Expert: Kim Farmer - 1/15/2009

Question
QUESTION: ok heres my weekly workout, im not gonna go day-by-day as most of it are just basically "impromptu"..i mean i have a tight schedule now that school hs reopen so i squeeze in the exercises...

1 gym session per week in the morning without eating anything, consists of:

-5 sessions of HIIT, each session consists of speed 14 on treadmill for 1 min and speed 7 for 30 secs...i repeat this 2 times.

-weights and machine training..mostly working on upper body.

-lastly, a 1 km jog on treadmill at speed 9-10.

1 basketbal training(2-3 hrs) per week:

- 5 round jog around court for warmup
-doing basketball drills
-3 sets of suicide( each set consists of 1 suicide, 10 pushup, 10 sit ups and 10 burpees)


occasionally on sunday morning, i would go for a jog for 20 mins or sometimes a halr an hour swim( freestyle moderate)

the rest of the days, i do abs and chest workout at home:



and also controlling diet

will this work??? my main motive is to burn fats so will this work??? thanks

ANSWER: Hi Chirst-
Thanks for the question, and the short answer to your question is yes.  You are doing a lot of cardiovascular training which will definitely burn fat.  You should also try to intermingle some strenght training into your routine a couple of times a week, this will help to preserve the bone structure that you have, boost your metabolism and make your muscles more toned and refined.

I hope this answers your question, thanks for asking.

Kim Farmer
www.milehighfitness.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi..thanks for the quick answer...but i have 1 more question..i heard and read from lots of places that overdoing crdio exercises will reduce lean tissue and muscle..am i overdoing cardio??? and also, how long do i have to wait to eat after my workout??? thanks

Answer
Hi Christ-
I don't know how old you are, but depending on your age, my biggest concern would be injuries because of the amount and type of cardio you are doing.  You mentioned that you do strength training mostly for the upper body, but please don't neglect the lower body since you need to strengthen the muscles that you are using so often in your cardio work.

As far as the cardio reducing lean tissue and muscle, it all depends on how much strength training you are doing.  The response of cardiovascular activity and a proper diet will be a net loss of fat and usually pounds.  You should definitely focus on adding in more strength training, just making sure that you are working all of the major muscle groups (upper and lower) 2-3 days a week.  This will help to keep your muscles toned.  Please do not focus only on your upper body, if you don't strengthen your leg muscles, you will likely pay for it later in the form of injuries or muscular imbalances.

I hope this helps, thanks again for the question.

Kim Farmer
www.milehighfitness.com