Deeper Blue

notanartmajor - Would supersetting be a better idea than doing the exercises as a circuit? I seem to find I can lift heavier if I don't circuit than if I do but maybe thats an endurance thing and something to be worked on. Andy - Your right about it not exactly being the ironman or anything I'm going for here, but it could mean stretchering someone off a mountain and I want to make sure my muscle can manage that. As you say, hiking with weights seems to be a good plan. Thanks again guys.

Thank you again for the replies. Frox: It's interesting that you talk about just going 30 seconds between sets, I hadn't thought about that and will give it a try at my next trip to the gym. In that article you posted from bodybuilding.com it talks about doing a load of sets (15-20) in order to build endurance, which seems to make sense, but it would make my workout very long! js290: Hillfit looks perfect for what I want to do. I'm going to have a bit more read of that site and decide if I want to invest in it.

Thank you so much for the advice everyone. So it sounds like I need to load up the backpack once or twice a week then and continue lifting heavy. I'll check out that web site too Gr4nt. I hear a lot about crossfit but have no real idea what it is.

Hi Guys, I'm really hoping someone can help me with this as I'm pretty new to strength training and although I've been reading as much as I can about the subject I'm a bit stuck and would appreciate a bit of advice. I'm a 5'7" female weighing about 65kg if it makes any difference. I've got some training exercises with the Mountain Rescue Team here in the UK in a few months time and although I'm not in terrible shape I wouldn't consider myself fit and I'm certainly not strong. Initially I was hoping to gain strength and my goals are to be able to bench press my own weight, do a pull up and 25 'proper' push ups (although I don't know what a realistic time scale would be for achieving this), but I was thinking that if I'm going to be hiking around mountains on search and rescue exercises I'm going to need a fair amount of endurance too. So my question is, can I have both strength and endurance? Reading Steve's articles he talks about doing a small number of reps with heavy weights for strength/power and more reps with lighter weights for endurance (unless I've read something wrong) but what if I want both? Should I do heavy lifting with the weights and then long-haul cardio for the stamina bit? Is the 'stamina' I need more about VO2Max and less about muscles? /confused Thanks for reading and any help for a will be appreciated

Hey SLSS, I'm excited for you! Just imagine the faces of your friends when they come back and see you looking all buff!! How long is it until you see them again? Do you have a good game plan and a set of goals? I'm new myself so look forward to seeing you around D.B. P.S. I've got dyslexia so if there are any mistakes in my posts your just going to have to live with it! lol

Hi Tungstenmouse It's great that your taking control of things and starting to kick your illness's ass once and for all. I'm just starting out myself so can't really offer much in the way of advice yet but I've been on the Paleo diet for a few weeks and really enjoying it! I've been really tired some days as my body gets used to being without the carbs but I really feel like I'm eating a lot healthier now. Stick with it and hope to see you around Oh, and I luuuuuurve superhero films too! D.B.

Hi Joeblade, I feel you regarding the addictive gaming thing. I got so bad with Guildwars a few years back I would easily skip meals without even noticing and racked up hours and hours on there! I often wonder what I could of achieved in real life if I'd put that amount of effort into something tangible! Welcome to the boards and hope to see you around D.B.

Hi Rich, I'm a new UK'er too and there actually seem to be a fair few of us about recently. Well done for all the improvements you've made so far and good luck with whatever you have planned next D.B.

Hi Gem, I've only just properly started out on my fittness crusade too. It's nice to see so many brits on here. Seems the rebellion is spreading DB