CONFUSED ... give me some tips

[useyourhead]

I am fairly new to weight training and the "bulking and cutting" thread (in the nutrition section) has sucessfully confused me completely. Right now i am attempting to become more cut/lose fat without losing any muscle mass. If I could gain some muscle that would be even better.

 

Some days I do 30 minutes of cardio before lifting. Other days I jog for approx 25 minutes and then go to the gym to lift a few hours later.

 

From what I could gather, low intensity cardio is best for burning fat? What exactly qualifies low intensity? What qualifies high intensity?

 

My lifting plan goes like this: monday (chest), tuesday (back/abs), wednesday (legs), thursday (biceps, triceps) friday (shoulders/abs)

 

Also I was under the impression that low weight, high reps is best for cutting? In the "bulking and cutting" thread though the guy states this is a bad idea?

 

Please help as I feel completely lost?

 

 

thanks

[robert]

It is easy to get confused and I still get confused all the time and I've been at it for nearly 10 years now. There are even lots of veteran pro bodybuilders who still get confused, seek advice from others, try new things, etc.

 

I think I used to have a lot of answers for your questions but I don't remember as much as I knew 7 years ago when I was studying a lot of this kind of stuff.

 

I'd read over what he says in the bulking and cutting thread but I would assume he is saying that you can't progress as much when you continuously bulk and then cut then bulk then cut, etc. Maybe I'm way off, I'll look into it again.

 

From a nutrition standpoint, I wrote this about cutting, because it works well for me:

 

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/article/791

 

Your lifting plan is very similar to my current lifting plan. I think if you just train hard, eat well, you can get some good results with maintaining muscle, building muscle and simply by being more active, you should tone up too.

 

All the best and I'm sure you'll get more feedback soon too.

[Gaia]

What works for one person sometimes works for you, and sometimes not. You will have to try things for yourself. Reading up on books is good too (or magazines on bodybuilding which always seems to have a beginner section now).

 

For me, I like to lift heavy and I feel I need to do that to keep my muscle mass. Now I am in the cutting/dieting phase. I have been doing cardio (which I don't do during bulking - my favorite part of bodybuilding with all the eating and heavy lifting and not worrying about bodyfat percent) in the morning. I like to keep my cardio (45 minutes for me. I experimented and at 30 minutes my body stabilizes quickly and doesn't raise my metabolism, but at 45 minutes I am pretty much screaming to stop and the weight comes off faster) and lifting seperate so I can give my leg muscles time to recoup before I go lift heavy (even though my legs are sore from jogging in the morning, it can affect my other body parts in lifting heavy - intensity just isn't there).

 

Now I have lost only ten pounds so far and am maintaining my present weights when lifting. But around twenty pounds lost, I won't be able to lift the present weights, so then I usually tend to go for supersetting with four sets of lower weights with alot of reps (15 to 25 range). This will usually make my muscles burn and the fat starts to really go in the muscles and the striations pop out (veins are then next!). This is what I will do (plus increase cardio to an hour or so, and maybe a little cardio after dinner) as the next ten pounds come off and competition rolls around the corner.

 

On the low intensity vs high intensity cardio, high means you can't catch your breath, while low means you are sweating and breathing heavy but you can talk to the person next to you casually (and not in short one breath moans ).