[quote]its_just_me wrote:
[quote]Natebrochill wrote:
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
[quote]Natebrochill wrote:
I use to have abs just because I am skinny. Recently I have been bulking and I noticed that my stomach is now out farther than my chest haha. When I flex I can see my abs but I want them to be viable without flexing.
I have recently been eating a lot of carbs. I have gained 15 pounds in the last couple of months.
A normal day of eating would look like:
(All sandwiches are on whole wheat)
(I have been drinking about a gallon of water everyday)
- Morning: 3 egg omelet with veggies and a glass of OJ
- Couple hours later: PB and J with glass of water
- Couple hours later: Bowl of oatmeal with whole milk and blue berries
- Couple hours later: PB and J with glass of water
- Lunch: Turkey sandwich with some jalapeno chips to chase it down, glass of water, little odwalla smoothie with an orange
- Couple hours later: PB and J
- Chicken, brown rice, and green beans, with a glass of whole milk
Do you guys think I should start doing cardio in the mornings? (haven’t been doing any)
Should I do sprints?
Should I start cutting my meals down to 5 and eat more clean meals with more meats?
I also haven’t been doing abs. Going to start doing hanging leg raises and machine ab crunches. Probably high rep.
As far as my training goes I have been working on mainly strength. (been getting a lot of PRs lately)
I have been doing all of the following around 3-5 reps:
Dead lifts, weighted pull ups, barbell rows, hang clean and jerk, push press, and flat bench
I do higher rep when doing:
Krock rows, barbell shrugs, step ups, leg press, front plated squats, and dips
Haven’t been doing heavy squats lately because of my hips and knees. (fuckin sucks I know)
I have been doing front plated squats to stretch out my hips lately. Hips aren’t flexible enough to get down into a deep front squat. (I cant keep the weight on my heels)
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There’s no need to go into 100% panic alert (i.e. full blown shredding phase with lots of cardio etc). Just get diet sorted (especially as regards timing and amount of carbs). Training ~5x/week is enough exercise to shed fat for the average non ‘endomorphic’ person (provided diet is in check). Lowerning over-all calories will shed fat, but timing the nutrients well, balancing the macronutrients well, and eating enough protein can dramatically improve composition too.
9 times out of 10, when fat levels get “out of hand” during a gaining phase, it’s usually excessive carbs in relation to the other macro’s. Obviously though, 15lbs in 8 weeks is at the higher end of gains and you wouldn’t expect to make gains like that all the time (gains level out more…and when you try to force them, eating more than you really need, you will get more fat than is reasonable to expect). Having too little protein in relation to other macro’s is another reason why gains may not be lean.
Keep carbs tamed, and time them around workouts/breakfast. Anywhere from 0.5-2g/lbs in bodyweight/day should suffice (depending on how you handle them). On non training days, keep carbs lower, and on training days you will benefit from having them higher.
If you want to trim some fat (which again, I wouldn’t get too caught up in this), reduce over-all calories until you lose about a pound a week or so, or at least until your waist starts to shrink. If you do it sensibly, like not to extreme (not loads of cardio and little calories), you will lose some fat while gaining a little muscle/strength over the Summer.[/quote]
Thanks man,
I forgot to add that I work 4 days out of the week and have school Monday through Friday. I only get to train 3 days out of the week cause I get too tired after 8 hour shifts.
Maybe this affects it as well. Not enough training/too many carbs in my diet.
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You’re welcome. Definitely increase your training days, it helps tremendously (lean gains while gaining, or better fat loss while trimming). Try splitting the routine up a bit (more training days), that helps a lot with fatigue (workouts are shorter and workload is more spread out). What is your routine? Post it and we can advise…
I do 9 hour shifts plus construction work on the house, so that’s no excuse Your capacity for work will increase as you adapt (and get older)
“Maybe this affects it as well. Not enough training/too many carbs in my diet”
Correct.[/quote]
I get 3 days off in a row and this is my routine:
Everything has 3 working sets. (3 sets of doing my max for the amount of reps) All of these days are back to back.
BACK DAY:
Dead Lifts - Work up to a rep of 5
Weighted Pull Ups - Work up to a rep of 3
Barbell Rows - Work up to a rep of 5
Krock Rows - 1 or 2 sets of around 17 reps (depending on how high my reps are)
PUSH DAY:
Hang Clean and Jerks - Work up to a rep of 3
Barbell Shoulder Press (push press) - Work up to a rep of 5
Barbell Shrugs - 2 or 3 sets of 10-20 reps (as many as I can until I cant get the full rep)
Flat Bench - Work up to a rep of 5
Machine Dips - Usually 3x12 just because I screwed up my left front delt doing weighted dips a couple years ago. (was stupid and going down too far)
LEG DAY:
Front Plated Squats - 10-12 reps of holding 10 pounds out in front of me. (to stretch out the hips and to strengthen my lumber curve to be able to go all the way down into a front squat)
Barbell Step Ups - 20 reps usually. (10 on both legs)
Leg Press - 3 sets of 12
I was getting a knee pain when doing front squats. (wasn’t keeping the weight on my heels, it was more on the ball of my feet) My hips aren’t flexible either so it was putting more pressure on my knees. Thats why my leg days are lame right now.