Gym rats unite!

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#121

I’m astounded that no-one has mentioned High Intensity Interval Training? low to mid level cardio for long periods isn’t doing anyone any favours as it will result in muscle loss as well as fat loss and it’s really inefficient.

If you’re aiming to lose weight you should be doing strength training, not always weights because you’re own bodyweight can be a better alternative, eg press ups instead of benching. This will increase your metabolic rate and release hormones that help in weight loss.

So if you’re putting in all this work to build muscle, when then jump on a treadmill and jog for 40 minutes and lose the muscle? HIIT for 15-20 mins is what you need, 1 min walk, 1 minute running as fast as you physically can until you feel like you’re going to fall off the back of the thing, repeat for 20 mins.

There really is no debate on order. Warm up, strength and then cardio.

#122

^great for conditioning, not so great for traps

#123

cardio results depend on at what heart rate you are running. If you keep it around 70% of your max then you’ll stay well within your anaerobic threshold and won’t get the drawbacks normally associated with “chronic cardio”. Mark Sisson is pushing a theory that recommends endurance athletes train in this range. Over time you’ll be able to run a higher speed and stay within this heart rate range. And your body will adapt to burning fat to maintain energy in this range. Kind of turns conventional wisdom about endurance training on its head, at least as far as I understand it. Maybe some endurance experts can weigh in here. anyway that was a tangent.

yes strength and HIIT are great, but you can also train endurance without the drawbacks if you do it right. I started using this method of training endurance and it seems to work well – I’ve been able to increase speed over long durations and maintain 70% max heart rate. I do that along with my normal strength, work capacity and stamina workouts. no loss of muscle. in fact it seems to be helping my strength somehow.

#124

^ interesting. You’re definitely right that it’s all about the heart rate. I suppose I’m against low intensity cardio because I associate it with the chubby girls you see at the gym spending hours on the treadmill/bike/eliptical watching the good wife on their ipads and always looking the same as the months roll by.

#125

To OP, others have mentioned it but it definitely is true that excercise has historically been hugely overstated in its impact for weight loss. The main determinant is diet and you have to be really strict for a long period of time.

I got fat when I stopped playing rugby mid way through university and then got a bit fat again when I did CFA levels 1 and 2 December and June turnaround which coincided with working 60+ hour weeks and I ended up virtually sendantary.

The reality is that losing weight once you’ve slipped up and put on some chunk is fecking hard. You really need to make it your main focus, not something that you can fit around your lifestyle as it currently stands. For me, I had to stop drinking completely for a period of time, track everything I ate and spent many a boring weekend night sitting eating brown rice,chicken and veg when I could have been knocking back the pints.

Another thing to note is that losing the weight is phase 1, most people put it on again because the body can take up to a year to recalibrate at your new weight. Your body thinks the weight loss is temporary and does everything it can to put the weight back on.

#126

yea i often get the urge to tell these people (plenty of dudes also) they’re wasting their time, literally spinning on a hampster wheel. but i guess that would be considered rude.

#127

Yo! Gym rats! (Especially Brain, because IIRC, he used to be a trainer.)

I read somewhere the other day that you need to do 100-120 reps per week, per muscle group. Knowing that, it seems like I’ve been doing too many too often. (I was doing about twice that, because I was doing 4x10 on two exercises, 3x per week. With lighter weights, of course.)

So here’s the question: how many days a week should a dude lift? I can go 3x at 40 reps, or I can do 60 reps only twice (Tuesday & Friday, e.g.) When I lift, I normally do the whole body in one day.

* * *

Here’s some more info: I’m not trying to do an ultramarathon. At 39, I don’t think I’ll be trying out for the NFL. I don’t want to look like Arnold. I just want to get in better shape for health reasons.

I can run the other days, when I’m not lifting. (I keep saying I’ll run on Saturday, but I never do. I might during tax season, though.) And by run, I mean walk/jog. I recently started again, and I’m up to about 40% job, 60% walk. However, I’m worried that at 100+ lbs. overweight, running 4 days a week could be stressing the joints. But I haven’t felt any joint pain yet.

Anyway, let me know what I should be doing. Maybe there’s an online coach somewhere who will coach me from long distance.

#128

use an elliptical machine or swim. until you lose enough weight. and you get used to handling your body size.

#129

Full body compound exercises are probably the way to go for you, since you don’t have the time of a 20 year old – and I’m guessing your goals are more focused on being healthy rather than being shredded.

3x a week, with barbell compound exercises, something simple like Greyskull LP would get you what you need without taking up too much time – but still allows you to get good volume in. That would still allow you to spend time doing cardio. For bigger guys things like biking or swimming are better and put less stress on the joints. You’re legs are probably pretty strong so biking will be a fairly good fit without destroying your knees.

#130

Yo Greenie! Now I can help YOU out. I can help you with both areas since I too used too be a trainer and just a couple weeks ago I passed the NSCA CSCS credential (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) …Its like the CFA of the fitness world :wink:

For the lifting I imagine your goals are to maintain/ gain strength and to gain muscle mass. This should be the main variable when considering how your lifting program is set up …not “net reps/ week”. For some who has the goal of strength gains and someone who what the goal of muscular endurance, the the repetitions/ week are going to look different. Use this as a rough guide. Your workouts on any given day should look like one of the 3 choices:

Strength >85% 1RM. 4x5

Hypertrophy 68-85% 1RM, 4x10

Muscular Endurance <65% 1RM, 3x15

So as you can see, changing reps/ day based on if you are doing 2 or 3 days/ week does not make sense. You can lift 2 or 3 times a week. 3 would be better! J_ust set up your sets and reps to match the goals you are after._

As for the running/ walking… I say it is fine and let pain be your guide. If you notice any joint pain then you can look for some lower impact alternatives. At this point, the most important factor is that you pick the cardio that you find the least awful so you stick with it.

