Is anyone kind enough to advise me on routine?

[active_boy]

Howdy! The below's worked great for me for months, but now I'm losing weight and gaining strength very slowly--can anyone suggest changes that would make regimen more effective? I only want to make changes that I can keep-up long-term. I thought about splitting up which muscles I workout each day, but since I already fully recover between workouts, I can't see any benefit to that.

Body:

* Age: ; 30
* Height: 6’4”
* Weight: 250lbs
* Body Fat: 20%

Goal: 15% body fat

Diet: 2000 calories/day. Balanced meals with proteins, carbohydrates, vegetables, and limited fats. I keep hydrated.

Exercise:

---Frequency: I do the same workout Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

---Mobility: I do upper-body active-isolated stretching.

---Aerobics: I do 20 minutes of brisk walking on an inclined treadmill.

---Strength: I use free weights for one-arm bicep curls, two-arm overhead tricep presses, calf raises, and suitcase holds. I use machines for chest press, shoulder press, lat pull-down, and hamstrings. I do bicycle crunches for core. I'm busy so I only do one set of each instead of three which according to most studies gives you 80% of the benefits in 33% of the time.

[swanso5]

1 - if you're not eating fats then you must be eating a lot of carbs...carbs make you fat, healthy fats don;t

2 - make up 2 or 3 workouts and rotate through them

3 - that 1 set thing isn't right, you can't go straight into an exercise and get 80% of the benefiots of it if your nervous system is still asleep

4 - exercise needs a lot of improvement

[active_boy]

> 1 - if you're not eating fats then you must be eating a lot of carbs...carbs make you fat, healthy fats don;t

What makes one put on weight is ingesting more calories than one burns--from that narrow perspective, it doesn't matter whether those calories come from proteins, carbohydrates, or fats.

To be specific, dinner last night was 6oz of BBQ skinless chicken breast, a serving of red beans and rice (5g fiber), and 1.5 servings of corn, peas, and carrots. lunch was 4oz of oven-roasted turkey on multi-grain bread w/ generous clover sprouts, slices of red pepper, mustard, and a slice of swiss cheese. I would call these balanced meals, not particularly high- nor low-carb, and limiting but not excluding fats.

> 3 - that 1 set thing isn't right, you can't go straight into an exercise and get 80% of the benefiots of it if your nervous system is still asleep

Many studies show you get 90% of the benefits from a single-set. I chose 80% to avoid a debate since 80% vs 90% vs 95% is irrelevant to me--I would be happy with any of those.

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> 2 - make up 2 or 3 workouts and rotate through them
> 4 - exercise needs a lot of improvement

Yes, this is where I need help!! What is workout under-training? What is workout over-training? What could I do that would save or add little time and make workouts more effective in reaching goal?

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated! Sooner or later I will need to see a personal trainer again, but I was hoping to wait a few months for that.

[cassiegose]

Regarding the carb/fat debate. I'm a firm believer in healthy fats and complex carbs. Many people seem to be under the illusion that they need to restrict all fats. I don't agree with this. I believe in restricting saturated fats, however I also believe in consuming anywhere from 15-35% (exact amount depends on person) of calories from healthy fats (nuts, flax, fish, eggs, avacados, olives/olive oils).

As far as calories go, yes basic science does show that weight loss is a matter of burning more calories than you consume... however if person A is consuming a 2000 calorie diet of white bread, ding dongs, hot dogs, twinkies, mcdonalds hamburgers, french fries, ice cream, and ho-hos and person B is consuming a 2000 calorie diet of whole grains, healthy fats, lean proteins, fruits, and veggies the two people are going to have drastically different results (assuming ALL other factors between the two people; age, height, weight, metabolism, exercise.. were the same).

Why are you only doing upper body stretching?

For weights... for best results I would stick to mostly compound movements such as: squat variations, deadlift variations, bench press variations, row variations, lat pull down/pull up variations, lunge variations, step ups, push up variations, dips, and overhead press variations. Each basic exercise has a few different variations that you can do. For instance, lunges can be done walking, stationary, reverse, and with one leg (back leg is on bench behind you). Bench press can be done incline, decline, using dumbells, using barbell, flat bench, wide grip, narrow grip. Rows can be done bent over with one arm using dumbell, bent over with two using barbell, inverted, standing with barbell... A great plan for you would be to find variations of each exercise and do one variation of each exercise each day that you lift. So for example each day you could do pick 3 lower body exercises (choosing from some form of: squats, deadlifts, lunges, stepups) and pick 3 upper body exercises (choosing from bench press, rows, pushups, pulldowns/pullups, overhead press, dips) and each time you hit the gym just pick a different variation of the exercise. I would shoot for 6 exercises and do 3 sets of 8-12.

Make sense? Hope this helps.

Cassie

[active_boy]

Cassie, thanks for the detailed advice, I will think about it. By the way, you look fabulous... congratulations on winning second place.

[cassiegose]

Cassie, thanks for the detailed advice, I will think about it. By the way, you look fabulous... congratulations on winning second place.

You're welcome. Happy to help. Thanks for the compliment.

[swanso5]

1 - couldn't be more wrong...you did say limited fats
2 - not sure where those studies came from...unless you can actvate 90% of your muscle fibres in an instant which no individual on the earth can do then no, it isn't right
3 - you ned a lot more wt work...with multiple sets

one of the study was done on chicks who are under trained so 1 set will easily increase their strength and they were also perfpormed on machines...43 wt trained men? ciouldnhave been anyone who's done a push up before...they increased in the squats yes but what of none of them had squatted before?...a shitty study at best really

granted it said newies use 1 set but do you want to burn actual calories too or not?

