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Building muscle vs toning muscle

L0g4n

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Originally Posted by Buddy Love
Big reps and lots of aerobics, preferably hours, will tone your muscles nicely. For weightlifting I especially can recommend abductor and adductor machines for thighs. Just make sure you don't use too much weigth. Whatever you do, stay away from free weights, you can better target muscles with machines and they are a lot safer.

Were you joking here? I hope so.

This is not the best advice for your situation, Jaustin. Do free weight exercises, but lift a weight that you can do with correct form. That is the safest way to exercise.
 

jaustin

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Thanks alot for the replies guys. The only concern of mine is that it seems like too few exercises per day. I work out right now 3 times a week and do 10-15 exercises per day. Is it not good to do that many in one time, or if I wanted to add a few things to Drizzt's routine would that be ok?

Thanks again.
 

sygyzy

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How do you determine how much weight do per rep? How much should it increase? +10, +10, +10? or +10, +10, +20? Other?
 

drizzt3117

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Originally Posted by jaustin
Thanks alot for the replies guys. The only concern of mine is that it seems like too few exercises per day. I work out right now 3 times a week and do 10-15 exercises per day. Is it not good to do that many in one time, or if I wanted to add a few things to Drizzt's routine would that be ok?

Thanks again.


It depends. 10-15 exercises is probably too much unless you're doing something like HST, and I wouldn't recommend that since you're not lifting a lot of weight. At the weights you're lifting you should be plenty tired with the workout I gave you. You're probably not doing enough weight if you're not, and make sure you use free weights or barbells, NOT MACHINES. Stick to compound exercises and do more weight on the exercises rather than doing more exercises. The point of the exercise is to get teardown so you can build more muscle. If you're lifting low weights at high reps you're just doing glorified cardio.
 

drizzt3117

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Originally Posted by sygyzy
How do you determine how much weight do per rep? How much should it increase? +10, +10, +10? or +10, +10, +20? Other?

It depends what kind of workout you're doing, and at what level you're lifting. Some people like to do pyramids, which is a tried and true method, i.e. 10 reps at 135, 8 reps at 155, 6 reps at 175, 4 reps at 195. That works, but you get progressively more tired by the time you get to the high weights, which I don't like. What I would recommend is something like one warmup set at half weight, then 3 sets of 10 reps at the same weight (maybe something like 65-70% of your 1RM) Try to increase the weight each week, by 5 lbs or 10 lbs, and you should make gains.
 

Eason

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There is no such thing as toning muscle. Are you talking about losing weight to gain definition?
 

nioh

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Originally Posted by Eason
There is no such thing as toning muscle. Are you talking about losing weight to gain definition?

Naturally, an easy misconception most "newbies" do.
 

drizzt3117

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Well, to be fair, most people are considering low weight high rep lifting to be toning, which it is, in a sense, as it's a form of cardio and will contribute to weight loss, will probably cause at least a little teardown and as a result, hypertrophy, and most importantly, will make the muscle appear to be bigger and more defined immediately after they finish the workout (temporarily heh). However, it's hardly the most effective way to "tone"' as you'll get better results from a combination of good lifts and cardio.
 

L0g4n

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Originally Posted by drizzt3117
you'll get better results from a combination of good lifts and cardio.

^^Agreed. 10-15 exercises in a workout is WAY TOO MUCH for you in your stage of experience. Do these six exercises with perfect form and keep adding weight for at least one month. (12 workouts)

Squat
Deadlift
Incline Bench
Pullups
Dips
Bent Over Row
 

jaustin

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Hey guys,

Thanks so far for the advice. So you know I've been doing my current routine about 3 times a week for a few months, and I definitely see some results, but I'd probably see more with yalls. I'm still scrawny, but a lot better than i used to be.
 

sygyzy

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Originally Posted by drizzt3117
It depends what kind of workout you're doing, and at what level you're lifting. Some people like to do pyramids, which is a tried and true method, i.e. 10 reps at 135, 8 reps at 155, 6 reps at 175, 4 reps at 195. That works, but you get progressively more tired by the time you get to the high weights, which I don't like. What I would recommend is something like one warmup set at half weight, then 3 sets of 10 reps at the same weight (maybe something like 65-70% of your 1RM) Try to increase the weight each week, by 5 lbs or 10 lbs, and you should make gains.

drizzt3117, can you explain what 1RM is? Your numbers seem arbitary, so I can't tell what's going on. I see that you are gaining weights each time while reducing reps. But I can't tell which of those weights is your "mid-weight." Like is 135 supposed to be easy for this person? Or is 135 really pushing it and 195 is very very difficult?
 

quevola

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can you explain what 1RM is?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it means 1 repetition maximum or a weight that is heavy enough that you can only get one repetition.
 

drizzt3117

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Originally Posted by sygyzy
drizzt3117, can you explain what 1RM is? Your numbers seem arbitary, so I can't tell what's going on. I see that you are gaining weights each time while reducing reps. But I can't tell which of those weights is your "mid-weight." Like is 135 supposed to be easy for this person? Or is 135 really pushing it and 195 is very very difficult?

The numbers I picked were completely arbitrary, I just made them up. 1RM = 1 rep max.

Ideally the point of a pyramid is basically to do the maximum amount of weight you can do for each of those reps. So basically you'd be doing your 10RM, then 8RM, 6RM, 4RM, 2RM etc. You would then try to increase those maxes the next time you lifted that body part (probably the next week, if you're doing splits)

So let's say the max weight you could do for 10 reps was 115, you'd do 10 x 115, then 8 x 135 (assuming your 8 rep max was 135), then 6 RM, then 4RM, then 2RM. Does that make sense?
 

jaustin

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Thanks for the replies.

I was also wondering about something else. I always hear of people being really sore the day after working out. I am rarely sore the next day and if I am it seems to be more of a pulled muscle soreness. Am I just not lifting enough weight or is there another reason why I'm not getting sore.

Thanks.
 

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