Combining Lifting/Biking/Running

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
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I’ll be 36 in a few weeks. 5’11.5", 193 lbs. Lost about 30-35 pounds over several months mostly due to 10x3 for fat loss workout (awesome workout!). I will get down to 190 in a few weeks and I want to change my “lifestyle” during the spring/summer–maintaining my weight and strength while improving my overall fitness level and “relaxing” the strict diet I’ve had over my past few months.

I want to stay very active–I will have access to a wide variety of exercise–but I know enough to not try to run and bike and lift every day. I’d like to know how to best combine my 3 basic “forms” of exercise to my best advantage:

Lifting - I know lifting will be the most effective exercise, but I also know I can’t do it every day. I loved the 10x3 workout, and I’m confident I can find a good lifting workout that will be the most important part of my plan.

Biking - Biking actually requires no additional time for me–I can ride to and/or from work, and it’s just as fast as taking the bus. About 10-12 miles each way. Theoretically, I could ride both ways every day (weather permitting), but I’m guessing I probably shouldn’t. When I do ride, I try to ride “in intervals,” alternating pedaling hard with “gliding,” because my understanding is that it’s better exercise.

Running - I’m not really a runner…yet. I have dogs I walk every day. Weekdays I usually only have time for a 20 minute walk through the sidewalks of the neighborhood. Weekends it’s usually an hour through trails in the park. I’d like to include some interval runs with those walks. Since the sidewalks are concrete, I had thought of limiting my running to the trails only, but since I will be walking every day regardless, I thought it may be useful to include some sprints on those short walks as well.

I’ll just throw out my best guess as to a good plan for me:

Monday - Lift (take the bus to work)
Tuesday - Bike both to and from work (if weather prevents one or both trips, then take brief run with dogs at night)
Wednesday - Lift (take the bus to work)
Thursday - Bike both to and from work (if weather prevents one or both trips, then take brief run with dogs at night)
Friday - Lift (take the bus to work)
Saturday - Long interval run with dogs in park
Sunday - Off

Does this sound reasonable, or should I be reallocating my time/energy a different way?

Thanks very much for any input!

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I’m thinking TriGWU would be a good person to ask…

Paging TriGWU!

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Hey GC,
I’ve put a note on my desk to respond to you on this. Unfortunately, its V-Day so I’m out taking the significant other to dinner. I’ll get back to you tomorrow and let you know.

TriGWU

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Congrats on your weight loss! Sounds like you’ve been on a very similiar program to me. I’m 40, 5’11" and weigh 191 (lost @35 lbs in last six months). I would be quite happy to maintain 185-190 and just add more muscle, not lose more weight.

I’m also interested in staying fit and improving performance. I lift 3-4 times a week for 90 minutes followed by 20-30 min cardio and play an average of 2 hours tennis on the other days. I’m putting in 12-15 hours a week of workout/tennis. Sounds like your plan would have you doing less hours each week, but still more than enough to keep in shape and even add muscle.

Maybe the biggest challenge facing us this spring/summer is going to come from diet, not excercise. If you are like me, motivation to work out isn’t a problem. The results obtained so far are proof of that. Instead, I’m worried about regaining weight if I relax my diet. Being a FFB, I’m afraid that I’m going to erase all this hard work if I eat some bread with dinner… I’ve been on a 2600 cal a day super-clean diet with two refeed days a week of 3000 and 3500. I plan on coming off my “cutting diet” next Monday and I’m pretty nervous about how much to eat. Actually I’m scared shitless.

If you don’t mind a few questions, I’d be curious to compare with you. What was your diet like? (calories, how clean, etc) How many cals are you planning on eating now? When you say you want to relax your diet, just how much relaxation are you talking? What lifting program are you thinking of doing now?

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TriGWU, thanks for anything you can provide. I’m looking forward to hearing your comments.

TJ, thanks for the encouragement. It does sound like you and I are in similar boats. My tentative plan above is just that–tentative (scheduled start date of 3/1). It would be fun to do even more (maybe even biking every day for at least some distance), but I’m concerned about having dead legs from a weight workout, so that’s part of the reason I’m asking for feedback here.

I’m with you on the dieting issue as well. My diet was a lot less clean during the cutting phase. I’m sure that has a lot to do with my wife being pregnant and subtly pushing me to gain “sympathy” weight by demanding we go to dinner 1-2 nights a week. As a result, I probably had 4-5 clean days of ~2,000-2,200 cal and 2-3 days of anywhere up to 4,000. Not recommended, but every day I survive my wife’s pregnancy is a victory for me.

I’m also concerned about my “new” diet, especially considering our first baby is due 3/25. I won’t be as consistent as I’d like, but I’m guessing maybe up to 3,000 cal/day on the “new diet.” I’d rather increase the biking/running rather than limit the cals to the extent I can.

As for my workout, I like to change every 8 weeks or so, so I’ll be mixing it up a little. I’ll stick to compound exercises. The 10x3 for fat loss I’ve been doing is a full-body workout, and I’m leaning toward doing splits next. Wild guess: Monday-Chest/Shoulders/tris, Wednesday-Back/bis, Friday-Legs/shoulders. About 15 totals sets per workout, 6-10 reps per set. That’s pretty vague, but I will make it work (unless someone here talks me out of it!).

Good luck to us!

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Congrats on your first baby!!!

On my new diet I was thinking about going to 2600 cals + workouts -500 and see how that goes. If I still am losing weight I’ll adjust upward. I’ve been on such a mega-deficit, if you factor in workouts, that a 500 calorie deficit will be massive eating for me.

I tried splits, but couldn’t get into a groove. I was freaking out when I’d miss a body area because of time or tennis conflicts. I just make up 4 full-body workouts and rotate them. Each one has an emphasis, but basically I get a good workout no matter which one I use. I also have a leg workout which I do once a week. I can’t always do legs because of the tennis so I try to give them their own day. Leg day is my hardest workout but also the most satisfying.

Good luck to us, is right!

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Man, I’ve been away for a while and want to re-visit this topic. I wish someone would have told me that having a baby would take up so much time! :slight_smile:

I’ve been biking to work (about 35 miles total/day), so I’ve stayed pretty fit between diaper changes. I’m looking forward to hitting the weights again, but I’m still not sure how it will work.

I actually did a couple of full-body workouts last week. However, my legs get pretty fried so I end up not squatting well OR riding well.

I’d like to do a full-body workout every 2 or 3 days (not sure which). I’d like to ride my bike to work (M-F) as much as possible, but I don’t want to sabotage my workouts by doing too much. (In my original post I mentioned some jogging with the dogs but my beagle is recovering from a torn ACL so we’ll stick with walking for a while.)

Any suggestions on a plan? If I do a full-body workout I feel like I shouldn’t ride that day (partially because my legs will be fatigued and partially because it would likely be overtraining). The day after my workout, I feel like I shouldn’t ride because my legs will still be sore and rest is very important. Then the 3rd day it starts over again with another workout and I never get on the bike.

Thanks for any advice.