Weight training that targets chest and stomach best?

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nick06

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Hi,

I posted this in the wrong forum (it was a woman's forum, lol) so I deleted it and will post it here instead.

I have come a long way in losing weight, in high school I used to weigh around 245 pounds, size 40 waist. Now I'm around 175-180, size 34 waist. I am 23.

Last year I started jogging at a track. I went from being able to run only half a mile to four miles within a good 3 months or so. So for a year now I run 3-4 miles a day, 4 days (in a row) a week.

Initially the running helped everything. But now everything is kind of slowing down. My gut and chest still need a lot of work. I do situps around 4 days a week, 25 to 50 normal ones then the same amount for the left and right. I do some pushups too, but not that many. I am not trying to aim for a super muscular build, I just want to flatten and tone my chest and stomach (and naturally, my arms) because it looks unattractive. I think a lot of the problem is I have lots of flabby fat left over from my really heavy days that simply doesn't want to go away, even if my waist is getting smaller.

Recently I joined a gym. I'd like to continue cardio, but will do so outside because I hate treadmills with a passion and will only use them when the weather is bad. The gym has lots of weights and that's something I don't have anywhere else.

I think I've "hit the wall" as they say with cardio. It certainly helps keep my metabolism up in that I am not gaining any weight, but it isn't targeting much fat anymore. I will continue to do cardio, but do you think I should cut back on it, and maybe do it 2 days a week, with the other 2 using weights? That's a method of burning fat that my body is not used to, and hopefully combined with the cardio I could lose more fat AND gain some muscle/tone my body. What do you guys suggest?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
 
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Your making some basic mistakes here:
You should check around the forum for some info on this....but here are a few things to help you out:

-Stop all that running....your probably burning more muscle than fat. Yes you reached your oxidation peak,
- Train with weights fullbody or split. Learn the big basics and stay away from any machine (unless rehabing)....and don't try to isolate....it's just junk training.
-Get the recovery and nutrition down.

Keep researching friend.....just read and don't get stuck in any one way of thinking
 
Stop all that running....your probably burning more muscle than fat. Yes you reached your oxidation peak,
Click to expand...
What should I cut my running back to? Certainly not running at all is a bad idea too?
 
Do you still want to cut?
do HIIT for cardio, search that word in the forum search function if you dont know what it is ;) do it 2-3 times per week.

I suggest a 3 days a week full body routine(this way you can do your HIIT on your rest days, spechally since you are inexperienced with weight training, right? Learn the big lifts such as Squats and deadlifts (do a google of forum search) make sure you read up alot on form on those two lifts!
Stay away from isolation movements and machines. A fullbody workout should consist of:

Squats
Deadlifts
Rows/pullups
Bench press
military press

doing squats and deadlifts in the SAME workout is not recommended though, but you can alternate them.
and remember, weight training burns ALOT of cals, not only during the session, but long after your body will continue to have a spiked metabolism, this is why weight training is actually better for loosing weight than low intensity cardio.
 
nick06 said:
What should I cut my running back to? Certainly not running at all is a bad idea too?
Click to expand...

the truth is, running doesnt burn fat... a caloric deficit burns fat. Running just helps make it easier to create a caloric deficit. In addition to this, a simple full-body routine 2-3 days a week is strongly suggested. But the secret to burning fat is all in what and how much you eat.

Browse the Nutrition forum to get an idea of a good typical diet. Also, this is a good read to give you the basics

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm

Then throw together a typical meal plan and post it in the Nutrition forum, and we will help critique it and help improve it.

Good luck to you
 
Karky said:
Do you still want to cut?
do HIIT for cardio, search that word in the forum search function if you dont know what it is ;) do it 2-3 times per week.
Click to expand...
So HIIT is varying the intensity of your cardio workout? What's a good example of this with jogging? Say I'm running 8 laps... with each lap I make myself go faster until I'm basically sprinting? Is that how it works? I know some treadmills have an option that randomly change the slope and speed, usually called "endurance" or something... is that basically what HIIT is?

