New And Need Help!!!

[mayb1day]

Hey Guys And Gals


My Current Stats 10/15/07
6'4 255

My Previous Stats
6'4 313 6/9/07

I Am Really Looking To Get Down To A Lean/tight 230. My Waist Has Gone From 44 To A 38. I Do Not Do Any Heavy Weight Training.

Here Is My Mentality And Please Help Me If It Is Wrong.
I Do Not Want To Get Huge Muscle Mass. I Want A Tight Fit Look.

I Work Out For 1.5hrs 4-5 Days Per Week.

1hr Cardio
30min Weight Trainning High Reps.

I Am Not Currently Doing Anything For Abs Other Than Crunches.

I Really Want To Cut My Mid Section By All Means.
Should I Be Doing More Exercise On My Abs Even Though I Am Still Showing A Small Belly? Or Do I Get Down To 230 Then Hit Abs?

Are There Any Supplements That Will Start To Help Me Get Ripped?

Please Advise.

Thank You In Advance.

Ap

 

[Mercere]

Hey Guys And Gals


My Current Stats 10/15/07
6'4 255

My Previous Stats
6'4 313 6/9/07

Congratulations man, good loss.

I Am Really Looking To Get Down To A Lean/tight 230. My Waist Has Gone From 44 To A 38. I Do Not Do Any Heavy Weight Training.

Here Is My Mentality And Please Help Me If It Is Wrong.
I Do Not Want To Get Huge Muscle Mass. I Want A Tight Fit Look.


Your goals can never be wrong. You do what makes you happy/healthy and feel good about yourself. Don't worry about getting huge by accident. It takes years of hard work, dedication and precise planning to get huge. What you want to do is lose 25 pounds mostly in fat mass.

I Work Out For 1.5hrs 4-5 Days Per Week.

1hr Cardio
30min Weight Trainning High Reps.

With this approach, your body will waste muscle mass like there is no tomorrow. High cardio and dieting can work when you have a lot of fat on you, the body will be predisposed to lose the fat. But as you get leaner, you need to adjust your training to preserve your muscle mass. If you don't, you'll be "skinny fat" as opposed to tight and lean. I suggest starting on a full body compound lifting program. The Rippetoe 3x5 is a good place to start, I've had excellent results with it. This will help you increase strength and preserve muscle mass while you are dieting. If you lift heavy, the body will try to drop fat instead of muscle.

I Am Not Currently Doing Anything For Abs Other Than Crunches.

I Really Want To Cut My Mid Section By All Means.
Should I Be Doing More Exercise On My Abs Even Though I Am Still Showing A Small Belly? Or Do I Get Down To 230 Then Hit Abs?

I know this goes against all you've heard in all fitness marketing to the day, but the cold hard reality is this: There is no spot reduction. Crunches won't make you lean in the stomach. Your midsection will get leaner as you diet and drop body fat. In a man, it will be one of the last places to lean out.


Are There Any Supplements That Will Start To Help Me Get Ripped?

No, not at this point. You should be thinking about diet and training.


Please Advise.

Thank You In Advance.

Ap

I recommend reading the stickies on top of the forum. You need a big overhaul on your training mentality if you want to achieve your goals. Good luck bro...

 

[mayb1day]

Thanks Mercere If you can take the time out and write a workout for me I would really appreciate it. I feel really great. I just want to have a tight body meaning chest arms abs. This is my main goal. THanks@@!

 

[TSO]

You may run into issues where you have excess skin that will not tighten up due to your recent weight loss (great job by the way) there really is nothing you can do about this short of cosmetic surgery. In regards to tightening the abs...just keep up the cardio and keep with a calorie restrictive diet. The abs are there, they are just being hidden by a few inches of fat.

Keep up keeping up.

 

[Mercere]

Thanks Mercere If you can take the time out and write a workout for me I would really appreciate it. I feel really great. I just want to have a tight body meaning chest arms abs. This is my main goal. THanks@@!

From the training stickies: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

 

[fortunatesun]

just to second what mercere already said. It seems to run contrary to novice logic, but increasing time in the weight room can be even more helpful than cardio. While aerobic exercise helps your cardiovascular system, weightlifting burns even more cals. Everyone's metabolism is different, so don't hesitate to try out a moderate or heavy rep scheme. These may or may not get you where you want to go faster.

The important thing is to use a balanced approach to your weight program. Although a program is often broken down into individual bodyparts, in actual function they are joined by your central nervous system and so will always in some way work together. Loading up on 1 or 2 aspects, like say lots of crunches, just wastes time and energy. Conditioning the whole is the necessary first step to acheiving the detail.

