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Question for body builders

R

Riprorin

Banned
I'm running 3 miles 5 days a week and biking 10 - 15 miles/day on the weekends on an empty stomach. I'm also doing light lifting every other day and several sets of push-up (100 reps) and crunches ever day.in the evening before bed.

I'm taking 20 g of whey protein in the morning immediately after cardio and after working out in the evening.

Additionally, I eat about 12 oz of protein during the day.

I'm 5'8" and weigh about 150 - 153 pounds.

Think I'm getting enough protein? Should I add glutamine to my diet? If so, how much and where should I get it from?
 
Originally posted by: cchen
Taking the protein after cardio is just adding unncessary calories to your diet.
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wtf? He needs calories if he intends to put on muscle.

You do realise yoru body does need proteinf or growth and repair right? If you don't get enough your body doesn't get the full benefits of training.

What is your aim?

Your doing quite a lot of cardio. You do realise you won't get big from a lot of the cardio you are doing right? Big as in put on muscle mass.

If your aim is to be good at running/cycling or be to have better cardio then that is fine. Just make sure you are eating your food.

You probably wouldn't be getting enough protein if you were lifting weights weekly.

But to help more we need to know what is your aim.

Koing



 
Originally posted by: Regs
Why are you running on a emtpy stomach? Not enough money for food?
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It is good to run early in the morning on an empty stomach unless you like having cramp. You get a lot of the cardio and the calorie burning benfits better with an empty stomach. Remember you are running for better cardio or to use up calories. Why eat a lot before and then run? You are just adding more calories. It is fine to run on an empty stomach, as long as the distance you are running goesn't go on for 2hrs or more. You just make sure when you get bcak to drink water and hydrate yourself. Also salt, but you will get that from whatever you are eating.

Koing

 
I would recommend dropping the pushups and doing abs every other day. Overall though I think you need to decide on a goal and tailor your program towards it.
 
My aim is to be lean and fit. I'm not really interested in adding a lot of bulk.

My BF right now is about 13.5%. I wouldn't mind getting down to about 10%, but I'm fairly comfortable with where I'm at now.
 
thats a decent plan to start with. Also how fast are u running and bikeing if your just snalling it along then u won;t get anything out of it, so i would suggest cutting some of the miles and adding sprints, take two days and run sprints, those well cut the fat the quickest, but be sure to work your way up. Also do some weight training, light training, but some, that will up your metbolism and cut the fat also.

This plan will make u lean, cuz it seems that u are already somewhat fit. You can PM if u want a running and sprint schedule( thats what i used to cut my body fat to 7.5% from 16%), Plus i have plans from running cross country, and i have made plans for many people who lift.

Dogg
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
My aim is to be lean and fit. I'm not really interested in adding a lot of bulk.

My BF right now is about 13.5%. I wouldn't mind getting down to about 10%, but I'm fairly comfortable with where I'm at now.
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That's exactly why you shouldn't be taking excess protein. you're not looking to build muscle. taking extra protein is for building muscle.
why not just eat healthy meals with enough protein?
 
Make sure to eat enough! If you're running that much, eat more carbohydrates. You're burning enough calories to where you probably aren't storing a lot of unused carbs to turn into fat.

Holy lord, 100 reps of pushups? And sets of that? I do sets of like, 30-40...

And you're getting enough protein. If you're really serious about just losing weight and not building muscle, then protein isn't that important, just keep your calorie intake down and your cardio exercise up.
 
You want to get big? You have to eat big. Monitor your calorie intake and don't worry about gaining a little fat while bulking up.

You have to cycle your diet into 4-6 month intervals of alternately bulking and cutting. Bulking and cutting is ALL diet. Your workout never changes.

To gain mass, less is more. An overworked muscle will not grow. Work each body part once a week in a split something like this:

Mon: Chest shoulders and tris
Wed: Back and bis
Fri: Legs and calves

Do minimal sets (2-3 for each exercise, no more than 16-18 sets total per workout) and low reps (6-10). Do every set with maximum intensity and to complete muscle failure with perfect form. Stick to the basic compound lifts. Flat, incline, decline and military presses, weighted dips, squats, leg presses, deadlifts, high and low and vertical rows, weighted pull ups, pull downs, seated and standing calf raises.

Skip doing pushups unless you want muscle endurance rather than size. Do your abs twice a week at most. Great abs are made through diet and cutting, NOT from ab exercises. All ab exercises do is help you with stability in your other exercises. They will not make your abs look impressive. That comes with minimal body fat.

If you want to get big, work your legs. Doing so releases gobs more testosterone than simple working the upper body alone and helps your whole body get bigger.

Do small muscles after big. Do your chest and shoulder work BEFORE your tricep work. And you don't need any more than 3-4 sets of triceps work and 3-4 sets of biceps work a week. MOST of your arm size will come from building your chest, shoulders and back. In fact, most see little difference if they include direct arm work or not.

In some people, doing too much cardio can severely limit their muscle growth and even cause muscles to be eaten by the body for fuel. Play with how much cardio you do, and how many calories you take in to find your set point.

Finally, ignore the scale. Go by inches and strength gains, not pounds on the scale. Following the scale is the surest way to burning muscle instead of fat.
 
Originally posted by: NewSc2
Holy lord, 100 reps of pushups?
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yeah thats alot of push-ups, get some weights or join a gym so u can do weight workouts, bench, sqaut etc.

also u might want to take only one protein shake, but take it after u do your weights/pushups also with more muslce u get less fat, if u maintain it. other wise if u take just the fat away u will be really really skinny but won;t really have any strength.

