As I briefly mentioned today over on my own space, I reintroduced myself to my old friend OOF yesterday by doing curls for the first time in ages. Now I’m in pain every time I try to straighten my arms. And I thought I was taking it easy. Not easy enough, obviously!
I’m going to try y’all’s patience by listing my workout. Not that I think any of you will want to duplicate it, or critique it, or anything like that…just that I feel like listing it will make me at least live up to it later, if not (hopefully) improve it. So I hope you’ll indulge me from time to time in an exercise in self-accountability.
Yesterday’s “working up from wussitude (I hope)” workout:
Pull-ups (weight assisted): 1 warm-up, 2 sets x 10 reps of medium weight, 3 sets x 10 light-medium weight (read: I had to wuss out)
Bent-over rows: 1 set x 8 reps medium weight, 2 sets x 10 light-medium weight (ditto)
Preacher curls w/ curl bar: 1 warm-up, 4 sets x 10 reps of medium weight (alternating inside/outside grip)
Hammer curls: 1 set x 10, light-medium weight, 2 sets x 10 light weight
Straight-leg lifts: 2 sets x 20
Cardio: 30 minutes of hill interval on the elliptical
Result: Asleep by 9:40 pm, next day OOWWWWWWWch. Yeah…
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dyskinesia
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No Butts About It 
Even though you’re a dude and I’m not and our exercise programs differ, I’m curious: how much cardio do you plan to do? I ask, because I haven’t made it to doing any weight training yet, so far everything has been ALL cardio. And I don’t know, but it seems that the numbers on the scale are moving down quicker this time. I feel like adding weights does help out with metabolism and all that good stuff, but right now it’s all about the excitement I’m experiencing every day on the scale. I’m so confused.
I plan to do 30 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week, after my weight training workout. My exercise history is comprised of a vast majority of all weight training and no cardio – so that’s what I’m most familiar with and what takes the least effort for me – but this time I’m determined to put the cardio in as well.
Last fall I dropped those 10-15 pounds doing ALL cardio, an hour a day 3x a week or so. But my best weight loss was a few years ago doing a combination of the two. (Plus hating myself while we were going through marriage counseling, but that’s another story, eh?) And more to the point, I felt better about myself while doing that, so that’s what I think I’m going to aim for.
I’d say whatever is working for you and making you feel good about yourself – stick with it. You can always change and add more later.
Cardio will help more than weights because it gets your heart rate up higher and keeps it up for a longer period of time, and my rudimentary understanding is that the heart rate is directly tied to how many calories you burn. I think weights are good for long-term muscle health and tone and whatnot – the more tone you have, the higher your metabolism, the easier it is to burn off that piece of cake you ate rather than it moving in a big lump directly to your thighs – but to blowtorch off the fat and get your metabolism moving in the first place, cardio all the way.
Note: I am not a doctor.
That’s kind of what I was wondering. Veddy interesting!
Generally speaking, that’s my understanding as well. The weight training will give you more lean muscle tissue, which in turn burns more calories just to maintain. But it’s the cardio that will burn the most calories and keep the heart rate up. (Muscle gain may actually be making your scale read higher, too, so if the scale and not your britches are your measuring stick, keep that in mind.)
I’m not a doctor, but sometimes I do kinda resemble Anthony Edwards from ER.
I love Goose. I mean Dr. Edwards.
Since the dropping numbers on the scale seem to be what’s exciting me the most right now I think I am going to concentrate on cardio for the time being. Jillian can kiss my ever-shrinking ass. For now.