Looking for Some Opinions

[RedEagle21]

Hello all,

I am 20 years old, 6 feet tall and about 180-185 pounds. I recently started exercising with the goal of losing a little belly fat, toning my abs, arms, and chest, and gaining some muscle in my legs (I play volleyball so I'm trying to get a little bit of a larger vertical.)

My routine right now is pretty laxidasical, I basically have been going to the gym every morning where I do one of two things:

Run: I get on a treadmill and run about an 8-9 minute mile pace for three miles. Or I do about a 9 minute mile for 25 minutes and have the treadmill simulate hills (it is the preset "fat burner" workout routine on the treadmill).

or​

Swim: I go to the pool and do laps, 5 laps a set (each lap is 50m I think, 25m down and 25m back). And I do 4 to 5 sets. I generally keep each lap to about 1 minute 15 seconds and the last set I try and keep each lap at 1 minute.

Then each night before I go to bed I do 3 sets of 15 sit ups with 30 seconds rest in between each set.

This seems to be working relatively well (I have lost around 8 pounds in three weeks) but I realize my routine right now won't do much for my leg muscle or toning my arms or chest. I don't have anybody to lift with right now so I haven't been lifting. I also don't have much control over what I eat (I'm a college student) so I try to eat as healthy as I can, bagels, fruit, etc.. but my options are limited when it comes to dieting.

What I am not sure about is if this is the best way to be toning and losing weight (I know the number of sets, reps, and wait in between each has a large effect on toning). So basically I am just looking for a few more opinions on what I should be doing. If this is a good system or if I should try and alter it in some ways. Possibly a routine suggestion I could follow. Any input is great. Thanks.

 

[Matt2]

Here's a suggestion for gaining more vertical, however, I'd suggest doing this AFTER losing the desired amount of weight, because if you're eating at a calorie deficit you can't gain muscle strength/mass, you can only maintain it:

The following lifts help tremendously:

- Powerclean (try and really explode up)
- Squat (the grandaddy of lifts, it's good for all sports)
- Hangclean (helps powerclean and squat)
- Dead Lift (helps all 3)

I'd suggest doing 5 sets of 5 each day, alternating, and adding on 3 sets of 5 of lunges or other such leg exercises.

This is almost guaranteed to have you sky rocketing, I've increased my vertical by 9 inches.

 

[shia]

And also do not forget to drink as much as water as possible.

 

[maryk2]

Some ideas

Hi,

Squats and lunges should work for leg muscles. For your chest you can use dumbbells so you want need anyone to spot you