Newbie Here. Questions!!! Questions!!!

[dumb-belle]

Hi All

Firstly, thanks for a great site! Can’t wait to get started. I just have sooo many questions and am dying to find out more and hear other people’s suggestions/opinions/experiences.

My fiancé has a bodybuilding background and is on a monthly retainer from a supplement company here in South Africa, so training and staying in shape are part of our lives. He is incredibly generous with his knowledge and experience and never hesitates to give advice but I really would like some input from FEMALES as I do believe there is some kind of difference between male and female training as we have different goals (not to mention different bodies and hormones!).

I’m 27, 1.67m tall and weigh 55kg (not sure what my body fat % is but am sure its average or slightly less than). At the moment I’m following an upper/lower body split training routine and train 6 times a week:
Day 1 - lower body (generally compound exercises such as lunges, squats, leg-presses etc.) followed by 20min cardio.
Day 2 - upper body (1 exercise of 3 sets per upper body part such as: dumb-bell rows, incline press, bicep curls etc. My reps for each exercise vary between 12 -15) followed by 20min cardio.
Day 3 - 40 minutes cardio + abs + calves
Day 4 - repeat of day 1
Day 5 - repeat of day 2
Day 6 - repeat of day 3
Day 7 - rest

Although for the past few months I haven’t been eating too strictly, I do generally try to eat clean with 6 meals a day (High protein, moderate carbs and low fat) but am not too phased (at this stage) by the occasional cheat. I do admit though, that I need to start tidying up my diet again. When I was being very strict about eating clean, I cut out salt completely. Not realizing that I had slightly low blood pressure I began to feel completely drained, dizzy and exhausted. The doctor put me on a pill for 2 weeks which helped and I began adding salt back into my diet which certainly improved the situation. I was also taking Alpha Nitrox before training which is apparently not a good idea for low blood pressure so I stopped this too.
QUESTION 1: Should I attempt to cut salt again when I go back to eating 100% clean?

Generally, I would say I’m in fairly decent shape but want to apply myself to getting leaner and increasing my muscle mass. I certainly don’t want to look like King Kong but want to develop a lean muscular physique. Although I realize that women simply do not have the natural hormones to develop enormous size and am in no way scared of heavy weights (in fact I love them!) and constantly push myself to increase the load, I am still concerned about “bulking” - especially in my upper legs. I have naturally muscular upper legs and ironically when my fat % increases this becomes my “problem area” with cellulite development and F.L.A.B. Why is this?
QUESTION 2: Surely the part of my body that responds the best to training should not at the same time be my “problem area”? It just doesn’t make sense!
QUESTION 3: As I am concerned about adding too much size to my upper legs, should I be over-training them? What EXACTLY is meant by the term “over-training”? Is my training program conducive to this?

A also have a huge problem with building my calves. I do calf raises almost equal to my body weight.
QUESTION 4: Is it true that if I want to build my calves I need to add more weight? I have also heard conflicting theories about how often to train calves. Some say in order for your calves to grow you should train them every single day others say rest periods are essential for growth. Any ideas?

My life style does not allow me to get to the gym twice a day at the moment which I would love to do as I believe that first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach?) is the best time to do cardio.
QUESTION 5: Is it ok to do my cardio after my weight sessions, as I have been?

Sorry if this seems a bit long winded- just thought the more detail you have the more accurately you can answer. I would GREATLY appreciate any input or advice!

Thanks in advance
(Not-so-Dumb) Belle

PS - one last question (6): I am currently taking CLA and a product called TestoBoost (“A natural testosterone booster”) which is comprised of 400mg Tribulus Terrestris Extract and 5mg of Boron (as amino acid chelate) per capsule. I take 3 capsules per day. From all the research I have done about Tribulus (and I have done extensive research), I have not found any evidence that women should not use this product, however on the bottle it says “For Male Use Only”. Why would this be? Have I overlooked something? Could it actually be harmful?

 

[scorpiogirl]

QUESTION 1: Should I attempt to cut salt again when I go back to eating 100% clean?

I think you should talk to your doc about this one. We wouldn't want to steer you in the wrong direction when it comes to your wellbeing!

I have naturally muscular upper legs and ironically when my fat % increases this becomes my “problem area” with cellulite development and F.L.A.B. Why is this?

Estrogenic fat - or - sticky fat - or - brown fat. All the same thing. Usually it's genetic. If you have it, you're stuck with it! A couple of us struggle with this issue.

