Help Needed

Ok I really want to hire a personal trainer but unfortunetly I do not have the money to do so. I have been working out faithfully at least 3 times a week since sugery starting at 6 weeks post op I started adding circuit training. I am not feeling like my workout is intense enough. I do not bust a sweat hardly at all. I need ideas on what to do to kick my workout up a notch and to keep the workout to an hour long. Any suggestions would be great.

Kate - Can you post your workout more specifically... reps/weights/types of exercises/duration.. how do you break it out during the week? example... M-W-F cross training and cardio in the same day? Is it both the cardio and weights that you are seeking more of a challenge? What are your goals - fat loss, build muscle,maintain? Do you have any limitations or injuries? Do you have time to workout more then 3 times a week even if it is an hour a day? What do you like to do? What resources do you have at your disposal ie.. gym, home equipment, cardio machines, free weights, heart rate monitor, etc. I'd be happy to make some suggestions. Your body will adapt if you continue to do the same thing over and over. I change out my routine completely every 6-8 weeks but always looking to add new stuff too. The key is to keep your body guessing by changing up your routine but not changing it so frequently that you can figure out what is working and not working for you if that makes sense. This can be accomplished several ways but I need to know what you are doing now in order to make more specific suggestions - ie- adding more weight, recruiting more muscles at one time or isolating muscles, doing giant sets, etc. I can even suggest specific exercises for you to try. I'm sure the rest of the gang will have some great advice for you as well. One thing a personal trainer is important for is not just creating a routine but making sure that when you do the exercises they are done with the proper form. That can make all the difference in the world. 10 good crunches are better then 200 bad ones. The good news is there is enough resources on the web that if you can't afford a trainer you can pretty much learn a lot online and most gyms offer at least some sort of initial instruction for free along with staff that is usually available to help you out if you have questions.

Ok what I am doing now is 3 days a week I start out my workout by doing 3 sets of 12 reps of lower weights on the circuit. One week I get 2 upper body workouts and one lower body and the next week I switch that up. Then after I do my reps I then follow by doing cardio. My main focus is burning fat and toning. Whether it be the bike, the eliptical or the treadmill I do it until I burn at least 300 calories. I am only getting this in 3 times a week as well. I have school in the evening and I am a single mom with little to no extra time on my hands. So I would like to stick to no more than 3-4 workouts a week if I have to increase the workout time I will do so. Let me know what you think. I have a membership to a gym and I have a exercise bike at home that maybe I could start using to get in some additional workout time on the days I can not get to the gym. Let me know what you can come up with. I really appreciate your help. You are such a sweetie for volunterring your help! by the way you look great! Thanks, Kate Preop 342/current 245lbs. 98lbs gone!

Thanks so much for the sweet compliment Kate! ok.. lets start with the cardio. Have you ever heard of HIIT Cardio? It is really a simple concept and can be applied to any type of cardio equipment you use. It is great when you don't have a lot of time. *High Intensity Interval Training* It should take you about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and you do it in intervals. An example would be sprinting for 20 seconds than briskly walking for 40 seconds before repeating for the desired number of times. For more info on HIIT I suggest you read this, http://davedraper.com/hiit-cardio-training.html Now that site is going to tell you HIIT is better then anything else. My personal take on it is that its just another type of cardio to add to your program for variety. For me.. variety is where it is at. Keeps me consistent. I like to add in a couple sessions of interval cardio a week but I also do lower intenstiy longer sessions as well. This week I am just working on mostly low intensity cardio. If you don't have a heart rate monitor you might consider giving yourself one as a gift. POLAR makes some great ones. It can help you really judge the intensity of your cardio that way. With HIIT you want to let your heart rate drop on the recovery stages. Monitoring your heart rate helps taking the guess work out of it. The better you get at it then you will see you should see your heart recovering faster. At first you might even want to make your rest intervals a little longer.. say 2 min sprint.. 4 min walk or instead of a sprint put that incline up as high as you can get it.. anything to get that heart rate up. Here is how I would design a workout week if I only had 3 hours over 3 days to do it in......... 10 min cardio warmup - low intensity full body resistance training 30 minutes HIIT Cardio 20 minutes 5 min cool down cardio and stretching Specifics on resistance........... I still was looking more for the specific exercises you were doing in your resistance training but thats ok. My guess is you have not tried giant sets yet. If you do the HIIT Cardio with your exisiting resistance training as is right now but you still want to kick it up a notch consider doing giant sets. You can also focus on more compound exercises that recruit more muscles at once like a clean and press if that gets too easy. They should really get your heart rate going and its a different style of training then probably what you are use to doing. For giant sets.. typically people will work on 4 or more exercises in a row to make up a series and then repeat that sequence. So instead of do 3 sets of 15 reps of squats and then moving on to the next exercise try this......... Leg Press 12 - 15 reps Leg Extension 12 - 15 reps Prisoner Squats 12-15 reps Hamstring Curls 12 - 15 reps rest for 90 seconds the first couple weeks you do this but can go to 60 secs eventually.. very important .. make sure your heart rate has come down.. I try to get mine back into the 120's. Take a few sips of water.. no gulping! repeat above set rest 90 secs repeat above set rest 90 secs.. start your next series The above example series pretty much takes care of your legs Now move on to upper..... Lat Pull Down 12 - 15 reps Chest Press 12 - 15 reps Row 12- 15 reps Shoulder Press 12 - 15 reps rest 90 secs repeat above series rest 90 secs repeat above series Last series I would focus on back and abs if you are not too worn out Either weighted abs on a machine and do the 12 - 15 reps, stability ball abs, regular crunches on the floor.. anyway you like Do one set then go to the hyper-extension bench and do back 12-15 repeat just like you did with the giant sets THIS IS KEY.. no more whimpy weight for you. If you do not fail on your last set by the time you get to 12ish reps then the weight is too light. Increase it and adjust for next time. I have a whole arsenel of more complex exercises that recruit more muscles at once but I kept my examples pretty basic. Some resources for exercises with animations and videos... http://www.athletics.ucr.edu/strengthconditioning/exercisemenu.html http://www.bodyforlife.com/exercise/animations.asp I would not incorporate both these changes at the same time. If you want to try the giant sets or add in more compound exercises like a clean and press then do 20 min lower intensity cardio after. If you are not use to doing legs like that they are probably going to hurt so you will be lucky to walk briskly after...lol. That is a good thing! As your body begins to adapt again in a couple weeks then you can add in the HIIT cardio after. Hope this gives you some ideas. When you are ready for more challenges let me know. If this seems too hard or are confused on any specific exercises let me know that too. By your post and not being there in person it is really hard for me to judge where you are at right now. There is a whole world waiting out there for you to discover.. you can do more traditional splits instead of full body workouts, olympic lifting, more power and stregnth type stuff, balance work, core work, plyometric drills. Then of course there is all the other great activites outside the gym to try from boot camp type training to biking to rollerblading to trying out races.. swimming... spin cycle classes. I even have good info on how to get in some couch potato workouts while you are at home with the kids just using your own body weight... ie- doing dips off the couch, pushups, crunches ball or wall squats. Have fun!