[quote]TopSirloin wrote:
Bri-
Your diet sounds pretty solid, especially since you are gaining weight. However, I would check a couple items in your workout routine. Doing what sounds like HIIT BEFORE lifting is generally a BIG mistake when trying to gain mass. Everyone is different, so if this works best for you, you can tell me to shut up. But, for maybe 95% of lifters, cardio should be totally avoided when concentrating on mass gains. If any at all is done, it should be done on days OPPOSITE lifting (for you that’s Tues, Thur, Sat, Sun), and then should be low to medium intensity.
As far as the body parts you hit each day, again to each their own. However, I just posted on this - that I think doing isolation exercises (ie, bicep curls, tricep ext, etc) is a BIG mistake with total body training, 3Xweek. You would be actually working your arms 6 times a week, because you of course work them with chest and back movements (or you should be). I see this as a gross over-training with total body workouts as frequent as 3xweek.
Maybe with your 2xweek schedule you could sneak away with it. But, your chest and back movements should be intense enough that you get a decent arm workout when performing them. As long as the chest and back workouts are with heavy compound bar movements - choosing barbell bench press over machine pec deck for example - your arms don’t need direct work!
TopSirloin[/quote]
Thanks for the critique TopSirloin.
I use the cardio mainly as GPP. I don’t go too intense. It’s basically tempo training that I kept up with since retiring from track and field. It’s my top priority as well, so I put it first in my training. I like to be athletic first off, then look good second so it works for me. That’s also why I do abs, shoulders, traps, and back at the beginning of my workout in that order… It’s in order of importance that I want to prioritize my energy towards.
I enjoy working out 3 times a week. 6 times is a little too much. I have other obligations in my life and the 3 times a week works better for me. I also find that doing GPP on off days ramps up my metabolism a little too much which makes it harder to gain mass. I was blessed with a very good metabolism. I gain muscle, and lose fat very easily. I find when I do too much work my metabolism skyrockets, and I’m uncomfortable with an insatiable appetite. I don’t like to be eating 6000 kcal a day for maintenance! I have an easy gainer, mesomorph body type. The reason I was at 220lbs before was mostly because I had met my body transformation goals. I didn’t want to get any bigger or leaner so I was pretty much just doing maintenance stuff. I didn’t experiment too much with different workout programs because I didn’t have to. It was a lack of necessity type of thing. Just until recently I decided to push the envelope a little bit and try and gain an extra 10 pounds. I’m sure I could go much higher at 8% bf if I worked a little harder at it, and experimented more.
The added arm work is because I find it makes a difference with respect to size. I had done no arm work for years when I was in track and my arms were noticably smaller. Once I added direct arm work afterwards they grew another inch/inch and a half so it is something I felt I needed. I was also doing full body workouts at that time, but only once or twice a week. I was trying to keep hypertrophy down to a minimum since I was a little over-muscular for my respective sport(decathlon).
I feel I need some isolation work. If all I do is compound exercises I find my body gets a little too blocky. The isolation exercises add a little refinement to my physique. Hey, I’m vain!