I suggest a 3 days a week full body routine(this way you can do your HIIT on your rest days, spechally since you are inexperienced with weight training, right? Learn the big lifts such as Squats and deadlifts (do a google of forum search) make sure you read up alot on form on those two lifts!
Stay away from isolation movements and machines. A fullbody workout should consist of:

Squats
Deadlifts
Rows/pullups
Bench press
military press

doing squats and deadlifts in the SAME workout is not recommended though, but you can alternate them.

and remember, weight training burns ALOT of cals, not only during the session, but long after your body will continue to have a spiked metabolism, this is why weight training is actually better for loosing weight than low intensity cardio.
Click to expand...

How long would it take to do the workout you suggested?

Also, what about doing cardio on the days that you are also doing a full body routine?
 
dont do cardio on the days you do your weight training, you can do it like this:
Weights, cardio, weights, cardio, weights, cardio, off.
you could also cut one of those cardio days and have one more total off day if you want.

and HIIT is varying intensity, like this, sprint as fast as you can for 30 sec, jog slowlly for 60 sec, then repeat. How long intervals you do depends on how fit you are, if you can do 30 sec sprint and only need 30 secs to revover for another one then great! ;) just remember you should be propperly recovered before the next sprint, or else you wont be able to really sprint.
you could also do up to 2 minnutes sprint and then have a recovery, play around and see what you like.

and i guess it would take about an hour to do the routine, it depends, the layout i suggested is just the basic things, you can add some ab work like planks, rotator cuff stuff and so on if you want, so time is depending on rest times between sets, and how many sets and reps you do.

you could do something like this

Squats 3x10
bench press 3x10
Bendt over rows 3x10
military press 3x10

the reps and sets would depend on your goals ofcource, if you want size, that way could be good, if you want max strenght you could lower the reps.
BUT if you have little experience with weight training, you should stick to higher reps at first, since as a beginner you need to have more reps to learn the movement of the lifts :)

i know deadlifts is not in there, but every other workout you could do deadlifts INSTEAD of squats, or you could do squats 2x a week and deadlift 1x a week.
You can also alternate between military press and bench press, for me, its fine to do both in one workout, but if you feel your shoulders is getting to much of a workout then its an option.

that would be the basics of the routine, then you could say add

Planks, oblique planks.
Hyperextentiones or pullthroughs at like 2x12 or something like that.

hope that cleared things up, just ask if theres anything else.
 
You can do your cardio on the same days as weights, just dont try for an hour of weights and then an hour of cardio. You wouldnt do blend in HIIT with your jogging routine. Chances are that after a year your body has adapted to the streses placed on it by jogging the same distance at the same speed and its not gonna work effectively. You can add in HIIT as a standalone cardio session once or twice a week.

Depending on your amount of rest periods and style of training it could be anywhere from 45-90 minutes.
 
Thank you for all of this helpful information. It's certainly overwhelming for a beginner, but I will talk to the trainer at the gym about it too.

Because of my upcoming work schedule among other responsibilites, I don't know if I will be able to make it to the track/gym 6 days a week. That's why right now I'm just focusing on 3-4 days a week; it's not really a matter of if I want to or not, just time, unfortunately. What's most important to me is that I accomplish my goal, I am certainly not rushing anything. If it takes a longer than usual, that's ok. It took a while for me to really see the benefits of jogging (losing a couple inches off the waist, getting some more tone/muscle in my legs, slimmer figure), but I stuck with it. I intend to do the same thing this time. Right now I am trying to get rid of the flab and tone the muscle there and in my chest. If I accomplish that then I'll try to tackle more muscular abs, but if I try to take on everything at once I might be trying too hard. I am going to try sprints during my jogging but also maybe cut it back to 2.5 miles since I would hate to target any more muscle tissue, I'm sure that's the last thing I need. I guess my only other question would be how I spread out days that I work out. If you're doing it 3 or 4 days, does it matter if you do them all in a row or can you do it every other day? Is there a difference?

Right now I don't have any more questions but if I think of anything I will ask. And if anyone else has something to suggest please don't hesitate. Thank again guys.
 
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If you are "sprinting" as fast as you can you will find it difficult to go 25-30 minutes. 15-20 is about where you will be if you are giving it your all. And you will probabaly burn the same amount of calories that would take you an hour of jogging.
 
i think more than an hour of jogging, HIIT keeps the metabolism up for some time after the workout is done.
 
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