Help needed!!

[blugurl]

Hi everyone,

I had seriously started working out last November and have seen results overtime (such as loss of weight, fat, gaining light muscle definition - toning - in areas such as arms, legs, abs).

My weight went from 165lbs to a current 148lbs, and has now reached a plateau as it's not going lower. I am maintaining my workout schedule of the following routing splitting it 30min cardi/30min weights:

Day 1 - chest, triceps,abs
Day 2 - back, shoulders, biceps, abs
Day 3 - quads, hams, calves, abs

Measurements are the following:

Height 5' 6"
Weight: 148lbs
Chest 39"
Navel 35"
Butt 41"

My goal is to reach 130lbs. I'm consuming around 2000 cals a day 60g of protein and 2 ECA's before work out.

What advise could you give me to reach my goal?

[Laurie2]

You may want to change some of the exercises....try doing some with dbls instead of bbs. Change the type of exercise that targets the areas in your workout but in a different way. If your reps have staying in the 10 to 12 range per set, then you need to up the weight.

You may want to switch to weights first and then cardio and might want to increase the time with weights?

I started back in September in a Women's Strenght program at a local college. Used the instructor's printout religiously until Februrary and hit a plateau. The instructor was a former bodybuilder and stayed with this same printout for years. But, unlike the other women who stayed with the 5 to 10 weights, I forged ahead to see how far I could go. I liked the results I was getting. Nor was I afraid to increase the resistance as needed.

The class used the Universal machine instead of the Olympic bbs for chest and shoulder work available in the gym. Got to the point I could not get very far with the machine...kept compensating for my weaker left arm with the right. Might be fine for beginners but found it awkward as lying on the bench, the bars forced my arms past the rotor cuff to push them up. Over the holidays, my husband bought me a used Olympic bench and weights. So went into bench pressing...found them much better and lifted more weight. With an adjustable bench, I was able to do incline presses and a host of other exercises. The bbs actually inproved my left arm strength/balance. The DBLs even more. I went from pressing 60lbs on the Universal machine to pressing 135 with the Olympic bbs. Doing flyes with 30 dbls and incline with 95lb bb.

The class was three days aweek, Mon, Tues, Thurs....for 60 minutes. At home, on Saturdays and during the school breaks.

What I could not do in that class, I did at home as some equipment is sadly lacking. The Dbls only go up to 25lbs (They do have a set of 35s and a single 40) Only one press bench has adjustable crutches (the other is stationary) The incline bench is fixed and was made for someone over 6 foot (donated) so unable to do bb incline presses. So I use dbls when there. My home bench is adjustable and with adjustable crutches. But the class does have a couple of squat cages, leg press and a hex bar for deadlift/shoulder shrugs. The Universal machines have cable setups that I do not have at home.....yet.

So I do try to change my routine after a few weeks....depending on the exercise. No more plateaus.

By the way, I am also 5' 6". (51) I went from 240 in September to 205 now. I am large boned, broad shouldered and slimmed hipped. Carry my fat more like a man (back, shoulders and stomach). Live a rural lifestyle most of my life and tend to build muscle well. So learned to change my diet abit, took the class and go by wardrobe. Lost 4 pants sizes.

My goal is to get to 175. That was what I was when I met my husband and used to ride a 10 speed all over San Diego as my only exercise, 30 years ago.

[glorianfitness]

Originally posted by blugurl
Hi everyone,

I had seriously started working out last November and have seen results overtime (such as loss of weight, fat, gaining light muscle definition - toning - in areas such as arms, legs, abs).

My weight went from 165lbs to a current 148lbs, and has now reached a plateau as it's not going lower. I am maintaining my workout schedule of the following routing splitting it 30min cardi/30min weights:

Day 1 - chest, triceps,abs
Day 2 - back, shoulders, biceps, abs
Day 3 - quads, hams, calves, abs

Measurements are the following:

Height 5' 6"
Weight: 148lbs
Chest 39"
Navel 35"
Butt 41"

My goal is to reach 130lbs. I'm consuming around 2000 cals a day 60g of protein and 2 ECA's before work out.

What advise could you give me to reach my goal?

I would suggest messing around with your calories. Try cutting your calories and upping your cardio. I would also suggest you eat more protein. I eat around 106-130 g. of protein a day. They usually recomment .8 g. of protein per pound of bodyweight. How many times a week are you doing cardio? I know that HIIT is what you need to start doing whenever you come to a plateau because after 6 weeks of regular cardio your body gets used to it and you need to shock your body by doing something different. I think you would definitly see some results doing HIIT. Also doing cardio in the morning would help you shed the pounds quicker too because it boosts your metabolism and keeps it up all day and whenever you get home in the evening do 20-30 minutes more cardio and you should see some definite results doing that.

Gloria

[SlickRick]

I agree with GloriaFitness (it's nice to see a very knowledgable poster around this area, RARE). Drop the calories and up activity but moreso that will partion more fat loss/muscle gain such as HIIT.