Question about training...

I have several questions about training...I recently started and have several questions about obtaining the results That I want...

I am currently 6 foot 1 and 170 pounds...with about 13% body fat...but I have a really good frame and shape (athletic looking, I have that nice classic "V" shape body)

First question is My goal wieght is 185-190 pounds...with only 4-5% body fat...How long and at what degree will I need to obtain my results? Your best ball park guess would be fine I am not looking for a dead on response, just how long and how intense I will have to train...

I already pretty much know about diet...but any tips would be awesome...

Another question...is because I am pretty thin I plan on not doing any cardio for the first two months or so and just want to focus on packing on the muscle...then shedding all the fat in order to look "ripped"

If I pack on say for example ten punds of muscle how to I prevent my body from losing the muscle I gained in my previous training?

My ex girlfriend cheated on me and broke my heart...thought it would be awesome to get all ripped out to get my revenge!!!! HAHAHA


Any tips would be great...

Hey there perfectenemy,
here's my input:

Now I am by no means a professional at all, and I'm only 16, but I train regularly and I do know a thing or two about how to go about it.

Firstly - Make sure you train regularly and make it a hard session. If you fully exert yourself in a really hard session even just once, you'll notice the benefits really quickly. It also makes it easier the next time and helps to build willpower.

Secondly - Try your hardest to eat right. Looking online you will find loads of hints and tips on how to achieve a healthy diet. Remember this though, you do not want to put yourself on a diet. The needs of someone who trains are very different to the average joe who just wants to lose some pounds with the least possible physical exercise. I would recommend eating around 4 - 5 small meals evenly spaced out through the day. This will maximise your metabolism speed.

Thirdly - Try lots of different exercises, and make sure you work your whole body. Once again online you can find many different ideas and tips. This help you lose the body fat and tone every part of your body.

Id say forget about the 4-5% bodyfat part unless your constantly leaning out and cutting you'll never keep it that low and you'll never gain weight to your goal of 185-190.Also bank on gaining that weight over a very loong period it'll also help in the long run with keeping your weight up by gaining slowly.

Awesome Idea.

Your typical "ripped" male athlete is at about 5-8% body fat. It's really hard to maintain 4% bodyfat. In fact, when you see yourself at 8% you'll be impressed. The thing is, bodybuilders go for 2-4% and that's for competition. They aren't always ripped like that. It takes a month or so of dieting and then one week of Hard Core Preperation.

You can expect to gain between 2 and 5 pounds of muscle per month. It just all depends on how you train and how you eat. So, if you want 20 pounds of muscle gain, a good estimate would be 4-10 months. To do that though, you have to be very consistent. Of course, it'll take another 2 weeks to a month to achieve your body fat percentage goal, if you do it right and hard. The thing about cutting is you it's more about your diet. If you want to be cut, you need big muscles and very little body fat. Getting rid of those last few percentages will be tough though.

You're not going to gain muscle unless you EAT! You have to eat a lot. This might increase your body fat percentage a few points. If you want to avoid this you'll have to do some cardio. Not jogging, but interval training. With weights. If you're interested, U2U me and I can send you some sample workouts for cardio.

If I pack on say for example ten punds of muscle how to I prevent my body from losing the muscle I gained in my previous training?

What exactly do you mean? Are you talking about day to day or are you talking about once you've bulked?

Anyway, if anything always remember that consistency is the Key here.





[edit on 7-8-2008 by DevolutionEvolvd]

I think 13% is pretty good for todays standards. The average american male is about 22-24% so your really pretty lean already. As another poster mentioned... unless you want to enter body building competitions or the tour de france, there's really no reason to be 4-5%.

There are two ways to gain weight... fat and muscle. I'm assuming you want it to be muscle. For this you will have to lift heavier weights to build "bulk." Sets of 10 reps or less.. except of course warm-ups which should be done with light weights.

I'm not sure how often you can get to a gym but let's say you want to start at 3x per week:

1 day should be chest, shoulders, triceps
1 day should be back, lats, biceps
1 day should be legs (squats, deadlift, leg curl)
*maybe throw in a 4th day to do some extra cardio (which you don't need a gym for)

Good luck

Alright, Nice info Scramjet

I would have to disagree, though, with the workout plan itself. Of course, everyone disagrees about everything when it comes to working out.

Anyways, unless your a bodybuilder, you don't need to train like one. A split like you described isn't quite as isolative as other plans I've seen, but he needs to train for functionality. I'm sure the op wants a body like an athlete, so he should train like one. Don't isolate muscle groups into invidual exercises, ex. Bicep Curls, Tricep Extensions, Leg Curls. They aren't practical or functional. You'll never do one bicep curl in real life(by bicep curl i mean, isolating the bicep to support the whole load without engaging the traps or back), so why train a movement that you'll never do?

Instead I would do either a full-body workout for 3 days or a Push/Pull Split for 4 days. The push/Pull is much like the workout described in the post before me except legs aren't isolated in one day. Focus on all of your exercises being compound movements. Switch up your exercises with unilateral one day and bilateral another day. Mix it up.....

The Push/Pull Split.

Mon-----Push Workout.
Tues----Pull Workout
Wed-----OFF
Thurs----Push Workout
Fri--------Pull Workout
Sat, Sun.--OFF

On Push days, you'll do the following types of exercies.
You'll pick one exercise for each type of movement.....

1---Explosive Movement- Clean Pull, Powder Clean, Squat Jumps. 4 sets of 5 reps. 90 sec rest.

2---Knee Dominate Movement--Squat, Front Squat, Lunges, ect. 4 sets of 8-10

4---Horizontal Push--push up, Bench press variations, ect. 4 sets of 8-10


3---Vertical Push--Push Press, Military Press, Vertical Push-up 4 sets of 8-10

5---Twisting Movement--Woodchop, Reverse Woodchop, Russian Twist. 4 sets of 10

6--Bridge(core). Lots of different variations of these core exercises. 4 sets of 30 second or more.



On pull days you'll do these....

1----Explosive Excercise--Same as above

2----Hip Dominate Exercise--Romanian Deadlift, Good Mornings, Back Ext. 4 sets of 8-10 reps

3---Horizontal Pull---Inverted Row, Standing one arm Row, face pull 4 sets of 8-10 reps

4---Vertical Pull---Pullups, Lat pulldowns. 4 sets of 8-10 reps

5---Twisting Movement----Same as above!

6---Bridge--Same as above!


Hope that helps. Remember to eat a lot and get plenty of rest!

-Dev