or it is from his genetic?

sorry 4 my english..Thx

Crista

I am very happy to have stumbled in your blog. It seems that women and split routines don't go together in most of the internet articles. I hope you can help me with my qualms/inquiries about working out.

I am a former varsity player in highschool and after I graduated college, I still wanted to keep my fitness level high and so I joined the gym last year. The thing is, fitness trainers are expensive here so it is only when you are lucky to have friendly trainers who really disclose information.

I weigh about 116 pounds, 5'3" in height. I lost weight already after re-entering the gym last July 2009 since I started at 123. I used to do a full body workout with lots of cardio until I found myself not hitting a plateau. My body stayed the same and my weigh did not change and it was only when I had a trapezius strain did I lose 2 pounds or so (from 118 to 116). During my injury, I had no exercise for 2 weeks. Though my intake of food was regulated, I can't say I was that disciplined.

Now, the dilemma. When I was done healing my traps, I went to the gym and to everyone's surprise, I look slimmer and smaller and well yes, I lost 2 pounds. When I look at my body, I definitely look better–skinnier. I just wonder why is it that I looked bigger when I was in the gym when in fact I was just 2 pounds heavier from now. Given that everyone seems to notice such, I am now really scared to hit the gym again since I might get "bigger" again.

Since I was encountered a plateau before, I asked a few of my friends, ex-trainers and they said that if I want to get ripped, I should go for the split routine and then maintain a strict diet. I was afraid that I might get heavier (numbers and physically) but my friend said that my diet will be the key so I won't get bigger. So he made me this split program:

legs and shoulders
chest and triceps
back and biceps

I don't know how to call this since I am not familiar with the various split programs. I am still on my 2nd day and I'm still not sure how this would affect me. My fear is I'll bulk up instead of getting skinny/ripped. I do a lot of cardio almost every gym trip, 30 mins before and after of interval training–walk, jog, run then incline.

I was also told that I could use the circuit program and that for sure won't make me look bulky but I am just not that attracted to the circuit program since I have to harbor a bench in the strength training area which is dominated by men.

So now after the semi-novel that I just wrote, what is your opinion regarding my program. The aim is to get ripped in a womanly fashion. Cuts would be okay but not scary looking. i just want to look smaller.

Hope you can help me regarding my problem.

Thanks!

What about the 100reps workout?

It seems to give me what I was looking for. I take it an hour before workouts and seem to recover much faster with no muscle soreness and more strength and energy the next day. Plus its made me huge. The research I did showed that the creatine included in the Dr Max Powers stack is the most efficient for body building. I recommend it.

You said that when muscles feel sore after working out you get mass, but what if your workout was just running around and sprinting and then touching the ground or jumping up now and then?

(like good cardio stuff, gets you breathing heavily but also can leave legs feeling tired)

As I was saying, I do HIIT followed by half an hour or so on the treadmill. But when it comes to strength training, people tend to favour high reps and light weights for getting the slim and toned look. Obviously as a girl I don't want to get bulky, and you mentioned to do heavy weight for low reps and not to achieve muscle fatigue.

How heavy should I lift then? And should I go heavy weights and low reps? Assuming I achieve my ideal body, is HIIT followed by some medium level cardio enough to maintain muscle mass, or should I still do weight training 3 times a week?

Thanks so much, Rusty!

I'm 5'4' and weight about 136 pounds. I do cardio about 5 times a week, and do strength training 3 times a week, which I do on alternate days. But I've found a lot of conflicting information out there, so I thought I'd just ask you.

I want to be slim and toned, so I'm doing HIIT

thanks, and thank you for the explanation of muscle tone vs. muscle mass, a lot of people don't know the difference.

sorry for the really long comment and lots of question

Thanks, Aleks

I have been reading through your site for the past few weeks, and it has given me a lot of great information thank you so much!
I have also read through the comments because I was too shy to ask myself, and I was sure someone else would have the same sort of question, but I think it would just be easier to ask you directly.

I am 19 years old, only 5 feet tall and I weigh 51 kilos. I am originally from Canada but currently living in Japan. Before I came to Japan I was 45 kilos and for the past two months I have been trying to return to my regular weight before I go back home. When I was in Canada I played soccer most of my life but quit at the age of 16. When I came to Japan in order to make friends I joined a volleyball team, we usually practice five times a week for at least two hours. For the past nine months that I have been playing volleyball, I definitely gained a lot of weight partly from the change of food and stress, but mainly my appetite became much larger as well. When I started my diet two months ago, I cut back a lot on carbs, and now my portion sizes are much smaller. My diet lately mainly consists of fruits, vegetables, some but not much dairy and little protein. When I started I quickly started loosing weight and with in a month I was 46 kilos and went from a body fat percent of 20% to 16%
The problem is that didn't last long I started regaining weight with in the following week, but my body fat percent still remained low. I decided to do more cadio to see if it would help but I ended up going back up to 50 kilos, my legs became larger and my stomach area returned to the same size as before I started my diet and I still cant fit into my old clothes properly. I would just like to know how I can return to the same size I was ten months ago. The work out that I am currently doing on top of volleyball is, I jog four times a week for 30 to 40 min, I work out my arms and back two times a week and my abs three times a week, I also walk everyday at least an hour and a half. Lately I have also not been sleeping very much, I have been getting a maximum of four hours of sleep a night, could this have something to do with it?

Anyways I'm sorry for the lengthy explanation and I hope it makes sense.
Even if you can't answer my question I love your site, and it's a great place to keep motivation.

Thank you so much.
Meli.

So i have a disibility that makes the left side of my body weaker than the right, and i seem to have trouble ganing muscil in the left. anyways my left side is smaller then the right side so day you have any advice about how many reps i should do ect.

Also i have runners knee so i have to limit my cardio to things that limit the amout at which i can bend my knee. because of this i have been having trouble doing intense cardio so i do several 15-30min light intensity workouts a day during seperate parts of the day and an upper body circut workout i came up with. anyways any suggestions for cardio stuff would be appreciated.

thanks.

First of all, let me tell you what a good site you have got and your articles give sound advice for people who want to keep in shape and be fit.

I need some advice regarding about weight training.
I'm a bit skinny and I want to have a definition like Cristiano Ronaldo. I've been told to do muscle mass workout routines to bulk up, then do endurance/power training to maintain my physique. I don't know what sort of workout routine is the best for me so can you give me some general advice please?

Many Thanks,
Amit