Well, I suppose it's time to start a gym log!

Warning!!! This post is under construction!!!

(To get to my routine, scroll down - it's in blue).

First, a bit of background about me!

I'm female, 25 yrs old, 5'8" and currently 153 pounds. I want to get down to 140 lbs, but I think when I get there I'll want to reevaluate. I feel like I have more than 13 pounds of fat to lose. Most of my fat is carried in my midsection - around my stomach and back (I HATE my back fat!) The bone structure of my hips is reasonably wide, but I dont carry as much fat there.

Goals:
First, my "vanity goal": I want to feel comfortable in a bikini. I've never in my life worn one before and I'd love it if I could wear one proudly.

Real goals and Health goals:

I want to get stronger. I never want my physical limitations to effect everyday life. For example - hubby and I bought a 51" TV last week (oh, how I love it!). We had to call his brother to help bring it home because it was at least a 2 person job. I'm not strong enough to make it just a me and hubby job. I dont want that to happen again.

I want to have healthy pregnancies (whenever it is I have kids!). I dont want to be bedridden and I want to be able to be as active as possible for as close to the due date as possible. I want my children to be as healthy as possible.

I dont want to be a as weak as my grandmother is at her age (82). I want to be active when I'm older.

I'm sure I have other goals, but these are the ones most related to my fitness goals.

This is my current workout routine. I started free weights 4 weeks ago and came to this routine about 3 weeks ago. I'm still increasing weights on some of the exercises as my body is adjusting.

I do these exercises in this order.

Day 1: chest, shoulders, tris, 20 min cardio

flat bench press with dumbbells 3x8
military presses 3x8
side lateral raises 3x8
tricep press down machine 3x8
overhead single-arm tricep extensions 3x8

Day 2: back and biceps, abs

lat pull down 3x8
one-arm dumbbell rows 3x8
standing alternating bicep curls 3x8
weighted back hyperextensions 3x8
incline situps 3x8
incline reverse crunches 3x8
weighted 45 degree oblique side bend 2x12

Day 3: cadio 20-30 min, depending on day

Day 4: legs

squats, as far down as I can go, 3x8 (65 lbs right now)
reverse lunges 3x8
straight-leg dead lifts 3x8
standing calf raises 3x8

Then repeat with Day 1.

I try to go to the gym 6 days a week. Sometimes I get as low as 4 days on off-weeks. But I almost always get there 4-6 days per week and I alternate these 4 routines.

I like to keep a day off from lifting between back and leg exercises to give my body a rest. I can feel it in my hamstrings during back hyperextensions, and I can feel it in my back during squats and SL-deadlifts.

For cardio I use the elliptical, treadmill, bike, recombant bike, stairclimber and sometimes the rowing machine. On the elliptical and treadmill I try to do intevals, but I dont think the difference between my high and low heart rates are large enough.


The following is a list of supplements that I take for a variety of reasons.

Supplements:

Multivitamin
Ultra Hair by Nature's Plus (Basically just high in B vitamins and Biotin)
Vitamin C complex with bioflavanoids - 3 g/day, divided doses
Calcium - divided doses
Magnesium with zinc - divided doses
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Omega 3-6-9 Complex

Whey protein - GNC Chocolate flavored. 1 per day, 1 hr before working out.
L-glutamine powder - 5 g before bed on lifting days or when I feel like I need it.

Couple of suggestions:
For shoulders, do your laterals FIRST, THEN do military press. You might want to consider Arnolds instead, since they work all heads, not just the front delt.

Try to toss in a couple of sets of seated leg extensions after squats - helps the knees keep working the way they should, and gives a good pump to the quads after squats.

I like to do my alternating bicep curls seated - prevents swinging and allows me to properly use more weight.

Omega 6 and 9 should be in most of your foods already on a high-fat diet, but supplemental omega 3 is a very good idea. I take 6g of salmon and fish oil every day to make sure I keep the omega 3 topped up, but I avoid taking balanced oils because they don't do much to correct the ratios in our bodies.

