Sumiblue wrote: »

Do you think switching to a 3 day routine-Mon/Wed/Fri with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday would be better for recovery? I certainly could see that it should be but I have loved what PHUL has done for me physique-wise. But, I'm not getting stronger and I am feeling a bit worn out.

No one has answered me so I will ask again. Will a 3 day lifting routine help me recover from worn out tendons & muscles? Almost 48 yr old lifter, 3 yrs lifting. My goal is recomp & strength.

My whole question & background is several questions up.

Personally a 3 day full body was more rough on my body. I am finding better recovery on a 4 day split. For a few moves, i had to increase reps and decrease load. For example bicep curls. If i aim for 70 to 85% 1RM @ 6 reps, i stuggle with recovery and tendinitis issues. When i moves to 50% load @ 10 reps i was able to achieve close to equal volume without issue.

Its possible that the design of PHUL might not allow for the recovery you need. Having said all of this, you may want to try a 3 day with cardio to see if you can recovery more.

Thanks for the responses. I'm doing:

Monday-back & chest
Wednesday-quads, hams, abs
Friday-triceps, biceps, calves
Body weight warmup before lifting plus walking & 30 minutes of cardio.

I do think I was working beyond my ability to recover, previously. Hopefully, I can find out what is going on with my shoulder. I recorded myself doing chin ups a while back and my shoulders look very uneven. Right shoulder was higher.

@DopeItUp, @TRoberts, @SideSteel , thanks for the info.

My bench has 3 inclines between flat and 90º. I'm using the middle (45º) for incline bench, mostly because it gives me the most comfortable position in combination with the heights available on my barbell rack. I've used the lower (30º) setting for dumbbell benching but have never used the higher (75º?) position. Maybe I'll try it sometime just to see how it feels. Right now 45º feels a bit better than flat for me.

On ROM, I am using full ROM but have seen videos where people use less, which made me wonder if I was doing things right or not. It sounds like I am doing them right for me.

That likely isn't HIIT, which doesn't actually burn a lot of calories compared to equal time just doing a cardio workout at decent intense level.

If you are basing the calorie burn on a HRM - then you are getting the expected results - inflated calorie burn.
Because the formula for calorie burn based on HR is only valid for steady-state (same HR 2-4 min) aerobic cardio.
Even true HIIT has HR bouncing all over, and would be anaerobic for good portions of it.
Totally opposite.

If you are doing some of the other workouts that have HIIT slapped in the descriptions to make it popular - it's likely at least the same type of attempted workout - non-steady state, and anaerobic as much as possible.

But enjoyment - can't take anything away from that.
And for many it's because it feels hard to do - like really pushing yourself.
Well, if you do that after the lifting - you'll get exactly the same feeling, albeit without really the same level of performance.
Which doesn't matter when doing it for fun!

So you are saying you could have made a successful bad-form video for the benefit and enjoyment of all?

Great news on the lifts being that much stronger.

HIIT is good for fat loss in the same way lifting is good for fat loss (this is accepting a deficit in eating is actually being done of course) - you do damage to the muscles, and during recovery they must repair.
Increased metabolism.

But make no mistake - the fat loss is coming from a deficit in eating - not the exercise.
If eating at maintenance hoping to recomp - gain muscle and lose fat - you need something really tearing the muscle up, or the body won't feel the need to make it stronger, and eventually make more of it.

HIIT is as close to lifting as you'll get doing cardio for those specific muscles - Very high effort movement, rest or slow down, repeat.
But if you can lift and only so much time - skip the HIIT, and do the workout that will transform the body even more.

You are describing calisthenics though, not HIIT.

HIIT - High Intensity Interval Training
Which means the activity you are doing can be done without the intervals as a form of exercise too.
The things you describe are intense by nature - there is no non-intense version of them.
And since intense, you are only going to do a short time, or interval of them anyway.
But you stop doing them, and either move to something else or rest, then do them or something else.
You don't keep doing them at a reduced rate.

Now picture you are jogging. Sprint as fast as you can for 15-30 sec, now jog for 45-90 sec. Repeat for about 10 intervals.
That's HIIT.

Which isn't even the same as Short Interval Training, or regular intervals. Which are based on sub-maximal but usually longer intervals of hard effort.

And they are all meant to train different parts of the aerobic system - usually to help your cardio in some way.

What you are doing is just intense cardio - which is great.
Eventually you'll reach the point you can only do jumping jacks so fast, then it's no longer a stress on your body that requires improvement.
Same with burpees or lunges.
And even right now, probably about as much stress on the cardio system as the muscular system, so not as body transforming visually as other things could be.

But can still be a great workout. Even more so if you enjoy and will do it.

And yeah - the HIIT term is being slapped on all manner of workouts that aren't even close.

But again, if you have weight to lose along with fat to reach a healthy weight - the deficit eating will have more an effect than the workouts.
Yours will at least be asking the body to keep the muscle.

Carbs aren't transformed to fat unless you eat so many that in the 3-5 hrs insulin is elevated your liver stores get totally topped off, your muscle glucose stores get topped off, and your immediate energy needs don't use up the rest.
Then they will be converted to fat.
If deficit eating - that's not easy to make happen, but if in a deficit, it doesn't matter if it does. You'll still burn more fat at other times then.

Your calisthenic workouts if indeed intense are probably big part glucose burner - you got stores to top off.

And that means doing it fasted in morning just depends on your mental ability with possibly low blood sugar - depends on when you ate the night before, and how active before bed.
Your muscles got the stores needed to do it no problem.
If you literally have 12 hrs since last meal and are active from dinner till bed - could be a bad workout fasted compared to eating something small.

Since the "feeling" is the same - pushing as hard as you can, you really have to compare both methods to see if the weight actually feels easier if you do eat something first, compared to doing it fasted.

If you don't get enough protein, that has nothing to do with lose or store fat.
If not enough for body's needs - some of the daily muscle that is broken down under normal functions and from exercise just won't get built back up - body will use protein for what is used most. It will likely impair recovery and getting stronger from the workouts, which is usually the purpose of the workout in the first place.

In the stickies of this group is a great primer on what is enough protein and fat you should be focused on, letting the remaining calories fall to carbs.

You would do well to read through that.