I'm so glad I found this web-site as I have been vegetarian/lifting weights for about 20 years. It's been a challenge finding others with same interests/challenges. Anyway, I've just started lifting weights more seriously again over the last two months. I have been doing 3-4 days cardio for half hour (riding bike or rowing on concept 2 machine) and 3 days of "abbreviated" weights (each week progressively increasing bench/deadlift/squats). My goals are: 1) Improve cholesterol - Numbers are fairly good on low dosage of lipitor, but I am trying to get completely off the drug. Main concern is increasing HDL (at 46) and keeping LDL down (at 98). 2) Increase definition with focus on abs - According to my body scale, I'm at 20% body fat, so I think I need to lose some of the fat to do this. In addition to cardio, I've been doing about 2 minutes plank exercises in the morning as well to focus on abs/core. 3) Gain muscle - I'm 6'2", and 185 pounds so could use some more weight, though this goal somewhat conflicts with goal 2 above. Until recently any weight training I did was upper body, so I've been more focused on squats/deadlifts to strengthen the lower body. Any advice/feedback is welcome. Thanks, Chris
