and you all say not to worry about bf% but every girl does. Would you all say I’m about 24% Would I be considered, chubby?? Just down, cuz after my 4th child, I turned into this, and I never was a model, but I was not as “thick” as now.
Great! Glad to help and I am very glad you found it useful. I’ll check back periodically, but if you ask something and don’t hear from me, drop me a private message on here because it is likely that I spaced or am spending more time in other areas of the forum.
Getting heavier–as soon as you can do all the reps with good form you have 2 basic choices: either increase the reps or increase the weight. Doesn’t matter if your workout calls for 3-5 reps or 12-15 reps, it’s the same 2 choices every time unless you want to get fancy (don’t get fancy right now). So for now just increase the weight a small bit any time you can get all the reps on an exercise with good form. Form doesn’t have to be 100%–if it is 95% perfect you can still increase weight. Just don’t let it get sloppy like 80% or anything. Stay “close” to perfect form.
Regarding deadlifts–just look at your first deadlift video from the side and compare it to the 2nd deadlift video from the side. Just look at the area from your ankles to your knees and watch the difference.
Yes, you will definitely notice changes if you keep getting stronger and maintain the calories around 1600. Basically for the first few weeks focus most on improving your intensity in the gym (and on upper body stuff as well!). Then if you like you can lower calories --gradually!–add other HIIT/conditioning/cardio. The stretching and mobility circuit I gave you for legs will be an invaluable place to start, but be sure to look up Starrett on youtube for other great ideas I didn’t have time to cover. He has about a million videos, you can just type in his name and then a body part and hit search (like “kelly starrett hip mobility” or “hip external rotation”)
Key concept for body recomposition is “get the most out of the least”. In other words, get the most benefit out of the least amount of changes–milk them for all they are worth. This keeps suffering to a minimum. I would set a basic guideline of dropping no more than 5% calories a week at any one time once you start to play with calories. So for example from 1600 calories you could cut 80 calories on the first week. As long as changes are happening do not cut calories further. Then when you need to change, the next time you could cut 76 calories (5% of 1520 cals), etc. Practically speaking you can simply cut 80 calories every week. Keep protein about 90-100 grams a day minimum. Don’t need to eat any more than about 130 g max, so you’re fine on protein.
There are many other ways to do this adjustment process but for beginners I suggest a pretty straight and strict guideline. The top 1 mistake most people make when dieting–and especially women as a whole–is chopping calories off at the knees right away instead of chipping away gradually. Your first trainer did this (950 calories?!). Too large a drop at any one point pressures the body to slow down the metabolism in a panic reaction after initial fat loss stops. There are a few exceptions to this, but they don’t concern where you are at in your journey right now. The idea is to fool your body, not cause it to panic.
The 1 concern with this small gradual chiseling method is that you have to be consistent tracking calories in food and drink. You can do it by portion, macros, or calories, or whatever, but you have to be consistent–for example, wine has between 100-150 calories per glass. If you drink wine you have just consumed 9-10% of your daily calories at 1600 cals a day. So if you are just under maintenance at say 1450 cals and you have 2 glasses of wine, you have just added 20% to your calories and pushed yourself over maintenance for that day. These numbers are just pulled for example’s sake, not to say that they are specific to you.
So what that means is that you have to track all things with calories, including condiments and drinks. And BCAAs. This has been a challenge for some people I know, the alcohol thing nearly hamstringed a personal trainer I know trying to lose weight for a photo shoot. It turned out ok in the end. No need to be OCD about it (don’t track that stick of gum! haha), just build the habit and it will be second nature. No calories, do whatever you want. Has calories, find a way to put it in your daily total.
The plus side to the chiseling is that it minimizes diet suffering and also allows you to train hard because you aren’t starving most of the time :). And a word of reminder–fluctuations in water weight can play with the scale and the mirror but they aren’t actually fat. So if in doubt or it is “that time of the month” hold back on changes and wait to see if the weight comes off from peeing lol. Since very few people drink exactly the same amount of water and salt every day, water weight represents “noise” in the fat loss signal.
Really, really good exercise. Great idea mate, I love that lift. Both for teaching and just for doing.
Also I really like the plate squat for teaching beginners–Like a goblet squat but as you lower into the bottom of the squat you “press” the plate out from your chest to arms reach. Then as you come up you draw it back in again. Helps work the shoulders and train the squat. And unless you have boulder shoulders you do not need a lot of weight to get your shoulders to burn or struggle.
Thanks Aragorn. . . will do so for now this week I’m at 1500 calories and have my leg routine you gave me which I will do twice a week, and the upper body routine I made up and the hypertrophy. Now on some days I’ll do HIIT and some days just walk but to burn 300 calories from cardio. I have a heart monitor that monitors calories and it says it took me 50 minutes to burn 300 calories and that included 20 minutes of running intervals. Does that sound like an ok plan with cardio?? Not too much, not too little. That 1600 maintenance was assuming my time with cardio, no?? Just want to make sure I’m set before you leave me on my own. so I hope you can get back to me on the cardio. . . I do best if I have some guidelines/feedback as I do have with the rest of things.
I do think the trainer messed up my metabolism somewhat because this is me in March 2016
And me now, same pants: I’m not a happy camper and I only gained like 2-3 pounds, from then to now,
I don’t understand what happened, but hopefully I can get back to where I was on my own and continue to progress from there.
How do I send PM on this site??
Not necessarily, it was assuming you are going to do what you did the last time you were at 1600 and not moving the scale. So if that included cardio then yes, and it did not include as much cardio then no.
I recall you saying above you had 60 minutes walking OR 20 minutes HIIT…not both at once.
