Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 382, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Frequency and composition of workouts?

jorax
jorax
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007/07/05
United States
2007/09/02, 10:37 PM
Hello, I am a 27 year old male who is trying to get into a regular workout routine. I am 6'0" and about 200lbs. I play soccer 2 nights each week giving me strong legs and decent cardio conditioning, but have a very slim upper body. My goals are to get rid of the gut/love handles I've developed over the last year and secondarily to gain some definition in my core and upper body.

If I am to add morning workouts to my schedule, how many days a week should I go? How much time should be spent on cardio compared to weight training during those morning sessions? Thanks for reading!
jorax
jorax
Posts: 4
Joined: 2007/07/05
United States
2007/09/05, 05:14 PM
Anyone? I'm curious if a 3 days a week (Mon/Wed/Fri) or 4 (Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri) would be better, assuming I'm switching muscle groups each day. I don't know much about recovery time, but what I've read indicates that is when muscle actually builds.

Also, is 10 minutes of cardio before a workout enough? Should I be doing more?
ecle5c
ecle5c
Posts: 1,312
Joined: 2003/07/10
United States
2007/09/06, 09:11 AM
Do cardio after the workout. 10-15 min is fine - look into high intensity interval training (HIIT).

Sign up for a program on this site, do that program. They work assuming you eat right. If you have the time do 4 days, but if time is short 3 can be fine.
gs24sunshine
gs24sunshine
Posts: 81
Joined: 2007/06/19
United States
2007/09/06, 05:53 PM
Well you should do enough cardio to get blood moving before workout...5-7 mins is enough to get the blood moving,then stretch out then workout.And yes what ecle5c was saying about cardio,do it after the workout.The main cardio for the day.