over the past 6-7 months I have gained about 15 pounds while lifting (3-4 days) and doing cardio (2-3 days). I would like to cut some fat while maintaining the muscle I gained. What is a good workout to do this?

For cardio, I usually run 3-5 miles during the week and then I do a long run of 6 miles on Sundays.

For lifting, I do 3-4 days a week. Monday is usually chest + triceps, Tuesday is abs/legs, Wednesday is back/biceps, Friday is shoulders. I often skip leg day because I'm lazy. I'm not super serious about getting huge or being in awesome shape or anything, I just would like to stay fit. Any diet suggestions are fine, I usually eat pretty decently with only one or two meals per week being horribly terrible for me.

thanks!

don't even know if john looks here these days

do what you were doing before and eat fewer calories

and stop skipping legs, thats half of your body

what do you like to do for legs? i have terrible squatting form so i am not comfortable using proper technique with more than the bar. this results in me doing leg press (45 degree), quad extensions, hamstring curl, calves

squat and deadlift mostly
you can look at my training log on mondays or fridays for detail

read this http://www.desolatecarnage.net/gary/ss3.pdf if you want to learn how to squat
it has pictures

thanks for the .pdf. i've been trying squat this week with just a medicine ball to make sure i have better form (90 degree angles on knees). its helped my balance i think

So after reading your thread, Gary, I've been thinking about doing something more along those lines. I like the idea of 5x5 lifts, with a simple a-b-a, b-a-b schedule, or something like the m,t,th,f 2 lifts per day schedule. What would you recommend starting with? I can calculate 1 rep maxes from my current workouts.

I'm just not seeing gains with my current chest/tris day, back biceps, shoulder legs schedule. I think I need to do something simpler.

starting strength (linked above) or stronglifts 5x5 http://stronglifts.com/5x5/

Thanks'

i really like the starting strength guide.

first workout done

squat 5x5 95 lb (started with bar, moved up 10 lb 5 reps each time until i felt like it was difficult)
press 5x5 65 lb (pretty easy, but i have never done these before and wanted good form)
deadlift 1x5 135 lb (it was fairly difficult for me, so i dropped down to 95 lb to work on form after the first set, legs pretty tired at this point)

could i get a title change for this thread? maybe "Evan workout thread" or something like that. dont feel like making a new one

awesome, look forward to seeing your progress

just make sure you are adding weight to the bar every session

yeah i downloaded the excel sheet from the stronglift website. i guessed on the initial 5 rep maxes but i added a little bit to the bench presses initially, because starting at 100lb seems rediculous. it looks like a 5lb increase each workout.

thanks for the title change

http://www.strstd.com

this site is a good tool for calculating 1RMs as well

im calling this week week 1. Yesterday's (monday's) workout was fine, started at 80lb squat, 135 lb bench, 65 lb row. stupid easy workout, but its probably good i work on having good form and get my muscles used to the pace of this workout at light weight, rather than be super sore right away and struggle from the beginning

should i get some shoes for lifting? the starting strength book recommends them. what type should i look for?

sure, they certainly dont hurt - and they aid in ankle mobility by elevating your heel

adidas
http://www.adidas.com/us/men-weightlifting-shoes1-shoes

nike romaleos are also quality

ok, thanks a bunch. 90 bucks is a little pricy but i suppose it would be worth it if i use them for a few years. they shouldn't get too messed up if i only use them at the gym

nice, they will last forever

squatted today, last 2 sets felt like i had better form than the first 3. stopped pitching forward so much at the bottom. the key for me was thinking of coming up the whole time and also committing to getting low. keeping my eye gaze down really helped too.

no problem was felt on the press

deadlift form felt 100% better once i followed the starting strength with barbells pictures. dragged the bar across my shins and never bumped my knees like ive done in the past. the key was starting with my shins against the bar, the proper foot position, and keeping my chest up on the pull. ill stay at this light weight for the next couple trips just to validate my form.