QUESTION 2: Surely the part of my body that responds the best to training should not at the same time be my “problem area”? It just doesn’t make sense!

Why not...you still have muscle under there, right?

QUESTION 3: As I am concerned about adding too much size to my upper legs, should I be over-training them? What EXACTLY is meant by the term “over-training”? Is my training program conducive to this?

If you're concerned about adding too much size in this area, train with a little lighter weight and higher reps (15 or so). Don't go to failure - the weight should be lighter than that. Decrease your weights 20# and see how that works. Over training is when you don't give your muscle a long enough recoup time. If you're sore and you work that muscle again anyway - that's overtraining.

A also have a huge problem with building my calves. I do calf raises almost equal to my body weight.
QUESTION 4: Is it true that if I want to build my calves I need to add more weight? I have also heard conflicting theories about how often to train calves. Some say in order for your calves to grow you should train them every single day others say rest periods are essential for growth. Any ideas?

Girl, I have this VERY SAME DILEMMA!! lol I train my calves every other day (pretty much) right now. One thing about this muscle....it was designed to carry your body weight CONSTANTLY. A good source of info. on this for you would be to go to the stickies and look at Shadow's SHUT IT plan. Basically, time under tension (TUT), or number of reps is what this muscle group will need for you.

My life style does not allow me to get to the gym twice a day at the moment which I would love to do as I believe that first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach?) is the best time to do cardio.
QUESTION 5: Is it ok to do my cardio after my weight sessions, as I have been?

Yes, that'll work. Even though it's not fasted, it's still done after you've already used A LOT of energy training and you will start to burn fat more readily AFTER your training than before.

question (6): I am currently taking CLA and a product called TestoBoost (“A natural testosterone booster”) which is comprised of 400mg Tribulus Terrestris Extract and 5mg of Boron (as amino acid chelate) per capsule. I take 3 capsules per day. From all the research I have done about Tribulus (and I have done extensive research), I have not found any evidence that women should not use this product, however on the bottle it says “For Male Use Only”. Why would this be? Have I overlooked something? Could it actually be harmful?

Hmmmm, I can't be of help on the TestoBoost. Maybe someone else will pop in and give their 2 cents.


Welcome to EF!!!!

 

[dumb-belle]

Thanks a million for taking the time to respond. What you said makes sense! One thing I want to ask is do you think it will be ok to decrease my cardio to twice a week? During my weight sessions I train quite heavy (for ME at this stage) with minimal breaks in-between which really does increase my heart rate. Cardio seems like such a debatable topic these days. Is it true that fat loss comes PRIMARILY from lifting heavy and clean eating? Is cardio actually over-rated?

 

[*Bunny*]

Is cardio actually over-rated?

I firmly believe ... cardio is an extension of a clean diet

 

[Sassy69]

See my comments in bold:

Hi All

Firstly, thanks for a great site! Can’t wait to get started. I just have sooo many questions and am dying to find out more and hear other people’s suggestions/opinions/experiences.

My fiancé has a bodybuilding background and is on a monthly retainer from a supplement company here in South Africa, so training and staying in shape are part of our lives. He is incredibly generous with his knowledge and experience and never hesitates to give advice but I really would like some input from FEMALES as I do believe there is some kind of difference between male and female training as we have different goals (not to mention different bodies and hormones!).

I’m 27, 1.67m tall and weigh 55kg (not sure what my body fat % is but am sure its average or slightly less than). At the moment I’m following an upper/lower body split training routine and train 6 times a week:
Day 1 - lower body (generally compound exercises such as lunges, squats, leg-presses etc.) followed by 20min cardio.
Day 2 - upper body (1 exercise of 3 sets per upper body part such as: dumb-bell rows, incline press, bicep curls etc. My reps for each exercise vary between 12 -15) followed by 20min cardio.
Day 3 - 40 minutes cardio + abs + calves
Day 4 - repeat of day 1
Day 5 - repeat of day 2
Day 6 - repeat of day 3
Day 7 - rest

Although for the past few months I haven’t been eating too strictly, I do generally try to eat clean with 6 meals a day (High protein, moderate carbs and low fat) but am not too phased (at this stage) by the occasional cheat. I do admit though, that I need to start tidying up my diet again. When I was being very strict about eating clean, I cut out salt completely. Not realizing that I had slightly low blood pressure I began to feel completely drained, dizzy and exhausted. The doctor put me on a pill for 2 weeks which helped and I began adding salt back into my diet which certainly improved the situation. I was also taking Alpha Nitrox before training which is apparently not a good idea for low blood pressure so I stopped this too.
QUESTION 1: Should I attempt to cut salt again when I go back to eating 100% clean?

