High or Low reps?

[Newguy]

I've been asked to be someones "personal trainer" because I "have had success with my physique" despite that I train exclusively for performance. Now my question is that what range of reps is best for fat lose/muscle toning. Since I have never had any experience with the stuff (fat) I have no idea, I know that low reps are pure strength and high reps are endurance etc... Any help?

[Aaron Griffin]

For fat loss, the best is to do about 10 reps of eating less

[Samuel Carr]

I don't know if this answers your question, but I read that 1-5 reps is for strength, 8-12 for size, and 20-50 for endurance

[Newguy]

Not that the person is fat, just wants to lose some weight. And haha! Yeah, 10 reps of that normally does the trick

[Philip Chubb]

Poliquin usually writes about shorter rest times for fat loss. Then you let the weight decide the reps. A decently intense weight for reps, then a short rest, then again. Look up german body comp for more details.

[Alvaro Antolinez]

you need to give more data!. How old is he?, what is his athletic level?, weight? body fat %(aprox): " Toning " will take you nowhere, set specific goals, even small ones will help much more than "toning". Also track the results , keep a notebook with all the training numbers of every session. If he is very weak forget about pure strength at the beginning ( 3reps or so) go for 8-12 to build some muscle mass, he will gain strength faster that way at the beginning.

Also if he wants to use barbells instead of bodyweight, try the starting strength template (you can look for it at their forum), is simple and very effective for beginners.

[Newguy]

Actually its my mom! Uhm, just under 50 Years old, bout 140-135 or so pounds, maybe 5' 6"-5' 8". No clue how to guess at body fat (and I don't have a BMIer" She does not care extremely much about getting strong, just wants to lose some core weight. Not very athletic, sometimes walk's for a couple of miles with a weight vest.

I'm thinking about just having her do a heavily modified (not necessarily by "the book") WOD's. Would that be good for weight loss?

[Larry Roseman]

What about her diet?

[Newguy]

When at home normally average to healthy, although has the habit of once or twice a week eating out. And she wants to lose around 10-15 pounds

[Larry Roseman]

When at home normally average to healthy, although has the habit of once or twice a week eating out. And she wants to lose around 10-15 pounds

Is she against doing a diet? It's going to be more effective in terms of weight/fat loss.

The weight work can supplement it, but it's going to take forever to lose 10-15 pounds

just doing that, If she isn't focused on her intake she can easily outeat the caloric benefit

of the workout, which is relatively low in the case of non-cardio workouts.

It's good to get her going on the exercises, but I'd sound out her willingness to take on a moderate

diet if weight loss is really her goal. It's a bit awkward given she's your Mom but tell her you

are wearing your trainer hat!

[Newguy]

She normally eats small portions, and yes, I am trying to get her to stop eating out/eating more healthy.

But wait, are you saying that non cardio workouts are not good for weight loss?

[Alvaro Antolinez]

I would try buying the Paleo solution from Robb wolf, I've lost more than 15 kilos with it(and I am not even 80% compliant!), . There is also good 101 training tips for raw beginners. I am not an expert, there are people here with much more knowledge than me, but I tried to go too fast too soon and I have learned from that, also trying to build pure strength when you have no muscle mass doesn't work (at least it didn't work for me).

I'll begin with some soft warm up, mobility and prehab (very easy at the beginning), some easy dynamic stretching and then for 2 or 3 months (the first ones) some easy steady running (to get an aerobic base), starting maybe at 5 min and increase from there till 20 min(once she is able to run for 20 min you can begin some tabata or series 2 times a week, or maybe some rope skipping).

Then Some basic static like Lsit, skin the cat(maybe with feet on the ground, building from there), bridge, wall handstand, all this as a warm up, it doesn't have to be too tiring. Then a fully downgraded WOD ( maybe kneeling push ups, seated rows, squats, dips with legs in the ground, etc...), or try Robb wolfs template for beginners(maybe that way you don't have to keep guessing how to do it at first).

The idea is to begin with something quite easy (and short)the first 3-4 weeks and build slowly from there. If you kill her the first week there will be no second one. The first month the most important part is the prehab and some basic aerobic capacity unless she has some athletic base that is. There are no miracles you have to be constant, but if you start now you can reach nice result for next summer thou.

Just my 2 cents.

[Larry Roseman]

She normally eats small portions, and yes, I am trying to get her to stop eating out/eating more healthy.

But wait, are you saying that non cardio workouts are not good for weight loss?

Great!

No, I am not saying non-cardio workouts are not good for weight loss. But if you try using them alone without

adjusting diet they are not very efffective. Half the time is spent waiting between sets and beginners will have a low intensity so calorie burn is low - a few hundred an hour - a Snickers bar worth!

If you are talking about hours and hours of advanced level training gymanstic a day though it's another story. The sheer volume and intensity of work involved is going to create a big calorie burn. Otherwise, regular cardio is the more practical approach for weight loss if the person does not want to work on their diet initially. But (body)weight training is still important: It helps prevent muscle loss during dieting, can be fun and a confidence booster.

Regarding the previous comment about paleo, I'm not sure that paleo has the same appeal to ladies, but whatever works!

I agree that training should always start at the bottom and build up. If you can test her for her strength ( # pull ups, pushups, situps) and fitness (e.g., cooper test: how far can she run/walk in 12 minutes) now, as well as get her vital stats (body measurements, Resting HR, BP) now they can be useful for tracking progress every six months as well.

But you will have to guage what she is willing to adopt and stick with. She doesn't have to start everything at once.

That may be too much and freak her out. If she does one thing for a while until she is comfortable and in a routine with it, and then adds another and another that is perfect.

[Felipe]

Fat loss programs (high reps) are a waste of time. Diet is 80% for fat loss.

If you want to add exercise, do 3 strength workout for "toning" (gymnast, vaulter, weightlifter, sprinter muscles are the most toned in sport if you know what I mean) and 30-40 min of low cardio every other day.

Eventually you will feel the latter boring and will throw them , so just stick with the strict diet (leangains/rob wolf/bodyrecomposition for more info) and strength development (SS / Stronglift for lifts or Gymnasticsbodies for bodyweight) and in 4 months if you are in good shape you will get a single digit bf.

[Newguy]

Okay, thanks guys for all your tips!