs) and hopefully get my hips to go back from being spread.
This is what I currently TRY to do everyday.
20 minutes of elliptical training
7-10 min stretching routine that targets the arms, legs, back and sides
40-45 min toning routine that targets the arms, legs and tummy using no more than 3 kg weights.
5-10 min of various crunch exercises on the ab lounge
Is it ok that I do all of this everyday or should I do something else? What could I do differently? How long before I start to see results? Losing inches? Seeing muscle tone?
*My legs were pretty sore yesterday after woking out Sunday but I did my routine yesterday anyways. They are still sore today. My tummy and arms feel just fine. I have also adjusted my diet and calorie intake to help shed the pounds.
Toning routine ok but you need to increase the resistance (weight) over time to force muscles to grow more. Remember the more underlying muscles you have the more calories you burn to maintain the muscles. Fat is also burned in muscle so makes sense to build your muscles up. They are not sore as you are too used to the 3kg weight. Don’t worry about increasing the weight upwards as you won’t grow like a man! You haven’t the testosterone levels to do so.
Crunches ok but also do some deep core muscle work such as the plank, side plank etc
You shouldn’t train any muscle which is sore as you are hampering the recovery of the muscle. This leads to overtraining, exchaustion etc and is the main reason why people do not stick to a routine. When using weights it is not advisable to train any muscle group more than once per week. So if you are doing squats or lunges for legs today, you wouldn’t do them again until 1 week from today. You need to split your routine up so that you are covering your whole body and not just your arms, legs and tummy. Do some work for your chest, shoulders, back etc as well. So on rest days from legs you would do one of these instead. Also take a rest day every 2 or 3 days to help you recuperate. Eat healthily as you are doing and you will see the benefits soon. Good luck