Getting your diet to work for you is just as important as exercise. When you research your workout program, it will be worthwhile to make sure your eating right. The diet and nutrition forum is full of good information and a handy starting point. If you're taking your training to the next level then you need to make sure your diet is up to the task.

 

[Sim882]

If you don't have the muscle mass of a body builder, I woudn't worry too much about wasting away muscle from cardio.

The reality is that many professional athletes do many hours of exercise and have a level of muscle that more than satisfies your "Lean/tight 230". Many of the male biggest loser candidates do three hours of daily exercise, and do not have emanciated muscles. Will doing this amount of cardio mean you can have the mass of a bodybuilder? NO, but that is not your goal. I'm sure you'd accept looking like a basketball player or soccer, and I doubt your training schedule is more demanding than theirs

As for supplements, the following may be helpful: chromium (insulin sensitivity), for fat oxidation fish oil, green tea, caffeine (pre exercise), glutamine, non-fat cottage cheese. You can buy double strength fish oil now

As for weights routine, just do one which burns calories - that means it hits your back and legs hard, e.g., 5v5 (but don't ramp weights, but rather do something like a pyramid where every set is to failure, this forces the heart rate up burning more calories). Perhaps, include some barbel jump squats or plymetric leg exercises (box jumps) at end of weights routine, with short rest intervals, for some HIT added to weights. These create very high heart rates.

Read http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/13weekstohardcorefatburningdiet.php as an excellent article on fat burning. Nutritiondata.com is great for telling you everything you need to know of foods

Guidelines of dieting are:
- 5 + meals of fairly even size (decreasing in size throughout the day)
- 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight minimum
- A 10-20% calorie deficit, although your should have at least 1 day per week at maintenance calories.
- Decreasing carbs throughout the day. Fiberous carbs make dieting easier (increased satiety). Carb cycling is a more aggressive fat loss technique.
- At least 30% P (I'd say 40%), 15% fat. No more than 50% carbs. If your doing little cardio and relying on diet for weight loss, I'd say lower carbs to 30% or less (carbs offer "muscle sparing" protection for those engaged in more cardio)
- Most of carbs should be complex, and no "free sugars" except for PWO. Fructose (from fructose or sucrose) and galactase (from lactose) should be kept below 50 grams per day and not added to any meal, even PWO where only dextrose is allowed. Hence, fruit and milk cannot be consumed in large quantities, but are preferable to added sugar. 1 apple or punnet of strawberries per day is not going to overflow your liver with fructose and make you fat however (indeed, there may be an anti-catabolic benefits of having some carbs in your liver)
- include some omega 3 and omega 6. Omega 6 is in oats and you normally the problem is excessive omega 6 consumption.
- At least 30 grams of protein per meal

As for cardio, mix it up - HIT (sprint intervals if you're not too heavy), steady state cardio.

 

[Mercere]

If you don't have the muscle mass of a body builder, I woudn't worry too much about wasting away muscle from cardio.


This is horrible advice. If you don't lift heavy in a diet, you will lose muscle. Doesn't matter if you are Mariusz Pudzianowski or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The reality is that many professional athletes do many hours of exercise and have a level of muscle that more than satisfies your "Lean/tight 230". Many of the male biggest loser candidates do three hours of daily exercise, and do not have emanciated muscles. Will doing this amount of cardio mean you can have the mass of a bodybuilder? NO, but that is not your goal. I'm sure you'd accept looking like a basketball player or soccer, and I doubt your training schedule is more demanding than theirs

In what sport? Look at the bodies of Sprinters who do copious amounts of anaerobic exercise, they are muscular. Whereas long distance runners are thin and bony. I know you Americans don't know soccer very much, but I can assure you NO soccer player with any type of playing ability will weigh 230. As for a basketball player, only heavy centers or power forwards will weigh that much, and I can assure you they lift. Remember, Kevin Garnett is a basketball player too. Plus, modeling your training after a TV reality show isn't the best course of action.

As for supplements, the following may be helpful: chromium (insulin sensitivity), for fat oxidation fish oil, green tea, caffeine (pre exercise), glutamine, non-fat cottage cheese. You can buy double strength fish oil now

Fish Oil is healthy, cottage cheese isn't a supplement, glutamine is a waste of your money and he doesn't need to load up on caffeine or green tea at this point.

As for weights routine, just do one which burns calories - that means it hits your back and legs hard, e.g., 5v5 (but don't ramp weights, but rather do something like a pyramid where every set is to failure, this forces the heart rate up burning more calories). Perhaps, include some barbel jump squats or plymetric leg exercises (box jumps) at end of weights routine, with short rest intervals, for some HIT added to weights. These create very high heart rates.

