No results

[patro]

Here's what I've been doing, every other day for 22 days. I'm not seeing results and need some help.

I eat breakfast of two eggs, guava juice, bread/butter/kaya (it's like honey).

Lunch: Normally salmon and white rice, watermelon, shredded cabbage with salad dressing and miso soup.

OR

Veg. foot-long Subway sandwich

OR

All vegetarian Indian food of rice, curry, vegetables.

Dinner: Usually noodles, or potatoes. maybe pasta.

No bullshit drugs or alcohol ever. No supplements or vitamins.

Day 1:
Run 1 mile

Biceps curls
25@40 lbs
15@60
10@80
10@100
10@120

Triceps Extentions
25@60
15@80
10@100
10@120

Chest Fly
15@60
10@80
10@100
10@120

Lateral Raises
15@60
10@80
10@100
10@120

Then I reapeat all again, but I start with the heaviest and go until total failure, then drop some weight and go lighter until TF, then lower and so on.

Day 2:
REST

Day 3:
Run 1 mile

Squats
15@140
10@160
10@180
10@200

Leg extentions
15@40
10@60
10@80
10@100
10@120

Leg curls
10@60
10@80
10@100

Then repeat again, starting with heavy and working until TF, then drop weight and go to TF again, etc.

Day 3:
REST

Day 4:
Same as day 1

Day 5:
REST

Day 6:
Same as day 2

Day 7:
Rest

I've done this 11 times (3 weeks) and I'm not seeing shit for results. What's up?



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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[Cackerot69]

You need to throw that plan out. Start from scratch.

First of all, what are you goals?

 

[GenetiKing]

You've gotta get down more protein too. How much do you weigh?

------------------
Backstage, '75 Olympia:

Serge Nubret, "I look like I can take you."

Arnold, "Keep looking."

 

[patro]

I'm 27, weigh 193. You wouldn't call me fat, but I need to lose fat for sure. My goals are probably the same as every one else starting out: lose fat and gain muscle.

What do you mean, "start from scratch"? This is scratch. I just went to the gym and started this plan, with no real knowledge of what to do.



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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[Cackerot69]

I just meant to totally re-evaluate your program.

Gaining muscle and losing fat is possible, but you can't really plan for it. To gain muscle you need to consume more calories than you burn, and to lose fat you need to burn more calories than you consume.
Sometimes everything just happens to fall perfectly in place, and it just happens.

So, that shouldn't be your goal. Focus on one or the other. If it just happens, that's great...but don't try to make it happen.

I have been posting routines frequently lately. Instead of just giving you a routine, i will teach you how to construct your own.

First of all, regardless of your goals, life heavy. None of this light weight high reps to lose fat bullshit. You must continue to train to build muscle. Weight training has one purpose - stimulate muscle growth and strength gain.

Focus on multi joint compound exercises.

Progress. If you do not progressively increase the load on your muscles, they will not grow. They will not have a reason to grow. You have to force them to grow, and progressive overload is how you achieve this.

Train no more than 4 times per week. Preferably 2-3 times. With at least 1 day rest between sessions.

Keep training volume low. 4-8 sets for large bodyparts (Chest, Back, Thighs), and 0-4 for small parts (Arms, Traps, Delts, Calves, Forearms).

Additionaly, sleep as much as possible. At least 6 hours, preferebly 8-10.

 

[patro]

Crackerrot69 - OK cool. If I could lose fat first I'd be happier than puttin on muscle.

So losing the fat is my priority. But by building muscle won't I also lose fat?

I can lose fat by running, eating right, and hitting the gym so that's what I'm doing. Is my approach wrong?

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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[Cackerot69]

By gaining muscle, you will have an easier time losing fat when you decide to lose bodyfat. Gaining muscle alone won't cause you to lose fat.

Your approach is great. I would have to know your idea of "eating right" is, though.

 

[patro]

Cackerot69-

My idea of 'eating right' is maintaining a deficit of calories and keeping my fat low.

Shit, I have no clue.

The only thing I do is hit the gym hard for one hour solid every other day. Even though I don't know what to do, I figure I should at least establish the proper exercise mentality first.

But I'd be happy if my workout were actually doing something. I do know that I can run like a champ and not get tired easily.

So should I forego the weights to lose fat? Should I just do like 30-40 min of cardio (running damn hard) with no weights, 3 times a week? Would that make my fat loss quicker?

Thanks for all your help, man. This is an important part of my life - I'm on the threshold of becoming fit and I can't give up now.


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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[bignate73]

Originally posted by patro:
Cackerot69-

So should I forego the weights to lose fat? Should I just do like 30-40 min of cardio (running damn hard) with no weights, 3 times a week? Would that make my fat loss quicker?

no, weight training is activity that burns calories. ever heard the phrase, "you dont use it you lose it?" it applies to the this situation. you must keep with some sort of resistance training for your body to see a need to try to preserve your muscle. an all cardio regime tells the body to streamline itself and keep what it needs to accomplish the mission...ie cardio. with a caloric deficit you especially need to be concious of this because your body tends to go catabolic quickly and intense cardio only can amplify this effect.

take it away cackerot. just wanted to throw my .02 in.

