to gain muscle strength more or cardio more?

kiki1690

Hi guys! So I didn't really follow a specific diet just increased healthy food and decreased processed and fast food but I lost 10 pounds. Currently 5'1 and 134 and I'm almost satisfied but even though I have lost weight my body fat is actually high. I want to lose body fat and get more muscle.
I already do 30 min power walks 4/7 days..I want to incorporate strength training but should I focus on that more and leave the cardio alone if I want to build muscle?

DancingMoosie

You can still power walk and add in some lifting. Find a good progressive lifting routine, eat maintenance calories to recomp, or a very small deficit if you still want to lose a bit more weight. I like full body routines, so follow something like stronglifts.

kiki1690

DancingMoosie wrote: »

You can still power walk and add in some lifting. Find a good progressive lifting routine, eat maintenance calories to recomp, or a very small deficit if you still want to lose a bit more weight. I like full body routines, so follow something like stronglifts.

have any good progressive lifting routine recommendations?
and full body routines seem more manageable for me..how often do you full body routines?

DancingMoosie

Like I said, I prefer something like stronglifts, and just tweak it to suit my schedule and goals. Stronglifts 5x5 is based on 5 main lifts: squats, bench, ohp, rows, deadlifts. I do 2-3 heavy lifting days per week.

AnvilHead

kiki1690 wrote: »

DancingMoosie wrote: »

You can still power walk and add in some lifting. Find a good progressive lifting routine, eat maintenance calories to recomp, or a very small deficit if you still want to lose a bit more weight. I like full body routines, so follow something like stronglifts.

have any good progressive lifting routine recommendations?
and full body routines seem more manageable for me..how often do you full body routines?

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

sgt1372

For more muscle, you'll need to eat at a caloric surplus, eat more protein, lift heavy weights and limit cardio so that it does not cause your body to burn existing muscle tissue (or stunt muscle growth) in order to meet your body's increased energy needs caused by cardio exercise.

How much of any of these things you will need to do will only be a guess that you'll have to determine by trial and error over time by accurately monitoring your food intake (cals & macros), cals burned via exercise and your weight daily.

However, the fact is that ,if you want to gain muscle, you will also have to gain fat in the process. You cannot gain one w/o the other. You can burn off the fat w/o losing much muscle later but if gaining fat is unacceptable, you should not make the effort.

I should also note that gaining muscle is NOT the same as gaining strength. Many people on MFP use these words interchangebly but they are NOT the same.

If what you really mean to say is that you want to get stronger, then you can do that by simply lifting more w/a program like Starting Strength or Stonglifts and eating at about the same levels as your are now, but it will still help to increase your protein intake w/in those limits.

People who are have not fully developed the strength of their existing musculature can make significant strength gains just doing this BUT you will not grow any additional muscle unless you 1st maximize the strength of your existing musculature and then eat more and lift more to break thru that plateau to promote further muscle growth by putting greater strength demands on your body and providing sufficient nutirents to allow your body to grow more muscle.

Easier said than done.

Keto_Vampire

Probably a good idea to forget about using weight solely to assess progress if trying to build muscle; go by the mirror, tape measure, clothing fit, etc. to gauge progress. Can make things confusing/lead to much wheel spinning when one focuses solely on weight when water, fat, muscle composition change

Grambo54

Keto is 100% right.

And yes focus more on weights, less or nothing on cardio for now. You really need to find someone close, to advise you. Do you go to a local gym? If so find a training partner (male or female) who wants to build muscle, and work your butt off in the gym with them. If not, join a gym and go from there.

L1zardQueen

Grambo54 wrote: »

Keto is 100% right.

And yes focus more on weights, less or nothing on cardio for now. You really need to find someone close, to advise you. Do you go to a local gym? If so find a training partner (male or female) who wants to build muscle, and work your butt off in the gym with them. If not, join a gym and go from there.

Keto is not right. Did this person ask about any macro breakdown? Nope.


Read anvil’s link.

MeanderingMammal

kiki1690 wrote: »

Hi guys! So I didn't really follow a specific diet just increased healthy food and decreased processed and fast food but I lost 10 pounds. Currently 5'1 and 134 and I'm almost satisfied but even though I have lost weight my body fat is actually high. I want to lose body fat and get more muscle.
I already do 30 min power walks 4/7 days..I want to incorporate strength training but should I focus on that more and leave the cardio alone if I want to build muscle?

In the grand scheme of things a 30 minute walk has negligible effect on your progress. At 134lbs you're burning c100 calories each time. When you hear the "cardio ruinz yur gainz..." type of thing, it's nonsense. The comments from sgt1372 are spot on here. A progressive lifting programme will help your body composition.

Keto_Vampire

weird how posts just magically disappear...anyways, keto (diet) is not optimal for muscle building