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First 12 Week Plan: Strength Training This page describes the strength training component of my first 12 week plan.  The general purposes of strength training are:  maintain my strength to perform everyday functions improving general appearance and build muscle mass to improve my metabolic rate. When I come up with strength training plans, I try to consider all purposes.  In my first plan, I was most concerned with improving my general appearance.  Yep, vanity was my motivator!  The complete strength training plan is described here. Lucia Creating the Plan. When creating my strength training plan, I knew a few things: Initially, I was more motivated by the idea of losing weight than building muscle.  So, this was a second priority. If I gave myself a ridiculously ambitious plan, I would quit! I was pretty weak. I had saddlebags, my butt drooped and my tummy was flabby.  I wanted to firm them up. I'd never worked with weights before. I owned an old set of exercise rubber bands that went along with a Tamilee Webb book called "Tamilee Webb's Original Rubber Band Workout". I could borrow my brother-in-law's old weight set sitting in my in-laws' basement. I didn't want to spend lots of money on equipment. I wanted to exercise at home in my bedroom and I had a very open schedule with lots of free time from April to July. So, I didn't need to accommodate a hectic schedule.

Given my constraints, I decided that I would develop an exercise program using dumbbells, rubber bands and my brother-in-law's old weight bench.  I checked out several books from the library and read their programs.  Most exercise books describe workouts using home gyms because it's easier to how to perform exercises safely with a home gym. They also help you isolate individual muscles. This can help you gain definition in muscle you are working. Total Gym.com has great savings on wonderful home gyms; click here to read about their products.

The advantages of dumbbells are: they are less expensive, they help you build balance and they don't isolate muscles. By not isolating muscles, you work out smaller muscles that assist the large muscles. You can find weights and dumbbells at BigFitness.com.

Unfortunately, it can be hard to find a book that describes a program using dumbbells. I found two good books for beginners.  These are "Firm For Life", by Anna and Cynthia Benson, Strong Women Stay Young, by Nieman and The Body Sculpting Bible For Women.  For my first program, I selected "Firm For Life", the main reason I chose this program is I found it first.  I found the other two several weeks after I started my program.  ( Aside: I really like the exercise program in "Firm for Life". I especially like their anatomical sketches to show which muscles are worked.  However, Strong Women Stay Young contains a lot interesting information about health and aging.  The Body Scultping Bible contains many, many more exercises than the other two.  I'd advise you read all of them. How can you afford it?  Get them at your library!)

The other reason I chose the workout in "Firm For Life", is that it required a very modest financial investment.  I needed two dumbbells, a pole and a bench or chair to start.  Well, I had an old pole and a bench already!  I bought two 5 lb dumbbells; these are available at BigFitness.com. (Very weak people should start with 3 lb weights.) I borrowed the old weight bench from my in-laws, and I located the 5/8" blue rubber bands that went with the "Tamilee Webb's Original Rubber Band Workout", book.  (If I'd had this to do over again, I'd order the 3/8" bands to start my exercise plan! )

The work out in "Firm For Life" consists of a strength and stretching portion.  "Tamilee Webb's" book also recommends stretching.  I was a bad girl.  I only did the strength portion!

I also modified the "Firm For Life" workout slightly.  Their program consists of 12 exercises.  But I found that 2 of them, the squat and the dip, caused "twinges" in my knees.  Working out on my own, I was not going to do anything that caused twinges in my knees! (I later read an exercise book that talked about some of the strength and flexibility requirements to do squats safely. I didn't have them yet! So, I suspect I made a good decision.)  I cut out the one arm row because I found I cheated too much.

Since I cut out three exercises, I decided I needed to add exercises that overlapped the function of the omitted exercises.  I also noticed there were no exercises for the inner and outer thigh.  I wanted to improve the appearance of my thighs.  So, I added exercises for inner and outer thighs.  I found a back exercise and some leg exercises in  "Tamilee Webb's Original Rubber Band Workout".

So, my final work out included the exercises in the table below.  The reference are given, but abbreviated.
 

If you examine my list, you'll see the exercises workout the largest muscles in the body.  However, since strength training was not initially my top priority, I also modified the advice in the "Firm For Life", workout.  They suggested doing 12-20 repetitions of each exercise.  I set the target number of repetitions to 15 for each exercise.  The "Firm" also suggested doing 3 sets of each exercise.  To save time, I did 1 set of each exercise!

I modified their suggestions a few more ways.  Since I was working out at home, I was very cautions.  So, the first two weeks, I concentrated on learning the exercises rather than doing the exercise.  To learn the exercises, I would read the description carefully and then do 5 repetitions only.  At first, I used 5 lb dumbbells  and blue 5/8" wide workout bands.  The choice of low reps and fairly low weight prevented soreness, gave me time to learn the exercises, and kept the session time manageable.