My .02.

good luck on your goals you should have not probelms. Judging by the way you described your fat distribution it seems you probably have a higher testosterone level and the lifting will greatly benefit you ( higher estrogen means lower body fat storage, higher testosterone is middle section storage). Just keep lifting and lift heavy

Thanks ladies!

Liftnlady - You're right. I always suspected I was heavier on testosterone. I had it checked once by the doc, but they said it's in the normal range. I suppose it's good when it comes to lifting, but it can be mighty annoying when I'm plucking out chin hairs!!
I'm already seeing a lot of change in my muscle shape and size. I've seen a much bigger difference in the past month with free weights than in 3 months of machines with high reps! This weekend I saw my stepfather. He hadn't seen me in about a month and he asked if I'd been lifting. He noticed that I had more muscle.

Built: Arnolds are a good idea. I wanted more thorough shoulder work, but wasnt sure about the best way to go about it. I'll also try doing laterals first. That sounds like a good idea, too.
About the leg extensions - I heard that they aren't very good for your knees because of the pressure they put on the knee. Is that a cause for concern or is doing them after squats going to be beneficial enough to outway that? Any preference on one leg at a time or both?
I'll try seated bicep curls and see if I can move more weight that way. I dont swing at all - I try really hard not to, but if I can move more weight seated, then it's worth a shot.

Thanks for the help, ladies!!

Well, I posted a question about how to change up my routine to include more cardio and longer weight training sessions, but I've had no responses over the past 4 days. I'll take the hint to mean that my post was annoying, dumb, or too long! Oh well.
I think I've figured out an answer to my problem, though. Basically, with my previous plan I wasnt getting in enough cardio. Usually just 2x, maybe 3x per week. My weight sessions also seemed like they needed more.
So this is how I'm changing it up:

Monday: Legs
Tuesday: cardio
Wednesday: back bis abs
Thursday: cardio
Friday: chest, shoulders tris
Saturday: cardio

I'm not too concerned about doing each on a particular day, it's more the order I like.
It accomplished a few things:
First, since cardio and weights are on separate days, I wont feel like I have to rush through weights to get to cardio so that I can get out of the gym more quickly. I dont like spending over an hour at the gym.
Second, I can spend more time on each cardio session. 30 - 45 min. And I can work at a higher intensity. I'll also get more cardio days in (i hope!)
Third, I can do my back workout with sufficient days of rest before I do squats. i have read that the lower back needs more rest than most other muscles and it needs time to recoup before doing squats. Since I often have lower back soreness before I do squats, I thought this would be best for my back.
Fourth, since I'm not doing cardio on any weight day, I can take more time to do the weight routines. I can add in more exercises (which I've been doing anyway) and not feel rushed. I like this.

So I think this will work for me. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do squats today. My lower back is sore for some unknown reason. (sitting too long at my desk, probably.) we'll see how I feel when I get to the gym. i might do cardio today and legs tomorrow. we'll see.

well, no gym yesterday. my back was sore and my hips hurt. Not a good combination for squat day. I had done a fast incline walk on the treadmill on Sunday. The reason I dont run is because it makes my hips hurt. Well, yesterday they hurt anyway. I guess I'll have to ease into the fast incline walking a bit more. Maybe at a lower incline for a while.
Today's legs. I'm not sure if I should push my program back a day or tomorrow just do my regular back/bi/abs. I'll probably do back since I had missed it last time in order to put it after legs.

Well, on Tueday I did my leg routine. The routine was as follows:

squats 3 x 65-75-75 x 8-6-8
slow leg extensions 1 x 40 x 12
reverse lunges 3 x 12.5x2DB x 8
SL-deadlifts 3 x 30lbx2DB x 8-8-9
slow leg press 2 x 120 x 10-8
slow leg curls 1 x 80 x 8
standing calf raises 3 x 260 x 10

I like this routine. I threw the leg extensions in there at built's recommendation and if I do them slow with low weight, I think they feel good. I'll probably take out the curls since I get enough hamstring work, I think. I also think I'll put the leg press after squats and do them for power instead of slow with light weight. I'd like to get more quad work in.

