Hi I’m trying to lose fat. I am current 13stone 3 and I would like to get to about 12stone. I don’t have a lot of muscle and I have a lot of flab. I used to weigh about 17stone stone though so I’m better than I used to be haha.
Anyways I’ve been doing a fullbody routine for ages and I feel like having a change so I thought I might try an upper/lower split routine. Would this still be good for fatloss?
Anyway here is my draft:
Upper/Lower Split
Upper - 5x5
Bench press
Bent over row
Pull ups
Arnold Press
Yeah I’m holding back on the cardio until I find out what’s wrong with my knee. It gets aggravated by running and such. I think cycling is ok though so I will do HIIT on a stationary bike.
So a typical week would look like this:
Mon Upper
Tue Lower
Wed HIIT
Thurs Upper
Fri Lower
Sat HIIT
Sun Rest
My diet is eating plenty of protein and fats and timing my carbs around workouts and with the first meal of the day. Try to get plenty of veggies and EFAs.
Try Junp Rope. There’s little knee involvement (if you do it right). The ankles are mostly involved.
The weight workout is good. The basics with heavy weight. Heavy weight means the muscle are under high amounts of tension, which means your muscle will be much easier to preserve.
To lose fat, it would be best to follow a bodypart split to build the most muscle possible and also to get a lot of mechanical stress in. The more muscle you have, the more muscle you burn during recovery. You will also become more insulin sensitive.
And also, its just plain more activity: 4 to 5 days per week of weight training.
well see now this is where things get a little tricky. He says he trying to lose fat. However, he also says that he doesnt have much muscle on him. The type of routine should be more dependent on what he NEEDS to do NOW.
If indeed you have to lose fat OP (cuz theres no way on earth that bulking would help the situation), then I would just do the routine you outlined. When the body is in an energy restrictive state, its recuperative abilities are hindered, so causing excessive structural damage via body part split is not a good idea. And Bricknyce seems very intelligent and is well respected, so dont think im trying to get an arguement going here. But I dont understand your last comment Bricknyce. You said a body part split would see him in the gym 4-5 days a week. So would his upper/lower split. Fill the other days with some HIIT and steady State cardio, and he’s well off.
However, OP, if your image isn’t distorted and you actually need to build muscle, a body part split would work. more structural damage is necessary and is much more doable sincce you’d be in a hypercaloric state.
Yeah I’m going to try it and see how far it gets me. The only thing I am a bit worried about is if there is too much exercise for my back. I have two back exercises to one chest.
Do you think it would be a good idea to say do a heavy and light back exercise in one workout and then in the next upper workout do two chest, one heavy one light, and one back exercise? This way I would be rotating causing some more balance with the chest and back.
[quote]SteelCityLad wrote:
The only thing I am a bit worried about is if there is too much exercise for my back. I have two back exercises to one chest.
[/quote]
How so? You’ve balanced the movement patterns perfectly. Though this is a bodybuilding forum and we are more concerned with “muscle” rather than “movements”, a balance is still key. And remember, if its fat loss you’re going for, weightlifting doesn’t need to be over complicated (or ever for that matter). Weightlifting should be thought of as a muscle preserver, not to build it.
You’ve balanced out the horizontal push/pull, vertical push/pull and knee & Hip dominant movements. You’re covered.