lifting to lose weight!

[xahliftinracerx]

My mom asked me to be her "personal trainer" so she could lose weight. I got her started just walking a mile in the morning and a mile at night. I also have her eating right now and she has lost 15 lbs.

Can someone give me a good weight training program to help her get toned now? thanks for the help.

[justagirrl]

Please give her age, height, weight and maybe a sample of her current diet and someone will surely be able to give you some ideas.

[xahliftinracerx]

Does it really matter? All I'm asking is what is a good training program to lose weight.

Just like how many sets/reps of each exercise?

what exercises would be good?

What would be a good like 3-4 days split?

[wlfeyes]

she was asking you that becuz it helps out when giving advice. It's not just about exercise as I'm learning myself, it also comes down to what we eat and drink. If we get enough sleep. It's a balance. Does you mom have any medical concerns that may prevent from from doing certain exercises unless she consults with her doctor first. Which she should to begin with anyways.

Myself I have a knee problem, I also know where my limitations are with my knee. I've been to my doctor and my doctor wants to me exercise and workout. So I'm doing so. Anyways, I hope someone here can help you .. and congratz to your mom for a 12lb loss.

[xahliftinracerx]

She doesn't have any health problems, she can do pretty much anything except run.

[TigerAngelLeigh]

'Toned' is a bit of a dodgy word around here! Most people misunderstand how to achieve a 'toned' look because they think 'toning' is doing a few resistance exercises and magically turning your fat into muscle - as represented in a lot of women's magazines. To achieve a 'toned' look, your mother needs to lose bodyfat and gain muscle - this happens simultaneously, as they are two completely different tissues. You were asked for more info on your mother because it's hard to assess what work needs to be done without knowing the basics: if she has a low body fat percentage, for example, she doesn't need to do cardio for fat-loss purposes and can concentrate on building muscle; if she has a higher percentage, she will need to do cardio (and take care fo her diet), as well as doing resistance work (ie. weightlifting) to achieve a 'toned' look.

There is no one-size-fits all programme that anyone can suggest - you're better off reading the articles and featured workout plans on the main site and tailoring them to suit your mother's needs. What works for some people may not work for others. The important thing to remember is to build up gradually, but change the routine often (using different weights, different exercises, etc.) so that her body will stay challenged, but avoid injury through over-exertion. The basics are best to concentrate on (squats, lunges, bicep curls, etc.), using variations of these to present more of a challenge when she gets used to them. Different people also have different opinins on how to structure their workouts: some do a few full-body workouts a week, some work arms on one day then legs on another, etc. and others prefer to work different muscles of the same bodypart on different days (example: biceps in one workout, triceps in another).

What your mother chooses will depend on a lot of factors: how her body responds and lifestyle being major aspects. Example: if she works in a job where she uses her arms a lot, she may choose to workout all her arm and shoulder muscles in one workout on a day when she doesn't have work the next day. Even the number of reps to do is a subject of debate: some people say it is useless to lift light and do lots of reps, others swear by it; some personal trainers say you must work the muscles to failure to get results, others say 2-3 sets of 10reps is enough. A lot of bodybuilding is about trial and error: a routine and diet that gives excellent results for one person may not make much impact on another person. Again, read up the stuff on the site and talk through some ideas with your mother.

[pinkfairy]

Great post TigerAngel!

Congrats to your mum on her weight loss so far, and hopefully we'll be able to help further

[Laurie]

I can only give you my experience in using lifting to lose weight. It worked for me....and more.

Three years ago, I began strength lifting classes for women at a local college to do just that.....lose weight. To get my flexibility and to build some muscle as well.

I was 50, 245 at 5'6"/larged boned and had been wearing size 48 jeans for over 15 years. Been 245 and higher through 30 of my 33 years of marriage with the higher part when having/raising my two children. I went through menopause in my early 40s and dropped back to 245.

In the first six months, I lost 60lbs. By the end of the first year I went down to 187 after changing my diet and going through some plateaus. The succeeding two years was working out at home and now I am 168lbs. Have my flexibility back, my health, lost some fat and built some muscle.

I wear size 34 jeans now. But the last time I wore those was before I was married. Never was "skinny" though even as a teen but kept fit by riding a 10spd all over San Diego at the time. This when Twiggy, Cher and willowy Hippie girls were the models. I was more the old fashion "farm stock" build.

As for diet....this is most of losing fat. Basically, it is upping the protein intake, lower any refined carbs/sugars and eat in moderation. Have 5-6 small meals a day instead of three big ones to help keep the metabolism up. When I started out, I barely ate as it was and only when I was hungry. Then ate the wrong things when I did. The combination put my body into "starvation mode". When I first started lifting, I was letting my stored fat burn as energy while lifting but you can only go so far with that. Later that first semester, I found this site and learned ALOT about the Female Myths of dieting and lifting. I was determined to make both lifting and proper diet a lifestyle to stay with. Why I gave myself four full semesters of classes while relearning to eat. This way it "stuck" for good and it had.

