After dinking around for years with a treadmill and a Bowflex, both of which I disliked, I finally got around to joining a gym and working out on a pretty regular basis (I’m averaging 4 visits per week or better). Now that I’ve been at it for a few months, I have some questions that the trainers at the gym haven’t answered satisfactorily for me.
(1): Ever since I started college back in the 1970s, I have been into either software engineering, semiconductor design, business management, or some combination of the three. What do they have in common? Metrics! I’m carefully tracking my workouts, but I have no way of quantifying how I’m doing. I want to plug some formulas into a spreadsheet, set a baseline, and be able to see that today’s workout was x% better than the workout a month ago.
Cardio machines can track calories burned, which is a great metric. What I don’t know how to approach is the weight machines. I can’t just calculate weight x reps: 20 reps at 100 lbs clearly is not the same as 10 reps at 200 pounds. Is it better to do 15 reps at 100 pounds or strain to accomplish 10 reps at 120 pounds?
(2): My weight hasn’t changed significantly since I began my workouts, even though I’m eating better. The trainer said that I’m building muscle mass (I can feel that) and muscle weighs more than fat. That said, shouldn’t my waist size have decreased a bit by now? My pants all fit the same as they used to, and I have a noticeable “spare tire.”
(3): In that same vein, do I have any control over which parts of my body shed fat first? I’d love to get rid of this gut and then work on the rest of my body fat.
As a side note, I find myself sweating a lot more when I work out than I used to. Is there any significance to this?
Fat comes off at the same that it went on.fat over the abs. It comes off evenly all over. Men store fat first of all on the belly so the belly is the last to go.
Lifting weights achieve different things depending on reps and weight.
Very low reps(1-3)/near max weight builds strength with little mass gained, in the middle (5-10) builds mass and strength while high reps(15-20 or more) primarily increases endurance with little to no mass gain.
The most common metric I know of is having a standard routine (or so) that you use to test yourself every so often, be it your 1 repetition max of each lift, or greatest number of reps or sets of a routine in a defined time period, or time to complete a certain number of sets.
As runner pat points out “better” is not an appropriate term. They are different. The most sophisticated programs have the exercisers varying between low rep/high weight routines and higher rep/lower weight ones, sometimes in the same session. The standard is 6 to 10 with the last rep being the last you could do with good control the whole time. 2 to 3 sets; more if you are going for hypertrophy. A few lower rep higher weight sets to build more strength.
No control over where the fat comes from other than that exercise in general encourages more to come from visceral fat stores (that most associated with adverse health outcomes). Try measuring right across above the hip bone as true waist circumference - that is supposed to be a better reflection of visceral/central fat than at the belt line.
I should have been more specific about my goals before asking the question. I do not aspire to sixpack abs, bulging muscles, or the ability to run a marathon. My goal is to feel better, have higher energy, lose enough weight to be flexible and take a load off of my joints, and develop my endurance along with some reasonably toned muscle.
Despite my love of metrics I have no target weight, waist size, nor BMI. I just want to be able to hike a few miles in fairly rough country without having to keep stopping to catch my breath and rest my legs.
To improve your hoking performance, you’ll need to do some walking. While any aerobic exercise improves general endurance, it doesn’t carry over well to dissimilar activities. That’s why Lance Armstrong only ran a marathon in 2:46 (still a fine time) rather than the 2:03-2:05 his aerobic condition should allow.
When I hiked Half Dome with my running club, people who could run 2-3 hours were beaten down by hiking for 10-12 hours.
Am I reading that right? Pat beat down a bunch of people on Half Dome with his running club? What’s a running club anyway … something like a riding crop, but clubbier?