[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
muimuiman wrote:
Hey, I’m a newbie to this site. I’m 24 years old, 6 foot 172 lbs, 18-20% bodyfat. My goal EVENTUALLY would be to get 180-185lbs with 10-12 % bf. Atleast thats my primary goal.
What was your starting weight? What is your diet like?
After lifting for 6 years, I’ve come to grips that I cant gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, so I’m going to try this Rest/Pause routine to gain some mass. So this is the routine.
Monday/Thurs
Bench
Dumbell rows
Dumbell biceps curls
Tues/ Fri
Pullups
Military Press
Tris
Hey man, not trying to sound like a dick, but if this is the best workout that you can come up with after 6 years of training, then switching to rest/pause would be way down the list of suggestions that I’d make to you.
PF already mentioned lower body training, which your routine has absolutely none of. That’s red flag number one around here. Unless you’ve got some sort of physical impairment that is forcing you not to train your lower body, then I could understand. Otherwise, START TRAINING YOUR LEGS!
Im going to do the whole 1 rep thing at my max weight, rest 1min and complete 10 reps for each exercise. As I progress, I am going to cut down my rest time to 10-15 seconds.
Once again, your understanding of how to correctly train needs work, leave the advanced training techniques for later when you actually need them. Right now, all you need to do to see improvement is to start training right, eat like you are trying to gain weight (more on that later) and rest enough to allow your body to recover.
What you are describing is also not rest/pause, that would be 10 singles (which quite honestly you could not do with a 1 minute rest) and then using a density progression. I could describe what rest/pause is to you, but once again you don’t need it, so I’m not going to atm.
Now maybe some people who have had experience with this or are just knowledgable about it can give me some advice. Do I just do 1 exercise per muscle group on that day? How often do I do abs. I don’t want to gain any fat, so can I do cardio with this routine.
Red flag number 2. Sorry to break it to you, but you WILL gain some body fat whenever you gain muscle. Now you can minimize it through the use of a good diet and cardio, but you’ll still gain fat. And if you want to gain at the fastest rate possible, then fat should not be your concern.
And if I do cardio, when is the best time to do it, how long should I run and how often. How long should I continue to do this routine? Some people say 8 weeks, others say 5. I appreciate any advice on this and I apologize if I wrote this in the wrong section.
As for cardio, there are some different schools of thought on when it’s “best” to do. Early morning “fasted” cardio is very popular among certain populations of lifters and is proven to work. After resistance training is also another good option. Or, you could do it on your off days from lifting. Just don’t do it before you train with weights.
It’s impossible for us to tell you how long you should run as none of us know you or your current fitness level. Instead I’d suggest doing steady state cardio (jogging, swimming, biking, etc… at a constant pace) for at least 20 minutes and probably no longer than an hour (shoot for around 30 minutes to start). However far you get in that time is how long you should run/bike/swim/etc…
As far as the routine, I’d suggest that you don’t do it at all. You’d be better off with “Starting Strength” by Mark Ripptoe, as it will teach you how to correctly perform the big lower body exercises (deadlifts/squats/and power cleans)and is built around progression.
After that you could try a “5x5” program, or switch to a more “bodybuilding” focused program (like an Upper/Lower or Push/Pull split).
I know this probably isn’t what you want to hear, but it’s what you need to hear.[/quote]
Excellent reply, sento.