Bulking, now thinking of toning

I'm 20 yr old male
160-164lbs
5'9

anyways, I've been working out consistantly for the past 5 months, bulking up a little bit. Drinking protein shakes and creatine and just eating alot of healthy food.

I've gotten to the point I'm thinking of starting to tone up my body. WHen bulking I only did 6 mins cardio before working out to just get my blood rate going. When toning, should I be doing much more cardio? or is it all in the lifting weights at high reps?

when bulking I was doing 3 sets of 5-10 reps
what should I be aiming for when toning? 2 sets? 3? 4? 12-15 reps? 15-20 reps?

What about creatine, keep taking it?
should I change protein shakes to something aimed more for toning or?


thanks for the help guys!
 
Just start to cut down on fat and keep cardio/weight training intense. I'd up the cardio but everyone has a different opinion/approach. If you don't want to lose size but you have body fat to burn try really intense cardio two or three days a week for a medium duration. Like sprinting, HIIT, strenuous biking, jump roping, etc.

Burn, rebuild, burn, rebuild, etc. If you continue working out and already have a good diet it should be as simple as cutting back a little fat/calories and being patient. :)
 
if you want to get rid of that fat as quickly as possable and then continue bulking up, the best way to do it is switching over to a cutting cycle. the changes include: lowering calories to a deficite, cardio around 4 times a week for an houre or doing HIIT is fine. as you are already eating healthy I assume, just continue your workouts as usuall. almost all bodybuilder know of the bulking/cutting cycles it's the most effective and efficent way for that goal.
 
and put cardio AFTER weight training, or on different days. if you do an hour of cardio first, then go lift, you're sure to lose muscle mass.

but flip it around, and you burn muscle glycogen for your weight session, and when you go do cardio, the body will turn to fat for energy once glycogen is too low.

also you really wanna cut back on carbs, not fat. fat should always be 20-25% of your total daily calories. carbs are used for energy, so you reduce carbs when cutting to force the body to look elsewhere for energy...i.e. stored fat.
You don't have to go crazy low carb like on fAtkins diet, but I would try not to exceed 1g per pound of body weight per day...and the more carbs you can get from fruits and veggies, vs. grains and pasta (starchy carbs) the better.

getting cut is more about chaning diet than training (aside from increasing cardio...weight training doesn't really change)
 
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