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Title: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This Before I get started explaining My post, I would like to Thank any fitness or exercise expert who takes the time to give me their opinion. I greatly Appreciate it. For a year I followed a routine of exercising 3 straight days with weights then on the 4th day I would do cardio. then I would repeat the cycle. So basically I have been exercising heavily for 7 days. I have slimmed down a lot and toned up a lot, but then It got to the point where I stopped seeing results in my physique, thus sending me on a mental downswing of Pigging out more than supposed to and mental mind games of Trips to the scale, & staring in the mirror for far too long until I thought I saw something wrong. I have to work 2 jobs and attend school, So my question is this...If I went to the gym atleast 4 days a week, (every other day) And did 3 days of weights and on the 4th day pure cardio, is that sufficient enough? Cuz by going every other day Ill be able to give my body a full days rest. And I will also continue to follow my sensible eating. Also though, since Im not looking to get "huge" Before I do my weights I like to run for 15 minutes straight as a warmup. Thank you all for your time, I hope to hear some of your opinions on my routine. Thank you :-) -Sean Name: Sean or "Mad Max" Date: Aug. 10th, 2001 Title: Re: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This You're overtraining. You should never work the same muscle more than once per week... going to the gym 6 times a week is a bit much, unless you make sure not to train the same muscle more than once. I'd suggest going 3 times a week, doing different muscles on each day. Make sure your workouts are intense... 2-4 exercises per muscle, 2-4 sets per exercise, and 6-12 reps per set. Make sure the weight it heavy, so you're barely finishing the last set. As for Cardio, it depends on your goal. Is your goal Muscle Gain, or Fat Loss? You CANNOT do both at once. Muscle Gain requires you to consume more Calories than you burn, while Fat Loss requires you to burn more Calories than you consume. You cannot do both at once. If your goal is Muscle Gain, do not do any Cardio at all. Doing Cardio is contradicting the entire purpose of your Diet. Compound exercises such as Squats and Deadlifts are most effective for adding on Muscle. As for Diet, which is THE most important factor in Fitness, in my opinion, if your trying to put on Muscle, and you think you've got an average Metabolism, start at about 3000 Calories a day. Put it into 6 meals, one every 2-3 hours. Try for something along the lines of 40% Protein, 40% Carbs, and 20% Fat. Continue to adjust from the point of 3000. If you're seeing slow but steady weight gain, keep it up. Once you stop seeing any weight gain, increase the Calories. If your goal is Fat Loss... now you do the Cardio. Find out your Daily Metabolic Rate, by going to my previous Post. Use the "Search" on the Fitness Boards to find it, as it's fairly far back and is very long. Once you've found that out, subtract about 500 from it. If you consume this many Calories a day, you'll lose a pound a week. Subtract 1000, and you'll lose 2 pounds a week. The slower you lose the weight, the more likely it is that it will be Fat, and not hard-earned Muscle. I cannot say this enough... Diet is very important. Most people have great Routines, but fail because all they do is "eat sensibly". You need to keep track of Daily Calories to truly succeed. I'd suggest choosing the path of Muscle Gain to start... do that for a few months, then cut off the Fat you gained while gaining Muscle by going into a Fat Loss Routine. Here's the general outline of both... Muscle Gain- - Eat Generally More Food (Around 3000 Calories) - Use Heavier Weights, Less Reps (6-10) - Do No Cardio - You normally end up gaining a little Fat along with the Muscle Fat Loss- - Eat Generally Less Food (Around 1800-2400 Calories) - Use SLIGHTLY Lighter Weights, a FEW more reps (8-12) - Cardio helps - The general goal is to cut off the fat you gained from the Muscle Gain routine I would also like to mention you must change your routine every once in a while. By this, I mean your gym routine. After anywhere from 1-4 months, your body will get used to the current exercises you're doing, and you will stop seeing results. This is called a "plateau" in progress. To fix it, change the exercises you're doing, change the amount of reps, changed the speed at which you do the reps, you just have to do something that will confuse your body into thinking it's something new. Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions. Name: Rocky Date: Aug. 10th, 2001 Title: Re: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This I agree with everything Rocky said except for changing exercises. In my opinion you should never switch exercises unless you are switching to a better exercise, ie leg extensions to squats. The only thing that should change (depending on what you want to train) is tempo, volume, rest between sets and intensity. If you cannot progress in the same exercise for 4 months, you are doing something wrong, in my opinion... Good luck. Name: Kurt Date: Aug. 10th, 2001 Title: Re: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This Sean, Be careful about seeking guidance on the internet, because you run the risk of getting some questionable advice. My first recommendation would be to try to find someone whose opinion you trust to talk to. It's always better to know the source of your information. With that said, I would agree with most of what Rocky said, be even here I think there is some questionable advice. "You should never work the same muscle more than once per week..." To say you should "never" train the same muscle group is incorrect. Some of the minor muscle groups can handle training more than once a week, such as abs, bi's and tri's, and calves. Now, with the exception of abs, most of us don't need to train them more than once a week. But to say they should "never" be trained that often is incorrect. But you must make sure these muscles get sufficient rest between being trained. "As for Cardio, it depends on your goal. Is your goal Muscle Gain, or Fat Loss? You CANNOT do both at once." Now, this is flat out wrong! You can gain muscle and lose fat. In fact, if you are eating healthy, it's almost