Top essential exercises?

C

cusimar9

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I'm a member of a gym at the moment and although I'm concentrating on cardio I am also doing a little weights.

This is my routine:

3 x Bench Press
3 x Dips
3 x Lateral Pull Downs
3 x Bar Curls

Is this the most effective use of my time/energy? I'm trying to do exercises that target multiple muscle groups and that mainly do arms/chest.

Last time I used to go to a gym with a bodybuilder he used to split up his exercises ie chest one day, arms another day etc. Would this be advisable given how little time I have to dedicate to weights?
 
newf said:
Core lifts - Squats, deadlifts, rows and presses.
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Newf hit it on the nose. These big core lifts will get you big OR can easily help to get you solid and cut.

Also to make optimal use of your time with weights, it is best to make your training more time dense and efficient. Superset, Triset, and circuit training are a few ways to handle this.

Goodluck
 
cusimar9 said:
Squats and Deadlifts are for legs and lower back though aren't they? Or am I missing the bigger picture...
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Yes, but the deadlift works the quads as well and according to Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove, the last third of the squat uses mainly hamstrings, which changes what I've been told by others. And the back is pulled in for supporting and balancing the load in the squat and deadlift.

So, both work legs and back, which is why the pros stop looking at exercises in terms of muscle groups utilized and look at them in terms of movement patterns.
 
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Excellent. Only with the cardio I'm doing (1+ hr 6 days a week) I think my legs need all the rest they can get. Would you say doing squats as well will overwork my legs? They already ache most days... that's why I was thinking of concentrating on my arms and torso.
 
I would recommend lifting full body three times a week if you're trying to cut, and doing cardio 2-3 times a week.

else, you could do a push/pull split across four days and do the cardio two days a week. None of that would be overtraining as you're not running marathon type distances.

A good place to look for pre-made routines:
 
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cusimar9 said:
Excellent. Only with the cardio I'm doing (1+ hr 6 days a week) I think my legs need all the rest they can get. Would you say doing squats as well will overwork my legs? They already ache most days... that's why I was thinking of concentrating on my arms and torso.
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If your goal is fat loss, HIIT is much more effective in burning fat than long medium intensity cardio. Unless you plan on running marathons, stick with HIIT for fat loss.

My suggestion, HIIT 3-4 days a week, and full body workout 2-3 days a week.
 
jesus god...over an hour of cardio, 6 times a week? unless you are training for a marathon, that's the wrong route to take.
I know a bunch of people that lose fat without ever doing cardio. lifting weights burns a TON of calories, builds lean muscle, which in turn burns more calories too.
 
Well the message I've always read is that to lose weight you need to do cardio

And the calories you burn are measureable too... whereas the calories burned lifting weights are more of a guessing game.

As my %bf goes down I'll substitute some cardio for more weights, but for the moment I'm doing OK.

Plus I'm hoping to do a half marathon in the next couple of months so I do need to build up my cardio some more.

And for what its worth my Gym cardio sessions (3 times a week) DO involve HIIT training...
 
cusimar9 said:
Well the message I've always read is that to lose weight you need to do cardio
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Cardio burns fat while you're doing it.

Weight lifting raises the metabolism for up to two days after.
 
cusimar9 said:
Any exercise will raise metabolism.
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yes but what Cynic is saying is that the time that cardio raises metabolism for is no where near as long as weight lifting.

Once you are done with your cardio session, you've usually got 20 minutes of increased heart rate, forcing your body to burn more energy.

After lifting weights, during your recovery (which is usually about 2 days), your body rebuilds your muscle, which requires a constant influx of energy.

The benefits of cardio on your metabolism are short term, the benefits of weight lifting on your metabolism is long term.
 
I'm quite happy if that's the case as I love weight training.

However I don't see why you think cardio doesn't raise your motabolism for longer.

When I say cardio I'm talking about an hour of 160+ bpm exercise, running up hills and HIIT etc where your body and your muscles really do take a beating. My body takes as long to fully recover from a cardio session as it does from a weight training session, so the way I look at it, cardio has the added benefit of burning off a LOT of calories while you're doing it, as well as raising your motabolism, just like weight training does. Also, while running you're exercising BIG muscle groups, like your quads, hamstrings, calves, your ass etc.

Also lets not forget that cardio is what makes you 'fit'. The fact is, most long distance runners have incredibly low %bf, and plenty of muscly guys still have quite high %bf.

The only benefit I can think of (in terms of fat loss), is that by putting on muscle mass your body automatically burns more calories. I do understand that.

I'm just saying that its not quite as simple as what you're making it to be. And although we all have the same aim I think cardio can and should play an important part in your routine if your ultimate aim is to lose bodyfat.
 
cusimar9 said:
I'm quite happy if that's the case as I love weight training.

However I don't see why you think cardio doesn't raise your motabolism for longer.

When I say cardio I'm talking about an hour of 160+ bpm exercise, running up hills and HIIT etc where your body and your muscles really do take a beating. My body takes as long to fully recover from a cardio session as it does from a weight training session, so the way I look at it, cardio has the added benefit of burning off a LOT of calories while you're doing it, as well as raising your motabolism, just like weight training does. Also, while running you're exercising BIG muscle groups, like your quads, hamstrings, calves, your ass etc.
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I've posted the article several times, but it raises the metabolism for a couple hours after. You see, weights cause, for lack of better knowledge of the science, micro-tears in the muscle that the body sets about repairing.

Even HIIT doesn't do that.
 
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