Dogg
 
Well, you're at a cross roads here. Do you want to be skinny and cut? Or do you mind putting on a little fat while you put on muscle mass, then cutting the fat later? I say you look lean enough, and mass is what should come next IF you want to have larger muscles. That means possibly cutting back on the cardio a bit, absolutely increasing calories, and starting a full body split routine that focuses on low volume/high intensity. Skip the endurance training like the pushups you're doing. If you can lift the weight more than 8-10 times, it's too light for you.
 
Originally posted by: Amused
You want to get big? You have to eat big. Monitor your calorie intake and don't worry about gaining a little fat while bulking up.

You have to cycle your diet into 4-6 month intervals of alternately bulking and cutting. Bulking and cutting is ALL diet. Your workout never changes.

To gain mass, less is more. An overworked muscle will not grow. Work each body part once a week in a split something like this:

Mon: Chest shoulders and tris
Wed: Back and bis
Fri: Legs and calves

Do minimal sets (2-3 for each exercise, no more than 16-18 sets total per workout) and low reps (6-10). Do every set with maximum intensity and to complete muscle failure with perfect form. Stick to the basic compound lifts. Flat, incline, decline and military presses, weighted dips, squats, leg presses, deadlifts, high and low and vertical rows, weighted pull ups, pull downs, seated and standing calf raises.

Skip doing pushups unless you want muscle endurance rather than size. Do your abs twice a week at most. Great abs are made through diet and cutting, NOT from ab exercises. All ab exercises do is help you with stability in your other exercises. They will not make your abs look impressive. That comes with minimal body fat.

If you want to get big, work your legs. Doing so releases gobs more testosterone than simple working the upper body alone and helps your whole body get bigger.

Do small muscles after big. Do your chest and shoulder work BEFORE your tricep work. And you don't need any more than 3-4 sets of triceps work and 3-4 sets of biceps work a week. MOST of your arm size will come from building your chest, shoulders and back. In fact, most see little difference if they include direct arm work or not.

In some people, doing too much cardio can severely limit their muscle growth and even cause muscles to be eaten by the body for fuel. Play with how much cardio you do, and how many calories you take in to find your set point.

Finally, ignore the scale. Go by inches and strength gains, not pounds on the scale. Following the scale is the surest way to burning muscle instead of fat.
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nice post. 🙂

Originally posted by: Amused
If you want to get big, work your legs. Doing so releases gobs more testosterone than simple working the upper body alone and helps your whole body get bigger.
Click to expand...

why is this true? I've never heard it before, but when I work out it's basically kamikaze upper body. I do as many lifts, curls, bench, you name it till i'm exhausted. Haven't worked out in a little bit, but when I was it was usually twice, sometimes 3 times a week. I noticed improvement in a short time (~10 weeks), but i know that if I want to seriously make big improvements, I'll have to do most of the things you said.
 
Originally posted by: bpctech
Originally posted by: Amused
If you want to get big, work your legs. Doing so releases gobs more testosterone than simple working the upper body alone and helps your whole body get bigger.
Click to expand...

why is this true? I've never heard it before, but when I work out it's basically kamikaze upper body. I do as many lifts, curls, bench, you name it till i'm exhausted. Haven't worked out in a little bit, but when I was it was usually twice, sometimes 3 times a week. I noticed improvement in a short time (~10 weeks), but i know that if I want to seriously make big improvements, I'll have to do most of the things you said.
Click to expand...

Body building causes your body to produce more testosterone. Building only your upper body works only half your muscles. Your legs and glutes are HUGE muscles making up something like 50% of your total muscle mass. It only stands to reason that your body will produce that much more hormones when they are worked.
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Originally posted by: Howard
Go get tanned, man. Else you won't be a candidate for Xenadrine EFX, ever.
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I did lose about 25 pounds, but no Xenadrine for me. Just eliminated white flour, sugar, processed food, and starchy fruits and vegetables from my diet.
 
Another thing about diet:

While building, you never want to go catabolic (your body uses muscle for fuel). You body prefers muscle over fat for fuel, and will use it as such when you go hungry, or do cardio exercise very far past your muscle's glycogen levels. You never want an empty stomach. Eat every 2-3 hours. To do so, simply split your meals into two smaller meals and spread them out. This also helps keep your body fat down, because your body learns it doesn't have to store fat for the next fast... because there never IS a fast.

When bulking, carbs are as important as protein. And post lifting, you actually WANT simple sugary carbs with your protein shake to help replenish your muscle's glycogen stores and speed recovery. Fruit juices or sport drinks work good for this. Hell, I sometimes reward myself with a candy bar post workout. Sugar is not evil when used appropriately.

Also, if you ever decide to use creatine, you'll need sugar to cause an insulin spike so your muscles will take up the creatine. I simple add the creatine to my post workout shake since I'll be having sugar at that time too.
 
The main reason I started getting in shape is that I'm 43 years old and would like to continue to maintain an active lifestyle an I age. So, my regimen should be geared towards that goal.

Here's where my current diet/workout routine has taken me since April:

Time Sequence
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
The main reason I started getting in shape is that I'm 43 years old and would like to continue to maintain an active lifestyle an I age. So, my regimen should be geared towards that goal.

Here's where my current diet/workout routine has taken me since April:

Time Sequence
Click to expand...

43? WOW! Just juding by your midsection pics, I wouldn't put you a day past 25. Not that it's the best way to judge things, but still.
 
Originally posted by: Riprorin
The main reason I started getting in shape is that I'm 43 years old and would like to continue to maintain an active lifestyle an I age. So, my regimen should be geared towards that goal.

Here's where my current diet/workout routine has taken me since April:

Time Sequence
Click to expand...

OK, maybe I misunderstood. I was under the impression you wanted to gain muscle mass. If general fitness and endurance is your goal, stick with what you're doing.
 
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