Bulking up vs. toning - reps. vs. more weight

R

ricky_rocket

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I've been doing a cardio workout 6-7 days per week to lose weight. I'm now to the point where I'm doing a workout with weights 2-3 days per week.

I'm interested in toning and gaining more muscle but not really bulking up.

Initially, should I be using a lot of weight and doing short amount of rep's and sets or using less weight and doing a lot of reps and sets ?

Example 1: I can bench press 100lbs, 10 times. Take a minute rest and then do 10 more reps, take a minute rest and then do 10 more reps (3 sets total). When I'm done I am tired and I do feel a tingling or burn in my muscles, but I'm not totally worn out. I feel I could do more if I had to.

Example 2: I can bench press 130lbs 4-5 times (1 or two sets total) but then I'm worn out and can't do much more with my triceps/pecs. I move onto legs.

Either way, my muscles are sore/ache the next day (maybe a little more sore doing Example 2) but by the following day I'm perfectly fine (I'm not hurting or tearing anything).

What's better for me (or any other advice) ? My goal is for my body to look like Bruce Lee not Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 
Ok - bruce lee is very well defined with exceptionally low body fat. Your first step is to focus on a completely balanced diet that will limit your intake of fats, minimize intake of excess carbohydrates and calories. If you have some paunch you're going to need to reduce your overall caloric intake. That is step one.

Step Two: In the gym. You're focus should be on 3 days of full body training. Choose power movements that incorporate a high number of muscle groups (Ie Squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups etc). Also check our some websites that show you good ab/low back/core exercises. I find that functional training and stability training really challenges the small stabilizing muscles that are difficult to hit while training in a traditional manner.

When it comes to your set counts/rep counts and weight I would shoot for 3 - 4 sets of 10 reps-ish. Keep mixing it up, do 4sets X 10reps for two weeks, then try 5 X 6, then try pyramid sets, drop sets, super sets. Just constantly mix it up.
 
Adler1983 said:
Ok - bruce lee is very well defined with exceptionally low body fat. Your first step is to focus on a completely balanced diet that will limit your intake of fats, minimize intake of excess carbohydrates and calories. If you have some paunch you're going to need to reduce your overall caloric intake. That is step one.

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Yes - a clean diet is very important for losing body fat. And the rest of the post, too - very good advice.
 
I'm wondering if you did that 130 pounds and only pushed it for say 2-3 reps. Or you can work up to a 3 rep max within say 6 sets doing only 3 reps each time.

But you have two seperate goals-reducing bodyfat and gaining mass. Figure out which one you want to do first.
 
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