[ladytiger]

Hello, never used this forum before. I have prior experience in the gym stopped going when I graduated college in 2010 and wished I should've continued. Last December 2014, I started doing walking and changing my diet. I signed back up to a gym this past March been doing a multitude of exercises created by my fitness instructor as well as me implementing workouts from youtube videos.

I was at 228 dropped to 198, back up to 201. My weight has been going up and down as when I started out working out 3x a week and now been going almost everyday because I have been incorporating new moves into my workout and can't do those new moves at home because there's absolutely no room and a very small apartment with someone else. I even got back into dancing which I did two years of it in high school the dancing is zumba which I love so I do them on a weekly basis. That is going to start changing considering I got a full time job offer and will have to work around my new schedule once I am done with training haven't left my current job yet.

I have been taking a number of different group exercise courses like I said zumba, total body using weights and steps, body sculpting weights steps and cardio, tai chi, started a punch n crunch a bit of kickboxing, cables, cardio, etc, treadmills, ellipticals, and gonna try to add in some new classes. The classes are awesome just a bit much for a person like me with asthma hard to do one jump and already gasping for air. I am always the person who has to rest longer than those who have good lungs. I gotta do what my lungs will allow me to do. I have noticed my breathing has improved certainly not the asthma.

Newer exercises I incorporated is thighs, more abs, and glutes haven't added calves, back (trying to get rid of the fat), or forearms yet. I use an app to weigh myself, log it in, and it gets graphed so I can keep track of my progress I see it goes up and down. I know you get tired after working, but I have been exhausted with these new moves. After gym, I am still catching my breath. I do not take an inhaler my body has been pumped with steroids since age 3 and have no desire for an inhaler anymore - I just drink water adds more oxygen for me. Yes, I always hydrate myself.

My diet: needs to be better but hard on this current part time salary. I used to make my own salads that was getting too costly, so I would buy premade salads at TJ or Sprouts. I do not cook 90% of the cooking ware have no idea what they do or how to use them, but cooking will come later for me. Hopefully, once I actually start the new job I'll see how much I'll be willing to spend on healthy meals. For breakfast, I have gone without or I would eat yogurt and fruit or an energy bar. I do not eat cereal anymore and don't plan on eating it again. I was eating some salads like I said that was getting costly for me to make.

Everything just aches on my body some of the moves I have to modify go back on youtube to find something else. I do use a yoga mat and lay on it to do my exercises even then that still bothers my hips on certain moves. I do not have hip problems at all. I wonder if it is my weight that makes it much harder to do the original exercise before even modifying it? I am wondering for those who have asthma, how did you make your exercise regimen work? I don't do running afraid of that it's embarrassing when I run I am again the slowest runner on the block gasping for air! My doctor said I should've "outgrown asthma," well as an adult, sorry doc still have the issue!

Also, it'll be a year since I started back to getting in shape. I should be under at least 190lbs and dropping but why am I still sitting on the low 200s? Hmm, the foods I get in the stores don't really have much nutrition hence is why I used to go to the organic stores that was when I was really losing weight that was 5 yrs ago. I just feel I am not getting enough nutrition; I don't count calories I know my pants have been saggin' I know I must be doing something weight.

It's like in the mirror I look kinda slim, but not really I still have that bulging tummy and saggy triceps which I use now 6lb dumbbells I could use 8lbs but right now that's a teeny bit heavy for me. I think I am getting ready to start upping the weights for biceps and triceps on a cable pulley machine I use which I can do 40lbs need to test if I can do 50lbs. My biceps have some definition...I'm sorry I am kinda feeling discourage. I hate looking at myself in the mirror nude can't stand what I see not sexy nor healthy. I don't do weights daily I did overwork my right side of my back this past summer so I gotta be careful what back exercises I do.

With my new exercises, I do 30 seconds and some 30 seconds on each leg and try to do them daily no weights. Yes, I do quite a bit in the gym far longer than I need to be. I am usually in there for 1.5 to 2 hrs and it's been 3 hrs, damn near exhausted, which makes me sleep even longer than normal. I have even gotten a little bit light headed for some odd reason even though I hydrate myself to death. I do try to mix up the exercises depending if I got time to squeeze in on a particular day.

I thoroughly enjoy my training, like I said feeling kinda discourage about my weight. Wondering if my metabolism isn't speeding up to really fuel and burn the fat? I have no intentions of giving up at all.

Just kinda venting, if anyone has any suggestions feel free to comment.

