Hey all, looking for some dieting advice. I'm 20 years old, about 6'2'' and fluctuate anywhere from 165-170 lbs. I work out 4 to 5 times a week and do a lot of cardio between competitive basketball and running. I've had a pretty shitty diet my whole life and have just started trying to eat "cleaner" foods about a month ago while supplementing protein and creatine. While I'm obviously trying to bulk up more, I'm trying to lose a thin layer of fat preventing my abdominals from showing through. So my question is what should my calorie intake look like? If I start mauling down food to beef up will that fat go away on its own or should I be going for a calorie deficit? My daily diet now is typically a roast beef sandwich and maybe some potatoes or eggs for breakfast, total K cereal or PB&J for lunch, protein supplement and turkey sub for dinner, and maybe some oatmeal late night. Sorry for long post and thanks if you make it through.
Its not really a problem as much as trying to find a balance, but cardio can kill serious muscle growth. This all depends on how much muscle you're looking to add though. If you're playing basketball then I guess there really isn't much you can do. Getting abs sucks. I'm sure you've already figured this out. Some people swear by crunches and some don't, so here's my advice and what I try and do. Food wise, you're gonna want that calorie deficit to burn the fat thats already there. Workout wise, don't ever forget to do dead lifts and squats. A properly done done dead lift/squat with enough weight will do wonders for your core. Other than that there are your well known crunches, swiss ball exercises, leg raises, russian twists etc.
Cant believe PX90 is named earlier then Joe DeFranco's workout. He made beasts like Brian Cushing, mixing both adding mass and adding speed. My own experience: Gained 15 pounds, i have been working out for 2 years prior so its 15 pounds on top of a decent bodymass. In 4 weeks I benchpressed 40% heavier, and over 40% for the deepsquad. You got to look into this.
I've been working with a personal trainer, on average 3 days a week since last May. One hour workouts of circuit training, mixing in cardio (running stairs, step ups, lunges, etc) with high rep weight work. I'm 5'8", started at 215lbs, ballooned as high as 222 (I have a very aggressive inner-fatty), and frustratingly, my weight is still hanging out around 210-215. My trainer has basically told me that I need to "do my homework" ie - more self imposed cardio on our off appointment days, and that if I was only going focus on one of the three major drivers of weight loss (strength, cardio, diet) it would be difficult to make progress. I have made a lot of progress from where I was in terms of how I feel, thought I would like to make more progress with how I look. Assuming I can find the willpower to cut back on the weekly beer and wings lifestyle, what kind of diet habits do you think would help me most to improve my metabolism, lower caloric intake, but not resort to rabbit food?
It depends on your body/routine-listen to your body! I would not recommend lifting everyday as your muscles require rest between the days that you work out. If your diet,sleeping is in check then your muscle recovery will be faster which would allow you to workout each day if your body can handle it.
Cut your portion sizes and eat more often. Instead of 3 meals, eat 5-6 smaller meals. Base every meal around a protein source. Drink a lot of water. Don't eat carbs after 5pm. (Unless you work out at night).
Those numbers aren't convincing. Where were / are your bench and squat numbers? If they were low then the success of the program was likely getting you to work out more often or in a more efficient manner. If your numbers went from say, 300 to 420, then it would be more impressive than 100 to 140. When you make a claim like that though, it sounds better when you include all the details. The thing that helped me cut weight rather easily was finding healthy alternatives to bad food. As long as you're eating right, you'll have plenty of fuel for both strength and endurance workouts. I was able to gain strength and endurance while cutting from 225 to 195 pounds. A good analogy I've heard used is to picture yourself as a race car. Woudl you rather add quality fuel, like fruits, veggies, lean meats and fish, and other healthy foods, or junk food? If you have the option, I'd reccomend not buying snack foods any more. They are empty calories that fail to fill you up. Find things you can eat happily instead. Try trail mix instead of chips, maybe some dark chocolate peanut butter as a rare sweet. Depending on how often you get cravings, you may want to try making changes slower. I currently treat myself to one sweet a week, usually a frozen yogurt or something of that nature (though I'm probably not a good example to take after, I've always been all or nothing when it comes to fitness). It sounds like one of the most important steps you can make will be finding an alternative to wings with beer. Those nights can sabotage your progress if you go too far overboard. What kind of high rep work do you do? Also, you may want to check out instrength.com. That is the branch off of the RMMB's chasing kaz section. You can keep a fitness log there to watch your progress more easily, as well as ask questions to a bunch of people with a wealth of knowledge. Good luck in your endeavours, and keep working hard.