For myself, I was just plain sick and tired being...."sick and tired". Low energy, inflexible, back and shoulders hurting from some osteo and out of sorts in general. At 50, I looked around at all the older hobbling, injury ridden, overweight snowbirds in my local town ...and quite afew women my age.....to realize I was headed the same direction. Uh uh....no way

This was my basic class 3 day split workout routine for a hour to 90 minutes with a mixture of freeweights and machines. We were all started out with low weights (i.e. 5lb dbls for curls/10lb dbs for bentover rows) This to introduce us to lifting, to learn proper form and to prevent injury. We made sure to stretch before starting:

These were done with 4 sets of 12 reps, for the most part.

Workout I
-------------
Chest Press (machine...later I switched over to Bench)
flies
Pec Dec
Curls
Tricep Pushdowns
Overhead Extensions

Workout II
----------------
Leg Press
Leg Curls
Leg extensions
Lunges
Calf Presses

Later I switched over to doing Squats.

Workout III
----------------
Pull downs to chest
Bent over Dumbbell rows
Upright Rows
Shoulder Press
Laterals

Every workout
-----------------------
Crunches
Reverse Crunches
----------------------------------------------------------------

However, as I found out....those lower weights were too light for me and, eventually, worked out with 10 pounds for curls/flies and 20 pounds for the bentover DBL rows. Living a rural lifestyle and raising animals, I was stronger than the others who led more sedantary lives. So depending on how active your mother is normally, she just maybe stronger than first thought too. I found I liked lifting and the new feeling of self confidence and self esteem it gave. Just took the class premise and ran with it.

Eventually, by the second semester, I went to benching with the Olympic barebell and dbls. Dropped the leg press and went to performing parallel squats instead.

But "Losing fat" is only one reason for doing this as there are others to consider too for your mother. During that year's succeeding semesters, there were some women taking this for after gastric bypass surgery therapy to help them drop the fat and gain more strength. A drastic step that even I had thought about at one time years before when I was over 260 for a while. They told me if I could drop the fat and improve my health this way.....it was best. They took this step after seriously trying all other avenues but could not get the weight down.

I knew one 72 year old woman who had serious osteoarthritis in her shoulders and knees who took the class to help with joint bloodflow and improve her flexibility. Lifting moderately heavy weights is a good way to build bone mass before and after menopause to keep osteoporosis at bay. There was another who was Type 2 diabetic taking this to help control it by dropping the weight/improve health. I do have some lower back arthritis and my back muscles were not the best. I could not do reverse ab crunches because of this. However by working the other exercises, my lower back muscles were strengthened considerably. So there are many factors why combining both lifting and cardio is the best way to go.....That you helped her lose 15lbs walking alone is a good start. Now add lifting to help burn that fat better.

However, I did not do any cardio. Lost my weight through lifting and diet alone

There is no such thing as "spot reducing" and we all have our trouble spots. With me, I carry my fat in my back, shoulders, stomach and do not have large thighs/hips. Just not built that way. Where you deposited the fat first, this is usually the last to go. Why she may see more changes in her face and arms first. It depends.

Lastly, be sure she realizes to give herself time and patience when starting out. However long it has been being overweight, it will take awhile to get it off. At least four months to really see the changes. She should put away the scale for the first few weeks, as this can be misleading, confusing and disheartening at first. Better her wardrobe as an indicator of progress. For various reasons, the scale might not show much change at first. But finding your pants are getting looser as the inches go is far more encouraging. This as your body goes through some subtle adjustments while getting used to the routine. Also while exercising diet, the body is shifting the fat too.

But then this all depends on her intensity and exercise....not to mention tweaking the diet when needing to when hitting a plateau.

By the way, I chose the lifting class, at first, because it was this or taking a low impact aerobics class and didnt think my knees could take that. Never regretted it since.

One last thing, there is a difference between fat weight and muscle weight....the scale does not take this into account. Some of my present "scale" weight is due to muscle built up. Muscle is denser for it's size than fat. At 53, I dont mind.

I have my health back and lost some fat to boot.

[xahliftinracerx]

Awesome post and great story!!! Thanks alot for the help.

[Jason_87]

day 1

chest
tri's
traps
abs

day 2

back
bi's
delts

day 3

legs
abs

day 4

rest

day 5

rest

---repeat---
30 minutes incline cardio after each workout
go early in the morning

dont go too heavy, u want 3-4 sets with 10-12 reps for each exercise
dont work abs everyday, just like all the other muscles they need time to recover

get some low priced thermogenic fat burner and take the reccomended dosage before each workout
drink a protein shake after each workout