Can I get shredded W/O Cardio?!

Hey Guys,

It has been a year since I started my dieting / workout journey and I have made a huge progress, I lost so far around 88 pounds of fat (probably more since I gained a lot of muscle mass).

I have to admit when I started this I never had in mind the goal of having a great physic, I just wanted to be healthy but now I'm addicted to dieting and working out.

I'm trying now to lose 22 pounds and get absolutely shredded since body recomposition isn't a thing for me anymore, I either have to gain muscles or lose muscles and fat so I decided to go all in and lose 22 pounds and start bulking very slowly to make sure this fat is gone for good.

Dieting is very easy actually, the problem for me is consistent ankle injuries which is stopping me from doing any sort of Cardio. So I'll attempt losing the 22 pounds only via dieting and lifting weights.

Wish me luck guys.

Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    You don't have to completely use your ankles to do cardio. There's rowing, biking, battlerope work, swimming, etc.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    Forgot to mention shoulder injury as well :D
  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    You don't have to completely use your ankles to do cardio. There's rowing, biking, battlerope work, swimming, etc.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png

    Do you think rowing machine would be okay if I have a minor shoulder injury? I could try that for 10 minutes / day and increase the duration gradually if there is no pain I guess?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Hey Guys,

    It has been a year since I started my dieting / workout journey and I have made a huge progress, I lost so far around 88 pounds of fat (probably more since I gained a lot of muscle mass).

    I have to admit when I started this I never had in mind the goal of having a great physic, I just wanted to be healthy but now I'm addicted to dieting and working out.

    I'm trying now to lose 22 pounds and get absolutely shredded since body recomposition isn't a thing for me anymore, I either have to gain muscles or lose muscles and fat so I decided to go all in and lose 22 pounds and start bulking very slowly to make sure this fat is gone for good.

    Dieting is very easy actually, the problem for me is consistent ankle injuries which is stopping me from doing any sort of Cardio. So I'll attempt losing the 22 pounds only via dieting and lifting weights.

    Wish me luck guys.

    Bolded is all that's needed to lose the fat.

    Italic is what's needed to have something to show under the fat.

    Cardio not required, and depending on your time available and recovery (impaired in a diet) could interfere with the lifting.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html
  • DoctorMOHSEN
    DoctorMOHSEN Posts: 53 Member
    You dont have to do a lot of cardio to get shredded, dieting alone can get you there, but we do cardio when needed to avoid hitting plateaus and forcing ourselves to drop our calories even more. There is many tips of cardio and HIIT that can work for u. Cycling worked well for me because lower impact on your knees. Jumping ropes are really great alternative.
  • Skysnap
    Skysnap Posts: 3 Member
    You can certainly just leave calories where they are and just lift - you can convert your fat to muscle. Even if you lose 22lbs, science will point you in the direction of increasing calories in order to build your muscle for performance or recomp. I am by no means a coach or nutrition expert - but I would lift, lift and lift some more (consistently) for 4-5 months while enjoying a calorie increase (with good macros composition and good nutrition), then cut calories to show your work :) I HATE cardio and don't do much of it until I want to cut to show my work - usually right before summer - and even at that, I do walking...
  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    You dont have to do a lot of cardio to get shredded, dieting alone can get you there, but we do cardio when needed to avoid hitting plateaus and forcing ourselves to drop our calories even more. There is many tips of cardio and HIIT that can work for u. Cycling worked well for me because lower impact on your knees. Jumping ropes are really great alternative.

    Yea dieting should do the trick and some HIIT. I tried jumping rope couple minutes and it hurt my ankle so bad (I have ankle injury).

    I tried rowing today and it was okay ish since I have a shoulder injury as well but it wasn't bad at all I think I might do that few times / week.
  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    Skysnap wrote: »
    You can certainly just leave calories where they are and just lift - you can convert your fat to muscle. Even if you lose 22lbs, science will point you in the direction of increasing calories in order to build your muscle for performance or recomp. I am by no means a coach or nutrition expert - but I would lift, lift and lift some more (consistently) for 4-5 months while enjoying a calorie increase (with good macros composition and good nutrition), then cut calories to show your work :) I HATE cardio and don't do much of it until I want to cut to show my work - usually right before summer - and even at that, I do walking...

