Workout Routine
Todd, I am glad to see you have set this forum up. It is nice to read others' posts as well. So my question/request is, can you provide a good schedule for a 5 day a week workout including time spent on cardio? Lets say I will work out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Monday, I should work on which 2 sets of muscle groups and how much cardio before hand, and so forth. Also, in a recent reply you mentioned that milk is not good to have when trying to get in shape/stay fit. Why is that, because I love milk (2% organic) and it has a decent amount of protein? Just curious. Thank you for your advice. EA

Hi Eric, Great to see you on the Outpost forum. I'll answer the milk question first. Milk is meant to feed baby cattle and our digestive systems aren't even made to process it. Some people can't even drink it at all. It's not necessarily bad for you, but you can get nutrients and protein from a helluva lot better sources. I recall you saying you are allergic to whey protein...guess what whey protein is made from? If you really like milk go ahead and have a glass or so, no worries. It certainly won't keep you from getting in shape. I just wouldn't recommend to anybody to start drinking it. I haven't drank milk since 1994. Your time comittment to training is excellent. You can easily train your entire body and get in and stay in excellent shape training 5/days week. I'd suggest planning to train 2 bodyparts per workout followed by about 30 mins. of cardio. For example on Monday you could start with 5 mins of light cardio to warm up. Then spend a good 5 mins stretching the muscle groups you plan to train. Say Chest & Bi's. Weights for both these bodyparts will take approx. 45 min. Then do your 30 mins. of cardio to train the most important muscle in the body (heart) and burn bodyfat. Following your schedule here's a solid routine suggestion to get started: MON: Chest & Bi's TUE: Legs WED: OFF THURS: Triceps & Abs FRI: Delts & Traps SAT: Lats Regarding the cardio following your weight traning you can vary it by how you feel. If you are tired after Legs you can skip it. You don't have to do cardio after every workout but at least 30 mins/3 X a week. I'm not sure how fast your metabolism is but you will definitely start to gain muscle and lean up jumping into this program. Especially if your diet is good and it sounds from what you had told me you are eating very well. Remember to eat within an hour of training. Any other questions just ask and good luck with starting this training program! T

I have cut down to having milk just with my breakfast every morning. I really like milk a lot and I could go through 3 gallons easy a week but it is probably better to cut back on it if I want to get in better shape. I have taken on the exact schedule that you have provided. Have Wed off is great because I will have a class that night and this class is only once a week so it won't interfere with the rest of the days. A friend of mine at work said that it is really great for your body to change up the cardio routine. For example, one week do 15 minutes treadmill and 15 minutes elyptical. Then the next week, do the bike for 15 minutes and the stairs for 15 minutes. Is this good for the body or does it really matter? Also, what does it mean when you sweat? Is it the more you sweat, the better of a workout you are getting for your body?

3 gallons a week of milk is crazy. Have your glass at breakfast if you love it, but I wouldn't drink more than that. Mixing up your exercises is a must, whether it be weights or cardio. Always do something different, never the same workout twice. Change your order, weight, frequency, reps, sets, etc. Keep me posted on how the routine goes. T

I have been getting a lot of my exercises off of www.bodybuilding.com. I like it a lot because it shows you a actual video of how they are done. But it is hard for me to mix exercises up because I don't know enough of them yet to do so. I think I need to do the same exercises for a month or so (each week) and then start mixing them up. I can mix up my cardio quite easy so I will do that for sure. But why is it a must to mix up the routine? Never do the same exercise twice? How does it affect the muscles or body?

Any kind of training puts a stress or change on the bodies normal routine. The body adapts very quickly and only responds to change. This is why you want to always change something...a basic example; for now if you only know three exercises for chest, then each workout change the order. By doing this you are always putting a new stress on the body and forcing it to adapt: add muscle or burn bodyfat. Here are ways you can change your workouts: F - Frequency (How often you train) I - Intensity (How hard you train) T - Time (How long you train) T - Type (How you train) Once you get more familiar with the different exercises at the gym this will get easier to mix it up. I do strongly suggest you keep a basic training log of your workouts. That is a great website too. There are more than several excellent weight training books on the market that can be found in the Fitness & Health section of any Chapters or major bookstore. T