Working out on 4 consecutive days

[twinsmama]

Hi, I'm new here. I had twins 13 months ago and am currently sitting about 18kg over my pre-baby weight and 32kg over my goal weight. I'm looking to lose fat and tone up. Before baby I hadn't been to the gym in a long while but at one point a few years ago, I was going 6 days a week for about 6 months, so I'm no stranger to exercise. My kids go spend most weekends with their father so I have 4 days, Friday evening to Monday evening, to work out. I'd like to keep my exercising minimal on the days I have them and all my workouts will be at home.

My question is this: what would be a good schedule to maximize the days I have to work out. I have a few hand weights, a tension rope, stability ball, push up handles and a treadmill. I am open to and able to do body weight, compound, and isolating exercises. I do need to do a bit of focusing on my core, especially my lower back. The babies did a number on my midsection.

 

[jesspinto]

Well I think a good workout schedule is comprehensive. In the beginning do it lightly and then increase the number of sets a weights. Begin with cardio, hips and lower waist, waist, back, arms, stomach and back. Initaially give 1 hour and then move on to 2.

 

[Jrahien]

When you're working out back to back, it's fine to do as long as you're not training the same thing two days in a row. (Ie: Doing two upper/lower body days or two heavy cardio days in a row. Light to moderate cardio every day is fine though.) For example, go lower body, upper body, cardio, and then full body.

I usually send people to here (Free Exercises, Exercise Instructions, Custom Workout, Personalized Workout, Ab Exercises, Abdominal Exercises, Training Programs) and you can plug in what equipment you have, which muscle groups you want to target, and it will spit out a list of possible exercises that you can put together for a workout session.

For a given workout, I would find 4-5 different exercises to do, and do 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions with a good amount of weight/resistance to make it challenging. That'll be a really good ballpark to start you off with.