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My dilemna.....

LilThing Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/03/20	2007/11/29, 11:11 AM Growing up I played every sport ever made. I had a thin muscular build. Through college I quit working out and was a waitress who hardly ever ate. I lost a lot of muscle during those 4 years. I got out about a year and a half ago. I started weight training with my boyfriend, doing basically his same routine. Rather than gaining back muscle in my arms and legs, all the weight has been around my belly. Everything I've read says that women should lift weights just like men. I am starting to question this since after a year and a half, while I am stronger I don't have much arm/leg muscle.
LilThing Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/03/20	2007/11/29, 11:13 AM I do a 3-4 day a week routine. A day for legs doing squats, lunges, and stiff leg deadlifts. A day for chest and back doing, bench press, pull-ups, some sort of rows and some other stuff. The third and forth day are usually more bench and squats but more arm and shoulder work.
LilThing Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/03/20	2007/11/29, 11:15 AM I've cleaned up my diet a lot as well since college. I neve drink, no soda, no fried food, blah blah. I tend to eat somewhere around 1500-2000 calories per day depending on the day. The higher number should be enough for me to gain some muscle, but why am I not gaining muscle? Gosh, almost forgot. 23/f/110lbs.
rev8ball Posts: 3,081 Joined: 2001/12/27	2007/11/29, 11:38 AM What is your rep/set scheme, and what does your cardio look like? -------------- Michael Strength & Conditioning is not everything; it just really sucks to be weak and slow.
LilThing Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/03/20	2007/11/29, 03:41 PM The first exercise I try to do 3-5 sets, something like 10,8,6,4,2 while increasing the weight each set. Second exercise is usually 3-4 sets, 8,6,4,2 again increasing weight. Third exercise is 3 sets, again 8,6,4. I feel like I have a good workout selection, I'm not sure about the rep/set scheme though. I do cardio after weights usually 5-10 min of HIIT work.
LilThing Posts: 5 Joined: 2006/03/20	2007/12/03, 10:32 AM Any advice?
Pemdas Posts: 973 Joined: 2004/07/22	2007/12/03, 11:18 AM How long have you been doing the same thing? What is your progression i.e. have you consistently been moving up in weight or number of reps?
wrestler125 Posts: 4,619 Joined: 2004/01/27	2007/12/03, 11:38 AM Pyramiding sucks. You're set of 2 and 4 aren't going to be as heavy as they should after doing 10, 8, 6, because you're already fatigued. The russians did a lot of research on this and quickly dropped it from their programs (with the exception of the sheiko bench program on the volume day, but none of that is done to failure or even close). If you want to do low reps and high reps, I'd put them on seperate days. Undulating periodization (waving rep ranges up and down within a cycle) can be very effective. One example would be a 4 day routine with 2 upper and 2 lower body days. Monday: Heavy upper body day, sets of 3-6 Tuesday: Light lower body day, sets of 6-12 Thursday: Light Upper body day, sets of 6-12 Friday: Heavy lower body day, sets of 3-6 Also, while I agree that women should work out with weights just like men, a lot of people have found that women respond better to a higher rep range. Not much higher like you see some girls doing endless sets, but say sets of 5 instead of 3, sets of 10 instead of 8. -------------- SQUAT MORE ~Jesse Marunde Blood Guts Sweat Chalk