losing a lot of weight -- help!

R

richardtruss

0
I have been working out serious for about 2-3 months now and i love it. My current routine is:

Monday - Chest / 25 min cardio
Tuesday - Back / 25 min cardio
Wednesday - Arms / 25 min cardio
Thursday - Shoulders / 25 min cardio
Friday - Cardio only @ 30-40 minutes
weekend - Rest

A guy at the gym tonight suggested that i lift 4 days and do cardio only on the other three because of what he referred to as 'canabolizing' the muscle -- which i gathered meant that the extra cardio was actually eating up the muscle i am trying to build. I really want to burn fat and gain muscle (who doesn;t, right). I weigh @ 295 or so right now (im 6' 1") 44-46 inch waist. i am starting to see results in muscle -- pecs and arms especially are firming up nicely, but again i am trying to strike a nice balance between gaining muscle -- but obviously losing fat is probably the primary concern. what do you all think? I will be asking about diet in another post, so im sort of concentrating on workout in this one....but i will be more than happy to listen to whatever you got to tell me.

Thank you!
 
Hi!

I'm not an expert but I'll try to give you some basic directions.

Your routine is too much splited. Why don't you do a full-body workout? Or a 2 day split workout (e.g. day1: upper body, day2 lower body)? You just need to do weights 2 times a week (3 at the most)... In a full-body workout you just need to do 1 compound exercise fo each major muscle group... you hit all muscles in less than an hour.

Workout example:
Warmup (10 min cardio)
Quads: Squats
Hams: Strait Leg Deadligt
Chest: Bench Press
Upper Back: Rows
Delts: Shoulder Press
Abs: Crunches
Cooldown (streches)

The upper back exercises also it the biceps. Both presses also hit the triceps. You can add a bicep curl if you want, but the above workout covers all the stuff.
See http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Instructions.html to help you create your workout.
Also see what they say about toning:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Toning.html

Good luck!
 
Also can I add that, your better just doing light weight training and a lot of cardio first. because you can't lose fat and gain muscle mass. At first you can but eventually you find you build little muscle mass and hold the fat more. Lose the fat via cardio/light weights and diet (low carbs, protein rich), then gain mass by heavy weight training and diet (protein rich, moderate carbs, and mod fats.) Hope it helps
 
thank you -- yes that helps! a lot! so in addition to the 2 times a week of a full body workout, should i hit cardio? how many days a week? and on the same days as the full body training as well? or should i take cardio off during those days?

again, thank you very much for your help!
 
I'm not a coach, but as far as I know you should hit cardio at least 3 times per week with 20-30 min sessions, but don't overdoit. Also chose a pace that you can keep for the all run, even if it's too slow. Your pace should allow you to have a conversation but with some dificulties. With time you will build on speed. If possible do cardio on an empty stomach.

I would not do cardio in weight training days (just about 10 min to warmup). It's important to have batteries fully charged for an intense weight training :) But it's better for you to get more info on this...

My policie is to only perform a weight training when I feel that I'm fully recovered from the last. But many people train at fixed days. Do it as you feel more confortable but remember that lifting weights gives the stimulus to muscle growth, but it is betweens trainning sessions that the muscle really grows! In your case 2-3 days of rest may be enough to recover from a full body workout, but that depends of the training intensity and of your recovery capabilities.

According to sets and reps the thing gets a litle messy :) There are lots of approachs. I usually do 1-2 work sets with a range of 8-12 reps. Other possibilities are for instance 3 sets of 10 reps, or 3 sets of 6 reps. Try to figure out what works best for you. Usually more reps promote muscle growth and less reps promotes strength. But don't do more than 12-15 reps... they will not burn more fat :) See fat burning mits at exrx: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Myths.html
Don't forget to always do 1-3 warmup sets. I usually do 1-2 warmup sets with half the weight of my workset(s).

I like the kind of training that is described in the hardgainer faq. Take a look at it: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/body-building/hardgainer-faq/

As I said I'm not a coach nor a experimented lifter. Try to get more info from reliable sources.

Good luck!!
 
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