In need of info

F

FrancineC

0
Hello everyone,

my name is Francine and I am a new member of the forum.

I joined this forum because I will start working out at a gym for the first time of my life for real, and I am looking for a few advices about what to do and what to eat.

First of I am a 22 year old girl, weight 122lbs, my height is 5-4 that am not happy with my body right now.

I have no definition what so ever so I want to start working out to become more fit and have more stamina.

What I am looking for is tone arms, loose my belly fat and get my belly flat/toned. I want to increase my butt and thighs. I don't want to over do it to much though. I want them to look natural. Right now my butt is not that big and my thigh not very muscular nor very big. I also have love handles. mostly because of my genetics. But I would also like to minimize them if possible.

I want to work out during the week so I have weekends off. Probably 4-5 times a week. Also what diet should I fallow? Should I take whey protein shakes before or after working out, should I eat after working out?

Please share your experience and knowledge with me. I am really excited about working out. I really never liked going to a gym to work out, I rather bike ride hike. But they also offer cyclin and other aerobics activies where I will be going so I think it will be fun.

Thanks,

Francine
 
First off, thank you for giving more information than the average newbie likes to give. This gives forum members something to work with.

Well I’m neither a woman nor light by any means and there are others here way more knowledgeable than I am on the subject, but I would suggest a full body workout 3 times a week with free weights. You do not have to worry about bulking up with free weights, trust me it takes A LOT of effort to actually bulk up. However these full body workouts will assist you in ‘toning’, loosing fat, and getting stronger. I’d also suggest doing (preferred) cardio work right after your workout or on the consecutive days from lifting.

You should concentrate on a clean diet focusing on higher protein intake. If you do use a supplement for protein I’d suggest taking is post workout.

If you like hiking and biking add as much of that as you can handle.



Some Training programs:
Starting Strength
New Rules of Lifting
Strong Lifts 5x5
 
Hey Francine! Welcome to the forums :) I'm a newbie here as well.

First off, I just wanted to say that you're at a very healthy weight for your body, so you don't need to focus on loosing any weight, maybe just toning up.

5x a week is a great plan, but I wouldn't recommend putting both 'off' days in a row. Can you take one day off in the weekend and one off during the week?

The days you do workout, I think you should do 2days of cardio and 3 days of strength training. Like the poster above stated, I promise you will not bulk up. Muscle burns fat, so you'll start getting super lean and fit:)
You can start off with general, simple moves like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, lunges, squats, overhead press, assisted pull ups, and chest press. For cardio you can run, bike, hike, swim, use the elliptical or some other sort of machine.

There are also a lot of great home based programs out there. I've been working out at home for a year now and have never looked or felt better!

Also, remember that diet is very important.. you have to eat clean (not too many processed or junk foods) and make sure you're not eating too many calories.

Good luck!!
 
Info given so far is pretty solid. Priorities:

1) Figure out your maintenance calories (freedieting.com)
2) Eat around maintenance because since you're new, you can probably gain some muscle and lose fat simultaneously
3) Read this. Asking for an entire diet is not gonna work. You have to come up with one yourself and if you would like it critiqued, then ask.
4) Use one of the routines that Johnny gave you. They're all great. My guess if you would prefer NROL (just a hunch), but you're going to have to buy that book. There's also NROLFW (women's) if you want to go that route.

As stated, don't worry about "bulking up" and don't think you have to do anything differently than a guy would do.
 
coachgaby said:
...You can start off with general, simple moves like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks...
Click to expand...

Your advice was pretty good, except for this little snippet: Isolation exercises are NOT recommended for beginners and even if isolation exercises are called for (in an intermediate or advanced program) triceps kickbacks are just about the MOST ineffective triceps exercise there is. There are many more effective triceps exercises to choose from: parallel bar or bench dips, close grip bench press, decline, prone, seated or standing dumbell or barbell extensions, etc.
 
flyinfree said:
these are THREEexcellent responses.

Welcome to the forum!

Sweat Daily
FF
Click to expand...
FYP :D

dswithers said:
Your advice was pretty good, except for this little snippet: Isolation exercises are NOT recommended for beginners and even if isolation exercises are called for (in an intermediate or advanced program) triceps kickbacks are just about the MOST ineffective triceps exercise there is. There are many more effective triceps exercises to choose from: parallel bar or bench dips, close grip bench press, decline, prone, seated or standing dumbell or barbell extensions, etc.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
I want to take the time and thank you all for the great replies I got. I now have an idea of what I should be looking at doing at the gym.

But what about increasin my butt and my thighs? What exercises or cardio work should I be doing to increase those parts of my body? Right now they are pretty small and I would love for them to grow not exagerated but enough that it can be noticiable.

Also I am not looking to look thinner than I actually am right now. I just want to tone up create a little bif of muscle witch I don't have right now.

Thanks again,

Francine
 
Here is a picture of a girl with a nice body. I know I won't be able to look like her but something along those lines.

oglobo.globo.com/blogs/arquivos_upload/2008/01/148_2520-moda.jpg
 
Squats and lunges will be great for that, but just stick with a solid routine. Genetics, again, will be a big factor.
 
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