Trying to Get Fit Fast -- Am I Doing This Right?

[LilacMama]

I am 5-7 and 120lbs. Yeah, too skinny. I eat fairly healthfully (whole foods, omnivore) and often. I'm just naturally skinny and just stopped breastfeeding my toddler (who really sucked a lot out of me, literally!). I am NOT strong at all! I used to be a runner and I'm only just now getting back into it. I can't do more than 1 or 2 push ups and NO pull-ups.

I just got a gym membership a month ago and I've been building up fitness fairly quickly but I'm trying to optimize my time. Here's the plan I wrote out for the next month:

Monday -- 30minutes Stair Stepper then Body Pump Class*
Tuesday -- Rest
Wednesday -- Cycle Class/Abs
Thursday -- Run 3 Miles
Friday -- 30minutes Stair Stepper then Body Pump Class
Saturday -- Rest
Sunday -- Run 3 Miles


I'm upping my protein intake and I do eat plenty of good fats. I want to be strong, healthy, toned.....

Am I doing it right? I don't want to be wasting my time. I am SORE all the time these last two weeks.

*Body Pump is a class with lots of intense weight lifting set to music (squats, lunges, dead lifts, chest presses, etc....)

[phathui5]

Have you been running for a while or is it a new thing? 3 miles is a lot if you're just starting out.

[LilacMama]

I've been running about 6 weeks. I can do 3 miles pretty well.

[janasmama]

I think it sounds like you are doing the right things to build some muscle. The only thing I would change about your workout is the Sunday repeat of 3 miles. I would do hill repeats or sprints for about 8 rounds or something along those lines. The fastest way to build muscle is to perform work at a high intensity because this is when muscle building hormones are released. Plus it will most likely help your overall mile time and then you can work up to increasing your long run but only increase it by 10% at a time. Meaning if you run 10 min. miles then you would increase your run by 3 minutes.

I've also read from several sources that if you want to build muscle you should be eating as many grams of protein per day as is equal to your body weight.