Pyramid with every set to failure? Jump squats? Plyo jumps? Just pick a good full body routine and learn the BASIC lifts first. Squats, deads, bench, OH presses, rows will get the job done. No need to do explosive assistance exercises when you don't know how to squat.

As for diet, those are good general guidelines. I suggest doing more research and finding a plan that's suitable to you.

 

[Sim882]

I'm not suggesting he shouldn't lift heavy, all I'm suggesting is that cardio won't cause a negative adaptive response causing him to shed muscle if he's not extremely muscular already. He needs to lift heavy, and CAN if he wants continuing doing an 1hr of cardio.

In fact, the example i wanted to use for atheletes is AFL, a type of football in Australia (in an AFL game, many of the players run 15km just in the game). These guys do shit loads of cardio and are all very muscular (http://www.menforallseasons.com.au/index2.html) - similar build to a sprinter in upper body, with slightly smaller hamstrings and buttocks. They also have the definition superior to most sports, save track and gymnastics. Rugby union players (are predominantly commonwealth sport) are even more muscular.

If you don't have the muscle mass of a body builder, I woudn't worry too much about wasting away muscle from cardio.


This is horrible advice. If you don't lift heavy in a diet, you will lose muscle. Doesn't matter if you are Mariusz Pudzianowski or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The reality is that many professional athletes do many hours of exercise and have a level of muscle that more than satisfies your "Lean/tight 230". Many of the male biggest loser candidates do three hours of daily exercise, and do not have emanciated muscles. Will doing this amount of cardio mean you can have the mass of a bodybuilder? NO, but that is not your goal. I'm sure you'd accept looking like a basketball player or soccer, and I doubt your training schedule is more demanding than theirs

In what sport? Look at the bodies of Sprinters who do copious amounts of anaerobic exercise, they are muscular. Whereas long distance runners are thin and bony. I know you Americans don't know soccer very much, but I can assure you NO soccer player with any type of playing ability will weigh 230. As for a basketball player, only heavy centers or power forwards will weigh that much, and I can assure you they lift. Remember, Kevin Garnett is a basketball player too. Plus, modeling your training after a TV reality show isn't the best course of action.

As for supplements, the following may be helpful: chromium (insulin sensitivity), for fat oxidation fish oil, green tea, caffeine (pre exercise), glutamine, non-fat cottage cheese. You can buy double strength fish oil now

Fish Oil is healthy, cottage cheese isn't a supplement, glutamine is a waste of your money and he doesn't need to load up on caffeine or green tea at this point.

As for weights routine, just do one which burns calories - that means it hits your back and legs hard, e.g., 5v5 (but don't ramp weights, but rather do something like a pyramid where every set is to failure, this forces the heart rate up burning more calories). Perhaps, include some barbel jump squats or plymetric leg exercises (box jumps) at end of weights routine, with short rest intervals, for some HIT added to weights. These create very high heart rates.

Pyramid with every set to failure? Jump squats? Plyo jumps? Just pick a good full body routine and learn the BASIC lifts first. Squats, deads, bench, OH presses, rows will get the job done. No need to do explosive assistance exercises when you don't know how to squat.

As for diet, those are good general guidelines. I suggest doing more research and finding a plan that's suitable to you.

 

[Mercere]

I'm not suggesting he shouldn't lift heavy, all I'm suggesting is that cardio won't cause a negative adaptive response causing him to shed muscle if he's not extremely muscular already. He needs to lift heavy, and CAN if he wants continuing doing an 1hr of cardio.

In fact, the example i wanted to use for atheletes is AFL, a type of football in Australia (in an AFL game, many of the players run 15km just in the game). These guys do shit loads of cardio and are all very muscular (http://www.menforallseasons.com.au/index2.html) - similar build to a sprinter in upper body, with slightly smaller hamstrings and buttocks. They also have the definition superior to most sports, save track and gymnastics. Rugby union players (are predominantly commonwealth sport) are even more muscular.

There is a huge difference between jogging 15 km and playing a contact sport that you push, pull, sprint, kick and jump for so long that the total distance you cover is 15 km, that shows superior conditioning. Plus, I really doubt any of these guys are in a calorie deficit. He wants to weigh a tight 230 with 6'4 height. He doesn't want to be a conditioned athlete weighing 190-200. So if he's not aiming for superior aerobic conditioning, extensive cardio will do more harm than good. Both in terms of recovery and heightened cortisol levels.