what workouts to do, confused, weights/ cardio

[lovebeingmom]

I just finished reading BFFM and they talk about how many days cardio how many days weights and i'm confused on what to do

I have a 6 month old that gets up for the day anywhere between 5-6am. she sometimes gets up during the night too

my 18 month old gets up around 6:30-7am

both go to bed at 7pm so what i've been doign is taking my two dogs for a walk from 7:30-8 with my neighbor(dogs NEED the exercise and I need socialization) and then doing a video from 8-9

i like to be in bed by 9:30-10 so I can get a nice chunk of sleep

ideally i would love to workout in the mornings but its not feasable right now and I rather KNOW i am working out then hoping that the kids sleep and missing a workout

SO, I have an hour each night. I take saturdays off because DH and I normally go out or just spend time together and thats important too

so I have 6 nights of 1 hour and I could probably do another two days of working out during my lunch time as I work close to home. the other days I spend my lunch cleaning the house. busy busy

so I have lets say EIGHT hours set aside a week to workout

i want to build muscle and lose fat. how many days of cardio would you do and how many days lifting? would you do a video that incorporates FULL BODY lifting or split days. I have Cathy Pyramids and Gym Style. I have a bunch of FIRM tapes too but I've been doign those and not seeing much results

for cardio days, i have a ton of different Cathe tapes and just got 3 new ones

but i'm not sure what to do

any advice. sorry so long

jaime

 

[tneah]

Have you checked out the rotations here? I never did them until November, and love them now. I would suggest doing that first, and then get the 4DS workouts which are an hour long. You get the cardio and the weights all in one hour-pure heaven for the time crunched and the impatient (that would be me!) Or get the older but still fab, CTX series. Those would work out nicely for you as well.

 

[maddiesmum]

Jaime:

This is what I would do:

after walking dog with neighbour, use three nights to do a one hour cardio workout, and three nights to weight train. If you have the Gym Styles, this would work perfectly for you as you would be able to train every muscle group once per week and the DVDs already have the muscle groups to work in each session set out for you. Then, just choose three cardio workouts from your library on the other three days, opting for variety and various degrees of intensity. I would make one of those workouts an interval based workout and the other two more steady state cardio. Maybe some step, some kickbox and some boot camp style? Whatever floats your boat. I would also alternate cardio and weights on separate days, so that you don't get over tired and can vary the demands your workouts place on your body each day, allowing plenty of time for the muscles to recover before you work them again.

So: cardio/weights/cardio/weights/cardio/weights.

Do this basic plan for a while until you get a real routine down and see how your body likes this plan and reacts to it. Later you can tweak and play around, but to begin with you need a foundation of fitness and a foundation of self-knowledge of your own body to know how it reacts to each exercise type and what else it needs more of, or less of, etc.

I think your plan as you describe it above sounds well thought out and eminently sensible. You have heavy demands on your energy with those little kids and you do not need to be making yourself ill with over-exercising for over an hour a day, or cutting back on your much-needed sleep, or making yourself fretful by worrying about whether or not your fitness plan is a good one.

Keep it simple, keep it basic, just keep moving and gradually increasing the weights that you lift and the intensity of your cardio. You cannot help but generate fitness gains and increased energy to help you though your busy days.

Good luck,

Clare