I’m trying to lose body fat and gain muscle… I know it’s best to do one or the other.
I do not like to follow set programs as I always find the program is missing an excercise I want included, or I find they take too long for me to finish each workout.
Another reason is that if I follow the set programs properly I’m usually too tired to do any cardio work even on my off days - I guess I’m one of those guys who has a low work capacity.
So I have designed my own program as follows, which consists of four days of 2-3 compound movements followed by 1 or 2 isolation excercises,
Saturday:-
Bench Press
Bent Over Rows
Good Mornings
Dumbell flyes
Sunday:-
Power Cleans
Pull ups
Bicep Curl
Skull Crushers
Tuesday
Chin ups
Militairy Press
Squats
Thursday
Dips
Deadlifts
dumbell Lateral raise
On my off days I will be doing heavy bag work … and after lifting I will be doing some HIIT (i.e. 30 second sprint followed by 1 min jog etc) I was thinking of using the following rep ranges and rotating every 4 weeks:-
6 sets of 3
4 sets of 5
5 x 5
8 sets of 2
i.e. by doing 6 sets of 3 instead 8 sets of 3 as usually prescribed I will still hopefully have some energy in me to do some cardio at the end of the workout, and hopefully the workouts shouldn’t take more than 45 mins.
I will also vary the excercises slightly every few weeks … i.e vary grips/dumbells instead of barbells etc…
Do you think such a program will be any good or will I be wasting my time?
Choose one goal not both. Either decide to lose fat, or decide to build muscle. You can not have your cake and eat it. By compromising you will be giving yourself the chance to do one of the two things properly instead of both poorly.
Have you noticed pro bb’s and athletes accept that cutting and building are two different things and must be done and different times. Whereas the guys with really average physiques are often trying to do both at once!
The program you have written is not the worst, but is strange in some ways. For example, why the 2:1 ratio of upper body work to lower body work. Either you have a lower body that overpowers your upper, or your trying to build a house on weak foundations(not good).
Choose a tried and tested program from one of the trainers on T-Nation.(You will need to decide on your goal first).
As for the comment you made about having a low work capacity…you need to work on that. No one starts out with an awesome work capacity but they can certainly create one. For ideas on GPP workouts read Dave Tates articles on T-Nation and Louie Simmons aritcles on Westside.
I have no intention on being huge…
I guess I’m going for the UFC fighter look, visible muscle difinition and very lean
[quote]elliotnewman1 wrote:
Choose one goal not both. Either decide to lose fat, or decide to build muscle. You can not have your cake and eat it. By compromising you will be giving yourself the chance to do one of the two things properly instead of both poorly.
Have you noticed pro bb’s and athletes accept that cutting and building are two different things and must be done and different times. Whereas the guys with really average physiques are often trying to do both at once!
The program you have written is not the worst, but is strange in some ways. For example, why the 2:1 ratio of upper body work to lower body work. Either you have a lower body that overpowers your upper, or your trying to build a house on weak foundations(not good).
Choose a tried and tested program from one of the trainers on T-Nation.(You will need to decide on your goal first).
As for the comment you made about having a low work capacity…you need to work on that. No one starts out with an awesome work capacity but they can certainly create one. For ideas on GPP workouts read Dave Tates articles on T-Nation and Louie Simmons aritcles on Westside.[/quote]
Yeah thats great, and presumably to look like a ufc fighter you need to gain muscle and lose fat, so choose one or the other. Hint…choose the muscle first, otherwise you’ll look like a skeleton with abs.
And i think you can think of a better goal than looking like a ufc figther, its so ambiguous. I mean Chuck Liddel looks nothing like Tito Ortiz. Get me?
So how about you set some strength goals and weight goals. Eg increase strength by 50% and add 20 pounds of muscle before even thinking about cutting
[quote]jay711 wrote:
I have no intention on being huge…
[/quote]
Good start.
hell, i lift 7 days a week, sometimes 2-3 times a day meaning i might do cardio 3-6 times a day with diff intensities.
good thing i still live with my parents haha.