inevitable. Muscle burns more calories, so by adding muscle you are making your body a more efficient calorie, and fat, burning machine. Now, if Rocky meant that by building muscle you might gain weight, then I'd agree because muscle weighs more than fat. But you absolutely can gain muscle and lose fat! Professional bodybuilders are proof of that (for the extreme example). Also, the notion that you should do no cardio if trying to gain muscle is also wrong. You still need cardio, but it varies with the goal. Instead of long endurance sessions you would want to do shorter, more intense cardio. However, do not buy into the notion that cardio will detract from muscle gain. This just isn't fact. Too much cardio should be avoided, all cardio should not! The two points I would agree wholeheartedly with Rocky is that you need to make sure to REST. You have to let your body recover, and my guess is that you simply are overtraining. The second point is that nutrition is the key. Remember, bodybuilding doesn't start until you leave the gym! Weight lifting simply tears down the muscle. Proper nutrition will help your body build it back again stronger, healthier, and leaner! Finally, remember that what works for some doesn't work for all. Be careful of "cookie cutter" programs. Experiment and learn to listen to your body and your needs. And again, find someone who you can talk to personally. It can get hard to sift through the good and the bad on these boards. Good luck and keep focused...you'll get there. Name: Chris Date: Aug. 12th, 2001 Title: Re: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This "To say you should "never" train the same muscle group is incorrect. Some of the minor muscle groups can handle training more than once a week, such as abs, bi's and tri's, and calves. Now, with the exception of abs, most of us don't need to train them more than once a week. But to say they should "never" be trained that often is incorrect. But you must make sure these muscles get sufficient rest between being trained. " **Just because we can "handle" training bi's, tri's, ab's and calves more than once a week is this beneficial for hypertrophy? No. Why can we train these more than other muscle groups? Do the FT fibers in calves somehow not damage like the FT fibers in the chest? "Now, this is flat out wrong! You can gain muscle and lose fat. In fact, if you are eating healthy, it's almost inevitable. Muscle burns more calories, so by adding muscle you are making your body a more efficient calorie, and fat, burning machine. Now, if Rocky meant that by building muscle you might gain weight, then I'd agree because muscle weighs more than fat. But you absolutely can gain muscle and lose fat! Professional bodybuilders are proof of that (for the extreme example). Also, the notion that you should do no cardio if trying to gain muscle is also wrong. You still need cardio, but it varies with the goal. Instead of long endurance sessions you would want to do shorter, more intense cardio. However, do not buy into the notion that cardio will detract from muscle gain. This just isn't fact. Too much cardio should be avoided, all cardio should not! " **Once you have lifted for awhile you will not be able to gain muscle mass while losing fat. How does professional bodybuilders prove your point? Looking at the pro's, they go and bulk offseason and put on some fat and then pre-season they cut the fat (here's a pic of Lee Priest offseason http://64.21.5.158/attachment.php?s=&postid=37620). This proves Rocky's point. Why do they do this? Because you cannot effectively gain muscle while losing fat. The most I expect while trying to lose fat is to maintain my muscle mass and lifts. Why do you still need cardio? Why do you want to do more intense sessions? Limited amount of cardio is fine but adjust your calories. The best muscle gains come from consuming more than your maintenance level. Cardio will just increase your maintenance level, so you will have to eat more food. The only cardio I do is some heavy-bag work 1x a week. Name: Kurt Date: Aug. 12th, 2001 Title: Re: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This I'm really not interested in turning this into a "I know more than you" kind of thing. If you don't agree with me, that's fine, we're non-entities to each other anyway. There are a lot of different approaches out there. However, let me respond: First off, I never said the FT fibers in the smaller muscle groups are different than in large muscle groups (or break down any different). However, your bi's, tri's, abs and calves will recover faster from a hard workout than will the larger muscle groups like quads, chest and delts. So you CAN train them more frequently. However, you may not NEED to do that. My point was it is incorrect to say that you should NEVER train them more than once a week. Some may find that training them once every five or six days works. Individuals vary. Second, lets try to look at this logically. If muscle burns more calories, and you gain muscle, then your body is going to be a more effective fat burning machine. Maybe using pro body builders as an example was mistaken, because they have surpassed the norm. However, for most people the best fat loss mechanism is muscle gain. At a certain point the law of diminishing returns may kick in, but few people reach that point. However, I still maintain to propose that gaining muscle and gaining fat must go hand in hand is ridiculous. And cardio, done in conjunction with your goals, will not always cost muscle size or strength! Again, disagree with me if you will, no problem. This debate, though, supports my point. There are a lot of different opinions and approaches out there. I think Sean's best bet is to find someone who he trusts (with proven results) and seek advice from them. Everybody is different. Best to all! Name: Chris Date: Aug. 12th, 2001 Title: Re: Expert Opinion Greatly Needed For This Again, how do the exact same muscle fibers in those muscle groups recover faster than in other muscle groups? Just because those groups are smaller in total volume does that mean on a cell-to-cell comparison that they would recover faster? Any proof of that? Sean do whatever you think is best, as long as you are progressing each workout. If you are not doing this, you are not accomplishing anything. Name: Kurt Date: Aug. 12th, 2001 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |