Okay, I’m in a bit of a training conundrum and I’m looking to the T-Nation to provide some opinions.
If you look back through my old posts you can see what my physique looks like, or more specifically what it looked like. Since those pics I’ve gotten larger and stronger and a little fatter, that’s with one exception: my legs. Now before anyone starts in on me about how I’m obviously not working legs let me give you a little more background.
I’ve been lifting hard and eating hard all summer and the results have been good. The problem is that I’m also an avid mountainbiker, now I’ve been riding at least 20 hours a week through most of the summer and I’ve all but given up on direct leg work. I have still been hitting them but it’s gotten less and less as the mountainbiking has picked up, I’ve been running the ridge of overtraining for a while now.
The thing is the summer is over and now I can start back in on them again (I live in Alberta and it snowed yesterday)and I’ve decided that I want pant bursting legs. Currently I weigh 210lbs and my thighs measure 26" at the largest diameter.
The conundrum is that I also want to diet down a little, I’ve put some extra fat on along with my increased muscle mass and I’m looking to get rid of it. What I want opinions on is whether I should suck up being fat (and since I’m a personal trainer my looks do matter)or whether I should get a little more svelt then add the leg mass.
I’d say that it depends on how much fat you’ve added. If you’re up in the ~15% range, a few weeks of leaning out will only help in the long run. Use this cutting time as a period to gain strength; it’ll make leg hypertrophy that much better when you do get to it.
That said, if you’re already pretty lean (~10%), go for it now. You said that you’ve been doing plenty of mountain biking - you might as well up the calories while your insulin sensitivity is higher, eh?
And, remember, it’s difficult to ride two horses with one ass:)
Yeah, I’ve been leaning toward leaning a bit first. I’d really like to see single digit body fat for once in my life.
I guess, I’ll do the dieting first then work on splitting my jeans open. It’s funny, living here at least I’ve got more weights than summer, which means if I concentrate on my legs over most of the winter and my upper body most of the summer I should actually end up doing okay out of the whole deal. . .
I was worried about my legs becuase i cut a leg day out of my sched. because of riding but legs seemed to have grown over the summer. Ride into winter and mash bigger gears…
Well, I guess this issue is getting settled for me. . .
I’ve been having some shoulder problems for a while now and I’ve had to take time off riding. I figured that since it was the end of the mountainbiking season it was a good time for me to take some time off weights. Well, this damn shoulder isn’t going to let me lift and I can’t afford ART at the moment so it looks like I’ll get that chance to work on my massive legs. . .
Sigh, I’d decided I wanted to diet down but since I can’t lift heavy enough on my upper body to even feel it I’m thinking that it’s not worth the muscle wasting. Oh, well. . .