I’ve just started going back to the gym now its dark in the evenings. Have been a member for ages so know how to use all the machines, but havent been regularly for over a year. I want to improve general fitness, strength to make climbs on the bike a bit easier, and maybe lose a little weight. Does anyone have any tips on the best combination of exercises to do this? Today I spent 20mins on the treadmill, 15 rowing machine, and 15 bike, followed by a few of the weights machines – is this enough to have any impact or should I be doing more/different things? Thanks!

im interested in this thread too. not sure if its a good thing to mix cardio and weights in the same session or not.

i was doing that myself until i read somewhere that its counter-productive, so i tend to do one day weights, next session cardio etc etc.
with the aim of ‘re-distributing’ my weight from my waist to my *cough* muscles 🙂

be interested to see if thats the right way of going about things.

A good workout IME is:

1. Bench press
2. Deadlift or squat (alternate days)
3. Dick around on the weight machines admiring the birds.

That’s it really.

Not sure that’s work for me as i’m a girl… 🙂

Whatever you do, make sure you are completely knackered by the end of the session. Otherwise its almost not worth doing.

A conventional gym will get you conventional results. What you want to be doing is this: http://www.crossfit.com/ I’ve not long started and have been making fantastic progress.

lexiekay – Member

Not sure that’s work for me as i’m a girl…

Then dick around with weights machines admiring the boys 😉

In all seriousness it’s a good workout – bench press followed by deadlift/squat is full body. All the rest is just a bonus.

My current workout, when I can be bothered, is push-press, front squats and press-ups as I am limited to what I can do at home.

If I was back to a gym, then bench and squat would be the core of my routine.

Find a class that you like and you’re more likely to stick to it. Bodyattack is good for what you want.

Thanks for the replies – sounds like there isn’t much point doing the cardio stuff which I’m kind’ve confused by? I thought this would help with stamina on the bike

lexiekay – there is probably no point in doing anything other than cardio if you want to gain fitness and lose weight. Anyone that says anything different is talking bollocks.

Cardio, cardio, even more cardio. If you do weights you might get heavier so possibly no good. You should really post a picture of your good self here (in a bikini on Friday night 😉 ) and we’d advise. Otherwise, have a chat with a decent PT at the gym.

Ignore hairychested

Do high intensity intervals on the cardio machines – bike, row etc

And lots of dumbell/balancy upper body and core work.

this is kind of malarky is pretty effective too for proper functional fitness

Dunno bout you but I’m confused. I agree on this one though:

Whatever you do, make sure you are completely knackered by the end of the session. Otherwise its almost not worth doing.

iDave what about stuff to help with strength on climbs?

the cardio intervals will do that, as will core and upper body conditioning and also squats/lunges etc

I reckon if you want to look great and ride better cardio should give you that. Weights are fine, but I prefer girly girls, not Rachel Atherton-like ones. Talk to somebody from your local triathlon club, they tend to know a lot about fitness, stamina etc.

I prefer girly girls

Is she training to try and pull you? Missed that bit 😉

Talk to somebody from your local triathlon club, they tend to know a lot about fitness, stamina etc

So do some people on here…

As suggested above you may find doing a couple of classes helps keep you motivated in your training – if your gym does things like Body Attack, Body Pump these can give you an intense workout in an hour and work all the muscle groups. A decent Spin class can also help increase strength in the legs if you put a decent resistance on, and I have found it has given me extra stamina for climbs on the bike. These can be interspersed with cardio and weights sessions in the gym so you don’t get bored of the same routine. I also enjoy a good circuits class.

Again it amazes me how many people go to my gym and come out looking as fresh as they went in – surely the whole point is to put some effort in and at least look as though you have perspired a little.

I am a PT.
Do not do steady state on cardio machines as this will MAKE YOU FATTER.
Do exactly as littlegirlbunny suggests, but ensure you have a professional show you how to do those movements properly or you WILL hurt yourself.

Good luck.

I’d love to know where you got that statement about steady state cardio making you fatter from flap_jack. I’d agree it’s not really worth doing as you’d have to be doing it for over an hour to make it even begin to deplete your energy supplies but as a statement in itself, I’d have to disagree.

Anyway…looking at what you want to achieve and assuming that as you post on here that you already have a reasonable base level of fitness. I would recommend the following:

– Lots and lots and lots of core stability/abs work. This will aid both balance and the way that power is transferred from your body to the bike.

