newbie in need of advice

j2bryson · 28-Nov-07, 09:10 AM

Hi everyone,
Ok so I’m new to the world of weights. I’ve always been quite active but I was more of a runner. I just completed a half marathon in the summer and now I’ve taken interest in weights and transforming my body. I’ve lifted before, but it was always to maintain and never to gain any real mass. My goals now are to gain muscle mass and possibly even compete in a fitness competition in about a year or two. (I must do more research on this, but the interest is there and I’m quite curious)
I’ve been lifting now for a month. I’ve outlined the program I’ve been following as well as my diet. I should also mention that I’ve had a lot of problems in the past with weight management and body issues. I’m having a hard time right now figuring out how much I should be eating and how much cardio I should be doing as I think I have a fairly high metabolism. Given my regime below I could lose 1-1.5lbs on 1800 cals (with one cheat day a week) For the last week I’ve been trying to keep my intake around 2000 and I haven’t lost any.

I’d like to start a new program come December and really get my nutrition on track. (I can show you the program I’m thinking of if interested).
Any suggestions would be grrrrrreatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

Workout
M – chest and triceps (flat bench dumbbell press, incline dumbbell press, fly machine, pushups/dips; rope kickouts, vbar pressdowns, dumbbell kickbacks)
T – cardio, usually swimming for an hr
W – Back and biceps (bent over rows, pendlay rows, wide rows, pulldowns; dumbbell curls, incline dumbbell curls, hammer curls, cable curls)
TH – cardio: spinning 45min
F- shoulders and hamstrings (military dumbbell press, side raises, rear delt exercise, upright rows; seated curl machine, laydown hamstring curl, walking lunges)
cardio: 8k run or 45min swim
S – rest
S – quads and calves (squats, deadlifts, extension machine, abductor/aductor machine; calf raise machine, seated calf raises)

I do 3 sets of 6-8 of heavier weight. (for me J )
Usually do cardio on Monday or Sunday depending on how I feel, on average I do 4 times a week, 45-60min/session. My HR is often in the range of 170-180.
I include abs every other workout, on average twice a week.

My stats: 5’5 ½, 120lbs, 23yrs

Diet:
7:30: 1/2c oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar (splenda type)
100g fat free yogurt (no sugar added)
9:30: 19g almonds, small apple
11:00: pre workout: salad with chicken (80-100g), veggies, cheese and salsa as dressing
2:00: post workout: protein drink, 2 rice cakes with pb
4:00: snack: 1/2c chili, or fish or 1/2c cottage cheese, or an egg or two
6:00: chicken (80-100g), broccoli/some veg, 25g cheese, 100g fat free yogurt (no sugar added), sometimes 1cup sweet potato or some
8:00: 1 cup skim milk, banana
I try to vary my diet but these are generally the things I eat

Thanks again for everyone’s help J

**LiftGirl** · 28-Nov-07, 02:18 PM

Hi J,

It looks like you're off to a good start, but if you're interested in tweaking things, I'll offer a couple suggestions.

You're including all the good compound exercises, (the meat and potatoes, so to speak) and that's good. However, you are doing a lot of isolation work as well. Isolation work doesn't do much for mass gains, IMO.

For you cardio, I would make two of your sessions each week 20-minute interval sessions to mix things up. Interval training is great for fat-burning, and it also increases your capacity to work harder at steady states too.

j2bryson · 28-Nov-07, 10:51 PM

Thanks!

Any suggestions on what other types of compound exercises I should include?

another q for you... how realistic is it to gain muscle while gaining a minimum amount of fat. or maybe a better question is how much fat should you expect to gain while increasing muscle mass. It's a bit of a fear for me that I probably need to overcome. Should I still be doing cardio 4 times a week (now with 2 interval and 2 longer sessions) if I want to increase lean muscle?
thanks again

CF-OC_gal · 29-Nov-07, 05:27 AM

Hi j2,

I like what liftgirl suggests and in addition here's my take on what you are doing. If you are going to compete in a year or two don't worry so much about diet restriction during the building period of your training cycle. Lift hard, lift heavy and get quality rest and nutrition. If you have a fast metabolism your food and weight gain will not be a problem.

I would also dump so much isolation work. You are better off working at getting strong on the heavy lifts and spending less time. Overall you won't need more than 20-30 minutes actual in the gym time to workout (excluding warm up cool down and change room activities) if your gym is not too busy and you are organized with a plan when you go in. 12-18 total sets should be enough.

Your diet seems fine but it does seem like a diet to me. I probably would not rely on so much dairy on a daily basis, but would look to more variety in meat, nuts and vegetables.

Overall your plan is cautious. Given that you have 1-2 years I would get in there and experiment and not be afraid to go heavy or eat according to appetite.

j2bryson · 29-Nov-07, 06:53 AM

thanks CF. this stuff is really helpful for me

I definitely have difficulties when it comes to eating. I'll try to include more meat and veggies though. I'm quite worried about gaining fat as I gain muscle which is why I've been cautious. In terms of actual calorie intake, what would you suggest as a guideline?

When you say 20-30 minutes does this mean that I would stick with a similar routine but less isolation work and more compound exercises (resulting in fewer exercises overall thus a shorter time)?

I know I mentioned that I wanted to compete in a year or two, but I should also say that I have a wedding to go to in May and I want to have a pretty big transformation. Given that time frame what would you guys suggest in terms of building muscle and then cutting? ie. give it my all to gain muscle for dec and jan (posssible feb?) and then begin to cut for may?

**LiftGirl** · 29-Nov-07, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j2bryson

When you say 20-30 minutes does this mean that I would stick with a similar routine but less isolation work and more compound exercises (resulting in fewer exercises overall thus a shorter time)?

In a word, yes!

**minime** · 03-Dec-07, 02:23 PM

Hi J! I agree with the advice the others have given.. cut out a lot of the isolation work and decrease your cardio. Doing more cardio is not really going to decrease the amount of fat you gain with your muscle.. it will just mean you need to eat even more to GAIN any muscle if you know what I mean.

how much fat you gain with muscle will depend on a lot of things : training, rest, genetics and of course diet. The more of a caloric surplus you have the quicker you will gain, and the quicker you gain the more likely you are to gain some fat as the body can only build so much muscle in a limited time frame.

I would agree with brat : toss the 'diet' just eat whatever you want, as much as you want, plenty of meat, veg, fruit, nuts etc. and get your calories up there. You will gain weight in the next few months, fat, muscle whatever. As long as your workouts continue to be good, your food is from good sources, and you are getting stronger then don't worry about the weight. Then when the winter is over, you can assess the situation and lose some fat.

You probably won't gain much weight anyway, so don't worry too much about it! Enjoy the yummy food and the awesome numbers you are putting up at the gym!

j2bryson · 03-Dec-07, 06:56 PM

thanks minime

it will definitely be a hurdle for me to overcome to just eat whenever. I don't think I'll be eating enough if I only eat when I'm hungry. Is 2500/day too little?

also I had mentioned that I was planning on changing up my program for december. I've been doing some reading and I'm quite interested in Rippetoe's starting strength program. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It seems like it'd be great since it consists solely of compound exercises and a lot of people have had success with it.
thoughts/suggestions?