I'm nineteen years old and I have about two weeks left before I go back to school. All summer I have been going to the gym and lifting for about an hour but it's not really doing it for me because I still don't have the results I want. I want a six pack, and obviously its really hard; I think that I just haven't been doing enough cardio. So starting yesterday, I started a workout where I wake up and do a three mile interval run of 30 seconds as fast as I can go and then two minutes down. Then I have protein powder and eat a yogurt with blueberries. I wait about an hour and a half and then I go to the gym where I do elliptical for thirty minutes, again 30 sec up, 2 minutes down. Then I lift, just doing a circuit on all of the weight machines, three sets of twelve. Then I do the stationary bike for 20 minutes pretty hard so my heart rate is around 160-170 the whole time. Then I come back, have more protein powder, eat lunch, and then relax for about an hour before doing a 20 minute ab workout. Then I take a nap and eat dinner. Is this too much? I feel like it isn't but I also don't want to enter a catabolic sate and start losing muscle instead of fat. I'm eating super healthy; yesterday I felt like I should've eaten more calories but I was so full. Is there anything really bad about what I'm doing? Thanks.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Trying to get six pack: too intense?
- Thread starter PeterHBR
- Start date
I'm nineteen years old and I have about two weeks left before I go back to school. All summer I have been going to the gym and lifting for about an hour but it's not really doing it for me because I still don't have the results I want. I want a six pack, and obviously its really hard; I think that I just haven't been doing enough cardio. So starting yesterday, I started a workout where I wake up and do a three mile interval run of 30 seconds as fast as I can go and then two minutes down. Then I have protein powder and eat a yogurt with blueberries. I wait about an hour and a half and then I go to the gym where I do elliptical for thirty minutes, again 30 sec up, 2 minutes down. Then I lift, just doing a circuit on all of the weight machines, three sets of twelve. Then I do the stationary bike for 20 minutes pretty hard so my heart rate is around 160-170 the whole time. Then I come back, have more protein powder, eat lunch, and then relax for about an hour before doing a 20 minute ab workout. Then I take a nap and eat dinner. Is this too much? I feel like it isn't but I also don't want to enter a catabolic sate and start losing muscle instead of fat. I'm eating super healthy; yesterday I felt like I should've eaten more calories but I was so full. Is there anything really bad about what I'm doing? Thanks.
Have to be more specific about food. If you are doing all that exercise and eating healthy, there is no reason why you shouldn't be stripping body fat. Tell us what you eat and the amount. Also, tell us everything you drink.
Why have so much protein powder? Just have enough protein through your diet and you will be fine.
Exercise wise, how long have you been doing a circuit style training? Have you tried free weight, compound exercises? Bench press, squats, deadlifts etc?
Cardio wise, you say you do 30 sec ahrd with 2 min easy. The easy phase is waaaay too long. The most I will give my clients is 1 minute and that is if the hard phase was long, approximately 1-2minutes
All I drink is water and 6 oz of grapefruit juice before every meal for carbs (along with the protein powder that I mix with water). For breakfast I eat nonfat yogurt with blueberries. For lunch I eat 8 oz of tuna (either canned or fresh), between half a cup and a cup of red quinoa, and an apricot or watermelon. For dinner I eat a chicken sausage, a baby cucumber, same amount of quinoa, half a cup of okra, and watermelon. I use so much protein powder because I read that I should be getting 1.5g of protein for every pound I am. I'm 5'7 and weigh 146 so even with all that powder its not even getting close to that.
I've been doing circuit training all summer, every day with a day off once a week. I don't use free weights because my form is very bad and I dont think I would get much out of it. I used to bench but I feel like the chest press does pretty much the same thing. For squats I have the leg press and so on and so forth.
I know the easy phase is long but I don't think I could finish if i went shorter because I sprint as hard as I can on the hard phase.
I am losing fat, I'm just very impatient and I think that I want to see results faster than is realistic.
I've been doing circuit training all summer, every day with a day off once a week. I don't use free weights because my form is very bad and I dont think I would get much out of it. I used to bench but I feel like the chest press does pretty much the same thing. For squats I have the leg press and so on and so forth.
I know the easy phase is long but I don't think I could finish if i went shorter because I sprint as hard as I can on the hard phase.
I am losing fat, I'm just very impatient and I think that I want to see results faster than is realistic.
Once it has become part of your daily routine you can start to gradually increase the intensity to make sure you keep getting results. There is no need to kill yourself on day one.
The same goes for your diet. It can be very hard to just drop everything and go onto a new strict diet ( If you can though, great! ). So a better approach is to also gradually come off the bad stuff like sugars, trans fats etc. while at the same time get onto the good stuff and eating healthy.
The same goes for your diet. It can be very hard to just drop everything and go onto a new strict diet ( If you can though, great! ). So a better approach is to also gradually come off the bad stuff like sugars, trans fats etc. while at the same time get onto the good stuff and eating healthy.