– Lots of various leg exercises. Initially with low weights and high reps, as the winter progresses maintain the high number of reps but increase the weight.

– Finally to generally improve fitness I’d suggest DOING alot. Mix up as many different activities as you want to do. As you don’t have anything specific in mind, simply increasing the amount of activity you do will make you generally fitter. If, however, you want to get on your bike in the spring and really feel as though you’re significantly faster than you were in the Autumn…I’m afraid there’s no getting round it. It’s time to buy a set of lights and a set of mudguards and going out and riding your bike!

Hope this is helpful!

STW in fail mode … good grief. Lexi – think a bit more about what you want out of it and then go read some, there so much literature out there. But whatever you do please don’t listen to some of the crap up there ^^^ about girls using weights or only doing cardio for what you want.

What you probably mean when you say you want to lose weight is that you want to lose fat, and replace that with muscle strength and tone. To do that you need to use weights, you ain’t going to bulk up, no really you’re not. Tonight I watched a tiny – but very lean girl bench pressing – about 45kilos – not a lot for a bloke, but I reckon she was probably only 50ks herself. I use BathUni gym which is rammed with elite athletes (and us ordinary folk) and they all, without fail, have weights programmes, whatever the discipline. I generally use a bit of cardio to warm up before weights (spin or row for 15-20 mins) – cause I prefer it that way, but you need to find what suits you.

Free weights, core work and some compound exercises like squats is all good – basically what IDave said.

Lots and lots and lots of bollocks written up there. Stick to what I said and you’ll be fine. flap_jack – i’m a PT too, but one of the ones who knows what they are talking about and has the qualifications to back it up.

I want to improve general fitness, – running, swimming, running sports (footy, hockey, tennis)

strength to make climbs on the bike a bit easier, – obviously climbing on the bike, climbing as in rock climbing will I guess make your upper body stronger, weights there are many many different combo’s perhaps watch and then ask at your local gym.

and maybe lose a little weight. – i-dave’s diet plan worked well for me.

Perhaps go online and pick your favourite actress, 99% someone will have put their workout online for you to copy or manipulate.

One of the good things about a gym is you can mix it up a bit. You don’t just have to do strength or cardio training you can do both 🙂

I do a lower intensity work out one day.
30mins Cross trainer
30mins treadmill
20mins Ergo rower (will take this to 30mins soon)

Weights day, This is important as it can build strength and this is not only good for power, hut helps to prevent injury when riding/sking etc

Intervals day (killer day)
Warm up
3minute ergo row sprint fast as you can
1minute rest (or heart rate reduced to certain value)
repeat until you die

I rotate this with some rest days/social rides in between.

Bazzer

I’ve massively improved since I started going regularly to spinning classes, so that would be my recommendation. Add in some abs twice a week, if you have time some weight training, and you’ll be shooting up the climbs in no time at all 🙂

What Philby said is important, too: the amount of people who come out of the gym looking as fresh as they did when they went in is amazing, if you want to get anything out of your visit you need to suffer and sweat!

Still confused 😉
Think I might head to one of the bigger gyms with more weights etc (the one I go to is pretty small) and get someone there to show me some good exercises to do. I enjoy the cardio stuff so will probably still do that. I try and go swimming at least twice a week, spin class once a week, and at least a couple of bike rides a week. Plus have recently started climbing. Surely all that should have some sort of effect?

I’m not a trainer and I recognise that there is bollocks being talked above. I am the stereotypical cardio bunny, yet I know I get more benefit in every way from intervals and weights. Treat large chain gyms with suspicion – look at the people going there, how many are getting results you want to emulate? Go smaller and gnarlier for more results and fun.

Just a few observations from my years of training, before I gave up and got fat, I start again though in a week as I have a few things to get out of the way

Cardio and weights, I used to mix them up, never did me a lot of harm, but, when I started increasing the weight I was pushing, then the cardio became a warm up, with the high intensity cardio on non weight days.

Weights, 45 minutes maximum for me, I used to train 2 body parts in this 45 minutes, this was developed by Mike Mentzer and improved by Dorian Yates, anything above this and I believe that you have tired the muscles so you are risking injury.

So, in essence, weights 3-4 times per week with riding a bike and a couple of cardio sessions per week always worked, I got toned and lost weight, I only hope it works again!!

