I am a 19 year old, 6 foot one and 187 pounds. My long term sites are set on about 220 lbs for body weight with a few max strength goals. When I started this bulk at a measly 170 lbs, I completely cut cardio out of the picture. It worked and I have produced little body fat due to a very clean diet. The problem is I am yearning to go jogging because I honestly enjoy it. I recently started to go for light jogs, no more than 20 minutes about 60-70% range, for losing body fat but I do not want to lose weight, I still want to gain. Obviously replenishment of calories is important but should I do what I do after weight training? Which is, protein shake and a banana pre, protein and banana immediately after and then a large meal and hour post workout a larger meal which is very carb heavy but of course with adequate protein again. Is this a problem if I am still trying to gain weight just keep my body fat in check?
I would say what you are doing is fine for your goals. The running for forty minutes to an hour straight is what eats into your muscle gains. By keeping it short twenty or so minutes and by throwing sprints in there you are getting your enjoyment and boosting metabolism to keep fat burning high.
Take care,
D
Honestly, I think you should do some cardio.
I bulked up this winter, and completely cut out all cardio. I put on alot more fat than I had wanted, and now that I’m so much bigger and have no cardio base, its even harder for me to get back into shape cardio wise.
As long as you keep it short, introduce calories to make up for it, and maybe take some BCAA’s beforehand to keep you anti-catabolic, I think you’re better off.
So what your saying Dedicated is that, if I do 20-30 minutes of say interval training, sprinting for 30 seconds and jogging for 2:30, that would be my best bet?
I do not understand, is the diet that you listed what you do now? or how it’s going to change? If your not eating fatty food, stay in the gym, and are adding cardio. 20 minutes regardless of what you do is not going to hurt your gains, specially light running. At 19 your hormones are primed for gaining muscle, specially on a fat free diet.
If the diet you listed has caused you to gain muscle weight only, then it will continue to do so or slow down but it will not make you gain fat. Try it out for 2 weeks or so, if you notice weight loss and not what you want, then simply up the calories.
[quote]T-man21 wrote:
So what your saying Dedicated is that, if I do 20-30 minutes of say interval training, sprinting for 30 seconds and jogging for 2:30, that would be my best bet?[/quote]
Yes, something along those lines. The school of thought is that when you lift first you burn up glycogen during your weight training. If you then do your short but high intensity cardio the caloric energy used is more likely to be pulled from fat stores. Also, high intensity cardio although brief will leave you in an elevated calorie burning state for hours afterwards.
Take care,
D
That is my current diet, and I will be probably doing 20-30 minutes of some light jogging or sprint training if I get bored twice a week on my off days. Thanks for the help
Good advice in this thread.
Personally, I do cardio because there’s heart disease on my dad’s side of the family, and my HDL levels have always been on the lower end of normal. (So my poor genetics in this respect pretty much force my hand.)
However, I do define cardio as pretty high-intensity stuff like running (I mean really running), sprinting, jumping rope, swimming, etc. We all know this type of activity strengthens the heart muscle itself and keeps you leaner, but few people really mention just how much it improves the quality of sex. It is significant.
That easy stuff like walking on the treadmill has its place of course and I do it occasionally, but I don’t count it as cardio. For me (and my genetics) anyway.