I’ve been trying to decide which type of workout is best for me.
The first one I usually do starts and do one rep of an exercise then move to the next exercise without any rest between. I have twelve different exercises in this workout and it takes me about an hour. I do three reps of each exercise in all without resting between exercises. I have it set up so the following exercise works a different muscle group than the previous one.
The second workout I recently started trying is I rest one and a half minutes between reps and do all three reps of each exercise at once. I only do seven exercise in this workout and it takes me about fifty minutes. I’m 49 years old. I’m just trying to stay healthy and keep what strength God gave me.
Having done both workouts the first is harder, but does that equal better. I’ve lifted weight since I was a teenager but never on a regular basis. I’ve been doing this for about a year now, but I’ve always wondered if one workout was significantly better than the other.
Are you looking for a pre written program that has been written by a professional and has exercises, a progression model built in and a set and rep scheme.
Or are you asking what you should pick out of those 2 examples you provided?
This is a very modest goal and can be achieved by eating healthy, doing a bit of cardio through the week and doing a bit of resistance training (weights, calisthenics, gymnastics etc) a few times a week.
If you have a more specific goal it would help us to help you.
I’m just wondering which one of my two exercise programs is more effective or better. I should have added to my original post that the one workout where I take no rest beaks my heart rate stays about 120 to 130 beats a minute and the shorter one where I take 1 and 1/2 to 2 minute breaks between sets my heart rate is around 85 to 100 beats a minute. I’m just wondering if I’m getting just as much out of the easier workout or if I’m getting a lot more out of the harder workout.
G’day mate what are your physical stats and any health problems or limitations?
What are your overall goals and what are you trying to achieve out of working out?
Before anyone can give you advice towards what you’re trying to achieve, we have to know specifics.
It’s vague trying to understand “keep whatever strength god gave you”
Thanks bud 
I’m a healthy, physically fit 49 year old male. I’m 5 foot 8 inches tall. I weigh 165 pounds. I’m starting to get older, so I can tell I’m losing some strength. I didn’t have a lot of extra strength to begin with, and I need to be able to fix things around the house and work on our car and as I get older I want to be able to be mobile and active well into my 70s of later. I believe staying physically fit gives me the best chance of achieving those goals, but I don’t enjoy physical exercise. I can do the harder exercise program, but if it’s more than I need to reach my goals and the easier one will do, I want to know.
At 52 and to stay healthy, I cannot recommend Waterbury enough.
Full body, three times a week.
I agree with @JFG. Now it is hard for me to comment on what you can handle as you’re a fair bit older but perhaps some more mature lifters could give some advice, but in my honest opinion, there are countless more programs that not only are ten fold more effective for efficiency, but the whole concept of “progressive overload” where the slow increase of weight will make you stronger if you are feeding yourself correctly.
Perhaps @RampantBadger could tag some programs as I’m still not sure how to link them.
What does a standard day food wise look for you? Do you eat clean, wholesome foods regularly? Do you eat moderate to large amounts of protein?
I think at this stage, if you could commit to 3 days a week of weights with something like in a Waterbury program and making healthy adjustments to your lifestyle, you’ll notice huge differences very quickly. My advice to you is leave the other two workouts behind because I can’t see any progression and for what you’re probably getting out of them, there is little doubt that’s why you’re not enjoying them
I’m not looking for a program. I was just wondering of the two programs I use which one looks better. I’m not looking to get stronger or bigger. I just want to maintain what I have and stay as healthy as possible as I age. The first program my heart rate gets to about 120 to 130 bpm through the workout which last about 50 to 60 minutes. For my age and weight that is considered a vigorous workout. In the second program my heart rate stays about 90 to 100 bpm for 30 minutes through the workout. For my age and weight that is considered a moderately intensive workout.
Ok
Apart from heart rate, which says nothing of your workout, what exactly are you doing?
And, if you would have read anything from Waterbury, you would have understood why I recommend his workouts.
As the OP just wants fitness and overall health i’d stick with the “first”/complexes/giant sets style workout.
Alpha/Brian Alsruhe’s will get you in amazing shape but not easy…
These also good and slightly less intense…
Sincerely, complexes suck serious donkey bum
EDIT: Not to say they’re bad for you at all. They’re great, just really, really hard.
I read about complex workouts and I think one of my workout is sort of like them. But what I really want to know is what others think of my to workout programs and which one is more likely to help keep me healthy as I age. I don’t really like working out, so I don’t want to do more than I have too.
Here are my two workouts: The first one is started with 120 lbs on the bench press. I do one rep of 10 and go immediately to my next exercise which is 50 lbs single handed rows. I do 12 reps with each hand and go to the next exercise. Which is Lat Pulls. I have a machine I do these on. The next exercise is 26 lbs single handed seated presses. I try to do 12 reps. Some times I can, but some times I can’t. next exercise is the captains chair. I do 30 reps on the first set. The next is weight squats. 80 lbs. 12 reps. Next pushups. I’m at 25 reps. next vertical leg crunches. Next skull crushers on my machine 12 reps. Next dips. Next pull ups. Lastly curls. Then I start all over again with no rest between set or exercises. After I can do an exercise 12 times for all three sets for 5 weeks in a row I increase the weight about 20%. This workout takes me about an hour to do.
In my other workout I rest 1 1/2 to 2 minutes between set. Here are the exercise I do For that workout Bench Press, Captains Chair, Seated Press, Curls, Pushups, Skull Crushers, Pull ups This workout takes about 40 minutes
Yeah go with the first back-back sets style. Ideally go with complexes- similar, but much more effective not to mention time efficient.
Another option is do the second workout but for half the movements only rest 30 secs between sets
No leg work??
Leg work. Weighted squats?