[active_boy]

We'll have to agree to disagree on single-sets vs multiple-sets. That a single-set yields at least 80%-90% of the results of multiple sets is the position of the American College of Sports Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and US surgeon general. Perhaps they're wrong--the establishment has been wrong before--but for now I'm going with the majority of evidence.

Anyway, your reply to "Full Body Work out OK?" was helpful. I was making great progress until a couple weeks ago. I now believe problems are, (1) some of exercises, such as bench presses and shoulder presses, interfere with each other too much and (2) tacking on more-and-more small-muscle-group exercises is not scalable. I think taking advantage of compound exercises like Cassie pointed out is the key. I've now come up with a slightly shorter work-out routine that addresses both of concerns and I think hits muscles consistently and from different angles:

Current Workout Routine
M,W
UPPER(6): bicep curl, tricep press, suitecase hold, lat pulldown, shoulder press, bench press
LOWER(2): calf raises, hamstrings
CORE(1): bicycle crunches
F
UPPER(5): bicep curl, tricep press, suitecase hold, lat pulldown, shoulder press, bench press
LOWER(5): calf raises, hamstrings, straight-leg raises, inner-thigh raises, outer-thigh raises
CORE(1): bicycle crunches

Planned Workout Routine

M
UPPER(5): bicep curl, tricep press, chest flys, straight-arm cable pulldown, shoulder press
LOWER(2): squats, calf raises
CORE(1): bicycle crunches
W
UPPER(5): hammer curl, tricep press, chest flys, straight-arm cable pulldown, shoulder press
LOWER(2): stair climber, calf raises
CORE(1): bicycle crunches
F
UPPER(3): bench press, cable pulldown, shrugs
LOWER(4): hamstring curls, straight leg raises, inner-thigh raises, outer-thigh raises
Core(1): bicycle crunches

> but do you want to burn actual calories too or not?

I only look to weights for strength, lean muscle, and a higher BMR. I burn more calories twice as fast walking briskly uphill on a treadmill.

[swanso5]

if you're after fat loss then you need volume, the kless work you do the less calories will be burnt...it's as simple as that

[active_boy]

> if you're after fat loss then you need volume, the kless work you do the less calories will be burnt...it's as simple as that

Oh, definitely! The work-out change-up will only to get me back on pace with strength gains. I'll need to up activity elsewhere, say aerobics or sports, to burn calories faster.

[cassiegose]

I only look to weights for strength, lean muscle, and a higher BMR. I burn more calories twice as fast walking briskly uphill on a treadmill.

I think I'm confused about your goals. Are you wanting to build muscle or lose fat?

[active_boy]

I think I'm confused about your goals. Are you wanting to build muscle or lose fat?

Cassie, mostly I want to shed excess fat, hence goal of ~15% body fat. Tanita scale currently oscillates between 250 lbs / 20% body fat and 248 lbs / 21% body fat.

T.M.I. Warning! I hurt knee playing soccer a decade ago, and being 300+ lbs for a few years only made it worse. I'm down to 248 lbs / 21% body fat today. Life's no longer painful and I can do a couple hours of intense cardio, but knee's still troublesome. For example, I can't do leg extensions without pain. For example, this summer at 275 lbs I was able to do a 2-hour intense hike / jog up a mountain, but then I was out-of-commission for six weeks. doc recommends watching what I eat, doing aerobics, and strengthening legs (specifically squats, step exercises, and calf raises). I'm also digging new clothes sizes and upper-body strength and want more of that!

hope is that early next year I'll look and feel fitter and doctor will clear me to vigorously mountain hike or play basketball or play tennis again.

[cassiegose]

Ok. That makes sense. Yes, I imagine losing weight would help as it would reduce the amount of stress that you're putting on you leg on a daily basis.

Mind if i ask what your diet looks like? When losing weight it really is about 75% diet and 25% exercise. If your diet isn't on track then you are pretty much shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to fully meeting your goals... exercise will take you some of the way but ultimately the diet is going to get you ALL of the way there.

[active_boy]

When I input gender=, age=30, weight=248lbs, height=6'4", activity=sedentary... online calculators say metabolic rate is 2,626. In reality, lightly active probably fits me better (3,009 calories/day), and have a lower body fat % than average for height/weight. I eat 1,900 to 2,000 calories/day, so I should be on-track from a calorie-deficit basis. I used to use a food journal, but now I just count calories in head. I don't track proteins, dietary fiber, monounsaturated fats, or vegetables on a daily basis but I usually make food choices that emphasize those while liming saturated fats and sugars.

[cassiegose]

Keep in mind that if you're in too much of a calorie deficit you could very easily shut down your metabolism as your body thinks your starving it and slows the metabolism in an attempt to hold on to all fat (energy) stores as a survival mechanism. When dieting I try to play with calories to figure out how many i can get away with eating while still losing weight. If you can lose weight by eating 3000 healthy calories a day then by all means do so! Over time as you lose weight and exercise your body will naturally require fewer calories to do the same amount of work... when this happens you'll want to change things up by decreasing calories (by only a small amount...50 claories a day or so) or bumping up the workout routine. The reason why I advise you to eat as many calories as you can get away with is because if you're only eating 1900 calories right now there will come a time where your weight loss will stall and you'll need to adjust your diet. With only 1900 calories considering your bodytype you really have very little room to decrease calories. If you start higher you have more room for decreasing calories and will most keep your metabolism higher then if you start lower. Also, if you start with higher calories you won't feel as deprived, you will have a better chance of sticking to the diet, and you will be more likely to keep the weight off after you lose it.

Just thoughts.

Cassie