Ive just got a few questions that i couldnt find the answers to using the search function. If someone could help me out that would be great…
Chest Building
Ive been training for two months and i can notice a signifigant difference in pretty much all of my muscles except for my chest. I have noticed that my chest has become alot stronger but it doesnt seem to look much different. Does your chest take alot longer to build than other muscles? Ive been doing a combination of dumbell press and dumbell flys and also push ups, if that helps.
Too Much Cardio?
Ive been told by a few people that if your trying to build muscle then its not a good idea to do alot of cardio because you are burning off fat cells that are required to build body mass. Is this true?
Not enough rest?
I read in the beginers article that you should have atleast 2-3 days rest a week. At the moment im only having 1 day of rest per week, so i was thinking of cutting down to 5 days of weight training and 1 day of cardio with 1 day of complete rest. But my question is, does a day of cardio count as a day of rest from muscle training?
Nutrition
Can someone please link me to a good beginers article on nutrition because i cant seem to find one?
my chest… while it doesnt “look” much better, it has grown HECK of a lot of muscle, i can feel it if i flex it. mostly by bench press
i doubt thats true. the problem with too much cardio is that you may be too tired for your next workout. i dont think fat cells matter much. eating enough does. but one thing that does matter is that if you have a low body fat% your body will prioritize building fat higher than building muscle.
it depends on how much cardio you do. rest means 8-10 hours, enough protein, calorie surplus… is a plus, and not working hard the muscles you worked out last time.
though as a beginner you should do 2-4 days of working out instead of 5.
7 meals equally split. big breakfast unless you want to do cardio before it to burn fat. about 35/45/20 protein/carbs/fat and adjust from there. sugar carbs only a little in breakfast and some in PO workout drink. healthy fats from meat/fish, nuts, olive oil and other oils… about equally divided. eat complex carbs (whole wheat stuff). carbs in the morning, fats in the afternoon… try not to eat them together. protein 1-2 times your bodyweight in lbs. never below 1 time definitely. some go even higher than 2 times, but thats pretty expensive anyway. eat veggies all you want, eat 1-3 fruits a day. if you want to bulk up go in an average of 500-1000 calorie surplus. if you want to lose weight go in a 500 calorie deficit.
As with your entire body, you’ll only see as much as your bodyfat and current muscle mass allows. The combination of the 2 create the illusion that you see in the mirror. This is subject to change due to forced muscle rebuilding, appropriate rest, and quantity and quality of calories consumed.
If you want to do more cardio and not burn as much fat, stick to high intensity interval training / sprinter type / maximum exertion cardio. Martial-Arts training qualifies.
Swimming laps at the pool
Jump roping
Grappling Bears and Wild Boars
Rosie you and the last piece of filet mignon on the earth on deserted island #6093845
Easiest way is to see 2 different cardio athletes, the long distance runner vs the sprinter. Camel vs Arabian Stallion. Etc ~ Though this may be the first time in history anyone has ever correlated the term athlete with the camel and the arabian stallion.
Nutrition : Search and read articles by Berardi.
Rest : You can’t go wrong with 8 hours of sleep a night, though as you age and depending on your fitness level you can get by with down to around 6 hours tho this may not necessarily apply to you.
Personally I’ve done 10 hours on the weekends consistently because I sometimes go 4-5 days straight 3+ hours a day of mixed training.
If you just want a strong chest flat bench press and your golden. For aesthetics you want to do the whole gamut. From Incline,Decline, to Flat. Though a school of thought and some people will say declines are not particularly useful. From variating grips, to Dumbells, to flyes/pecdec and even cables if you want to work on striations.
Though I’m also a fan of chest focused dips, body and weighted. Along with doing Hammer Strength Chest workouts.
Pushup variations to ice the cake is always nice when possible.
Where you are at though may demand that you focus on strength til your happy with the generally overall mass then work on shaping it for aesthetics if that becomes your priority.
In closing, I believe if you take the time to read through the hoard of educational articles in the archives and use the “search” function in the forums you will have more then enough knowledge to work with indefinately.