 

[patro]

OK that's clear. Do the weights, keep the muscle.

But since when did cardio exercise accelerate catabolic activity? If I am on a caloric deficit diet and I do cardio I thought that would just make me burn fat faster; not muscle.

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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[GenetiKing]

Originally posted by patro:
OK that's clear. Do the weights, keep the muscle.

But since when did cardio exercise accelerate catabolic activity? If I am on a caloric deficit diet and I do cardio I thought that would just make me burn fat faster; not muscle.

No. It doesn't work that way. Cardio will burn muscle too. It's also detrimental to muscular gains. Throw in a caloric deficit with all that cardio and you're asking for no muscle on a thin body.

What these guys are telling you is that the more muscle you carry, the easier it will be to lose the bodyfat. With the increased muscle mass, your body will require more energy (calories) just to maintain itself.

The cardio does nothing but burn calories and enhance cardiovascular capability according to a dose response. Intense and prolonged cardio has been shown in numerous studies to raise cortisol levels (leading to catabolism), hence hampering any muscular gains you might make while weight training.

Ever see those guys who run forever on the treadmill or cycle on the bike and never go into the free weight room? Notice how they never look any different from one week to the next? They might be fairly lean but definitely not shredded and they carry minimal muscle mass too.

In general terms: Intense cardio is a signal
to the body to LOSE weight (fat AND muscle).

On a side note, I wouldn't totally ignore the benefits of cardio while you are trying to shape up. A couple times a week of low intensity cycling or something similar is good for the heart, lungs, and circulatory system. Very moderate cardio won't hurt your quest for added muscle. Also, a little cardio will keep lung capacity high which can help in weight training.

One last thing...if you're gonna keep your training volume as low as Cackerot suggests (i.e. only a couple sets per bodypart) you MUST take each set til failure and keep your gym intensity high. (Cackerot's a low-volume bro ) You don't need any forced reps, drop sets, etc as a newbie but you've gotta go ultra hard if you're gonna train with that small number of sets.

I think it's hard for people outside the bodybuilding/fitness culture to comprehend it but it's true: Weight training has much more impact on body composition and bf% than cardiovascular exercise.

Good luck.

------------------
Backstage, '75 Olympia:

Serge Nubret, "I look like I can take you."

Arnold, "Keep looking."

[This message has been edited by GenetiKing (edited April 18, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by GenetiKing (edited April 18, 2001).]

 

[GenetiKing]

Also,

You've gotta get down more protein than you're getting now, regardless of whether you want to bulk up or trim down.

Think of it this way (it's really a little more complex than this but for our purposes here, it will work):

more protein = more muscle = higher metabolism = lower bodyfat

------------------
Backstage, '75 Olympia:

Serge Nubret, "I look like I can take you."

Arnold, "Keep looking."

 

[totoj]

To patro the OP...try cutting the enriched starches like white rice. I have done this and it has worked wonders. I have limited my starches to 1 serving a day and I have lost 3.5 lbs (of fat)in the last 4 weeks. All my lifts have actually improved if you can believe that. I try getting my carbs from veggies and beans. I eat green beans, broccoli, corn, kidney beans, and black beans. I found most pastas, potatos, white rice, and white breads only good for adding fat to my midsection. I think the 80s did a good job selling us the false virtues of eating a lot of complex carbs. I would say people (like myself) eat too many of them. Only long distance runners need that much carb loading. If you eat rice, eat brown rice in moderation. By cutting these from your diet (or limiting their intake) you can actually eat more protein (and food in general). Good luck to you.

 

[Cackerot69]

Couldn't have said it better myself, Genetiking.

Sorry Patro, had to get some sleep last night.

 

[Kryp2o]

For starters: eat brown rice insted of white rice, your getting hardly any protein you need at least 1 to 1.5gm of protein to body weight ratio and you might be overtraining. I agree with everyone else here throw your routine away and start over do more research also on diet and nutrition for what your goals are it just takes a lot of tweeking but you'll get there if stick with it! Oh and don't forget to consume a lot of water too at least 1 to 1.5 gallons if not more a day!

[This message has been edited by Kryp2o (edited April 18, 2001).]

 

[GenetiKing]

Originally posted by Cackerot69:
Couldn't have said it better myself, Genetiking.

Awwwww shucks!

 

[patro]

Cacerot69 and Genetiking:

1. I'll increase my protein (should I take a supplement?)

2. I'll cut down on the one mile sprits.

3. I'll do fewer reps at heavier weights until TF.

I'll go from here, if you guys think that's a good start. Input?


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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[Cackerot69]

"1. I'll increase my protein (should I take a supplement?)"

Only if you can't get enough protein from whole food sources. Get at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight.

"2. I'll cut down on the one mile sprits."

Good idea.

"3. I'll do fewer reps at heavier weights until TF."

I'm not sure what TF means, but that sounds good.

 

[patro]

Tf=Total failure

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EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA

 

[Cackerot69]

OK, that's a great plan.