Question - exercising 4 times a week only...need help !

A

AnatW

Active Member
Hi,

As much as I tried to increase my exercise days, I can only do 4 days a week, top. Even doing exercise 2 days in a row seems to be hard on my body. So I found that exercising Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday is best for me.

My goal is mainly to lose weight (about 25 lbs).

My questions are:

1) Is exercising 4 days good enough for weight loss ? How can I increase to 5 times ? I was thinking about cutting down workout time each day and adding one more short day. Is that a good idea ?

2) If I want to remain with 4 days and maximize my efforts for weight loss, do you have any suggestion for a rotation ? (most rotations I saw in Kathy S's mail (thanks Kathy) were for 5-6 days.

3) What is better: doing 4 days a week cardio + light weight sessions (the Firm or Reebok Circuit training for example) or separate my cardio work from my weight work ?

Thanking you all in advance !!!

Anat.
 
I think 4 days a week is good, but I would think you will have to do both weights and cardio on each day. I think it is most important that you do cardio at 4 times a week, since you want to lose so much weight (but strength training is important too).
You may want to do a split where you do legs one day, back and bis another, and chest, tri's and shoulders another (or back and chest, then shoulders, bis and tris), and do about 30 minutes of cardio after, and then do an hour long cardio session on the 4th day.
Or circuit training would work too, if you used Reebok's tape and Cathe's circuit Max, since there is cardio involved, and then you could do two straight up cardio days.
You didn't say how long your workouts are, so I'm not sure if you are working out too long or not. Anything over an hour and half is probably too much.
I think variety is key here. Do cardio 4 times a week, but do something different as much as possible. I am assuming you are working out at home. I would change the weight tapes you are doing periodically to keep from getting bored, and to wake up your muscles.
You know what else you could consider? (This is getting very long, I know). It just occured to me. The Body for Life program suggests training your upper body one day, then lower body one day, then upper body one day, and next week do lower, upper, lower, and so on. (Have you heard of this?). They are relatively short, since you are only doing 6 sets per body part, and you would still have time to do 30 minutes of cardio (more intense cardio since a shorter workout) then on your 4th day do longer cardio. I don't want to go into the weight workout in more detail just in case you already know what I am talking about. If not, I can explain in more detail.

This is really long, I know. I hope at least some of it makes sense! (This is all my opinion, too, not gospel!!)
 
Which tapes do you have? If you have CTX, you could add either one of those cardio sessions as a 5th day, or maybe even add a body part or two. I would suggest doing something like this:
Sat. Cardio and Upper body strength training
Sun. Cardio and Lower body strenght training
Tue. Cardio (either very intense like IMAX or long, like MIC)
Thu. Total Body Weight Work (like MIS or Power Hour) or a Circuit workout
Then on Mon. or Wed. do just part of a cardio tape. For example, if you have Cathe step tapes, do section 1 from Power Max, or section 3 from Rhythmic Step, etc. This is what I did, and I soon found myself doing more and more of the tape until I eventually got to 6 days of exercise per week. But remember, this is only going to work IF YOU ENJOY IT! If you don't feel like adding an extra day, then don't! Have fun!
 
Dear Anat,

How long have you been at this? I ask because it took me quite a few months to work up to 5 days a week. There was a long 4-day a week phase. It worked out well. Just don't be in too much of a hurry. Harder workouts wiped me out more then than they do now, because my fitness level has improved.

To increase to 5 days, just be patient and try some lower intensity workout on the day before the added day. Add a day one week but go back down to 4 the next week. Then gradually increase to 5 days over the course of 2 months or so. Eventually the math of fitting in the workouts you want will overpower you and you will have more energy to implement your desires!

That's how it worked for me. I still rarely work out 6 days in a week. Maybe that will change. Keeping an active lifestyle is important too (Yard work, walking, trying to stay away from the computer!)

-Connie
 
I had to butt in here and say that I never can seem to work out more than 4 days in row either. No matter how good my intentions are, it just DOESN'T HAPPEN. It's nice to hear that it takes a while. I used to work out 6 times a week with Cathe a few years ago, but then I fell off the wagon completely when I started teaching school full time. I started working out again in November after almost two years of sporadic workouts. I expected to go full force right away, and it just isn't like that. The first obstacle was being able to work out for more than 30 minutes, that took about 4 months to do, and now I just manage four 60 minute sessions a week plus weights. Anyway, I guess we need to be more understanding about what our bodies can handle at any given time. :)
 
Hi - I have to agree with Lauren & Connie, I worked out for several years 4x a week, and could never seem to work out more than that because my body would start displaying signs of overtraining. Just recently have I been able to work out 6x a week and not exhibit those signs. As a matter of fact, I have to consciously make myself not work out on the 7th day because I know I need a rest day.

I have to say to listen to your body and gradually increase your days, as was suggested. I also found that cardio days had to simply be that - cardio (no light weights added for cardio intensifiers, this is what burnt me out I found). I could do a combination of upper body + cardio one day and lower body + cardio the next, but I needed to make sure my cardio didn't include weights, but that's me.

I found that splitting my weight workouts and adding short cardio to those were worked best for me. If I'm doing PS, MIS, PH, etc. and splitting the workouts, I'll add 20-35 minutes of cardio from Cathe's tapes, i.e.:

*Any CTX cardio section
*MIC - hi/low (26 min.) or step (33 min.)
*Rhythmic Step - 1st 2 sections - 25 minutes
*BodyMax - Step - 24 minutes
*StepWorks - 1st 2 sections - 30 minutes
*PowerMax - 1st 2 sections - 31 minutes

This seemed to help me ease into a 6 day a week workout schedule, but I always took a rest day when my body let me know that I needed it. I also incorporated 1-2 60 minute cardio sessions and an interval session a week, trying to get in at least 4 cardio sessions and 2-3 weight days a week.

Again, like the others said, patience is key. :) Listen to your body and gradually increase your workouts, but still, 4 times a week is good, I did it for years and was able to lose the weight and tone up. I just think when we exercise for a long period, our bodies will be up for new challenges. Good luck.
 
Thank you for the great advice !

I have been exercising 3-4 times a week for the past year or so.
I read that you guys exercise 6 days, and I thought I should probably increase mine.
I will try to slowly add one more session and see if my body can handle it. Maybe I do need the challenge. I found that the extra day is not hard on my heart but on my lower body (mainly from kickboxing or step). Perhaps I should also work on my endurance.

Thanks again !

Anat.
 
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