Hey guys, I’ve been lifting off and on for the past few years (nothing remotely serious) and have finally decided to put in some real work. I’m 25 years old and weigh in at 165 lbs at a heights of about 5’8". I’m looking to put on some weight, but I want to keep it as clean as possible and try to avoid putting on any unwanted fat.
I understand some fat gain is inevitable, but you see at 165 I still sport a bf% of over 15%, perhaps somewhere near the 20% range. I do not see cutting as an option for me at this stage, I don’t have enough muscle and would not very much fancy the idea of walking around at an even punier 150 or what have you. I’ll be lifting heavy 3 times a week, but it’s the off days I’m not so sure of.
I play basketball every Mon for about 20 minutes and other than that I pretty much marinate with little to no activity on the rest of my off days. In the interest of keeping body fat gain at a minimal should I be performing some kind of cardio on these off days, some HIT perhaps, sprints? What would you guys recommend? Thanks.
Why not do some low intensity cardio, or possibly even some HIT, depending on how well you recover, you know that better than anyone else on these forums, so i would say ask yourself…“how much extra work am i willing to do to be where i wanna be”. Its no mystery what the right answer is, but that up to you.
[quote]RRJ wrote:
Hey guys, I’ve been lifting off and on for the past few years (nothing remotely serious) and have finally decided to put in some real work. I’m 25 years old and weigh in at 165 lbs at a heights of about 5’8". I’m looking to put on some weight, but I want to keep it as clean as possible and try to avoid putting on any unwanted fat.
I understand some fat gain is inevitable, but you see at 165 I still sport a bf% of over 15%, perhaps somewhere near the 20% range. I do not see cutting as an option for me at this stage, I don’t have enough muscle and would not very much fancy the idea of walking around at an even punier 150 or what have you. I’ll be lifting heavy 3 times a week, but it’s the off days I’m not so sure of.
I play basketball every Mon for about 20 minutes and other than that I pretty much marinate with little to no activity on the rest of my off days. In the interest of keeping body fat gain at a minimal should I be performing some kind of cardio on these off days, some HIT perhaps, sprints? What would you guys recommend? Thanks. [/quote]
Personally, when mass gaining (which I am currently doing) I just lower carb and cals on my off days a smidge. Typically this is in form of my postworkout shake. I basically keep everything the same except no post-workout shake and peri-workout drink. That knocks off about 400-500cals in that off day, your daily caloric needs change each day so I have found this to be effective. I am not a big cardio fan especially when trying to gain weight so I have found this to be working well for right now!
Read up on G-Flux (search the site for articles on it)…
I think that any activity you can add to your program, especially if you are 20% BF and looking to bulk AND 165 pounds, will make a difference in your body composition. yeah, on days you aren’t training, play ball, GO SWIMMING (this is huge), jog, etc. basically, sedentary people get fat or skinny fat. be as far from sedentary as you can! resistance training (the shit we do with weights and whatnot) is only one piece of the puzzle…