Cutting out cardio is strange advice. I agree that walking seems more than reasonable.

Walking is not cardio. Walking is life. I hope your trainer isn't telling you not to get some walking in every day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m 50 and out of shape. I’d like to gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 10 pounds of fat, which would be a net loss of 5 pounds or so. Hopefully, I’ll also improve my sleep, mood, and posture. I’m fine with slow and sustainable changes.

I'm 52 years old. I'm 6 foot tall and one year ago I was 227 lbs. I increased my protein. Decreased carbs. Walked 10K steps a day. Lift weights 3-4 times a week. Today I'm 198 pounds. I have no idea how much muscle I put on but I have to assume 5 pounds so I lost 30+ pounds of fat. Crazy! For breakfast and lunch, I avoided carbs. For breakfast, I usually had 2-3 eggs and berries and green tea. Mid morning I would lift and have a protein shake afterward. For lunch, I had a large salad of spinach, romaine, grilled chicken, tomatoes, shrooms, cheese, clementines, hard boiled egg, pine nuts, cucumbers, and oil and vinegar dressing. I went for a 20 minute walk after breakfast and lunch. For dinner, I ate with the family. Anything from burgers, pizza, fish, steak, pasta dishes, etc. As for 10K steps. I understand it's no magic number but just walking around my house and doing my normal routine, I can get 5-6K a day so setting 10K as my goal made me do extra walking and it just reminded me that I was trying to get healthier and on my walks I would listen to podcasts, etc. So I like having a goal of 10K steps. Also, every other day I did like a run/walk. I'd run for 30-60 seconds and then walk until I caught my breath and repeat. On days were I don't plan on run walking, I wear a backpack with about 30 pounds of weight inside. My lifting was/is...if I did fully body workouts, I lifted 3 days a week. If I did upper and lower body splits, I lifted 4 days a week. I mixed it up every couple of months. I capped my workouts at one hour. I also stretch first thing in the morning for 20-25 minutes. I feel like everything is better physically. I don't feel like an old man anymore. Good luck.

This is really motivating, thank you! You’re doing much more cardio than me. My doctor and trainer both told me to cut out cardio entirely while trying to build muscle because it’s hard for me to eat enough to fuel it. But I miss long walks so I may try to find a compromise. It’s all a balance isn’t it? I’ll bet you’ve gained way more muscle than 5 pounds. Congrats on your healthy habits!

Anonymous wrote:I’m 50 and out of shape. I’d like to gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 10 pounds of fat, which would be a net loss of 5 pounds or so. Hopefully, I’ll also improve my sleep, mood, and posture. I’m fine with slow and sustainable changes.

I'm 52 years old. I'm 6 foot tall and one year ago I was 227 lbs. I increased my protein. Decreased carbs. Walked 10K steps a day. Lift weights 3-4 times a week. Today I'm 198 pounds. I have no idea how much muscle I put on but I have to assume 5 pounds so I lost 30+ pounds of fat. Crazy! For breakfast and lunch, I avoided carbs. For breakfast, I usually had 2-3 eggs and berries and green tea. Mid morning I would lift and have a protein shake afterward. For lunch, I had a large salad of spinach, romaine, grilled chicken, tomatoes, shrooms, cheese, clementines, hard boiled egg, pine nuts, cucumbers, and oil and vinegar dressing. I went for a 20 minute walk after breakfast and lunch. For dinner, I ate with the family. Anything from burgers, pizza, fish, steak, pasta dishes, etc. As for 10K steps. I understand it's no magic number but just walking around my house and doing my normal routine, I can get 5-6K a day so setting 10K as my goal made me do extra walking and it just reminded me that I was trying to get healthier and on my walks I would listen to podcasts, etc. So I like having a goal of 10K steps. Also, every other day I did like a run/walk. I'd run for 30-60 seconds and then walk until I caught my breath and repeat. On days were I don't plan on run walking, I wear a backpack with about 30 pounds of weight inside. My lifting was/is...if I did fully body workouts, I lifted 3 days a week. If I did upper and lower body splits, I lifted 4 days a week. I mixed it up every couple of months. I capped my workouts at one hour. I also stretch first thing in the morning for 20-25 minutes. I feel like everything is better physically. I don't feel like an old man anymore. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:Do 3 reps of 15. If you can do that move up a weight.

If you can do 10 it’s a good weight.

If you struggle at or below 8 it’s too heavy.

Nope...

Rep range you are target will and should vary by the exercise. For strength/bigger lifts a rep range of 4-6 is optimal. For accessory exercises rep range of 12-15 may be optimal. There is no one size fit all exercises or goals.

I’m 50 and out of shape. I’d like to gain 5 pounds of muscle and lose 10 pounds of fat, which would be a net loss of 5 pounds or so. Hopefully, I’ll also improve my sleep, mood, and posture. I’m fine with slow and sustainable changes.

How old are you and what are your goals?

