Workout Plan Question

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Okay, I've read enough posts to see that most of the time when a

newbie wants to make changes to the BFL plan during their first

challenge that they are often told to just stick w/ the BFL plan and

wait until challenge 2 to make changes. Well, I'm going to go ahead

and ask about changing my workout plan anyway due to past

experience. So here's the question: Does working out the same

muscle group 2x a week with weight training really help with muscle

gains? In the past I've weight lifted 2x a week for the same muscle

group and all that happened was that I was super sore during and

after the 2nd workout and it took me forever to see muscle or

strength gains because they were always tired. Here's what I used

to do when I followed the 2x a week method:

M--Upper Body

T--Lower Body

W--Upper Body

R--Lower Body

F--Off

Sat--aerobic

Sun--aerobic

Last year I had a free session with a personal trainer when I joined

my gym, and she told me the reason I was not seeing the results I

hoped for was b/c I was overworking the muscle groups. She told me

to limit weight workouts to 1x per muscle group per week so that the

muscles would have time to heal properly before getting torn down

again. Here is the schedule she helped me set up:

M--Rest (or I do yoga at home)

T--Chest, Triceps, Shoulders

W--Aerobic (I am doing the Couch to 5k program from

www.coolrunning.com and I'm scheduled for my first 5k race in

May! )

R--Back and Biceps

F--Aerobic (5k training)

Sat--Legs and Abs

Sun--Aerobic (5k training)

Now I'm on Week 1, Day 4 of my first ever BFL challenge and I want

to know if I should stick to the workout plan I have listed above

(especially since in the past I have had little success w/ the 2x

week weight lifting schedule), or if I should use the BFL program

where one week I have two days of all upper body, one day of legs

and abs, then next week I have two days of legs and abs and one day

of upper body. Oh, and I have switched to Bill's method of

completing sets, reps, and weight resistance and pushing to failure).

Oh, and I've replaced HITT with my 5k training and won't be

following the HITT program until after my 5k race in May. I

committed to the 5k training 5 weeks ago and it's a huge life goal

for me to be able to run 3 miles non-stop so I'm not giving that up

for anything!!! I'm only willing to change my weight lifting

workout at this time. (Though it is sad for me to admit this but

the 5k training gets me to about a 9 and sometimes a 10 effort so I

suppose it is just as effective as the HITT would be).

~Meg

Anyway, thanks for any help or advice