This week I have been pushing myself to do more. I have been on the treadmill everyday. Today, I did the eliptical glider. (Doesn't burn as many calories, but gets my heart rate up faster)

I also have been lifting arm weights. With 10 lbs, I've been doing 3 sets of 11. I have been really sore, but I still just worked through the soreness. My DH said not to do them today, to let my muslces rest. Is this correct? I thought you just work through the soreness until you arent't sore. Just want to add, I am not in pain at all. It's a good sore. It's just funny to see me walk down the stairs. (Ow, ow, ow!)

Any tips would be appreciated. Off to do my crunches...

By Pamt on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 12:01 pm:

Yes, Eve. You are supposed to let the muscles rest in between resistance training. First of all, take a 10-15 second break between reps. Secondly, do weight/resistance training no more than every other day. It is during the "rest" time that the muscle actually builds up according to my trainer. She also said to build strength and muscle without bulking up to do more sets or reps instead of increasing the weight. Hope this helps!

WTG on the elliptical glider. I can do the bike or treadmill easily for 20 minutes at tough levels, but I can only manage about 4 minutes on the elliptical machine before I feel like my thighs and heart will explode.

By Pamt on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 12:02 pm:

One more thing...for the soreness. Make sure you are doing some good stretching before AND after your workout. Flexibility and stretching is as important as strength and cardio.

By Familyman on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 03:02 pm:

If your body is asking to take a rest day it's probably a good idea. Muscle is most effectively built with periods of stress and rest. The stress convinces the body that it really needs more muscle to do the job, and the rest lets it do that. Weight trainers seldom work muscle groups two days in a row and runners are advised to alternate hard and easy runs if they run every day.

By Eve on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 06:00 pm:

Thank you so much! I do rest in between sets and I always go slowly when releasing the muscle. I'll have to set up some sort of a routine for myself! Thanks for the tips.

By Debbie on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 06:22 pm:

Eve, I got really great muscle tone last year following the Body for Life strength training. I am doing it again now. You really want to lift just a couple times a week and really lift as much weight as you can. I work upper body one day and then lower body the next. I do upper body on Mon, lower on Tues., Wed I don't do any, upper on Thurs. and lower of Fri. I do three sets. The first set I do 12 reps, then the 2nd I do 10 reps and then the last I do 8 reps. I increase the weights with each rep. Right now I am using 5, 8 and 10 lbs weights. When I was doing really well, I got to were I was lifting up to 20 lbs on some exercises. When you use different weights with each set, it also makes it easier to gradually increase to heavier weights. To tell if you are lifting enough weight, by the last set you should feel like you just can't lift anymore when you are done. Hope this makes sense.

By Dana on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 11:02 pm:

Not sure if this helps, but in my routine that I follow, we do upper, next day aerobic (kickboxing), next day lower, next aerobic, next upper and so on. We rest on Sunday but continue on the same pattern

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, January 17, 2004 - 01:45 pm:

Definitely stretching before and mild stretches after (to cool off). There is an old but true line - if it hurts, don't do it. There is another line - pain builds character - but I have often wondered what kind of character is built by pain.

Personally, I am a couch potato, so don't have any advice from experience, but you've gotten lots of that above. Seth makes a lot of sense to me, and I like Debbie's plan of focusing on different muscle sets/body areas on different days, to give each set a day or so to rest.

By Eve on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 02:27 pm:

Thank you all! I will try to follow that schedule. That should be helpful!