Question:
Attn: Personal Trainers...workout suggestions needed!

Are there any personal trainers out there who might be able to suggest a good workout for me. I've been working out an hour a day 5 days a week since surgery. I do a half hour of weight/resistance training--upper body one day then lower body/abs the next. Then I do half an hour of high impact aerobics. I do this 5 days a week and usually take the weekend off. Is this adequate? Am I getting the best possible results? I'm totally willing to do more but am not sure what that more should be. Should I change my routine if I'm enjoying what I do? Can I add aerobic activity without harming my muscle building? I'm confused. Help!    — jenpatalano (posted on January 9, 2004)

January 9, 2004
Congratulations on your exercise dedication. I'm not a personal trainer, but I have worked with one for over a year now. Some of the principles he has recommended to me is 1. be sure to maintain perfect "form" for all your weight exercises. Most people you see in gyms, etc. are not lifting correctly and will not, therefore, reap the desired benefits. 2. be sure to "change up" your routine every 4-6 weeks. In that I mean don't continue to execute the workouts in the same way every day/week, etc. One week you may want to do your weight workout with resting time in between each set and execute the reps very slowly to get more "burn." The next week, you may want to eliminate the resting period and execute the weights rather quickly. And, you may want to change up with balancing a lower and upper body lift to alternating between a lower body weight exercise and then an upper body weight exercise. Does that make sense? The whole premise is that our bodies very quickly adapt to the stresses placed upon them and to continue to reap the desired benefit and burn fat at a maximum rate, we must keep our bodies off balance or guessing. Also, with respect to the aerobics, you may want to consider alternating the form of your aerobic workouts. You may want to alternate between the treadmill, elliptical trainer, the bike, swimming, and an aerobics class. Again, the change is important. Five times per week is more than plenty exercise. In fact, I would be careful not to "overtrain." I started at 5x per week, but as my trainer and I upped the intensity of my workouts, he recommended I cut them back to 4x per week with 2 days of exercise, take a break on the third day, then 2 days of exercise, and then take the weekend off. That seems to work for me. All the best.
   — Kimberly L. A.

January 9, 2004
Well, I am not a personal trainer but I am in a relationship with one! She (and I) use the training schedule in the book Body For Life. Check it out. Its simple, short, to the point, and really gets great results! Best of luck!
   — MissKimberly

January 10, 2004
I am not a trainer but I do have one. He asks me to do a 15-20 minute cardio warm up. Then we do weights/strength training for 30 minutes. I then end with a 30 minute stretch of cardio again. My nutritionist says for optimum weight loss we should be at 5 hours of cardio a week in addition to strength training. I am just trying for 3 hours right now. 5 seems a little daunting.
   — mrsmyranow