Power lifter? Bodybuilder? come on in!

[Yendor]

Originally Posted by Mydivorcegift

I prefer "active" rest and restoration. As you progress it gets harder to make "gains" of any type whether it be BF loss, improving lifts, etc....

Unfortunately being too active is referred to as over training. The plateaus you hit may be because your body can no longer repair itself fast enough. Keep in mind a rest day is a day that your body is repairing itself.

My background, at 18 yr old when I joined the Navy I was 114 lbs. <That's not a typo. When I left the Navy I was a trim 145 (good weight for someone my height). When I moved to MN I began my quest to get big naturally. I was obsessed with getting bigger to the point that I was over training and eventually did some damage to my shoulder. Thankfully I did not require surgery. Long story short, I found out that the rest days are just as important as the workout days. I didn't reach a workout muscle head weight of 180 by mismanaging my training days, my downfall was over training and getting burned out. 2 days off a week will not hurt you, it may help. After my injury I rehabbed with pushups, no weights for a month. I felt good enough to lift again and I was stronger than pre-injury.


I suggest doing some reading on the importance of real rest days.
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/work...w-your-muscles

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by Yendor

Unfortunately being too active is referred to as over training. The plateaus you hit may be because your body can no longer repair itself fast enough. Keep in mind a rest day is a day that your body is repairing itself.

My background, at 18 yr old when I joined the Navy I was 114 lbs. <That's not a typo. When I left the Navy I was a trim 145 (good weight for someone my height). When I moved to MN I began my quest to get big naturally. I was obsessed with getting bigger to the point that I was over training and eventually did some damage to my shoulder. Thankfully I did not require surgery. Long story short, I found out that the rest days are just as important as the workout days. I didn't reach a workout muscle head weight of 180 by mismanaging my training days, my downfall was over training and getting burned out. 2 days off a week will not hurt you, it may help. After my injury I rehabbed with pushups, no weights for a month. I felt good enough to lift again and I was stronger than pre-injury.

I suggest doing some reading on the importance of real rest days.

Rest is very important. Once you start to plateau, it might benefit you to take a couple of days free of any exercise, and maybe even give yourself a week of lighter exercise before coming back to the routine. If you look at the P90X or similar programs, they recommend 3 weeks of a hard schedule followed by a light week. That light week is giving the body a chance to catch up.

[Dznts]

Originally Posted by Monchy36

A lot of great information today! got all my notes my new routine ready! Just one more thing... "THE BEAUTY SLEEP" right now I'm getting around 6+hours, it's kind of hard go to sleep at 7pm or 8pm normally my body take after 9pm and since a get up at 4am to workout... but I like to get up at 3:30am to use an extra 1/2 hour, afternoon at the gym is a nightmare! To many people, plus I get off from work at 6pm (10 hours shift) so body building masters, how much sleep you guys get?

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson5.htm
heres a link that will help you.

[Mydivorcegift]

Originally Posted by Yendor

Unfortunately being too active is referred to as over training. The plateaus you hit may be because your body can no longer repair itself fast enough. Keep in mind a rest day is a day that your body is repairing itself.

My background, at 18 yr old when I joined the Navy I was 114 lbs. <That's not a typo. When I left the Navy I was a trim 145 (good weight for someone my height). When I moved to MN I began my quest to get big naturally. I was obsessed with getting bigger to the point that I was over training and eventually did some damage to my shoulder. Thankfully I did not require surgery. Long story short, I found out that the rest days are just as important as the workout days. I didn't reach a workout muscle head weight of 180 by mismanaging my training days, my downfall was over training and getting burned out. 2 days off a week will not hurt you, it may help. After my injury I rehabbed with pushups, no weights for a month. I felt good enough to lift again and I was stronger than pre-injury.


I suggest doing some reading on the importance of real rest days.
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/work...w-your-muscles

I suggest you do some reading on extra workouts

http://www.westside-barbell.com/inde...extra-workouts

http://www.westside-barbell.com/inde...tra-workouts-2

[CFD]

Something important to keep in mind. When guys like Dznts and hrpiii talk about their large caloric intake you must remember they already have low body fat and large amounts of muscle. When you are in that category training hard and eating a substantial caloric intake is needed for muscle gains, when your on the opposite side of the spectrum and have a higher body fat percentage and less lean mass the caloric surplus is more likely to get stored as fat. Because of this it's important o prioritize your goals and your workout and diet should reflect those goals. Generally speaking fat loss and muscle gains require different things, in my opinion you should construct your workouts and diet towards fat loss first, once body fat is reduced you can then switch to muscle/strength gaining. Beginners usually loose fat and gain muscle at first but it is short lived , you can't do both at once efficiently.

[rtcat600man]

Truly a GREAT information day..........Thank - you everyone for the inputs.

Today was my first day of doing a single body part workout, did arms. Felt good. Only issue was I decided to do some chest (bench press) with free weights. Had my 16 yr. old son there to spot. warmed up and went to a weight I thought I could handle, based on what I have been doing on my bow flex............boy was that a mistake. I tore my right rotator cuff many years ago playing ice hockey. at the time the doctor felt it was best to do rehab instead of doing surgery. Well that bench press today flared that old injury up. Looks like shoulder work is out for a while, maybe even chest. We'll see. the very reason I was coming back in slow was to avoid injury on my old body and not touching weights in 20 years. And I go and screw up an old injury anyway.

