[timarie]

Timarie and Ever Hopeful... Just had to comment on the subject at hand here haha, I know a little about fitness, though I'm not in the shape I want to be just yet, working on it, I use to do fitness modeling before I had my son. Ever Hopeful, Timarie is right, working out with weights will not get you like Ms Olympia. Those ladies take special supplements, workout intensely for hours on end DAILY. Some of them do steroids to get that type of body. A normal female that works out say 30 min to an hour a day and takes a day or two break weekly will not look that way no matter how long she's been working out. I weight train, and even though I'm "fat" now compared to what I was, and most of my weight goes to the lower region as I'm a pear, my butt is still round, perky, firm, because I do a lot of weight training for the butt. So I have fat there but it's held up by the muscle. When I flex my butt muscles my butt will become hard as hell. My thigh muscles are the same way. I have always been able to build muscle easily on the lower part of my body and have a difficult time with arms and chest.

So yea, if you do weight training say 3-5 times a week for 30 min to an hour, you will be fine, you will end up looking like this at best...

and that was strictly cardio and weight training, I would eat a high protein diet and take supplements, but never steroids. So no worries you can work out to your hearts content and not look like Ms Olympia, unless you start steroids.

But I'm with both of you girls, I'm working on getting back into shape, you can see my starting pics on my picture page, I'm ashamed I let myself get this fat though :/ but glad to see I'm not the only one aiming to get in shape on here, yay!

Anastasia, thanks for the images! They (at least, most of them ) just motivated me a little more. I LOVE the third photo, especially!!! I have a long way to go before I get there And thanks for sharing your story. You were a fitness model before? That is.... impressive! And don't beat yourself up over letting yourself go... we all do it at some point! All that matters is that you are trying to work on fixing that now. I will make sure to keep up with your progress on your program thread! ... and I am definitely excited to have another workout buddy on this forum

Thanks for the info, Timarie and Anastasia! Now I don't feel so reluctant to pursue weight training, lol. I usually do 20min of weight training after about 30-40min of cardio, but I just wondered about the long-term effects. I don't plan on ever using steroids, so I guess I'll be safe! :p Those Olympian women look a bit scary to me... I can't imagine wanting a body type like that. ^^; But hey, to each their own, right? xD

If I could ever commit to working out at least 3x per week for 1 hour per session, that would be awesome! I used to do that, but once Winter break hit, I sorta fell off... ~.~ I'd like to concentrate on my pecs, abs, and glutes. Luckily, the weather has been getting pretty nice lately and I live right next to a huge park, so I could go jogging on the days I can't make it to the gym.

As far as supplements go, I try to max out my vitamin dosage per day so I get more than 100% of the daily recommended value for the main vitamins (A, B, C, D, E) and I get some other minerals in there as well. I'd like to have at least 15g~20g of protein a day (with or without exercise). Does that sound about right? Maybe on the days that I work out, I should have more protein?

I recently bought some Boost Plus nutrition shakes that have a good amount of protein and a nice amount of vitamins to supplement my daily multivitamin (http://www.boost.com/nutritional-drinks/boost-plus ; you can check the full nutritional info of these if you scroll down a bit). I also eat protein bars right after a work out. I heard that it's best to have a high-protein snack right after working out (as opposed to before it). Does that sound right to both of you? I usually just drink water while working out... xD I've never paid too much attention to electrolyte drinks because I don't really drink a lot during the day (besides a few cups of my Bustea). I can drink from the same 12oz water bottle in a whole day. I really should drink more water... ^^;

Ok, EverHopeful! It all depends on your personal goals. I do not do weight training, as the primary concern of weight training is to gain strength (it is a form of strength training, as a matter of fact!). My personal goals are just to work on my physique, so what I do is called figure/physique building, which is a type of bodybuilding. This is the way to make muscles bigger, while strength/weight training creates more lean muscle. So, before I can answer your question, I would need to know more specifically what you want to focus on most!

For any kind of bodybuilding (note: not strength training), it is actually recommended to NOT work out any more than 2 times a week for a specific body part (aka lower body, upper body, abs, etc). The reason for this is because it takes 72 hours for a muscle to fully recover from the beating it receives when you lift heavy weights. If you work out those muscles again while they are still trying to recover, they will never get to fully grow as you continue to interrupt the growing process. And this defeats the purpose of bodybuilding, which is to encourage your muscles to grow big!

Again, when it comes to how much protein you take in a day, I cannot really answer for weight trainers, but I can for if you want to figure build. For figure building, or any kind of bodybuilding, the typical rule of thumb is to consume a gram of protein for every pound you weigh a day. For example, I weigh 140lbs (and I will tell you that I look like I weigh 20 pounds less, because a good percentage of it is muscle) and therefore consume at least 140 grams of protein a day. So, if you still weigh as much as you did two months ago, you should consume at least 115 grams of protein a day if you want your muscles to really grow. And your muscles are always growing throughout the week (when you feed them well and lift HEAVY weights when you workout), so you should be consuming the same amount of protein every day. Spreading your protein intakes out throughout the day is best for utilizing the protein, as your body can only absorb so much every 2-3 hours. Given your weight, I would suggest you consume 19 to 20 grams of protein every 2-3 hours a day, 6 times a day.

Although yes it is most crucial to have a good bit of protein immediately to a half hour (at most) after your workout, it is important to make sure that it is an easily digested, fast-acting protein. The point of it is, you just tore your muscles up, and they are looking for protein for immediate recovery. It is your job to aid your muscles in their recovery, because this is the growth process (the whole point behind your exercise routine!). Protein in shakes are the best for this (and I was told to just add water as opposed to milk, to increase the speed of digestion) http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/guide-to-protein/protein-powder.php. But it is good to consume protein before your workout, too, so that your muscles will still have something to replenish them DURING your workout. It is important to make sure you consume a protein with a carbohydrate content at this time (so THIS is when I eat my protein bars sometimes I will have other things, like milk with cereal or a roast beef sandwich, just as examples).

As for your Boost drink, sure it is a good source of protein, and it looks like you will only need to add 2-3 grams of protein from another source to get your full amount for a protein intake. But protein shakes that are already made and packaged for you tend to be a little expensive if you get to drinking them all the time! There are waaaaay cheaper ways to get your protein, but if you are taking it for the added vitamins, that is fine. I take a lot of supplements and it IS possible to overdose on vitamins, and you get vitamins all the time in the food that you eat, so I personally opt not to take those pre-packaged drinks as I don't think they are worth the money.

As far as the electrolytes, it is not necessary so if you don't drink it don't worry about it I drink it because I get dizzy and light headed sometimes during my workout (especially during my walking lunges), and I have found drinks with electrolytes to help me during those times, so now I drink it during all my workouts just as a prevention. Also, I think it helps me to get an extra boost of energy to help me maximize my performance. I have gone into the gym way too many times before without the proper nutrition/fuel and tired out way too fast. This isn't good, because my goal is to kick ass in the gym, lol. So I have learned my lesson, and I try to give myself the fuel I need before my workout.

Again, all the above information is for you to follow IF you want to get into bodybuilding/ figure building, where your priority is to get a certain look by building muscle (as opposed to strength being a priority or fat loss). And it is important to remember that I do not claim to be an expert and I am still learning (I have only been at this for a little more than a year!). But I do hope it helps!