Doing Strength training everyday

Question

I am 5'8 and 84kgs. I used to do all regular sets of exercises like biceps, triceps, chests etc. Yesterday, my GYM trainer walked up to me and said that i need to reduce my belly and do nothing else. Here is what he has advised me:

1. Cycling for 10 minutes
2. 100 SitUps
3. 200 PushUps
4. 50 Chinups
5. All the Abs exercises.

Is this a fine routine to follow for next 3 months. There is no provision for any weight training here. Will I be reducing belly as well as making a strong chest, biceps etc with the above routine?

Answer 1

Let's look at the positives:

• Very high rep work will get you strong, and burn fat.
• High frequency training (5 days in a row) also accelerate burning fat.
• Chin ups build great lats, and are a great compound exercise
• 200 push ups will build solid triceps, chest, and shoulders (front delts)

Next, the negatives:

• Only 10 minutes of cycling for the lower body? This definitely needs more throughout the week.
• Sit ups build your hip flexors more than the abs, but there's nothing to balance that out like Romanian Deadlifts
• It's not very balanced, and it really is missing some major pieces.

You mentioned that you currently do a lot of isolation exercises, and I assume you are doing those for aesthetic or bodybuilding purposes. What I don't know is whether this new program is an even replacement for the amount of work you've been doing or whether it's an increase or decrease in the overall amount of work.

My guess is the gym trainer is a personal trainer at the gym you go to. If you are paying him for his services, I would be more demanding in keeping focused on the type of work you want to do. If you are not paying him for his advice, then you are free to disregard it.

My recommendations?

• Get your diet in order. You can't out exercise a bad diet, and that's where you are going to melt away the most fat.
• Do conditioning work every day. 20 minutes of cycling would be perfect. Cycling is all concentric movement, which means there's very little to recover from and it won't affect you as much as running will.
• Do the bulk of your work with compound exercises. These do more to burn fat and build muscle than isolation work.
• Fill in the details with the isolation work to bring up the parts you feel are lacking.
• Weight training every day requires fatigue management. A decent approach is to have 3 heavy days that feature compound exercises and 2-3 light days that only have isolation work.

Answer 2

Doing abs exercises will not 'reduce' your belly. Targeted exercises don't magically burn more fat in a particular body part. However, it will build abdominal muscles. If you're looking to lose weight in your stomach then you simply need to find a way to burn more calories than you take in so you lose weight in general. Typically cardio exercises are good for this.

Is this a good routine? That depends on your fitness goals. This routine looks like it would be good for building upper body strength, but seems to ignore the cardiovascular system and lower body muscles completely. Also committing to the same routine for three months may get repetitive and lead to plateaus in which you no longer improve as much.

Finally, I would like to note that this sounds like your trainer's goals. Do the trainer's goals match your own? A good trainer should work with the athlete to determine goals since it is your body after all.

Answer 3

If you are seeking to reduce your "belly" then the workout you have been given will not be enough to achieve your objective.

It really depends on what you want to achieve. Cardio alone will help you achieve your objective of losing the "belly".

But the most effective way to gain strength and muscle whilst losing the fat is to do circuit training.

You must do at least 40 minutes of mid-high intensity workout that elevates your heart rate up to 80% of your Max Heart rate.

To work out your Max Heart Rate - Subtract your age from 220.

E.g. For a 25 year-old

220 - 25 = 195 (Max Heart Rate) - therefore, my target workout heart rate should be: 195 * 0.8 = 156bpm

I personally tend to push my heart rate to about 160-170 for my workouts. But if you are not used to intense workouts then i would suggest you keep to the target heart rate which you can workout from the above.

As for a workout. My suggested circuit workout:

Warm up

• 10min run/jog at 5 degree incline and 10.5kmph
• 10min cross trainer at level 15 and 18 speed

Circuit Training

This should be repeated at least 5 times with 60 second rest between each set.

• 10 Box Jumps

• 10 Pull-ups

• 10 Suspended Leg Raises

• 10 Kettlebell Swing

Why this type or workout?

The reason I suggest something similar to this workout above is because it will engage almost all of your muscles whilst elevating your heart rate. This will give you a well rounded workout and you should see great results within a couple months of this routine.

Make your own version guidelines

To make your own version of this just ensure that the exercises you choose are motion based. By this I mean exercises that require you to move a lot. So something like the plank doesn't really get you moving. But something like burpees is very good for getting you to move and engage many muscle groups.

Weights are good as you get stronger but make sure you can do at least 5 sets of the workout you make to ensure that it is sustainable. if you cannot then reduce the weight or change the workout.

Try this and see how you get on a couple months later...