Mixing cardio with a strick weightlifthing regime...

The Arbiter

Hi, quick question regarding the correct cardio to rotate with my current weightlifting goals...
Firstly, I will state my current workout and stats for the past year...
I'm 6ft and 13 and 1/2 stone. I have built this up from 11st. My workout is 5 days per week and duration is 3 and 1/2 hours. This is 3hrs 15 mins weights and 30 mins interval/sprint training afterwards. Also since christmas this is replaced by rowing. Supplements include a known creatine brand and protein shakes with a well maintained diet.
In a nutshell, will various types of cardio effect muscle growth/burn protein stores?
Any comments much appreciated...

Hanley

3 and a half hours of lifting?

Care to outline what a typical day looks like...?

eroo

3 and a half hours!!?That is definitely doing more harm than good.How long are your rest periods between each set??

The Arbiter

Day Monday Back/shoulders/Biceps

Bent over row
shrug
bentover fly
reverse fly
hand clean
clean and jerk
shoulder press
lateral raise
alternating hammer curls
ez bar curls
upright row
reverse curl
bentover longbar rows
front raise
one arm preacher curls

Day Tuesday Chest/triceps

pushups
bench press incline fly
45 degrees/flat
dumbell press
dumbell rows
dumbell french press
skullcrushers
dips
cable kick back

Day Wednesday Legs only due to football training/match

Day Thursday as per Monday

Day Friday as per tuesday

Abs 3 days per week before cardio/row

Off top of my head so i can't give full details of reps/sets

My big downfall is a very poor diet...don't consume enough calories/food...

Hanley

Oh dear god... you'd need to be consuming enough kcals to fuel a small army to progress on that.

You won't often see me saying this, but that's WAY too much volume.

Colm_OReilly

Hanley has deadlifted the correct on this one!

My brother used to work out for 4 hours 3x/week as well. Took me years to get him to tone it down.

Dude, at the risk of being offensive, what are you working out for? Seems to me to be a form of self medication. Now I understand that everyone uses exercise as a means of mood regulation/escapism/confidence building to some degree, but 15-20hours a week.

Can I ask are you shredded? In all probability your body is in a catabolic state with that amount of training

The Arbiter

I understand that my current level is very high and I aim to tone it down to two hours, however I find it very difficult due to pure enthusiasm...some people would go watch tv for a couple of hours but i'd literally rather challenging myself with different techniques in a weights session...
I do get alot of niggling injuries, and I have made substantial gains, however i'm only 19 and therefore I would like to find that happy medium with still being able to invest at least 2hrs in without the worry of overdoing it...
I have assessed my diet and although I eat very healthy, I aim to push calories to 2500+...I don't even think that would be adequate...

Hanley

2,500 is WAY too low.

13.5 stone = 85kg. When I was 91kg I DIETED down to 86kg on more kcals than you're consuming (2,700 to be exact).

How much are you squatting, benching and deadlifting out of interest?

The Arbiter

Bench three sets of three 110Kg...deadlift 185kg not official as this is literally all the max weights I have at home...working on buying some more at the moment...squat is restricted due to my home gym so I would not like to put a figure on it...
Any advice you can give me would be great, as literally this forum has opened doors I had not even known had existed regarding weightlifting other than the confinement of four walls known as my home gym...

Hanley

If those lifts are done with good form then they're quite good. Do you have any plans of joining a gym?

Cadrach

Eat!!! If you have that much enthusiasm then take an hour off your weights regime and spend it getting a few more chicken fillets into you. You've got what most people really lack - a desire to work really hard. I hate to see your progress hindered by what I see as the easy part (eating lots).

eroo

Man you should be lifting for no more than 50 or maybe 60 mins..you have got to know your limits mate.The amount of lifting your doing,imo,is not safe and from what Hanley(who knows his **** regarding this sort of stuff!)said about cals,you are at a serious risk of over training,IMHO!

