Told I was doing cardio\lifting wrong at the gym by trainer... Any advice?

[Snarling Force]

Hey all. I was in the gym and a trainer approached me and gave me some pointers about what I was doing. Now I'm a bit confused and wanted to ask for your help.

My ultimate goal is to lose fat and cut down. I'm 29 years old, weigh 220lbs, and I'm an endomorph. Losing fat is hard for me and always has been. For the past 3 weeks, my program has consisted of working out as usual with weights, but ending with 30 minutes of cardio at a pretty fast pace, where my heart rate hits 180+ BPM. The trainer said all I'm doing is destroying muscle since I'm doing cardio at that intense rate and for that long. He said do cardio for no more than 20 minutes max and do it slower so that my heartrate is much lower, around 130BPM and no higher. He said really, I don't even need to do the cardio, just weights to cut down. Thats easy for him to say though as he is a cut up ectomorph. He said eat something no later than 1 hour before my workout and cardio or else my muscle will be eaten rather than fat.

I'm confused as to what to do because in my mind, I feel that running for that fast and that long is really working me out and in my mind, that equals more fat burned. I tried what he said and at 130BPM, I'm just doing a brisk walk. That just doesn't seem right to me. Is that really burning my fat more than my original routine? I'm taking Thermorexin as well, one in the morning, and one mid-day. My diet is pretty clean as well.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I just want to know what I should be doing to best burn fat and from what the trainer told me, I'm wasting my time and muscle.

 

[stilleto]

well.... weight loss and muscle gain can be done at the same time, but its not easy. one is always going to go slower than the other. there are things you can do to help, like eat a high protein diet for example.
my advice would be to do cardio on different days than you lift and try interval training instead... run, walk, run, walk. I don't believe 20 minutes is all you need- you can do that for 20 minutes only on days you lift, and more on days that you don't though.

 

[Guinness5.0]

This is a highly debated topic- some say that high intensity cardio eats muscle while some say moderate intensity is a waste of time. I tend to think some of this is individual.

My advice would be to do what you are doing and monitor your progress via measurements. Specifically, measure around your belly at your navel (so you measure the same spot every time), your waist, your shoulders and your arms. If you're dropping inches quickly on your waist and belly but little/none around shoulders and arms, then you're losing mostly fat. If you're shrinking all over then you're eating lots of muscle too.

Also, regardless of the cardio you do don't go nuts with it postworkout as you want to get your cortisol (stress hormone) levels down soon after the weights in order to reduce muscle loss.

 

[Snarling Force]

Thanks for responses guys K to the both of you. Guinness of your 2 scenarios, I'm definitely shrinking all over and I've clearly lost muscle as my strength has gone way down. So in regards to that last point you wrote about cortisol. Doing cardio after weights isn't a good idea then? It would be best to do like Stilleto says and do cardio and weights on different days? Thanks again for all your help.

 

[bignate73]

one thing i saw, your diet is clean but is it enough food?

how many calories are you taking in? how much protein?

how much have you been losing per week?

 

[thelion2005]

Hey all. I was in the gym and a trainer approached me and gave me some pointers about what I was doing. Now I'm a bit confused and wanted to ask for your help.

My ultimate goal is to lose fat and cut down. I'm 29 years old, weigh 220lbs, and I'm an endomorph. Losing fat is hard for me and always has been. For the past 3 weeks, my program has consisted of working out as usual with weights, but ending with 30 minutes of cardio at a pretty fast pace, where my heart rate hits 180+ BPM. The trainer said all I'm doing is destroying muscle since I'm doing cardio at that intense rate and for that long. He said do cardio for no more than 20 minutes max and do it slower so that my heartrate is much lower, around 130BPM and no higher. He said really, I don't even need to do the cardio, just weights to cut down. Thats easy for him to say though as he is a cut up ectomorph. He said eat something no later than 1 hour before my workout and cardio or else my muscle will be eaten rather than fat.

I'm confused as to what to do because in my mind, I feel that running for that fast and that long is really working me out and in my mind, that equals more fat burned. I tried what he said and at 130BPM, I'm just doing a brisk walk. That just doesn't seem right to me. Is that really burning my fat more than my original routine? I'm taking Thermorexin as well, one in the morning, and one mid-day. My diet is pretty clean as well.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I just want to know what I should be doing to best burn fat and from what the trainer told me, I'm wasting my time and muscle.

Nothing is a waste of time. You are doing great ... just need a little tune up.

I do my cardio at the beginning and it is in the 120 range for 20 minutes. This sits up my body for the weights.

Real fat buring is the result of dieting. When I have my sugar and flour (sugar) under control, I get lean fast.

 

[Guinness5.0]

Thanks for responses guys K to the both of you. Guinness of your 2 scenarios, I'm definitely shrinking all over and I've clearly lost muscle as my strength has gone way down. So in regards to that last point you wrote about cortisol. Doing cardio after weights isn't a good idea then? It would be best to do like Stilleto says and do cardio and weights on different days? Thanks again for all your help.

If you do cardio after weights, keep it brief, then get some PWO nutrition in. Preserving as much muscle as possible is the name of the game IMO. Maybe 15-20 minutes of HIIT. I think stilleto's advice is solid too, but someimes it's not possible due to hectic schedules to divide it up so I wanted to give you another option.
Some cardio first thing in the morning before eating seems to be the consensus as the ideal way to do it, with weights done several hours (6-8) later.

Andof course like the others stated the diet's gotta be right- several small meals/day, take it easy on simple carbs, don't starve yourself- just take it slow and it adds up over time.

 

[Singleton]

What you are doing could work, but you could cut down if you're losing muscle.

I would not do cardio at the beginning because it will hinder the lifting.

What works for me is to decrease rest time between sets. my pulse will be between 110 and 140 bpm during a 30-40 min wo. I don't do "cardio" in a traditional sense. Big compound movement will make it more intense cardio e.g. clean and press, squat, pullover.

This is what works for me, but I'm a meso/endo.

 

[EnderJE]

I'm with G on this one. Take measurements, chart your own progress and fuck everyone else.

 

[LiftingDukkha]

I have problems similar to you with keeping bodyfat down. By far the best times in my life I've been able to be my leanest is when I basically say screw the lifting & focus on distance/mid-distance running (3-6+ miles), and/or lots of bicycling, stationary bikes, etc. for at least 30 minutes or an hour+. But I've always divvyed up lifting & hardcore cardio. I simply can't do both effectively back-to-back. So basically I'll do cardio one day, lifting another, or at most, one during one time of day, the other during another.

When I've stuck with this for several months/year or more, I found that refusing to give up on weights, eventually allowed me to get back to approaching the same strength I had before, but at a considerably lighter bodyweight -- not a bad fucking feeling at all. (Except Squats. Sad to say, I've never been able to both run a sub-50 minute 10-k and Squat well over 400 at the same time. But both my Deadlifts & my Cleans did improve, interestingly enough.)