Is my workout healthy?

[Coco]

Red J, you wouldnt belive it if I told you how much competition we got around here... im talking about us, teenagers of course. We got 15 year olds working out , benching 200lbs , other 16 year olds spending 4 hours daily at the dojo and a few 14 year olds going all out on heavy bags for hours... I cant really afford to stay behind as my sensei depends on me mostly to set a name for our dojo. So far, I have won many tournaments along with his son (13 year old black belt), and the dojo has a pretty good name. Ill try what you guys are saying, keep up the good replys!

[Red J]

That's great Coco, but remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, and either are great champions. My main point is that when you push your body it needs rest to recover.

 

Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

[daryldolittle]

whats the 30 pound 35 reps bicep curls (i am guessing) for?

[Coco]

Maybe I should add that I, aside from all the things ive lifted jump for about 5 minutes after class(2-3 sets), for your leg muscles (the ones between knee and ankles, dont know the name), and also use a handgrip for a few sets(fore arm muscles.) I also use my 30 pound weight to do some shoulder exercises and ocassionally use the 30 punder to do squats with added resistence and a few situps with the 30 pound weight (around 25-50), I have been doing this for about 3 months and I still see a fair amount of fat, that is the reason im constantly incresing reps/sets, im now working on getting to 150 situps and 50+ pushups a day and tryng to reach 40-50 sqats now, also set a goal of 5 straight minutes nonstop jumping, as well as a goal of 50+ reps (in 2-3 sets) on my 30 pounder. Note that the reps/sets go up but never the weight, in my opinion, morea than 30 is unhealthy and can cause back problems.

 

I HAVE seen alot of improvement since I started though! (a year ago I couldnt do one pushup, 5 situps or 5 squats!!!), I also used to weight 170 now im 149 and decresing!(muscle increasing [Hopefully ])

 

Keep up the great responses!

[PrideampPoise]

Its sounds to me that the reason you don't get sore is that you are essentially training for muscle endurance as opposed to muscle strength.

 

That's what you get with high reps and low resistance. Remember that for body weight exercises, like pushups, your weight loss has actually made them easier, regardless of any changes in strength.

 

That's not to say you haven't gained any strength, because I'm sure you have. Its just the main benefit you are getting is endurance.

 

Given that you are 14, and your body is still growing, that's probably the right thing to do anyway.

 

But still, it sounds like you can at least afford to experiment with higher resistance and fewer reps, which will do more on the strength side. (Maybe even make you sore now and again...)

 

Like for situps... do you have an incline bench available to you?

 

One or two days a week, try bench pressing instead of pushups. Do a warmup set or two with lighter weight, than use enough weight so that you can only do 15 reps or so. The next workout, try 16 reps. When you can get to 20 reps, add some weight and go back to 15 reps.

 

Same with your squats... use weights to increase your resistance so that you can't do more than 15-20 reps or so. (When you really get focused on strength, you can lower the reps even further, but you should probably hold off on that for a few more years.)

 

It also wouldn't hurt to add a shoulder excecise and back exercise to your weight training routine. Biceps aren't really as important (unless your going for looks), but if you do work biceps, look at a tricep exercise as well, to maintain balance.

 

The back excercise is important for balance as well. Some people who work their abs but not their backs develop back problems from the lack of balance.

 

Whenever you add an exercise, maintain proper form, and start with weights/reps you can easily handle, then gradually increase.

 

Heavier weights don't in and of themselves cause back problems, as long as you can maintain proper form and balance.

 

Always allow at least a day between strength training the same body parts. If you do experience soreness, DO NOT do another strength workout for those muscles until the soreness is gone. You gain strength not when you are working out, but when your body repairs itself between workouts. When you workout while you are sore, you hinder that repair process, and actually do more harm than good.

[PrideampPoise]

Sorry, didn't see your last post...

 

Adding some resistance is good, but try to use the right weight for that muscle group.

 

As for seeing fat, the weight training isn't going to help much with that. It is true that muscle uses more calories than fat, but you will also be hungrier.

 

If you want to lose fat, you have to make sure you aren't eating more calories than you burn.

 

So while its good your doing some strength training, understand that if you want to lose that fat you'll need to either burn more calories or take in fewer. Since it sounds like you are working out more than enough, you should probably look at making a few changes to your diet. Cut out a snack, eat a slightly smaller dinner, pass on the fries, things like that.

 

From your description, it does sound like you have lost a lot of fat already, so you may just need to keep doing what you are doing and be patient.

 

But if you've hit a plateau, and can't seem to lose that last bit, look to your diet.