lifting / cardio / gains advice

shedboy

i was wondering if any one could give me some advice, ive been in the gym pretty much 6 days a week since november doing between 45 mins to an hour of lifting and although ive noticed a some slight muscle gains i dont really feel ive made as much gains as i should have. i have got stronger as ive gradually been lifting heavier weights during this period but i dont feel i have the body i was expecting. ive been wearing a HRM during sessions and burn between 300 to 400 calories each session.

my main query is, and i know this will probably be the answer, but i also run a fair amount of miles each week, or, do insanity instead in the afternoons.

is my obsession with cardio hindering my progress in gaining the muscle mass i was hoping for?

most days im burning between 800 and 1000 calories in total, but i am eating most of these back.

what im really asking is is there a way of gaining without cutting out cardio?

my stats are
31 years old,
5, 10"
73kg
13% BF

Lindsay

chelseasans

What is your diet like? A lot has to do with diet. You really need to make sure your getting extra protein if you want to gain muscle!

snowmaniac

What lifts are you doing? What weight? How many sets and reps?

Slepsch

One of the hardest lessons to learn for lifting is:

more isn't necessarily greater than less.

You might be sabotaging your gains by not giving the muscles anytime to recover / grow. 3-4 days a week is plenty, and the off days let your muscles recover. Check out Starting Strength or StrongLifts for info on how to get strong + add muscle.

As for your cardio question, yes it could be hindering it as well. Steady-state cardio isn't beneficial to muscles, with some even saying it's detrimental. If you're running for 30 minutes plus, your body could be eating some of that muscle you're trying to build. I haven't done insanity before, but I'm guessing that's much more beneficial for your goals. You could also do run / sprint intervals (HIIT) if you love to run.

shedboy

Thanks for your replies.

My diet isn't too bad I don't think, I eat a lot of lean meats, fish, eggs etc along with complex carbs. I also drink shakes pre and post work out. I do have the odd chocolate bar but I don't make that a regular occurrence and I avoid junk food.

I've been doing 3 day split sessions,

Day one - lactic session back and bis. 4 sets 15 to 20 reps of moderate weight
Day two - lactic session chest and tris
Day three - heavy session legs and shoulders. 5 sets of 5 to 8 reps heavy weight
Rest day
Day five - lactic chest and tris
Day six - lactic legs and shoulders
Day seven - heavy back and bis

And so on. So each three day split I'm alternating body part for heavy lifts.

Thanks again

chrisdavey

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

That has some info. on generic rates of LBM gain.

Cardio is fine but you really need to eat basically. You can make neurological strength gains but this is not going to affect your appearance much. At some point, you have to gain muscle mass to continue to make strength gains. This means weight gain.

So if you are not gaining weight, then you need to either eat more or drop some of the cardio.

I also, think you are actually doing too much strength training. 3-4x a week training HARD is really all you need. I'd look into ice cream fitness 5x5 routine also. Doing very high rep sets going to be working muscular endurance predominantly.

astronomicals

lift less often.. eat more often

use HRM for lifting never

would mobility work and foam rolling be an acceptable replacement for cardio? If so, I'd replace half your cardio with that sorta stuff.

NerdySamoan

There is a predisposition to how much muscle mass you can put on. However to maximise your size youll need to be eating at least 4000cals.
'Lifting heavy like 4-5 reps at 80%-90%1RM and making sure you're putting good quality protein immediatly afterwards to stimulate growth.

HMVOL7409

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

That has some info. on generic rates of LBM gain.

Cardio is fine but you really need to eat basically. You can make neurological strength gains but this is not going to affect your appearance much. At some point, you have to gain muscle mass to continue to make strength gains. This means weight gain.

So if you are not gaining weight, then you need to either eat more or drop some of the cardio.

I also, think you are actually doing too much strength training. 3-4x a week training HARD is really all you need. I'd look into ice cream fitness 5x5 routine also. Doing very high rep sets going to be working muscular endurance predominantly.

This. If you really want to gain muscle you need to eat more food, meaning above maintence and not at a deficit. And it's not all about extra protein, you need balance from all macro sources. Your routine definitely needs much tweaking.

shedboy

Thanks for all your advice, I'll defo take it on board.

I have been sitting at roughly the same weight +/- 2kg for around a year. I should be able to up my calorie intake quite easily as I don't really have a problem eating. The thing I find tough is resting, I've got mysel into a habit of exercising that I feel guilty even on one day of rest. I guess I'll need the will power to cut the cardio to maybe one 5k and insanity a week and alter the lifting to heavier sessions on a 3 or 4 day schedule rather than varied lifting over 6 days.

Thanks again for your help

chrisdavey

switch some cardio sessions to yoga/pilates/mobility sessions. Still doing stuff (and is beneficial for most) but won't burn so many cals as a typical MISS cardio session.