Originally Posted by Machka
But you risk injury to the muscles if you just walk into a gym and start lifting. Same with stretching ... if you walk in and plunk yourself down on the stretching mats and go to it, you could tear something. It has been proven that it is a good idea to warm up first.
That warmup doesn't have to be a full-blown sprint on the treadmill or anything, but walking, or a light jog, or a spin on the exercise bike, for at least 10 minutes - enough to get your heart rate up a bit and get some blood flowing - will warm up your muscles so that you can continue with weightlifting and stretching.
And as for two times per week ... well, the recommended amount of exercise is now 60 minutes per day, 5 to 6 days a week. That doesn't necessarily mean weightlifting 6 days a week, or jogging/cycling 6 days per week, but we should be active in some way almost every day.
Just another comment ... when I was heavily into bodybuilding many years ago, my trainer put me onto a 4-day weightlifting cycle, as follows:
Day 1: Back, Biceps, Abs
Day 2: Triceps, Shoulders, Chest, Abs
Day 3: Legs, Abs
Day 4: off
And the reason for that is so that the muscles have recovery time in between, because we all know that muscle grows during rest and recovery, not during the actual act of weightlifting or exercise. With that cycle, I would workout my back muscles (for example) on Day 1. On Day 2, the back muscles would still probably come into play a little bit. On Day 3, I would hardly use my back muscles at all, and then I'd rest ... so my back muscles would essentially have 2.5 days off.
I'm just getting back into this all again, so I'm not following that cycle yet, but I hope by Christmas I'll be there.
Yes. That is correct. If you walk into a gym and start lifting straight away, you risk doing injury to the muscles you're working. So it's recommended you do a VERY LIGHT warmup- ie: a light walk on the treadmill for 5- 10 minutes first. Then you can go right into your weight lifting routine. When you finish, flip over to your aerobic exercise. For the record, warm-ups are NEVER counted towards your total aerobic exercise. The intensity is just way too low.
The newest guidelines are recommendations by ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine). Under the old ACSM guidelines, they recommended 30- 45 minutes, 3- 5 days per week. The newest ACSM Health and Fitness summit now says something quite different. Through the latest research, for fat loss, they recommend 200- 280 minutes per week of aerobic activity- not including warm up and cool down. This newest concept is called "accumulated time", and is being spread around the fitness industry. There is a whole method to the accumulated time, but it goes beyond the scope of this thread. (google J. Jakicic and his study from 2003, and his subsequent lecture at the 2005 ACSM Health and Fitness Summit). For people exercising regularly, they recommend 6-= 90 minutes 5- 6 days per week (I believe). Under the old guidelines, people had a difficult time losing weight, but after several submissions from research facilities on exercise training, they've modified their recommendation and increased the amount of time.
Your trainer could have easily had you on a split routine, or upper body/lower body/upper body/lower body lifting program, which would more than adequately allow for you to ride as much as you want. So either your trainer didn't understand cycling, or he simply didn't know how to put together a training program for you. That's too bad.
Drop me a PM. I think I can get you back on track if you want.
Koffee