I have some general questions for the knowledgeable here, but I provide some general background first (forgive the length of the introduction):
For the last several months (about 9 months) I have become more and more commited to changing my physique. I have always been generally slight - and always will be, relatively speaking thanks in part to some of my asian heritage. I am 36 and about 5-8 and weigh around 145lbs.
About 9 months ago I started working out and then over the last 3 (or so) months started making dietary changes - backward I know but I did not know any better. Both changes were driven more by a desire to change my lifestyle than anything else. I significantly cut the amount of bar drinking I was doing and quit smoking cold turkey. Interestingly, rather than finding that trying to make all these changes at once was overwhelming I found that they tended to reinforce one another and provide motivation to each other (i.e. its tough to try and run 3 miles when you smoked half a pack of cigs the night before at the local bar). I have been able to stay fairly commited to both my excercise and diet routine.
My initial workouts were full body workouts three times a week. I didn't really know what i was doing at the time but in hindsight it seemed to be a pretty good routine - 4 sets of about 10 excercises with reps of 10/15/20/10 in a circuit manner. Over the past 3 months i started going to an upper/lower body split (though, again, I did not know thats what it was called at the time). Most recently, I have gone to a three day split (chest/shoulders/triceps on day 1, legs on day 2, back/traps/biceps on day 3 days - so still 3 workouts total per week) and do cardio interval training 2-3 times a week on off days. This more recent workout has shifted toward trying to mix in some higher weight lower rep sets. So, for most excercises I am doing 2 sets of 6 reps and 2 sets of 12 reps, trying to limit rest to 1 min between sets. I have a bench and powerblock set at home that i use for my workouts.
In terms of diet, based on some website calculators and some posts I have seen here I am monitoring what I eat and am targeting about 2w300 total calories with 230g protein, 230g carbs, 51g fat.
My current physique has improved since i started several months ago. Much better muscle definition and more muscle, generally - prior to starting I basically had nothing. I still have some fat that I would be interested in losing (particularly in the very low portion of my abodomen and on the sides of my lower back). Obviously, its not a whole lot of fat (given my weight, how could it be) and my waist size is between 30-31....its just not quite 'ripped' like I would like.
I would like to continue to add some more muscle mass (certainly not interested in getting very large but perhaps something in the 10-15lb more range) but also want to get more ripped and lose that bit of fat I have.
So, here are some of my general questions:
- are my two oobjectives (i.e. gaining muscle mass and getting ripped) mutually exclusive?
- is my new self described workout above going to help me achieve my two objectives (if not, what needs to change)? Is 1 workout for each major muscle group per week enough to meet my objectives? It feels like I am doing less than I used to because the full body was hitting areas 3 times per week (albeit with less exercises but I only do 3 chest excersises, for example, now compared to 2 in my full body workout)?
- is my diet plan as generally described above going to help me achieve my two objectives (if not, what needs to change)?
- is my dumbbell based workout going to limit achieving my objectives (i.e. do i need to think about adding a barbell set at home)?
- I hear conflicting view about carbs. I know what 'good' carbs are but should I be limiting even my good carbs? Should I be limiting them to just during the day?
Again, sorry for the length of the post but I wanted to provide enough information to get meaningful feedback.
Thoughts would be really appreciated guys!
thanks
For the last several months (about 9 months) I have become more and more commited to changing my physique. I have always been generally slight - and always will be, relatively speaking thanks in part to some of my asian heritage. I am 36 and about 5-8 and weigh around 145lbs.
About 9 months ago I started working out and then over the last 3 (or so) months started making dietary changes - backward I know but I did not know any better. Both changes were driven more by a desire to change my lifestyle than anything else. I significantly cut the amount of bar drinking I was doing and quit smoking cold turkey. Interestingly, rather than finding that trying to make all these changes at once was overwhelming I found that they tended to reinforce one another and provide motivation to each other (i.e. its tough to try and run 3 miles when you smoked half a pack of cigs the night before at the local bar). I have been able to stay fairly commited to both my excercise and diet routine.
My initial workouts were full body workouts three times a week. I didn't really know what i was doing at the time but in hindsight it seemed to be a pretty good routine - 4 sets of about 10 excercises with reps of 10/15/20/10 in a circuit manner. Over the past 3 months i started going to an upper/lower body split (though, again, I did not know thats what it was called at the time). Most recently, I have gone to a three day split (chest/shoulders/triceps on day 1, legs on day 2, back/traps/biceps on day 3 days - so still 3 workouts total per week) and do cardio interval training 2-3 times a week on off days. This more recent workout has shifted toward trying to mix in some higher weight lower rep sets. So, for most excercises I am doing 2 sets of 6 reps and 2 sets of 12 reps, trying to limit rest to 1 min between sets. I have a bench and powerblock set at home that i use for my workouts.
In terms of diet, based on some website calculators and some posts I have seen here I am monitoring what I eat and am targeting about 2w300 total calories with 230g protein, 230g carbs, 51g fat.
My current physique has improved since i started several months ago. Much better muscle definition and more muscle, generally - prior to starting I basically had nothing. I still have some fat that I would be interested in losing (particularly in the very low portion of my abodomen and on the sides of my lower back). Obviously, its not a whole lot of fat (given my weight, how could it be) and my waist size is between 30-31....its just not quite 'ripped' like I would like.
I would like to continue to add some more muscle mass (certainly not interested in getting very large but perhaps something in the 10-15lb more range) but also want to get more ripped and lose that bit of fat I have.
So, here are some of my general questions:
- are my two oobjectives (i.e. gaining muscle mass and getting ripped) mutually exclusive?
- is my new self described workout above going to help me achieve my two objectives (if not, what needs to change)? Is 1 workout for each major muscle group per week enough to meet my objectives? It feels like I am doing less than I used to because the full body was hitting areas 3 times per week (albeit with less exercises but I only do 3 chest excersises, for example, now compared to 2 in my full body workout)?
- is my diet plan as generally described above going to help me achieve my two objectives (if not, what needs to change)?
- is my dumbbell based workout going to limit achieving my objectives (i.e. do i need to think about adding a barbell set at home)?
- I hear conflicting view about carbs. I know what 'good' carbs are but should I be limiting even my good carbs? Should I be limiting them to just during the day?
Again, sorry for the length of the post but I wanted to provide enough information to get meaningful feedback.
Thoughts would be really appreciated guys!
thanks
