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Questions for those who regularly workout


I go to the gym to workout for about an hour every other day. Half of that time is spent doing cardio, while the other half is strength training. I currently have two different sets of exercises I switch off between every other day that (for the most part) target different muscles. I thought about adding a third set of exercises to the rotation so my workouts vary even more, but I'm wondering if it would compromise the exercises I'm already rotating between since it'd create even more of a gap between repeating exercises. Any advice?

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[deleted]

🤣🤣🤣

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What's the goal? Overall health? Something more specific?

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Overall health as well as burning some excess fat and toning some muscle.

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Do you use free weights or machines, or both, for the strength training portion?

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Typically I've just been using machines, but there's free weights available.

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Why did you want to vary with a third workout? Boredom or for better results?

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There's just a couple muscle groups that aren't currently getting much of a workout and others I'd like to workout more and I think a third set of workouts would remedy this.

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Shouldn't compromise your exercises

Most regular strength training involves targeting different muscle groups on different days. If you're strength training about 3-4 times a week for half an hour then you could target one or two muscle groups each day

Generally speaking for workout purposes, muscle groups are categorized as: biceps, triceps, back, legs, shoulders, abs

Compound exercises like bench presses and squats work out multiple muscle groups at once

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So should I also only focus on one or two muscle groups every time I exercise? Because right now both sets of my exercises target a handful of muscle groups instead of only a couple.

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There isn't really a wrong way to do it, IMO

Most long-term weight lifters do it this way to keep things organized and keep track of their progress and their benchmarks in different exercises, but you can just do general fitness training without separating your workout into muscle groups if you don't care about that stuff

It really depends on your goals, the place that you're ideally trying to get to. If you want to put on muscle mass I do think it helps to break it down into muscle groups. But some people don't want to put on too much muscle, they just want to be lean and generally fit

When I started weight lifting I would just sort of do whatever exercises I was in the mood to do. And I still do that from time to time. And I prefer some exercises (like pull-ups) over others, so I don't give completely equal attention to all muscle groups (I'm not gonna do a hundred crunches), so you can even do a mixture of focusing on muscle groups and occasionally doing whole-body workouts or just doing whatever strikes your fancy in a given day

I know it kind of sounds like I'm not giving a straight answer, but I've found that what has made exercising fun for me, and has made it a long-term hobby, is being flexible with how I organize my workouts

If you do it long enough you will most likely develop a routine without even planning it out, because often you have to squeeze workouts into every other life responsibility, so often you will want to be exercising on autopilot

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This actually helps a lot. Thanks for the thorough answer.

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My pleasure

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I do a three day approach
1. Back, Biceps
2, Chest, Triceps
3. Shoulders, Traps

I mix in cardio and abs on some or all of those days. I don't do a specific leg workout.

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No leg workout? So you have chicken legs? LOL

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I don't have equipment to target quads, hamstrings, calves. So it's long walks and I use these at home

https://www.amazon.com/Brenda-Dygraf-25-1113-DyGrafs-FitRider/dp/B00ZGSHMOS
https://www.amazon.com/Sunny-Health-Fitness-Twisting-Handlebar/dp/B001IDZHF6?th=1

which is certainly some leg exercise but not as muscle building as gym equipment

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Air squats are a great and underrated leg exercise that requires no equipment. Some people might find the motions awkward to do, but if you ever want to try it, that option is there for you

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Do your cardio AFTER your resistance training. You’ll burn off fat more efficiently that way. most people use cardio as a warm-up and that’s ass-backwards.

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I didn't know that. Thanks!

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You’re welcome. You body prefers to burn blood sugar and not fat. Doing your resistance training first burns up your blood sugar; so when you switch into cardio at the end, your body has no choice but to burn the fat (adipose tissue). You are then also teaching your body to stop resisting to burn fat.

Most people mistakenly think that working out is all about EFFORT, which is why most people get injured, give up, or both. Effort is only the first step. You must have a SCIENTIFIC exercise program, know EXACTLY what to do, WHEN to do it, and how long to do it. You must also have the guts to cut a workout short when you’re overtired. You must know the proper FORM for your training. Most people have no idea how to ISOLATE the muscle they are trying to build. You have to EAT RIGHT. And you HAVE TO GET ENOUGH SLEEP. Resting is the most overlooked part of training.

Most important of all: you must learn to LOVE YOUR TRAINING. When you love it, you stick with it for your whole life.

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