Program Change?

XCrunner · Post by **XCrunner** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:40 pm

Well now that the new cross country season has started I am running 6 days a week and burning major calories, but what to do about weight training? For about 3 weeks now I have switched crunches out with abdominal free weight exercises and sets of butterfly kicks. I accompany this with bicep and tricep curls at high repetition and also high repetition push-ups.

I usually try to do push-ups and butterfly kicks 3x a week and free weights 5x a week. First of all how does this sound? I'm mainly worried about how much I'm doing these exercises now that I run 6 days a week for a good 2 hours and every once in awhile we do core exercises.

I'm thankful for any input I just want to get ripped and toned but max. weight is 175, I'm at 152 right now.

bigboy5491 · Post by **bigboy5491** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:21 pm

Hey, I'm not a professional but here's opinion.

First of all, weights 5x a week might be a little much with all the exercising you are doing. It can be done if you keep the workload moderate and eat tons of "good" calories.

Gaining about 23 lbs of muscle while burning this many calories will be very difficult. Eat, eat and eat more.

I'd suggest lifting only 2 or 3 times a week. One of the days being your day off from running. Maybe on your off day do a lower body workout- squats or leg press or even deadlifts, lunges, some type of calf exercise. Then 3 days later do an upper body workout- bench press or weighted pushups (put a plate on your back), shoulder press, arms, pullups.

High reps will make you burn more calories and won't make you as strong or big as doing reps from 6-10. Switch it up rep range every couple weeks, but I'd try to focus on 6-10 for your goal.

XCrunner · Post by **XCrunner** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:49 pm

Well I understand 23 pounds is a lot to gain and its a very long term goal I just wanted to find how to get on track for it. I'll have to work some of your suggested exercises in but for the time being I only have free weights at home. Once school starts in a week or two I'll be hitting our gym most of the week before practice.

Thanks for the help though you may not be a professional but your input will help me a lot I assure you.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:08 pm

what exactly is the cross country your country you're doing?

XCrunner · Post by **XCrunner** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:18 pm

I'm not exactly sure what your asking but I'll try to give an answer. I run high school cross country but It's a very competitive team. This is 3rd year of varsity but the past two we have won sectional titles, which is basically league championships to describe it. Also the past year we went to states and we're looking to repeat that. This is the reason I don't want to get to big as this sport could mean a scholarship for me.

Well I hope I answered the question, I also hope experience and knowledge with running helps in the cardio section.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:20 pm

you shouldn't need 6 sessions a week...the fitter you are the less runs ytou should rerquire...what's your running rpogram like? what is your competition ran over (distance)?

XCrunner · Post by **XCrunner** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:24 pm

We run 5k races sometimes a bit over. Even though I understand what your saying, for this sport you have to get miles in.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:32 pm

oh for sure but 6 days a week seems to me like they're may be a lot of inefficient training being done is all...marathon runners do 6 days a week and it's 8 x as far to run...

XCrunner · Post by **XCrunner** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:02 pm

Hey it's what teams have been doing for years and it seems to work. I wish we didn't have to run 6 days a week either but we do. For marathon runners though they run a large amount of mile every day though, a good practice for us is 10 tops and that could maybe be 3 times a week.