I’m a 22 year old beginner. I’ve been working out 12 weeks and I’ve gained 20 lbs from 152 to 172. I’ve gained 1%BF according to my electronic scale (was 17% and now 18%). I’m stronger and bigger and but I haven’t gained much definition. I was thinking about doing steady state cardio (running or biking) 5 days a week for 30 minutes and continuing to work out 3 times a week in the afternoon.
Is this reasonable?
[quote]Tryin2BRipd wrote:
I’m a 22 year old beginner. I’ve been working out 12 weeks and I’ve gained 20 lbs from 152 to 172. I’ve gained 1%BF according to my electronic scale (was 17% and now 18%). I’m stronger and bigger and but I haven’t gained much definition. I was thinking about doing steady state cardio (running or biking) 5 days a week for 30 minutes and continuing to work out 3 times a week in the afternoon.
Is this reasonable?[/quote]
Not really. Try interval or hill training (ie. sprinting with rests in between). If you don’t have much running background, you might want to do 2-4 of weeks in which you do a few steady state runs working up to 30 mins (so 15, 20, 25, 30 if you did four). This is to prepare you for the intervals.
Make sure you are running, not jogging, and focus on intensity and not volume.
I wouldn’t put much store in bodyfat scales. How tall are you?
5’10.5"
no running background and typical weak all over beginner. Should I even worry about losing fat for definition at this point?
(from a psychological standpoint I think it w3ould help a lot because I would really be able to see the results)
Yeah, there are far better programs for fat loss than running. You only have one set of knees and running only makes them worse. If you keep your diet clean and your carbs in their optimal windows you should lose fat as you gain muscle.
What is your diet as of now?
What program are you on?
-chris
my diet is okay. I want to see gains but I’m not a total health nut.
I have 6-8 meals a day but they aren’t huge (I used to do this but gained weight REALLY fast)
I don’t eat fried foods, I keep a low carb diet except for vegetables although some days I find carbs hard to avoid. I only drink water, coffee, tea and milk with the occassional diet coke.
I have daily Flameout and multi vitamin and use Metabolic Drive after my workouts.
for the last 12 weeks I’ve got at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight every day except 2 I think.
Work out is 3 days a week. right now I’m doing:
day 1: squats, DL, incline BP and barbell rows, decline weighted situps
each 3x12 with 60 second rests between sets (near failure at last rep)
day 2: squats, bench, DL, rack pullups, dips, decline weighted situps
each 3x8 with 60 second rests (near failure at last rep)
day 3: Alternate day 1 and 2 each week.
Electronic scales are shit.
Don’t use them. The data is based on statistics,and there’s no way the scale can calculate your real percentages of lean mass/fat.
[quote]Avocado wrote:
You only have one set of knees and running only makes them worse.
-chris[/quote]
I wouldn’t say that this is generally applicable. Kind of like saying that you only have one pair of knees and squatting only makes them worse. If you have a history of knee injury, then running may not be the best for you, but if not then go ahead.
Typically I agree with the main sentiment expressed here. Long durations of steady state cardio does tend to conflict with muscle hypertrophy and maintenance to a certain degree.
This being so I have never seen any person have negative effects of conducting a daily brisk walk.
A further avenue is to access Dr Lonnie Lowery’s ‘100 Workouts From Ripped City’ article it contains an interesting spin on nearly daily fasted steady state cardiovascular training to achieve maximum fatloss whilst having minimum to no effect on hypertrophy and muscle maintenace.
Long Live The BodyScience