On Wednesday I did my back/bis/abs routine as follows.

lat pull downs 3 x 80-90-90 x 8-7-6
one-arm dumbbell rows 3 x 30 x 8
sitting alternating bicep curls 3 x 12.5 x 5 - 5/4 - 4/3
standing ezbar curls 3 x 25 x 8
back extensions 3 x 25 x 8

This time I did the alternating bicep curls sitting. Usually I do them standing. I've been using 12.5 lb dumbbells but when I tried to use those sitting, I only got about 4 reps out! Sitting bicep curls are so much harder!!! I thought my form was SO GOOD when I did them standing. I was sitting at an incline with my back back a bit. That might have contributed to making them harder. Yikes.

Yesterday I did 45 min on the stair climber. Not too much exciting here.

Today is chest/shoulder/tris day.

Well, on Friday I did do chest/shoulders/tris. I was sorta trying to squeeze it into a half hour, so my rest time between sets was lower than usual.

This was my routine:

Dumbbell incline bench press 3 x 20lbx3DB x 8-8-6
Lateral dumbbell raises 3 x 10lbx2DB x 7-6-5
Arnold Press 3 x 15lbx2db x 5-6-6 (I can usually do more reps of this - about 8. Not sure why today was worse)
Rear Delt Machine 3 x 40-50-50 x 8
Seated Tricep Pressdown 3 x 80 x 8
One-arm Tricep Extension 3 x 7.5 x 8 - 8/7 - 7.5/5.5
Lying Tricep Extensions 3 x 25-15-15 x 2-12-12

I think I'm going to try doing free weights for rear delts instead of the machine. I hadn't done rear delts for a while and I want to start including them in my routine again.
Also, Built had recommended that I do lateral raises before Arnolds or Military presses, but I think I'm going to try doing them afterward instead. My arnolds have felt rather weak lately.

Yesterday I did 26 min on my home stair climber. It's a different kind of motion than the one at the gym, but it works in a pinch.

Yesterday (Monday) I did my leg routine as follows:

Squats 3 x 75-75-85 x 8-8-5
Leg Press (3 different foot positions) 3 x 170 x 8
Slow Leg extensions 1 x 40 x 10
Reverse Lunges 3 x 15lbx2DB x 8
SL Deadlifts 3 x 32.5x2DB x 8
Standing calf raises 3 x 280-300-300 x 10-10-10

My legs feel nice and sore today. It's a good feeling.

well, tuesday I missed the gym. It was a cardio day.
However, yesterday I went to the gym and did my weight routine and also added some cardio on after weights. Not as good as if I did it on Tuesday ( I would have done it for longer), but not too bad. The bad thing is that I cant make it to the gym today either!!! So I'll add some cardio to my Friday workout and then to some cardio over both weekend days. Hubby will be away for the weekend, so I'll have plenty of time to get my cardio in.

This is what I did for yesterday's workout:

lat pull downs 3 x 90-90-80 x 8-8-8
one-arm dumbbell rows 3 x 30 x 8
sitting alternating bicep curls 3 x 12.5 x 8-7-5
standing ezbar curls 3 x 25 x 8
back extensions 3 x 25 x 8
Abs

I didnt feel like doing abs yesterday, so I did some ab floorwork and ball work instead of incline situps, 45 degree side bend obliques, etc. I dont feel it in my abs as much today as usual, but oh well.

My left shoulder also hurt when I was doing lat pull downs. I dont know why. It still feels a little uncomfortable. Hmmm....

Next time I do back I want to do some cable rows instead of lat pull downs. I'm getting sick of lat pull downs. I may also try pyramiding the weights on my dumbbell rows.

The sitting bicep curls were easier this time, but I think it's because I had the bench at less of an incline while I was sitting.

I'm slackin' at keeping my gym log up to date!

I didnt get to the gym on Thursday as I had expected. I had a meeting after work and then the pats were on at 9. It left me no time to eat, nevermind make it to the gym. (Yes, watching the pats openning game was more important than cardio. This is not in question.) Anyway, I added 20 min cardio to Friday's workout to somewhat make up for it.