I’m not saying people here don’t know, but the results can be achieved more easily if training is done 1-2-1 rather than via the forum. We can’t see the OP, she might have doubts or preferences, hence I suggested a LOCAL triathlon club. Unless any of the PT’s here is her local.
BTW Isn’t it a myth that no pain no gain?

The best thing to do would be to ask one of the staff (try to pick one that knows what they are doing!) to make up a program for you. Most gyms will be happy to do this and they can tailor a program based on what you want to achieve. Take some time deciding what you actually want from the gym and work out if what you want can be achieved outside the gym I like to be in the gym for as little as possible so only use equipment which does specific things I couldn’t easily do elsewhere. Which really only comes down to weights and rowing for me, for example circuit training can easily be done running round a park and you can do an awful lot of strength training with just your body weight (plyo chinups, plyo squats, one legged squats, plyo pushups, one hand push up etc.)

Follow that program for a month or so then change it again. The original program might not be the best you could have followed but after cycling through a few of them changing every month you will have enough of an idea of what you can do to make them up your self. The main points here are go in to the gym knowing what you are going to do in that session and change what you are doing regularly (monthly or every six weeks.) This means you make the most out of your time at the gym and changing the program stops you plateauing.

Out of interest does anyone use a PT and how much do they typically charge? I hate turbo training and I’m naturally lazy so motivating myself to go out on the bike in the cold/wet/wind is increasingly difficult but I need to do something. If I took out a gym membership I know it would just be money down the toilet as I’d never go if it were just a case of turning up and getting on with it myself but I figure having a PT session once or twice a week might work – however if it’s like £60+ an hour then I’d rather pay for liposuction next Spring :p

Ideally you want a gym which is used by a decent number of proper amateur athletes, they’ll have all the equipment and the trainers will be more interested in putting on good quality classes.

If you lean towards cardio then try and turn some of those sessions into intervals. Free weights will give you miles better results than machines, there are loads of classes like body pump to get started on free weights. Core training is important, yoga is good for core strength and flexibility.

If you are doing loads of exercise you will keep fit anyway. Some people find it interesting to do specific training to improve an aspect of their fitness. If you throw in some intervals and free weights you will lose fat a lot more easily than doing steady cardio.

STW rules of fitness.

1) Listen to iDave.
2) Ignore Molgrips 😉
3) HIIT is your friend.

I’d seriously recommend BodyPump classes. The girls that have been going to these classes long term are the fittest looking girls at the gym. It is also the quickest way to condition yourself for other weights workouts. Even having done weights on and off for years some petite women were putting me to shame 😳
I’d also reccomend RPM / Spinning classes. The people that do these classes are the fittest cardio-wise in the gym. Be prepared to sweat till you can’t sweat no more, but you will soon be murdering your mates on real bike rides.

Stick to what I said and you’ll be fine. flap_jack – i’m a PT too, but one of the ones who knows what they are talking about and has the qualifications to back it up.

Wow. But if that’s the case why suggest cardio only? Did you get your cert in 1993?

1) Listen to iDave.
2) Ignore Molgrips
3) HIIT is your friend.

C’mon be fair. Molgrips has not even had a chance to post his usual nonsense yet 8)

anyone got any tips of building the back up not using freeweights?

i’ve got a genetic condition which means i’m falling apart… unqualified STW advise is the way forward i think 😀

Dad – buy yourself a chin up bar. Have it set for two heights…

-One for chin-ups.
-The other.. lie on your back and set it so that it’s 4-6″ out of your arms reach. Hang from it with your feet out in front of you and kind of do the opposite of a press up.

i’m confused, why havent you done a awesome-Matt and taken topless photos of the technique to show me yet?!

I haven’t got a chin up bar at home. Can I just give you a topless pose instead?

Jamie – We all know he will be….. Hi Molgrips! *waves* 😀

Doing some strength training will raise your resting metabolic rate so if you keep eating the same you’ll lose fat – you may not lose weight overall but you’ll look like you have as you’ll be smaller! And more core strength is always a good thing, especially for mountain biking.

Cardio, cardio, even more cardio.

I don’t think you can substitute for an actual bike ride by doing that in a gym. You wanna spend two or three hours on an exercise bike?

I reckon gyms just supplement your actual biking, as people’ve said above.

PS I’m not posting any nonsense.. all you lot just misunderstood me last time so ner.