Shedding fat,keepin' size and power.

nightmare

Hi all,I've been reading and trying out new techniques on retaining QUALITY size and strength,through combining a mix of powerlifting and bodybuilding workouts and of course with a high protein,medium carb. diet.I have made some gains,but should be happier considering the amount of excellent agony I am experiencing through my workouts.Therefore I must be overlooking certain aspects.I would be extremely grateful on suggestions to remedy this.

Cheers.

Jak

When you say mixing powerlifting and bodybuilding routines, what exactly is it you do?

What is your cardio routine?

How much extra weight is it you are carrying?

JAK.

nightmare

Hey Jak,
My workouts are based around,2 days on,1 day off.
DAY 1: CHEST, Bench Press,Incline B/P,D/B Flyes and dips.
DAY 2: LEGS,Squats,Leg Press,Stiff-leg Deadlift and Calve raises.
DAY 3: Cardio,Light run morning time,go to work and that evening it's indoor soccer for approx. 1 hour.
Day 4:Shoulders and Tri-ceps,Standing Military Press,Heavy Shrugs and Seated Strict Side Laterals.Skull-crushers,Tri-cep pushdowns and Close grip push-ups.
DAY 5:Back and Bi's,Chins,Deadlifts,Light Bent-over barbell rows
(Reverse Grip).Barbell Curl,Seated D/B Curl and Light Cable Curl.
DAY 6:Cardio,20 min run(morning).Evening,40 min brisk walk.
N.B.:At start of every workout,15 min warm-up on bike and stretching.10 Warm-down on completion.Workouts are kept to 1 hour to 1hour 15 mins(excluding warmup and warmdown)
DAY 6:A welcomed REST DAY.
I am currently carrying approx. 18 pounds of crap.

Nightmare.

nightmare

Hey Jak,
My workouts are based around,2 days on,1 day off.
DAY 1: CHEST, Bench Press,Incline B/P,D/B Flyes and dips.
DAY 2: LEGS,Squats,Leg Press,Stiff-leg Deadlift and Calve raises.
DAY 3: Cardio,Light run morning time,go to work and that evening it's indoor soccer for approx. 1 hour.
Day 4:Shoulders and Tri-ceps,Standing Military Press,Heavy Shrugs and Seated Strict Side Laterals.Skull-crushers,Tri-cep pushdowns and Close grip push-ups.
DAY 5:Back and Bi's,Chins,Deadlifts,Light Bent-over barbell rows
(Reverse Grip).Barbell Curl,Seated D/B Curl and Light Cable Curl.
DAY 6:Cardio,20 min run(morning).Evening,40 min brisk walk.
N.B.:At start of every workout,15 min warm-up on bike and stretching.10 Warm-down on completion.Workouts are kept to 1 hour to 1hour 15 mins(excluding warmup and warmdown)
DAY 6:A welcomed REST DAY.
I am currently carrying approx. 18 pounds of crap.

Nightmare.

Jak

Right, could use a little more info on sets and reps really, but I understand tis a pain to type all that out.

Anyhows, shedding fat and keeping size and power is a little like "Gaining weight but only muscle". In that it never happens. There is always some trade off - our bodies simply aren't that well designed.

This is why what generally happens is you stage it, in other words, keep your weight training up and up the cardio to shed some excess weight. You will drop some of the fat, but the loss in weight will usually result in a little loss in power.

Once you have cut back, work on regaining weight but in a clean manner. Good diet, ease up on cardio, alter your weight program to something more suited to bulking.

Personally i think your warm ups are a little long, and you would be better off (perhaps not on leg day) just using warm up sets incorporated into the program.

Cardio is a little too short. I would suggest doing two 40mins sessions a week combined with 3 weights sessions only. Keep the soccer in as well.

Thing is all this might not be your problem, the most common problem (and this is not an insult) is that people do not work hard enough. Do not push themselves past what they can do, do not get the mentality to keep at it.

Do you train alone? How long have you been taking it seriously? Perhaps patience is the issue. It is near impossible to say, but maybe there are a couple of things to think about above.

JAK.

nightmare

For starters,a good few ideas to ponder on,particularly on cardio,which will be introduced right away.Reducing workouts to three a week will probably allow for extra recovery which in turn should produce results.
However I feel I need to convey that I train with a guy who is second to none,and always provide me with encouragement and know-how to have a head-spinning session everytime,which is a must for quality workouts. Thanks for the advice,you cannot have enough and will update you on progress.
Safe Training,
Nightmare.

Jak

Glad to hear you are training with someone.

Personally, while on certain sessions I can train alone, on chest day I need spotters to get the most out of the session - there is no other way about it.

Anyhows that being the case, adopt the 2 40min steady cardio sessions, keep 3 weights (cycle it) a week - and have 2 days rest during the week wherever suits.

I have been guilty of over training in the past years and frankly it is no joke that it will hold you back significantly.

Good luck.

photty

Just to point out that for weight loss you must keep your heart rate/effort at a fairly low intensity and for a longer period of time.
I know it doesn't feel like you are doing any good but trust me you are.

You don't want to "go anarobic", i.e. the body uses carbohydrate stores in the muscles to generate energy without oxygen producing waste products like lactic acid. For fat burn I'd suggest training for 45-60 minutes at 65-75% of maximum heart rate but this can be age related etc. so check the info with the HRM.

Consider investing in a heart rate monitor (see polar.fi) which can calculate exactly how many calories you burn during a workout and what percentage was fat (Polar M21 or better).

For this training I'd get out of the gym and just jog/run. Invest in a good comfortable pair of runners before you do any running though. It's fairly easy to pick up little injuries when you start running. If you've not run before I'd use runnersworld.com as a guide to how far you shuld be running at first.

Keep it up and you'll strip away fat and see huge increases ibn you're aerobic capacity which will make soccer and all other sports seem a lot easier.

Good luck!

nightmare

Hey Photty,
excellent advice,definitely worth implementing.

Cheers.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

photty

hence the longer period of the training dave. it's up to the individual to decide what kind of intensity suits them. personally i use a low intensity day following a tough workout. but hey, it's all good.