Friday - Chest/Shoulders/Tris and cardio

Flat DB bench press 3 x 22.5x2DB x 8 (I had no intentions of going up in weight on this, but all the 20 lb dumbbells were in use. Previously I had been doing incline, so I guess I'm stronger with flat bench since it uses more of the muscle. I can go up in this next time.)
Arnold Press 3 x 15x2DB x 8-7-6 I dont feel like I'm getting any stronger in my shoulders! ARG!!!
Rear Delt Rows 3 x 20 x 8 This was the first time I did these and I'm not sure I did them right with complete range of motion. Next time I'll get my form correct with lower weights first.
Lateral DB Raises 3 x 10x2DB x 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 - 6 I suck at these
Seated Tricep Pressdown 3 x 90 x 8-8-7
One-arm tricep extension 3 x 7.5 x 8 - 8 - 8/6
Lying tricep extensions with DBs 3 x 10-7.5-7.5 x 2-5-5 1/2 My tris were tuckered out at this point!.

Then I did 20 min on the stairclimber.

Saturday:
On Saturday I did 45 min on the treadmill. I tried doing a hill incline program at 4 mph. I can walk at 4mph for that long without a problem, but the muscle on the top of my foot started to hurt. This happens frequently to my right food when I do something that extends the normal lift of my toes (wearing clogs, walking up an incline quickly, etc.) So I had to reduce the speed and incline for a while. After a while I picked the speed back up, but I had to keep the incline low. Annoying. The muscle still hurts today. arg.

Sunday:
Today I did 45 min on the recomb bike. Since my foot still hurts, I figured it was a safe bet. I did a hill interval mode with really high resistance at the top of the hills. It felt good and was tough.

Yeah! I got my cardio in for the weekend!

I'm going away next weekend, so I'm afraid I wont get all of my workout in. I'm going to try to do my Friday weights routine before we leave on Thursday morning (probably some cardio, too.) I can probably squeeze some cardio in on Saturday before I pick the inlaws up at the airport, so that will mean that I'd take Friday off (I'll be at a wedding out of state, so it's a good day to take off). If I have time, I may do some morning cardio. It would be nice, we'll see.
The week after that will be crazy because my inlaws will be staying with us, my birthday is that week, my hubby's birthday is that Saturday (party on Friday - shh, dont tell him, it's a surprise!) and on Saturday we have a wedding reception to go to. I'm going to try my best to get my workouts in. I'm going to try to go to the gym in the mornings. We'll see. I'll update with my progress.

Hi - try these instead of lat pull downs:


Also, seated alternating dumbbell curls should be done upright (compound movement). You can do them inclined AFTER this if you like, with a lighter weight, as it is an excentric movement and excellent for stretching out the biceps. This sets it up to get a pump, so finish with a few sets of hammer curls or close-grip cable-pulldowns (concentration).

The order REALLY matters here, but done in this three-step combination, it's GREAT for building up the guns. It's what I used to build up mine.

Yesterday I did my leg routine.

I was hoping to do squats at 85 pounds, but I started with 75 and I'm glad I did. They seemed extra tough today. I think that might be because I really pushed my legs yesterday with high resistance on the recomb bike. Oh well. Next time I'll do elliptical before leg day!

My journal's not in front of me so I think this is right, but I'm not sure.

Squats 3 x 75 x 8
Leg Press 3 x 170 x 8-middle narrow feet, 8 - low wide feet, 10 - high middle feet
Leg extensions 1 x 30 x 10 Slow and each leg separate
Lunges 1 x 15x2DB x 8 - i was planning on doing 3 sets, but my knees hurt after leg presses so I scratched the rest of the sets. Also, I hate lunges and I felt very weebly doing them yesterday. not a good combo!
SLDL 3 x 35x2DB x 8
standing calf raises 3 x 300 x 8

when you say you are doing flat bench presses with 45lb dumbells...is that 2 22.5, or 45 on each side...same for arnies...is that 2 15's or 30's for each set ??

2 - 22.5's! I'm not nearly strong enough for 90 pounds!!! It's just easier (i think) to write the total weight I used. Unless what I do is one-armed, then it's the weight of the one dumbbell. Does that make sense?
Should I write the weight of just one dumbbell? what's the normal for this?