Did our required mile swim today in the pool. Ended up with 43min 30sec. Seems pretty decent to me since I was number 5 out of 32 to finish and we had 80 min to be done. 72 laps X 25 yards, plus or minus a couple yards...so boring...
We could only use freestyle, the side stroke, or breast stroke. I used breast stroke almost the whole time except when I was passing people or turning around, then I just did freestyle because it's quicker. The fastest guy was a Coast Guard dude, go figure, and he ended in like 36 min.
Very nice. My fastest was about 39:30ish, split between side stroke and breast stroke. I've been trying to build it up, but shit, my form sucks. I feel like the difference between people who swam in high school and beyond and everyone else is staggering.
Okay, here we go! I had surgery in January, and because of where the wound was, it was impossible to work out. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish when I wanted to start working out in January, but that was curbed due to the surgery. I am 6'3, I weigh 220 right now and have a beer belly. I have to go for a police fitness test in May, and can realistically start working out in about 2 weeks. I am not looking for a set routine, but some general advice on what types of exercises I should be focusing on with regards to increasing stamina while running and dropping some weight. I have free weights at home, an older Weider exercise machine with basic equipment and a stationary bike. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
What type of injury did you sustain? Will it limit your range of motion? Restrict you from certain activities?
I had a pilonidal cyst on my tailbone, resulting in a wound that was 4 cm long and 5 cm deep. It has healed to be a superficial wound, but where it was limited my ability to stretch for fear of tearing the newly healed area. As of now my RoM is near 100% and within 2 weeks I should have no wound at all, hence why I am looking to form a routine I can slowly start into.
Whether its on the bike, running, swimming or whatever you like, I would suggest interval training. After you are warmed up do for example one minute of a full out sprint in whatever exercise you are doing then do one minute at an average pace. You can play around with the duration of the high and low intensity periods just make sure you are pushing yourself and not taking it too easy.
If you want to pass the police physical test, you should be practicing the things on the test. If you're being tested on a 2 mile run, interval sprints aren't going to help you much. If you're being tested on push ups and situps, deadlifting isn't going to help you. See where I'm going with this. If you need to meet a bodyfat requirement, simple diet modification should help you out significantly as long as you're exercising regularly.
Ah, dont call this out like this, you know what.. this program works This program works because every training you'll be nearly puking and going beyond every limit you've ever had before. By numbers in (now) six weeks: Benchpress from 140 now 210 Deep Squat from 170 now 250 Pull-ups with body weigth + 33lbs = 15 Still running a 4,6 40yards dash
I wasn't calling the program out, I was simply stating that without more details, the statement that it helped you a lot wasn't very meaningful. Some of your numbers look like noobie gains, but they are pretty impressive gains. I'm glad you found something that works for you. However, I think that there's more to say for working so hard you're It could be that a different program would have given you similar, if not better results if approached with the same intensity. Regardless, keep up the good work dude.
I'm looking for general advice so i won't get too detailed but my workout plan is as follows: All start with 30 minutes of cardio Day1 Chest and Tri's Day 2 Bi's and Shoulders Day 3 Back ( recovering from a lower back injury so I dedicate a day and take it slow) Day 4 Legs Day 5 Rest And then start all over. Anyway on to the question, lately some of the guys around post have been talking about dedicating a full day to chest and then doing Biceps and Triceps on a separate day. I don't have much to back up why but I have always worked out Triceps and chest since they kind of go together (ie. you use your triceps for a lot of the exercises). As far as my research there seems to be nothing leaning one way or another. So I thought I'd ask for feedback here since back at RMMB there seemed to be a knowledgeable group on the subject matter. So any feedback is appreciated.