There are people here who can give you more solid info but..seriously..you are at a risk of doing more damage to your body than good.Just as a matter of interest,how many grams of protein and carbs are you getting(if you know)?

justsomebloke

what are your actual goals?

The Arbiter

Protein is 120-150gms per day but carbs???

Jimmy Bottlehead

Jesus, I take in around 200 and I'm only 12st 10lbs or so! Needs to be 1-2g protein per pound of bodyweight, isn't it?

Edwardius

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Jesus, I take in around 200 and I'm only 12st 10lbs or so! Needs to be 1-2g protein per pound of bodyweight, isn't it?

I think it's a lot less than 2g/lb and possibly even less than 1g/lb, although it always depends on what you're doing. Note, the "bodyweight" should refer to "lean body mass" so be careful!

Hanley

Dead Ed wrote: »

I think it's a lot less than 2g/lb and possibly even less than 1g/lb, although it always depends on what you're doing. Note, the "bodyweight" should refer to "lean body mass" so be careful!

He said one TO two g/lb. It's certainly not less than 1 g/lb. Especially if it's of lean mass. That'd give me like 180g of protein a day at 101kg. That would be ridiculous.

It's REALLY not that complicated trying to figure out protein requirements. If bullking's the goal then the baseline should be AT LEAST 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight (assuming the person is under say 20-25% bodyfat), probably more. If dieting's the goal then around 30-40% of your kcals should come from protein, again as a baseline.

Edwardius

Hanley wrote: »

He said one TO two g/lb. It's certainly not less than 1 g/lb. Especially if it's of lean mass. That'd give me like 180g of protein a day at 101kg. That would be ridiculous.

Like I said, it depends on what you're doing but 2g/lb does sound like an awful lot! What would you take in Hanley?

Hanley

Dead Ed wrote: »

Like I said, it depends on what you're doing but 2g/lb does sound like an awful lot! What would you take in Hanley?

Yah.. it depends if you want to preserve and build muscle mass I suppose. Cos <1g per lb won't do that....

At the moment since I've run my kcals down a bit to get inside my weight class I'm taking in about 250-270g per day, so 1.5g per lb of lean mass, or 1.25g per lb of my total bodyweight.

Normally I'd be around 230-250g's on any given day, but since my carbs are probably halved I'm free to bump up the protein a bit.

arybvtcw0eolkf

If you can spend 3hrs & 15 minutes lifting weights your intensity is WAY too low.

More is not always better, Im sure you've heard that one before.

Even looking at your routine I can't understand how it takes that long to do it. Working hard/intense enough you should easily knock that time in half.

The Arbiter

Intensity is not an issue. I have minimal rest periods between sets...

Mairt wrote: »

More is not always better, Im sure you've heard that one before.

As I said, I have no ultimate "goals" but it is merely training for me...people run just to run or play football just to play football...I train because i enjoy training...

Mairt wrote: »

Even looking at your routine I can't understand how it takes that long to do it. Working hard/intense enough you should easily knock that time in half.

Answer is simply due to high reps/sets...and cardio workout...

Hanley

If your sets and reps are high then your intensity is low.

The Arbiter

So i should lower the sets and reps and up the weight

Colm_OReilly

Intensity is defined as power output when it comes to exercise. For strict weighlifting purposes, it's a % of your one rep max.

However, as you've stated:

As I said, I have no ultimate "goals" but it is merely training for me...people run just to run or play football just to play football...I train because i enjoy training...

Any advice we give is useless, because you're not training for maximal strenght, maximal fitness, health, for a competitive sport etc. If you're training just to train you don't need advice.

The Arbiter

Fair enough...maybe it was a mistake to post here...

johnathan woss

If you are so enthusiastic about training and devote so much time to it why not take up new sports or maybe competitive powerlifting or strongman events (are there any in ireland I'm not sure) ?
Or even join a bodybuilding gym (it would give you focus) ?

celestial

OP I've seen your routine (you've gotta be overdoing it) and in an earlier post you said that you get a lot of niggling injuries so my advice would be to cut down on the amount of training to get to a place where you are injury free for the most part.