5x5 squat - 85 lb
5x5 press - 70 lb
5x5 deadlift - 115 lb (started heavier than intended because the 35 lb plates are the lightest at the necessary diameter for deadlift)

i would start at 135 unless your 35 plates are the same diameter as 45s, otherwise your mechanics will change when you add weight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfYez7-h55c here is a very simple and effective video of how to deadlift by rip, to reinforce what youve already read

The 35s are the same diameter as the 45s, but yeah same rationale. Thanks for the link

at some point, ill probably stop posting every workout, but i think this will be fun to look at, if i can continue with the 5x5s, for a few months. this is tl:dr unless you really care about what im doing

had a good workout today, completely changed how i was benching, because i read that section of rippetoe's book on wed/fri. apparently ive been benching way too high, and i need to come down to about the base of the sternum... so doing 5x5 of 140 was, although not hard from a strength perspective, difficult. This way i have my arms at more of a 45 degree angle to the scapula, and less chance ill hurt myself at heavy weight if i can get there. i also worked on breathing during this (full breath, hold throughout the press) and arching my lower back. not sure how critical this is, but i hope that good form will allow me to lift heavy weight.

squatting - im still having issues with dropping my torso/the bar at the very end of the squat. i think im not leaning back enough on my heals and i wonder if this is due to bad hip/ankle flexibility. maybe not squatting in running shoes will help as well. after week one, i am squatting 90 lb with much better form and have no issues with my knees or hips from a pain standpoint which is good although not surprising after only lifting light weight.

row - i dont think i have any issues with this, the lift seems natural. as with the standing press and deadlift, i learned this after reading rippetoe's book, rather than having to re-learn it, so i probably am having an easy time by not needing to fix any bad habits

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Fri - Feb 20 2015 - 17:22:11

awesome progress and notes

imo, squatting in running shoes is like squatting on a beach ball

as for bench, here is a recent video of me benching to give you an idea of my setup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdszMHt5I9w

my main cues are
setup - retract scapula (pinch shoulderblades together, and then down)
eccentric - dont let elbows flare
concentric - push feet into the floor

nice bench video, ill keep working on this form and its nice to have visuals in my learning

rip's book talks about eating 3500 calories a day. im hesitant on this, because im already as fat as i want to be. ill see how i do with my diet, but ill eat like normal just for now. if im not progressing, ill have to rethink it. i do eat when hungry, and tend to eat a lot so i should be OK. Ran a mile today, i want to keep running for the cardio, so i guess i might have to balance it out with more food

please dont listen to his nutrition advice
since you dont even track your intake i would just focus on eating more protein and protein with every meal

Lol thanks, I wont worry about it. Just going to drink a protein shake more often

ya, for all you know youre already eating 3500 calories, or more

decided to track my foods for this week, without really being conscious of what i am eating. just curious what ill eat when my body says its hungry. heres what i ended up with yesterday

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/eva...date=2015-02-23

i was planning to eat a snack but didnt cuz was full from all the lasagna i ate

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Tue - Feb 24 2015 - 07:35:47

this is great
i would just consider about a 100-200 calorie buffer for things that arent portion measured
as well as anything "homemade" -- this could have whatever calorie and macro totals the person who created it felt like putting in
actually, all of the food is user entry so just generally look for stuff with high confirmation count or that you can match to a nutrition label
in any case, it will definitely give you a ballpark

yeah on dinner christina makes she ballparks the total calorie amount for herself based on ingredients, and i try to find something on the search that matches the description and calories

i think i should do this the rest of this week, but yeah this is pretty typical of what i eat in a day (yesterday's updated).

only problems happens when i drink 8 beers and half a pizza on a saturday night

new bro science vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7GJWM91ecc

tried new shoes today, was awesome. my friend who went with me said i wasn't dipping forward on the end of my squats.