Anonymous wrote:Do 3 reps of 15. If you can do that move up a weight.

If you can do 10 it’s a good weight.

If you struggle at or below 8 it’s too heavy.

Nooooooo.

Anonymous wrote:Do 3 reps of 15. If you can do that move up a weight.

If you can do 10 it’s a good weight.

If you struggle at or below 8 it’s too heavy.

This isn't true at all. Why if you struggle with 8 it's too heavy? 10 reps is a good weight for what? I don't think I've ever heard anyone recommend 3 sets of 15 unless it's like a pump exercise but I guess it's better than nothing.

OP here and thanks PPs! Lots to think about. I’ve been doing 4 days alternating upper and lower. But I’ve found I’m starting to dread upper days and thought switching to full body 3x/week might be better for sustainability.

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to weight training and not sure how to gauge whether I’m lifting heavy enough. I’m rarely sore the next day. Is that an accurate measure that I’m not challenging myself enough to see improvement?

I do three sets of 10 reps and by the 8th rep my form is starting to falter and my face is straining. My muscles feel a little quivery after. I’ve been doing this for 2 months and have moved up some weights but not others. Is this considered heavy lifting?

I currently lift weights four times a week with 2-3 days rest in between because I alter muscle groups so each group gets 2x a week. But I’d rather do circuit full body workouts 3x a week with 1-2 days rest. Is that enough rest? Which program is better?

I’d consider this heavy/you are using a challenging enough weight. You’ll get stronger in some areas/bigger muscle groups faster than others. For example you will add weight more quickly to squats than you will for shoulder press. Totally normal and expected.

Being sore does not indicate how hard you worked. If you do new moves you’ll usually be sore but turn the next time you do that move you won’t be sore.

I prefer spikes over full body. I currently do 3 lifting days: upper pull, upper push, lower body. In the past I have done 4 lifting days: 2 upper days and 2 lower days. I also did 3 days: upper, lower, full.

Do 3 reps of 15. If you can do that move up a weight.

If you can do 10 it’s a good weight.

If you struggle at or below 8 it’s too heavy.

Anonymous wrote:I’m new to weight training and not sure how to gauge whether I’m lifting heavy enough. I’m rarely sore the next day. Is that an accurate measure that I’m not challenging myself enough to see improvement?

I do three sets of 10 reps and by the 8th rep my form is starting to falter and my face is straining. My muscles feel a little quivery after. I’ve been doing this for 2 months and have moved up some weights but not others. Is this considered heavy lifting?

I currently lift weights four times a week with 2-3 days rest in between because I alter muscle groups so each group gets 2x a week. But I’d rather do circuit full body workouts 3x a week with 1-2 days rest. Is that enough rest? Which program is better?

You say..."heavy enough". The question I have is...enough for what? So an answer can be...to add as much muscle as possible. or to become as strong as possible. or to become as powerful as possible. or to burn as many calories as possible. Answers like that. But if you are like most people including myself....it's a little bit of everything. I've been following strength and conditioning experts all my life and no one can ever agree on what the best number of sets and number of reps or number of exercises per body part, etc etc etc is for any of those goals. In general though, low reps and more sets is best for strength gain, more reps and less sets is better better for muscle growth. Medium weight and moving the weight fast, is best for power.

With that said...you do not need to be sore after a workout. You do not need to sweat either. No pain no gain is false in weight lifting. The #1 goal in weight lifting should be not to injure yourself. So first, always use proper form and once your form starts breaking down, end that set. A good rule of thumb is to stop once you feel you only have 2 more reps in the tank. This ensures your working the muscle but not risking injury.

A very popular workout for strength gain is called Strong Lifts. Look it up. It's a 5x5 scheme. 5 sets of 5 reps for each of the major lifts. Squat, Dead Lift*, Chest Press, Row, Overhead Press. You can do less than 5 sets for Dead Lifts.

But I think most people do something like 3x8 for all there exercises...that's somewhere in the middle and it will certainly cover strength and size increases.

The most popular workout schedules are either 1) a 4 day a week split routine or 2) a 3 day a week full body routine. So the body split routine would be something like lift Mon: Upper Tues: Lower Wed: Off Thursday: Upper Friday: Lower Sat and Sun: Off or 2) Mon, Wed, Fri: Full Body.

I prefer full body workouts.

I’m new to weight training and not sure how to gauge whether I’m lifting heavy enough. I’m rarely sore the next day. Is that an accurate measure that I’m not challenging myself enough to see improvement?

I do three sets of 10 reps and by the 8th rep my form is starting to falter and my face is straining. My muscles feel a little quivery after. I’ve been doing this for 2 months and have moved up some weights but not others. Is this considered heavy lifting?

I currently lift weights four times a week with 2-3 days rest in between because I alter muscle groups so each group gets 2x a week. But I’d rather do circuit full body workouts 3x a week with 1-2 days rest. Is that enough rest? Which program is better?