Although I didn't purchase the book until after I started exercising, I had followed the advise of Michael Yessis, Ph. D who wrote "Kinesiology of Exercise",.  He suggests spending one or two weeks learning an exercise using light weight and low repetitions.  He advises beginners to perform only 1 set of each exercise.  He also advises adding a greater number of exercises before increasing the number of sets.  So, for example, beginners would probably benefit more by adding exercises for the lower abdominal and obliques before increasing the number of repetitions of the abdominal curl.  (This makes sense to me.  If I only have 30 minutes, why concentrate on the upper abs with 3 sets while completely ignoring the lower abs.)  Amazingly, I had done exactly that! So what if my motivations were laziness and saving time?

As I progressed through the 12 weeks, I found it easier and easier to perform the exercises.  I slowly increased the number of repetitions until I reached 25.  But I didn't increase the number of repetitions at the same rate for each exercise.  For example, I found it easy to improve on the calf lift and leg press.  I improved more slowly with the shoulder press and bicep curls.

I kept a record of the number or reps on paper.  When I reached 25 reps for an exercise, I bought a set of 10 lb weights.  Then I did 8 reps with the heavier weight, and slowly tried to increase to 25 again.  Because I was working on my own with no trainer, I did not push myself!  By the end of week 12, I was using 10 lbs. weights for all the exercises and 15 lbs. for the leg exercises.

If you want to progress a little faster that I did, and you are willing to spend a little more money to buy dumbbells, you could increase weight when you reach 20 reps. In that case, increase from 5 lb weights to 8 lb. weights. (Or if you really want to buy lots of weights, buy a set of 6 or 7 lb weights.)  Frankly, I'm stingy.  I also don't want to store lots of dumbbells.  I don't have room for a  5,8,10,12,15 lb dumbbells in my bedroom!

Important: I did follow a dictate in nearly every strength training book I've read: Do the exercises slowly and smoothly.  Don't jerk the weight.  Periodically, I try to count : 2 seconds to lift, pause, 4 seconds to return the weight to the rest position.  ( I obviously often forget.  Otherwise this 25 exercise workout would take longer than 50 minutes!)

Muscle Firmness, Gain?

I'm much stronger also.  I no longer have the slightest trouble opening jars, and mowing the lawn is now easy.  Heck, I don't even have trouble holding the rototiller down when I garden anymore!  This is great!

I may even have increased my actual muscle mass! You can examine the plot below, which also appears on the page describing the aerobic portion of my first plan. I attribute most of the weight loss to the calories burned through aerobic exercise.  Since I lost nearly 10 lbs. of fat, but only 8 1/2 lbs. of weight, it would seem I gained nearly 1 1/2 lbs. of muscle.  I'm not entirely  sure about that since I know that measurement of my body fat % may be off more than measurement of my weight.

I hope I really have increased the muscle mass!  Supposedly, each pound of muscle burns between 35 and 100 extra calories a day just by existing. (I don't know which because different books claim different values.)  Supposedly, if I have added 1 1/2 lbs. of muscle, my metabolic rate has increased at least 50 calories a day.  Any aerobic exercise is a bonus above and beyond that represents an extra 50 calories.

You know what else? I just plain look better.  It's difficult to figure out how much of the improvement is due to losing nearly 10 lbs. of fat, and how much is due to more, better toned muscle!  I think the split is about 50-50.  My butt is firmer and higher.  My abs are starting to look good enough to show off.  Both those improvements seem to be due to the improved muscle.  But the fact is, I wouldn't see those nice muscles if they still had the 10 lbs. of fat hiding them.  So, who knows.  But I know I look better than I would with flabby muscles.  If you try this, you'll see what I mean.

What's next?

Since the first 12 week plan focused on aerobics, the second 12 week plan may focus more on strength training!  I would really like to increase my muscle mass by 2-3 lbs.  The muscle looks much better than fat.  For one thing, muscle is not flabby like fat. For another thing, muscle is distributed nicely.  It's doesn't form big lumps on the sides of my thighs or front of my gut.  I kind of like the look of nice muscles with a uniform layer of fat over them.  The look says: "young woman"!

Lucia
 

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References:

Webb, Tamilee, "Tamilee Webb's Original Rubber Band Workout", 1986, Workman Publishing, New York, New York.

Benson, Anna, and Benson, Cynthia. "Firm For Life", 1998 Broadway Books, New York, New York.

Created: June 25, 2002. Revised:
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