workouts for my mom

[slyng]

My mom asked me to give her a workout and diet plan today, which was both surprising and satisfying - I guess she's finally starting to warm up to my fairly recently acquired obsession/hobby.

Her stats:
Age - 57
Height - 5'4
Weight - 110lbs
She has always been "skinny" but over the past year has developed a bit of a belly that she tells me she wants to lose. I think she could really benefit from some resistance training.

She has never lifted weights before, but has been walking for 30 minutes on a treadmill every weekday for the past year or so. She would like to keep doing this. She also recently started doing a bit of pilates/swiss ball stuff that she has read about mostly in magazines.

This is what I suggested to her; any ideas/comments would be appreciated, because I am very new to all this too and my knowledge is still pretty limited to what I've been doing for my own goals, which for workouts really looks nothing like this.

For food, I basically gave her my own diet, so 160g carbs/160g protein/40g fat, 6 meals in a day spaced about 3 hours apart, and I gave her a list of good food choices and tips on when to eat what. I doubt she'll end up eating this much, but I think that for her, eating more frequently, more protein, and better choices are doable and will make a noticeable difference.

As for the workouts, she is very inflexible, and I had her try a few things while I was visiting and realized that she has to start out realllly slowly. She'll be doing this from home too, which is very limiting as it'll be pink dumbbell style, but it is a start and better than nothing! I'm hoping if she can stick to this for a few weeks she might get the urge to go to the gym so she can keep progressing. I tried picking some exercises she has already tried on her own, so as not to overwhelm her.

Monday:
3 sets of 15 reps of (30 secs rest):
DB Lunges
DB Lateral Raises
DB Bicep Curls
Ab work - crunches, bicycle

Wednesday:
4 sets of 10 reps of (45 secs rest):
Swiss Ball squats
DB Tricep kickbacks
DB Seated rear lateral raises
Ab work - swiss ball transfer, reverse swiss ball crunch

Friday:
5 sets of 5 reps of (60 secs rest):
DB squats
Swiss ball DB press
DB bent over rows
Weighted ab work

[terracotta]

ok.. first of all congratulations on sparking your mom's interest! Secondly, I think the carbs could be a bit higher (she is smaller, and really doesn't need that much protein) - maybe 50c/30p/20f. Also for calories, use a calorie calculator to individualize them.

As far as weights, I suggest getting her a 20# adjustable dumbbell set, and an antiburst swiss ball. That will be enough for the first couple of months.. and then if she wants to progress further, more can be added, or she can consider a gym.

Since she is just starting, I would not go with splits at all.. I suggest a full body or upper/lower routine. 12-15 reps is a good start range. Keep it mostly compound exercises.

There is a good db only routine here: http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displa...le.php?aid=144

[Mango]

Originally Posted by terracotta

ok.. first of all congratulations on sparking your mom's interest! Secondly, I think the carbs could be a bit higher (she is smaller, and really doesn't need that much protein) - maybe 50c/30p/20f. Also for calories, use a calorie calculator to individualize them.

As far as weights, I suggest getting her a 20# adjustable dumbbell set, and an antiburst swiss ball. That will be enough for the first couple of months.. and then if she wants to progress further, more can be added, or she can consider a gym.

Since she is just starting, I would not go with splits at all.. I suggest a full body or upper/lower routine. 12-15 reps is a good start range. Keep it mostly compound exercises.

There is a good db only routine here: http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displa...le.php?aid=144

Fricken good advice!!