also, this was the first time squatting felt somewhat difficult. my heart rate was going up more and it wasn't as much as a walkthrough as it has been up to this point. still only rested about 90s in between sets, but soon i will probably have to rest 3 minutes towards the end. i hope i dont start missing reps until at least a month from now, but who knows

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Wed - Feb 25 2015 - 16:04:26

snap me a huge greasy pizza, dont log it in mfp
rip nutrition experiment

lol ill enter it in

tried to accurately enter in all the food i remember eating. ate pretty bad the past two days. today i brought a turkey lasagna slice and salad for lunch but going out to dinner tonight (baltimore restaurant week) at the heavy seas alehouse so im probably fucked there too.

guess my diet is like this. ill eat good for 5 days a week but theres always 2 that really throw everything off. the papa johns on wednesday is not normal eating habits for me though, lol

Fixed some issue I was having in my squat form by focusing on putting weight on the outside of my foot. Bad flexibility was causing me to roll my right foot to the inside and caused calf pain. New shoes make a world of difference too.

nice!

still got some lingering calf pain, and ive been overcompensating with my knee position causing very slight knee pain (like 2/10 on pain scale). i know how to fix the issue, but i need to set some cues for myself so that i dont screw this up

1) starting foot width needs to be wider than i think, heels at shoulder width (rather than mid foot) with toes out 30 degrees
2) weight need to be on the outer edge of my foot so this doesn't pop up at all
3) gotta commit to going down all the way from the start, to avoid having to re-seat the starting position on the way down
4) power starts with hips with butt coming up first instead of chest

hope i can remember all this on monday, if pain gets worse over the weekend of course ill skip the workout, but i will probably be fine if i can stretch / get warm before i start squatting my work sets

Going to try this week to eat according to my fitness pal suggestions. Hopefully I can stay within calories this week. Goal for next week is to start hitting macros. Perhaps I can train myself to eat a little better and at least avoid the 4k calorie days

take off 45g protein and add 20g to fat

no increased pain after squatting today, continuing to increase weight. form was best on set #5, after i started thinking about keeping my chest up higher.

bench is starting to get tougher, at 150 lb. i bet i will start to fail around 165 but hopefully will work through it

dont think about the numbers, just keep adding weight to the bar

squat - 115x5x5 - calf hurt like a bitch in between sets, not necessarily during the squat, but now it doesnt hurt 1 h afterwards. feels nice to have 35 lb plates on the bar and not look like a complete pussy. need to keep focusing on a straighter bar path but about 40% of my reps were close to ideal

press - 85x5x5 - starting to feel like real weight. only rested 90s between sets and got through it easily

deadlift 135x5x1 - easy, still working on form and back straightness letting it down

/e myfitnesspal is helping me stay on track this week, at least for total calories. still eating too much fat and im not sure i'm willing to change my habits enough for this to change. baby steps i guess

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Wed - Mar 4 2015 - 15:49:36

35s aka fake 45s

My calf hurt bad enough last night to wake me up (no Advil before bed) so I took 800 mg and went back to sleep. Feels mostly OK now.

Should I avoid squatting tomorrow and just bench/row instead? I'm not sure if this is going to get better unless I rest it, but I shouldn't be hurting it more.

pain or soreness?
i would only reduce or remove work if it hurts right when youre about to train
you still have another whole day to recover

maybe try foam rolling your IT band / quads beforehand
and maybe try to warm up with a barbell complex - like squat, ohp, overhead squat, clean, deadlift, row x5 all with just the bar
even just trying to hold a deep, upright, narrow grip overhead squat with just the bar can do wonders for mobility and physical preparedness

ill try stretching and foam rolling. the pain is like a deep soreness, not like the muscle soreness i am used to from weightlifting or running. its not a sharp shooting pain or anything. it just still hurts during the lift. in a day or two it goes away but even squatting with just the bar i feel it.

i desperately dont want to skip the workouts, because ive made awesome progress moving from 95 lb to 115 lb in just a couple of weeks. i really wanna get up to body weight in the next few months and dont want to be slowed down by this stupid muscle