    Yea I've been doing that for a year and I really enjoy the process and seeing incredible results I actually thought it would be much harder but it turns out it's actually a lot of fun.

    I'm currently not doing anything more than 8 - 10 minutes of rowing / day and might slow this down a bit more depends on how my shoulder feels.
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    Skysnap wrote: »
    you can convert your fat to muscle.

    No, you can't. They are two completely different types of tissue. You can't convert fat to muscle any more than you can convert your heart into eyeballs or your lungs into bones.


  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,238 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    You don't have to completely use your ankles to do cardio. There's rowing, biking, battlerope work, swimming, etc.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png

    Do you think rowing machine would be okay if I have a minor shoulder injury? I could try that for 10 minutes / day and increase the duration gradually if there is no pain I guess?
    Forgot to mention shoulder injury as well :D

    It's going to depend on what your shoulder injury is. Sounds like (from a subsequent post) that you're trying out the rowing, and that's about all I could suggest.

    When rowing, most of the power should be coming from legs, secondarily from the body swing (glutes/back), then just following through with the arms. Shoulder per se is not a major power source.

    My main hesitation about shoulder injuries would be that through the legs & body part of the drive, you want to be suspending most of your weight between the handle and the foot-stretcher (while applying power with legs/body), and that suspension relies on engaging through the shoulders to transfer the force, so can stress some kinds of shoulder injuries. (Shoulder injuries are fairly common among rowers. They're even more common among rowers who don't do upper body push work to balance things out IMO, but that shouldn't be a huge issue for you if you're doing normal strength training.)

    I have problems with shoulder impingement, can't (well, shouldn't) do things like lateral raises, but rowing is fine. What the shoulder problem is really matters to this question.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,995 Member
    I can heartily recommend a recumbent elliptical.
  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    I can heartily recommend a recumbent elliptical.

    I did that for a while and the results are great, However, the ankle injury was a problem. I do understand you don't use your ankle exclusively with elliptical compared to running but the ankle pain is just that bad.

    I did 10 minutes of intense rowing today and it actually went okay so I'm really happy about that.
  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    You don't have to completely use your ankles to do cardio. There's rowing, biking, battlerope work, swimming, etc.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png

    Do you think rowing machine would be okay if I have a minor shoulder injury? I could try that for 10 minutes / day and increase the duration gradually if there is no pain I guess?
    Forgot to mention shoulder injury as well :D

    It's going to depend on what your shoulder injury is. Sounds like (from a subsequent post) that you're trying out the rowing, and that's about all I could suggest.

    When rowing, most of the power should be coming from legs, secondarily from the body swing (glutes/back), then just following through with the arms. Shoulder per se is not a major power source.

    My main hesitation about shoulder injuries would be that through the legs & body part of the drive, you want to be suspending most of your weight between the handle and the foot-stretcher (while applying power with legs/body), and that suspension relies on engaging through the shoulders to transfer the force, so can stress some kinds of shoulder injuries. (Shoulder injuries are fairly common among rowers. They're even more common among rowers who don't do upper body push work to balance things out IMO, but that shouldn't be a huge issue for you if you're doing normal strength training.)

    I have problems with shoulder impingement, can't (well, shouldn't) do things like lateral raises, but rowing is fine. What the shoulder problem is really matters to this question.

    That's exactly what I did today, I was making sure all the time to use my glutes and legs and not only use my hands for rowing and it went just fine.

    For my shoulder injury I'm not sure tbh but I can tell for sure it happened after a standing shoulder press drop set. I was doing 20 KG / 14 KG / 10 KG x 12 reps each x 3 sets and I started feeling the pain next day. The injury hurts only if I attempt to do a shoulder press / bench press, Yet I can do all type of chest machines just fine with no pain at all it's just the Shoulder Press and Bench Press.
  • leahr2002
    leahr2002 Posts: 3 Member
    Have you tried a recumbent bike?
  • A7med_3azab
    A7med_3azab Posts: 8 Member
    leahr2002 wrote: »
    Have you tried a recumbent bike?

    I haven't tried recumbent bike yet but the rowing machine is working just fine for me currently. No shoulder or Ankle pain so far so I'm planning to stick to it for now.