#131

100+ lbs overweight? Dude, I’m going to be very direct and up front with you. If you fix your diet first/foremost you’d see drastic results. Results that obviously are accelerated with compound lifts, and intense cardio. Do you know how many calories it requires to maintain 100 lbs of excess body fat?

I’m glad you’re taking this seriously.

now all that bullshit aside, the answer to your question is… probably not want you want to hear. At 40 years old, and a declining pool of free testosterone, and all anobolic steroids aside, someone like you only needs to lift twice a week - push it to three times if you really want, but, unfortunately given your age you’ll experience diminished returns to scale from your efforts since your muscles will take longer to repair the tissue damage caused from lifting.

Do you mind posting up exactly what your routine looks like? I would strongly recommend you go with something that you can track on an iPhone, but incorporates nothing but compound movements - have you ever heard of stronglifts 5x5? I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of flack for recommending this program to you, but it would be the best option for you. It’ll have you starting out very easily, but increases in difficulty pretty rapidly.

Also, please don’t be that guy that spends time doing shoulder shrugs and calf raises. You don’t need that shit. You need to drop body fat as fast as humanly possible which means you need to be doing nothing more than: Squatting, Overhead press (standing - this engages the core, don’t do this sitting), deadlift, bench, barbell row. Seriously, those 5 lifts are the only thing you need, combined with cardio, and a proper diet to fast track results.

edit: What I’m trying to say is that without even seeing what you look like, focusing on isolated lifts (bicep curls, hamstring curls, leg extensions, etc…) is not the optimal use of your time. You need to trigger as much muscle growth as possible, which is most efficiently done with compound lifts. And forget running, you don’t need that sht. Get on the stair stepper 4 times a week at level 15 and forget about life for the next 45 minutes. Please calculate your BMR and eat no less than 80% of that (eating too few calories, for too long can seriously damage your hormones).

#132

Stop drinking soda.

#133

Greenie, if your concerned about the joint pain, consider using a rowing machine. That thing will wreck you. Just go as hard as possible for like 2 minutes, get off and rest 1 minute, and repeat for say a total of 5 sets. Combine with weight training and HIIT.

#134

stop drinking soda (and other beverages that aren’t water, tea or coffee) = 60% solution. Limit sugar and grains from other foods = 30% solution. Gym = 10% solution. Seems to me you should concentrate on the higher bang for your buck line items.

#135

Trust me. I know that diet is 80% of the solution.

I’m not trying to ignore it, but on this thread, I’d rather stick to the exercise portion. I do appreciate the suggestions from Turd.

I’m trying NOT to be a BSD as much this year. (BSD = Bread, Sugar, Dessert)

#136

This does not compute. What is “hypertrophy” and “1RM”?

#137

Until recently, it was 4x10 each on: Bench & Incline, Squat & Hex bar deadlift, lat pull-down & lateral pulls. Or, like you said, compound movements that work big muscle groups.

Recently, I started doing something different–I bumped up the weight and went to the 6-5-4-3 method. (One set of 7 reps, one set of 6, one set of 5, etc.)

Don’t worry. I’ve never seen the point of doing calf raises and leg curls. If I want to train the calves & hamstrings, I’ll go out for a run or smething.

Imagine if Chris Christie let himself go.

#138

There’s two ways to get stronger - get bigger muscles and use your muscles better. Using low reps makes you much stronger, but not look as nice. Compare elite powerlifters vs elite bodybuilders. Higher reps is hypertrophy, making your muscles grow more. There’s obviously a huge degree of correlation between the two (Bodybuilders are strong, and powerlifters have muscles) but there’s a difference. Lifting higher rep leads to more muscle growth (hypertrophy)

RM = 1 Rep max, done as a calculation of what you can currently lift. Find a calculator, but essentially if you get bench 225 10 times, then your 1RM is somewhere in the low 300s . This is a way to calculate the intensity of a program (vs frequency and volume)

These things are all complicated, and there’s not a ton of value in you going down this rabbit hole. Pick a type of cardio that you’ll do and pick a program you’ll follow. A good program will tell you what lift to do on which day, the intensity (either % of 1RM or number of reps), and how to progress/deload. I’d avoid getting into the trap of ‘learning more’ and just get someone’s program that’s had proven success. Edit: Just saw what you’ve been doing – it’s not bad, but I’d pick a program that’s similar to what you’re doing now, but one that details progression and possibly more variations to keep it from getting too boring.

#139

sorry, let me get out of technical mode!

“hypertrophy” means gaining mass. If the goal is to get larger muscles then you would want to gear toward that set up. “1RM” is 1 repetition max.

Let me make it simpler… you likely want to put on lean body mass as well as keep your joints and bones functioning well. You will want to lift heavier weights in many sets of lower repetitions. This is opposed to a muscular endurance plan that would be lighter weights, fewer sets, and high repetitions. The take away point is it is not the net repetitions/ day that is important, but it is how heavy and how many sets that counts. The reason this matters is that if you were to do two days and move from 40 to 60reps each of those days, you would have to decrease the weight in order to complete the task. This is counterproductive. (and if you did NOT have to decrease the weight that you are lifting to move up to 60, then you need add another plate to that bar :wink:)

I saw some posts earlier and it looks like you are already making good exercise choices. Like someone mentioned above, go after exercises that span over two joints (bench press, pulldowns, deadlifts, squats, rows)

Another way to answer your question, Greenie, is you can’t effectively do 3 days worth of quality weight training in two days.

#140

I have the CSCS too! I always wondered if there were any others out there with the CFA/CSCS combo. Now I know there’s at least one. Congratulations on passing it by the way.