Don't see the point - the biggest thing w/ salt is that it can cause bloat / water retention in large amounts. That said - you do need salt in your diet and if you aren't adding a pile of salt to things I woudln't worry about just normal salt intake.

Generally, I would say I’m in fairly decent shape but want to apply myself to getting leaner and increasing my muscle mass. I certainly don’t want to look like King Kong but want to develop a lean muscular physique. Although I realize that women simply do not have the natural hormones to develop enormous size and am in no way scared of heavy weights (in fact I love them!) and constantly push myself to increase the load, I am still concerned about “bulking” - especially in my upper legs. I have naturally muscular upper legs and ironically when my fat % increases this becomes my “problem area” with cellulite development and F.L.A.B. Why is this?
QUESTION 2: Surely the part of my body that responds the best to training should not at the same time be my “problem area”? It just doesn’t make sense!

Women tend to hold fat in their middle section and this can be your thighs as well. That has nothiing to do w/ what is your best body part. Also when women build muscle they can also build fat (guys can too, but anyway) and often when they think they have crazy muscular legs but dont' like the "bigness" and then suggest that they stop working their legs - you are forgetting that you do probably have some fat in your legs so the mass isn't all just muscle. You will see that the area can cut up nicely if you continue to train but also diet. The diet is the important part. But also you will see those areas where you hold more fat to be the slower to visually respond to your diet. You can't "spot reduce" - that means when you do drop bodyfat you are losing the same % of bf across your whole body - but if you tend to hold more fat (i.e. more fat cells) in your certain areas, those areas will appear to lose slower - e.g. if you have less fat concentration in your upper body, x% of a smaller number will appear to be a bigger loss, whereas the same x% loss on an area where you have larger fat concentreation, will look smaller / slower loss.QUESTION 3: As I am concerned about adding too much size to my upper legs, should I be over-training them? What EXACTLY is meant by the term “over-training”? Is my training program conducive to this?

A also have a huge problem with building my calves. I do calf raises almost equal to my body weight.
QUESTION 4: Is it true that if I want to build my calves I need to add more weight? I have also heard conflicting theories about how often to train calves. Some say in order for your calves to grow you should train them every single day others say rest periods are essential for growth. Any ideas?

Calve are a hard one - you are either born w/ them or you aren't. They also seem to respond to a different type of training because they are a different muscle type - think kabout - who has gigantic calves? Bikers. Sprinters. The type of training they do is constant, fast paced as opposed to slower lifting types of trainign. I have big calves already but they get so nicely cut up w/ this excercise - walk on your toes - e.g. 20 steps " there" , 20 steps "back", carrying say 35 - 45 lb plates in each hand. (Good to use gloves here). Do that 4x. Feel the full extension on your calves on each step. Also donkey calf raises are really good exercises,

My life style does not allow me to get to the gym twice a day at the moment which I would love to do as I believe that first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach?) is the best time to do cardio.
QUESTION 5: Is it ok to do my cardio after my weight sessions, as I have been?

Cardio after training is fine.
Sorry if this seems a bit long winded- just thought the more detail you have the more accurately you can answer. I would GREATLY appreciate any input or advice!

Thanks in advance
(Not-so-Dumb) Belle

PS - one last question (6): I am currently taking CLA and a product called TestoBoost (“A natural testosterone booster”) which is comprised of 400mg Tribulus Terrestris Extract and 5mg of Boron (as amino acid chelate) per capsule. I take 3 capsules per day. From all the research I have done about Tribulus (and I have done extensive research), I have not found any evidence that women should not use this product, however on the bottle it says “For Male Use Only”. Why would this be? Have I overlooked something? Could it actually be harmful?

I've used tribulus because it said all the testosterone enhancement stuff - all I did was get big, bloated and break out. I don't recommend it myself.

 

[dumb-belle]

Thanks Sassy!
Good point about the "prob areas". makes sense. I’ve also added HIIT to my training routine which should start showing me benefits pretty soon. Will keep you posted.
PS: loooove your calve training tips!!!!