[Skeezyks]

Hello ladytiger: Well... Unfortunately I have nothing to offer you with regard to any of this. I'm just a skinny old man! My only exercise is walking my dog. We take a couple of fairly long walks twice a day, regardless of the weather... sunshine, rain, heat, snow, ice, wind... it doesn't matter... we're out there. I've had serious back problems in years past. I have a ruptured disc in my low back & sciatica. I've had physical therapy & done yoga. But I've found that walking has been the best for me.

As far as eating goes, I don't do anything special. I eat moderate portions at mealtime & I don't snack. I also avoid salt as much as possible; & whenever I happen to eat something salty, I can pretty-much expect to have gained a couple of pounds the next day.

My best wishes to you...

[goku23]

@ladytiger

for biceps and triceps (especially triceps) conditioning them comes from time under tension and intensity.
when you do a set, try to make sure that you get close to complete muscle failure where you can't physically do another rep (ideally in the 15-20 rep range for your goals)

slow and controlled negatives with a relatively explosive positive.
a great tool is to use supersets
i.e. (this is 1 working set)
tricep pushdowns - 15 reps to failure
moving straight away to overhead tricep extensions - 15 reps to failure

so you're combining two exercises into one and really tapping into those muscle fibres and stimulating the muscle more.
this will cause the muscle to be more conditioned and even though you can't spot reduce fat, this anecdotally helps with it!
the more you stimulation and activity the muscle gets, the better that conditioning gets and the surrounding fat will begin to atrophy (if your diet is right)

also, frequency is a great tool for smaller muscle groups. because they can't handle as much weight as bigger muscle groups (like back and legs) they recover quicker because the central nervous system is less taxed.
so you can definitely train them 3 times a week if you get the volume right.

more frequency means more injury responses created and more stimulation for that week.
training them once or twice a week, chances are they'd have been recovered for another workout which you may have missed out on.

for abs, every day or every other day!
they are a core muscle group, stabilizer muscles which are used indirectly daily so they can take a lot of punishment!

training them like this will definitely condition them extremely well - combining an exercise with more emphasis on contraction (crunches) with one that places more emphasis on the stretch part of the movement (hanging leg raises)

diet is a key part too.

let me know if there's anything else I can help with, I'm not good at many things but one thing I am confident in is bodybuilding and physique! (it's my passion!)

best of luck.

[ladytiger]

Originally Posted by goku23

@ladytiger

for biceps and triceps (especially triceps) conditioning them comes from time under tension and intensity.
when you do a set, try to make sure that you get close to complete muscle failure where you can't physically do another rep (ideally in the 15-20 rep range for your goals)

slow and controlled negatives with a relatively explosive positive.
a great tool is to use supersets
i.e. (this is 1 working set)
tricep pushdowns - 15 reps to failure
moving straight away to overhead tricep extensions - 15 reps to failure

so you're combining two exercises into one and really tapping into those muscle fibres and stimulating the muscle more.
this will cause the muscle to be more conditioned and even though you can't spot reduce fat, this anecdotally helps with it!
the more you stimulation and activity the muscle gets, the better that conditioning gets and the surrounding fat will begin to atrophy (if your diet is right)

also, frequency is a great tool for smaller muscle groups. because they can't handle as much weight as bigger muscle groups (like back and legs) they recover quicker because the central nervous system is less taxed.
so you can definitely train them 3 times a week if you get the volume right.

more frequency means more injury responses created and more stimulation for that week.
training them once or twice a week, chances are they'd have been recovered for another workout which you may have missed out on.

for abs, every day or every other day!
they are a core muscle group, stabilizer muscles which are used indirectly daily so they can take a lot of punishment!

training them like this will definitely condition them extremely well - combining an exercise with more emphasis on contraction (crunches) with one that places more emphasis on the stretch part of the movement (hanging leg raises)

diet is a key part too.

let me know if there's anything else I can help with, I'm not good at many things but one thing I am confident in is bodybuilding and physique! (it's my passion!)

best of luck.

I didn't know I got a response. Yea, been doing abs every day or every other day when my body is well rested enough. Let's see I do have some definition of my biceps can do 50lbs on biceps and triceps using a cable pulley machine. For triceps, I use 6lb dumbbells working on that until I move up and been doing different tricep combs also doing tricep dips still saggy.

I was doing 3x a week then was going daily mostly doing cardio on days where I wasn't gonna do strength training also I had my rest days. I was adding new glute and thigh exercises so now my body is getting used to it. I also do half cobra pushups and learned how to do a squat shoulder press.

My sets are 1 set of 15 after using a cable pulley machine on 50lbs for both triceps and biceps and some of my other weight training are 2 sets of 15 advised by my fitness instructor. I have slowly increased on most of them and two back and chest machines still working on the same weights.