[rtcat600man]

Originally Posted by CFD

Something important to keep in mind. When guys like Dznts and hrpiii talk about their large caloric intake you must remember they already have low body fat and large amounts of muscle. When you are in that category training hard and eating a substantial caloric intake is needed for muscle gains, when your on the opposite side of the spectrum and have a higher body fat percentage and less lean mass the caloric surplus is more likely to get stored as fat. Because of this it's important o prioritize your goals and your workout and diet should reflect those goals. Generally speaking fat loss and muscle gains require different things, in my opinion you should construct your workouts and diet towards fat loss first, once body fat is reduced you can then switch to muscle/strength gaining. Beginners usually loose fat and gain muscle at first but it is short lived , you can't do both at once efficiently.

TRUE STATEMENT. I am on a weight loss of needing to drop around 150 lbs. I know I will not be able to eat to gain muscle mass while dropping the weight. I will worry about all that when I get into the weight class that I want to be in again.

[CFD]

Originally Posted by rtcat600man

TRUE STATEMENT. I am on a weight loss of needing to drop around 150 lbs. I know I will not be able to eat to gain muscle mass while dropping the weight. I will worry about all that when I get into the weight class that I want to be in again.

That's the correct approach. From what I've read I would think that your workouts would still prioritize whole body lifts followed by some isolation work if you wish but big whole body lifts tend to result in more strength gains and require more energy which results in more calories burned both during and after the workouts.

[rtcat600man]

Originally Posted by CFD

That's the correct approach. From what I've read I would think that your workouts would still prioritize whole body lifts followed by some isolation work if you wish but big whole body lifts tend to result in more strength gains and require more energy which results in more calories burned both during and after the workouts.

Thank - you, I was doing whole body workouts for the first 6 weeks back into it. I was thinking of shacking it up for a couple weeks of doing single body parts. then back to whole body. I am using both free weights and my bow flex. I want to keep mixing it up as I try and figure out what I truly want from my new me. Part of me wants to get back to what I could do when I was 30, but that was a long time ago............LOL. Other part says get into great overall shape and whatever muscle I have is what I get...........More to come around Christmas time when I know a whole lot more at that time.

[Monchy36]

Originally Posted by Dznts

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson5.htm
heres a link that will help you.

Very good read! Still no answer my question... how much sleep you guys get?

[CFD]

Originally Posted by rtcat600man

Thank - you, I was doing whole body workouts for the first 6 weeks back into it. I was thinking of shacking it up for a couple weeks of doing single body parts. then back to whole body. I am using both free weights and my bow flex. I want to keep mixing it up as I try and figure out what I truly want from my new me. Part of me wants to get back to what I could do when I was 30, but that was a long time ago............LOL. Other part says get into great overall shape and whatever muscle I have is what I get...........More to come around Christmas time when I know a whole lot more at that time.

It doesn't have to be one or the other. Something that works great for strength gains and fat loss is a 3-day split so you can include cardio, the two combined are very good for fat loss and general strength/muscle gains, an example would be


Mon chest/back

Tue. cardio

Wed quads/hams/abs

Thu. cardio

Fri. delts/bis/tris/calfes

Sat cardio

Sun off

There are many variations but the above one would start each group with a whole body lift followed by one or two that are more isolation.

[Monchy36]

Originally Posted by CFD

Something important to keep in mind. When guys like Dznts and hrpiii talk about their large caloric intake you must remember they already have low body fat and large amounts of muscle. When you are in that category training hard and eating a substantial caloric intake is needed for muscle gains, when your on the opposite side of the spectrum and have a higher body fat percentage and less lean mass the caloric surplus is more likely to get stored as fat. Because of this it's important o prioritize your goals and your workout and diet should reflect those goals. Generally speaking fat loss and muscle gains require different things, in my opinion you should construct your workouts and diet towards fat loss first, once body fat is reduced you can then switch to muscle/strength gaining. Beginners usually loose fat and gain muscle at first but it is short lived , you can't do both at once efficiently.

exactly my thoughts... that's why I increasing my cardio to eliminate all that fat...

Originally Posted by rtcat600man

Truly a GREAT information day..........Thank - you everyone for the inputs.

Today was my first day of doing a single body part workout, did arms. Felt good. Only issue was I decided to do some chest (bench press) with free weights. Had my 16 yr. old son there to spot. warmed up and went to a weight I thought I could handle, based on what I have been doing on my bow flex............boy was that a mistake. I tore my right rotator cuff many years ago playing ice hockey. at the time the doctor felt it was best to do rehab instead of doing surgery. Well that bench press today flared that old injury up. Looks like shoulder work is out for a while, maybe even chest. We'll see. the very reason I was coming back in slow was to avoid injury on my old body and not touching weights in 20 years. And I go and screw up an old injury anyway.

Remember that is not about how much you can lift, is about not quitting... better slow and steady than go fast and get injure... shoulder injuries are a pain! I hurt my right cuff back in November because I was not warming up, still bothering me from time to time but slowly is getting better... take it easy but stay steady! You will get there!

[Monchy36]

Originally Posted by CFD

It doesn't have to be one or the other. Something that works great for strength gains and fat loss is a 3-day split so you can include cardio, the two combined are very good for fat loss and general strength/muscle gains, an example would be


Mon chest/back

Tue. cardio

Wed quads/hams/abs

Thu. cardio

Fri. delts/bis/tris/calfes

Sat cardio

Sun off

There are many variations but the above one would start each group with a whole body lift followed by one or two that are more isolation.

And how you been doing? Feeling better!

[CFD]

Originally Posted by Monchy36

Very good read! Still no answer my question... how much sleep you guys get?

Not enough. lol Sleep is very important, just like with most things everyone is different but 8hrs is still a number still often suggested.