Inch the calories up to 1600 in steps, keeping the cardio where it is for now. After you get to 1600, inch cardio down by small steps. Goal is to maintain weight with as little cardio and as much food as possible–the way that works best is if you take the energy you WERE using for cardio and use it to hammer weights harder instead.
I thought you could send PMs on this site but apparently they took that feature off with the overhaul in style. Crud.
OK so checking on my BMR it would be 1190, so burning 300cal. with just cardio days and lets say 400 on weight training days, then being pretty much sedentary, my maintenance would be like 1600 I guess. Some people have told me 1700, but I’d say 1600. I do mean I either do 20 minutes HIIT or 60 min. walk, but since I had my heart rate thingy for the first time, I did the intervals of running, and by the time 25 minutes had passed, I still hadn’t burned the 300 cal so I finished out the rest of the calories with just walking. that was my logic behind that one.
When you say inch back up, you mean like 100 calories more for a week?? LIke last week I was at 1400, this week I have been doing 1500, would i go to 1600 next week??
So I gotcha, after I get to 1600, then I keep cardio there for like 3 weeks?? ANd start trying to burn 200 cal with cardio instead of 300?? Then inch it down that way to see if I can still maintain the weight and burn more on weights??
Maybe we could do email if you trust on that one?
Yes. Pretty much exactly. Your maintenance level is the HIGHEST level of calories you can eat and not gain anything (remember water weight fluctuates, so just because the scale was off one day doesn’t necessarily mean you are past maintenance). Basically it is a game of looking at the average trend and ignoring the noisy random spikes or drops.
That’s one reason why weighing yourself every day can sometimes actually kind of mess you up–too much noise.
Roughly yes. First find 1600. Then keep cardio for 3 weeks where it is now and track your weight. Then AFTER the 3 weeks at 1600 and cardio as is…that’s when you start inching cardio down and trying to hit weights harder.
Actually it’s never too soon to try to hit the weights harder, but you know what i meant.
I hope you will check back once in a while in case I have questions. Thanks so much, I feel so much more buff with these workouts. There is hope for me yet!
I taped myself again and notice my deadlifts are taking my shins back, but what causes that?? What do I need to change or focus on?
Mostly it’s just a mental thing. I would focus on simply keeping your kneecaps right above your ankles and shins vertical. Occasionally there can be a flexibility restriction in tight hamstrings, but usually if you’re that close to keeping shins vertical it is mental more than anything.
and I caught myself doing it in the lunges as well, leaning shins way back when I come up. I found that if I don’t come completely straight up when finished, then my shin stays vertical. Saw another lady doing deadlifts today and her shins stayed straight, but she also didn’t have the bar going against her legs/shins the whole time. Once she got to her knees, she had it away from her shins.
That can be ok depending on how far away the bar is. 1 inch, not really anything to worry about. 4-5 inches…way too far for most people. The key is to avoid having the bar away from your legs when you are sliding it down the upper legs and to knee cap. Below the knee cap it’s ok not to be strictly in contact, you just can’t let it drift farther and farther away.
and one more question: the lower body routine you gave me. Is that ok to do twice a week?? It’s kind of “power” heavy weights, but if it’s cool to do it twice a week, I like it!
totally cool to do 2x a week.
Hey there Aragorn. …
Just checking in with ya. Guess I can’t do step aerobics,even though I love it cuz it bothered my tendons in the knees. After doing romanian chair exercise on Friday, I got this pain going from the back of my hip around to the front, on the right side of lower back…Hope that explains it well or I can send a pic.
I’ve maintained weight for 3 weeks, doing what you’ve suggested so now should I really start lowering “purposeful cardio” and if so, which ones to lower and by how much. To remind you, I was doing 3 days of HIIT for 25 minutes, really it’s interval training since I can’t do super high intensity. . .and 2 days of 60 minute walks . this week I’m gonna lay off the HIIT/intervals for my knees, and probably exchange for walks. You’ve helped so much. No more shoulder pain, knock on wood.
Glad to help :). Keep the walks for sure. Overall plan with healthy knees would be something like: cut 5 minutes off your HIIT sessions every week until you’re down to like 10-15 minutes, then maintain or just drop them completely. With knees stay active but your walks really aren’t a problem to sub in. The maintenance is a good thing, slow but its a strategic move to set up future progress.
Step aerobics have been one of the major orthopedic issues I have had to deal with with my older female clients…I am not a fan. Typically after aerobics are dropped everything starts to feel better after a few weeks.
I don’t know what romanian chair exercise is…?
In general I would continue to stretch the calves and work on soft tissue with them via tennis ball, foam roller, softball, etc.
ok let me see if I understood you. So for now, do as much walking as time permits and as I like, right. When I get better try and drop the interval training down to 15 minutes or just drop them and walk daily. Actually I love walking, so to do it daily is no problem for me honestly. Stay on maintenance calories and hope that I do see progress, but expect it to be slow. Stick with the same weight routine.
I meant the roman chair for abs, isn’t that what it’s called/?
and I will drop the step aerobics, since I have tracking issues anyways with my knees, it’s probably something I shouldn’t have done and maybe I"m just too old now to do it. Thanks again. . . . and with the walking, I" don’t worry about the speed or heart rate, I just try to walk fast. Thanks
And another new injury/pain. After my upper power workout, I got trapezius pain, real tight like it knotted up on me and it is super sore. Any tips, any thoughts on what I could have done wrong or what to beware of when I do my next upper body in 2 days? thanks
please check out my deadlifts. I’m getting a pulling in my middle back, and not sure if it’s normal or not. Thanks