[Arturo Bandini]

(Original post by silent ninja)
Maybe you're just an amateur? I don't know anybody who is serious at the gym that does cardio and weights consecutively. You can only do that if one of them is done at light intensity and then you have to question the effectiveness of doing that. There's a reason why people do things like HIIT on separate days. It's intense.

A light jog after weights is hardly cardio either. If you go all out on weights there's no way you can do a proper cardio session. My guess is if you're doing both consecutively then you're not training hard enough.

Please explain your method, else you're just an amateur pretending to have a clue and sound clever.

Haha. You're so obviously one of those guys that reads loads of bodybuilding articles and thinks being able to regurgitate the stuff you read makes you an expert.

You're right, I AM an amateur, therefore my routine is not gonna be the same as a pro-athlete or bodybuilder that writes an article on BB.com.

This morning, I benched for a 5x5RM, followed by a bunch of chest and tricep assistance work. I then did a three mile run of varying intensities. This was on the advice of my coach who works with many other successful amateur athletes.

Both were pretty hard, both were pretty effective, and my training has always been pretty successful. Stop believing everything you read and just try manning up and deciding for yourself what your body is capable of.

[silent ninja]

(Original post by Arturo Bandini)
Haha. You're so obviously one of those guys that reads loads of bodybuilding articles and thinks being able to regurgitate the stuff you read makes you an expert.

You're right, I AM an amateur, therefore my routine is not gonna be the same as a pro-athlete or bodybuilder that writes an article on BB.com.

This morning, I benched for a 5x5RM, followed by a bunch of chest and tricep assistance work. I then did a three mile run of varying intensities. This was on the advice of my coach who works with many other successful amateur athletes.

Both were pretty hard, both were pretty effective, and my training has always been pretty successful. Stop believing everything you read and just try manning up and deciding for yourself what your body is capable of.

I can do a 3 mile run after my weight lifting session but that's not anywhere near as intense than compared to doing it on a separate day, hence it doesn't replace cardio. I usually warm down after weights with a 1-2 mile run. My friend benches over 150kg and is an avid gym goer, another is a personal trainer. Neither do a proper cardio session immediately after weights. They must be "lame" too according to you

[Arturo Bandini]

(Original post by silent ninja)
I can do a 3 mile run after my weight lifting session but that's not anywhere near as intense than compared to doing it on a separate day, hence it doesn't replace cardio. I usually warm down after weights with a 1-2 mile run. My friend benches over 150kg and is an avid gym goer, another is a personal trainee. Neither do a proper cardio session immediately after weights. They must be "lame" too according to you

Not doing cardio after weights doesn't make somebody lame.

But saying they can't do cardio after weights does.

[PJJ]

Crikey, there are a heck of a lot of vicious and unecessarily rude and dismissive replies to what is actually a very sensible question on here!

Guys just remember that not everyone is a man who wants to bulk up their muscles, some of us are women who go to the gym simply to get fitter, healthier and yes probably a bit slimmer as well. The workout regimes for men and women are different and also vary according to what your goals are - the proverbial "$%^*-measuring" going on here doesn't actually help at all.

I would actually welcome some advice on the gym as well - not because I am 'lame' or an 'amateur' but because prior to the start of this year I didn't go to the gym either. I mountain bike as a hobby, but had a big accident nearly 1 year ago resulting in surgery to repair torn shoulder cartiledge last October, plus I underwent another big operation for something else in March this year. I go to the gym to increase my stamina for biking and also use some of the resistance machines to rehabilitate my shoulder joint. I do all this under the supervision of a sports physio who has no problem with me doing both cardio and resistance/strength work in the same session, and I go 3 times per week.

I eat an extremely healthy diet (no chocolate, no fast food, 3 meals per day, little alcohol) and I intake approximately 1500 calories per day. I imagine the reason I feel tired on my rest days is because I simply don't eat enough, however I happen also to be lactose intolerant and metabolise my food very slowly. I don't have to eat very much at all to feel full...

Some sensible comments would be welcomed, however I refuse to acknowledge any other comments...

[Ronove]

(Original post by PJJ)
Crikey, there are a heck of a lot of vicious and unecessarily rude and dismissive replies to what is actually a very sensible question on here!

Guys just remember that not everyone is a man who wants to bulk up their muscles, some of us are women who go to the gym simply to get fitter, healthier and yes probably a bit slimmer as well. The workout regimes for men and women are different and also vary according to what your goals are - the proverbial "$%^*-measuring" going on here doesn't actually help at all.

I would actually welcome some advice on the gym as well - not because I am 'lame' or an 'amateur' but because prior to the start of this year I didn't go to the gym either. I mountain bike as a hobby, but had a big accident nearly 1 year ago resulting in surgery to repair torn shoulder cartiledge last October, plus I underwent another big operation for something else in March this year. I go to the gym to increase my stamina for biking and also use some of the resistance machines to rehabilitate my shoulder joint. I do all this under the supervision of a sports physio who has no problem with me doing both cardio and resistance/strength work in the same session, and I go 3 times per week.

I eat an extremely healthy diet (no chocolate, no fast food, 3 meals per day, little alcohol) and I intake approximately 1500 calories per day. I imagine the reason I feel tired on my rest days is because I simply don't eat enough, however I happen also to be lactose intolerant and metabolise my food very slowly. I don't have to eat very much at all to feel full...

Some sensible comments would be welcomed, however I refuse to acknowledge any other comments...

The comment in bold makes your appeal for 'sensible' comments a joke. There are plenty of women who want to gain strength and muscle mass. The workout regimes for men and women are not different, regimes only differ according to your goals. Just because most women have no idea about weights and think that lifting means you're going to 'bulk up' and that they should instead do a merry trot on the treadmill or go for a spin on the bike, doesn't mean that that is in any way better suited to women than the lifting programmes you see the ripped guys doing.

[PJJ]

I have no problem that there are plenty of women who want to gain strength and muscle mass - my point is that this is not necessarily the goal for every woman who goes to the gym, just as it is not the goal for every man who frequents the gym either. This being the case it seems a little unintelligent to suggest that a woman's workout regime is no good because she does not wish to 'bulk up' her muscles.

As for the fact that men's and women's regimes are different - in many respects they are, even for professional weightlifters and body builders. Men's and women's bodies are built differently and therefore, in some ways, are dealt with differently. However, I agree that it is generally the goal which defines the workout regime rather than whether you happen to be male or female.

With regards to your comment that most women have no idea about weights and assume that lifting will result in 'bulking up' - I imagine that some women don't want to lift weights regardless of whether it will bulk them up or not. Simply doing a brisk walk, or run on the treadmill, spending half an hour on the bike or some time on the cross-trainer is actually enough to maintain a decent level of fitness without needing to get involved with lifting weights. Especially when the free-weights section of the gym still seems to be an exclusively male preserve (whether true or not). Interestingly, I see more men using the treadmills etc than the free-weights at the gym I go to, so I would argue that it is not exclusively whether lifting weights are better suited to men or women, but rather what you as a person have as your goal. I don't lift weights simply because I have no wish to do so.