Methods for gaining muscle and losing fat

Over training is real and common.

Good article by Will Brink on the subject.
http://www.realsolutionsmag.com/ezine/32/issue32c.asp

Brinkzone.com is his site.

 

Overtraining is very common, too many sets too much volume. Most guys I know spend like 3 hrs per day pumping iron. Little to show for all that time and effort.

With regard to the danger of unknown supplements. The seeds of cancer are sowed a decade or two before clinical manifestation with DNA damage. Chronic exposure to a known carcinogen or an as yet unknown one may rear an ugly head 20 yrs down the road. I do not want to be the mouse on the cutting edge of new supplementation.

 

Interesting links. Thank you. I note, however, that no distinction was made between more active and less active subjects. My understanding is that people engaged in regular and significant physical exertion require more calories and protein.

I also note that there is no distinction made regarding protein source. I wonder if the higher protein diets were largely meat based or otherwise high in saturated fats. It would be interesting if the researchers had put a finer point on their study in this regard.

However, and perhaps I missed it so please let me know, I have not noticed a distinction made in protein requirements based on age. Only as it relates to longevity. But that brings us back to the first two points.

I recall hearing on a radio science show about a 20-year study conducted in Japan among hundreds if not thousands of older participants ranging in ages from their late 40s well into their 60s. The participants were divided into 3 groups: those who ate no meat, those who got most of their nutrition from meat and other animal sources, and those who consumed only a small amount of meat, say twice weekly in fairly modest quantity, with the remainder of their diet being plant based (I imagine fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds). At the end of the study, the researchers found that the group that fared the best in terms of overall health and mobility was the one that consumed a fairly small amount of animal products in proportion to their diet. The group that relied heavily on meat and such had heart-related issues and other health problems associated with a diet high in saturated fat. The plant-only participants fared better than the meat people, but not as well as the group that ate some animal products sparingly because they did not have as much muscle mass on average and, therefore, less mobility. I'm not sure how mobility was defined, but I accept it at face. Since my diet is fairly low in saturated fats and I only eat meat a couple of times a week (beef only once evey two weeks), I feel rather good about this study.

Any thoughts about my earlier observations and/or this study?

 

Until my mid-40s, I was working out 3 times a week on a split routine (A & B), such that each muscle group was being worked 3 times every two weeks. Each workout lasted about 3 hours. Well over two hours were dedicated to weights, with 30 minutes for cardio and then about 10 minutes for abs. There was no socializing, however, I did take up to two-minute breaks for the larger muscle groups and about a minute for the smaller ones. Each set was to failure. I am well aware that extended workouts are suboptimal and possibly counterproductive, but it was a compromise I was willing to make because I didn't want to go to the gym every day. I had regular insomnia, and my shoulder joints would more than just occasionally flare up. (Rotator cuff issues going back a long way due to poor exercise form when I was too young or stupid to know better.) Keep in mind that I have never taken any performance enhancing substances, so my recovery capability was merely that of a mortal.

Since that time I have been gradually paring the routine down to its present form. As of about 3 weeks or so, I have been doing three full-body workouts per week. Further, I decided to go the bodyweight workout route, although I still do weighted pullups and dips, and now weighted pistol and sissy squats, along with other non-weighted bodyweight exercises. The whole routine lasts about 90 minutes, with the resistance portion limited to 60 minutes (with slightly shorter rest periods between sets than what I mentioned earlier). Cardio is now only 15 minutes, but I maintain a heart rate of 85% to 90% of my MHR throughout -- I will be checking with my doctor about this in a couple of days when I have my annual physical. Ab work remains at about 10 minutes, although I altered it for what I think is the better. I feel a lot better doing this routine, although it's too soon to tell how it will fare in results, if any. But I'm sleeping better and feeling better.

So, yeah, I think I was probably overdoing it some years ago, at least as far as my capacity is concerned.

 

Too often my best gains came on the next workout after I had to take a week or two off for this other reason or that. Things that make you go hmmm

 

Deal. I'm going to do that this week. I'll report back.

 

Correct, the reason why you should limit your training time to 30-45 min is- after longer workout the levels of HGH start to drop.

Also, there will be no further triggers for the muscles to grow, once you've trained hard all muscle groups during first 30mins.


What are in my experience the most optimal methods of building muscles:
all kinds of bodyweight training.
push, pull, sit and chin ups, inverted rows, squats.
All equipment you really need is a bar over your head.......
Take a look :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poV3gfxuZH8&feature=related
Plus, you hit all the muscle fibers, which is often not the case with the gym machines.

And I agree with Baron, the most common is undertraining!
Spending 2 hours at the gym while NOT doing the lifting properly.
People focus on # of reps and sets, while it is much more important for HOW LONG you carry a weight during a single excercise.
Thats why slow, negative (eccentric) training is recommended - to make the total TIME you hold a weight longer and stimulate the muscles.

 

I'll also give it a go.
One exercise and 3 sets compared to my current 3 exercises and 9 sets. It's a no brainer.
And I'd be lying if i said my physique equalled Barons'.