QUOTE(funfunfun4every1 @ May 15 2007, 11:29 PM)
Wow I went through 20 pages of reading all your replies and honestly I'm so motivated. I've got a few questions that weren't answered (while I was looking through them I found so much repeated questions that pissed me off.. I mean people just can't look through the thread, can they?)
I might be the only girl in this thread that is trying to bulk up.. Not like scary body builder women though.. I need strength and muscle endurance for sports.
1) Is it good to do cardio everyday?
- This is because I push myself to the limits everytime I run and the next day my calves and hamstrings are hella sore. But I know I'd get used to this speed sooner or later but I'm worried that I'll screw up my muscles because I've read that you must let your muscles rest or else you're screwed.
2) How long do you wait between sets?
-When I wait 30-60 seconds I gotta do pyramid sets. Like the type where you do 10 in the beginning, then second time you do 8, third time you do even less. Is it more effective to do all of your reps the same but have a longer time interval between them?
3) Do you have to stretch after you work out?
-After a workout I am extremely tired and usually I can't do anything but lie on the mats in starfish position so I usually don't stretch.. Which leads us into the next question.
4) Is being sore okay?
-I'm usually extremely sore after a workout. People tell me that if I stretch properly I wouldn't be sore at all. Should I still work out every other day even if I'm sore?
5) How do you stretch your calves?
-I've tried stretching them like how I was instructed by my teacher but I've never felt the 'pull' that I do with my other stretches..
Thank you so much for this thread!! I've learnt so much. I hope you get well soon
Lol, it's quite alright, I know people find it exhausting to go through the all the pages sometimes, especially on a topic quite as long as this one, but I'm glad you went through them and I'm glad you got some new questions for me.
1. It's honestly quite difficult to maintain a program where you gain muscle gains while not neglecting your cardio and vice versa, usually you would want to do one or another first.
But Yes, it's ok to do cardio everyday if your training for a long distance compeititions or specifically trying to get lean, but is it ok to do cardio everyday for strength training and to build muscle mass? No. Generally you would want to do cardio about 3-4 times a week about 30-45min each session inbetween your weight training days. Any more then this and you'll seriously jeopardize your strength and muscle gains, and trust me on this from personal experience. Cardio overtraining is very common. Example, when you train with weights for an hour or so and do cardio an hour so with no rest, your muscles start to deteriorate as your body needs energy, and when the calories are all spent your body will go straight to where your healthy fats are stored and also targets your muscles, feeding off the tissue from it to get that energy it needs.
2. For mass, you tend to want to rest 2-3 minutes. Generally rest periods of these are likely to do with weight training that involves heavy muscle groups and/or olympic/powerlifting exercises. Strength and endurance; you need to separate the two specifically if you want to concentrate on each subject. There are exercises and programs that uses a method that can help in both categories but not to it's maximum as it's potential is limited. If you want explosive strength go heavy, and no you won't get 'bulky' as it is nearly impossible for women to get that stature of a physique unlesss they are on human growth hormone. Women just do that have that much testosterone and you women have certain homorones that conflict to gain that massive size. I would recommend you lift a weight where you can do 4-6reps each. And I hope your going up on the pyramid training and not down (I.E Bench press exercise 1st set=125pds at 12reps, 2nd set=185pds at 10reps, 3rd set= 225pds at 6reps, etc)
Now for endurance, you want to decrease the weight and increase the rep. The rep range for endurance is actually around 16-24reps, this is genearlly alot, for me personally on endurance, I usually do around 12-16reps. This is where you can rest about 30sec-60sec and incorporate drop sets as well that can also help you in the strength category as well. But beware as this training will cause great muscle fatigue and injury can be common if you don't becareful or go too fast.
3. Yes, it is important to relax and stretch before and after workouts. Now I understand that somedays you are dead tired and it's ok if you don't want to do it( I'm do it do, everybody does
), but generally it is good for to remotely stretch a little bit after workouts. Now you don't need to stretch your entire body like you would before exercising but just the the body parts you worked on after all the lifting.
4. No that's not true, stretching will not benefit you and help prevent you from getting sore. We get sore because our muscle tissues are destroyed and trying to repair after a hard intense workout. If your sore, do not work on the same area again the next day. This leads to overtraining and it can hurt you down the long line and completely screw up your program. The abs however has the most fastest recovery rate of any muscle group in our entire body and generally you can work them out in a couple of days again, but that won't work on your other body parts. Me, personally, when I work out a body part, I won't be able to touch it again for an entire week cause their so fried. My abs, like I said recovers alot quicker so I can hit them again in a couple days. The calves recover a bit quicker as well, but not as fast as abs and not fast enough to actually hit them 3 times a week, I can hit my calves on tuesdsay and they will be fully recovered where I can hit them again on sat or sun.
5. It's hard to actually explain it to without actually showing it to you, but there's a good amount of stretches you can do to your calves and their awesome, here's some of my favorites, I hope these animated pictures would be of help.
http://tms.ecol.net/Fitness/calfstr.htmhttp://www.walkinghealthy.com/Stretching/CalfStretches01.asphttp://walking.about.com/cs/rwtechnique/a/rwcalfstretch.htmThere's one calf stretch I like to do but I can't find a picture of it so I'll try to explain it to you. Do the same thing, put your hands up against the wall, but put one leg forward (if you have something you can pull on and support your weight, you can use both legs at the same time) and take that leg and put your heel to the ground, toes pointed upward towards your face and slowly lean. This is a great stretch. Another one is where you can find a step or a stair, grab on to the rails and put your toes on the ledge while your heels are hanging off the step, and slow pull your heels down to the ground while your toes are still on the step pointed upwards, hope this made sense, lol it's hard without an illustration.
Anyways, hope this helped, pm me if you have anymore questions.
Also, do you have any suggestions for planning a relatively inexpensive but healthy diet for someone who is going to live in her own apartment soon? (No more dorm food! Yay!)
the guy there knows how to deal with asian hair. all the other salons ive been too are crap so if i want a good haircut ill drive down there. plus i used to attend ASMSA down there and hotsprings is an interesting city in the first place, so im cool with heading there every now and then. which sushi resaurant do you go to in hotsprings?
Posted 16 May 2007 - 06:23 PM
