Quick couple of questions on training.

[Beat Down Wrinkles]

Hello all and thanks for clicking to see if you might be able to help me. I am currently on a routine where I run 30 minutes a day twice a day and I lift every day except fo rSundays. Now, my questions are these. As a man at the age of 26, with 240 pounds on a 6 foot frame, (I want to get down to about 190 or so and much leaner) would I be doing my self a disservice if I upped my cardio to twice a day for an hour? I have heard that you can overtrain in cardio and burn muscle and God knows I dont want to do that. also, i generally tend to use a stairmaster or a bicycle and very rarely will I use a treadmill and jog for the 30 minutes. I had an accident and my kneee was shredded so I try to stay off of exercises that may cause it severe stress or discomfort. So here goes:

1) For cardio, is there any one type of it to do to see results or is it pretty standard across the board? Should I supplement Xenedrine as well for more rapid weight loss and harder musculature?

2) I have a lifting partner that helps motivate me and to spot me. We are both novices but we read a lot and with the help of great people liek you we know a little something about routines. Would it still be advisable to get a personal trainer? Or armed with the knowledge of literature and advice of fellow lifters, would I be ok to succeed with just my lifting buddy? Main reason I ask is that here they are 99 bucks an hour. I cannot swing that very often so I want to make sure it would be anywhere near beneficial before I tried having one.

3) as a person who had a rather harsh accident and kneee damage, what sorts of things could I do to build my legs? I have rather ridiculously small calves from not being able to run or exercise for 2 years. Any suggestions or advice for a guy who wants to grow and shred his legs but cannot force too much pressure on his knees? I can take some and I do plan to squat within the next year, so mostly, just what sorts of routines would a person new to leg training look to for good results.

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice. I am sure there will countless other posts from me and I hope they aren't always annoying. I appreciate everyones input from the serious to even the comical. That often can make a person more lose and ready to become serious just by laughing.

[DevilsDeity]

1. not sure on the cardio , which is best i like 15min on the nordic ski machine and 15 on the bike Xenedrine will help lose weight but your deit
is what is really going to make the big difference

2. 99 bucks is a lot expecially cause there probably not going to cover everything you need an 1 hour. post your workout routein on here and the bros will help fine tune it and answer questions you have if thats still not enough then seek the trainer

3. if you use strict form and move the weight slow you dont really need to go heavy to develope your legs find a weigh you can move for about 8-10 reps and then work on moving that weight at a slow and steady pace w/ STRICT form , if it starts to hurt your knees back the weight off
like 5-10lbs and try again (remember this is just a suggestion im no Doctor, well maybe a Dr of love but thats a different story)
these are just suggestion. to try and help ya out .

maybe others will give some input

[Beat Down Wrinkles]

I appreciate your input. My routine looks like this:


8:30 a.m. 30 mins of cardio on stairmaster


I hit the gym about 6 in the evening. Show up, stretch, warm up on bike for 10 then here are the days. (10x4 meaning 10 reps 4 sets not vice versa)

Monday: Chest and Back Usually consisting of flat bench (10, 10, 8, 6, 4) Incline Dumbell Press (10, 10, 10, 10) Not sure what this is called but it is when you lay you rback on a bench and you pull a dumbell over your head and then bring it back to your chest then re-extend. (10, 10, 10, 10) and finally Incline Dumbell Flies (10, 10, 10, 10) and then move to chest starting with pull ups (10, 10, 10, 10 depending if I fail out or can do more) then go to cable rows (10x4 Should said it this way from the start ) then Lat Pull downs on machine or cable (10x4) and finally stifflegged deadlifts (10x4)

Tuesday: Arms. Start with straighbar curls of (10, 10, 8, 6, 4, 20) then move to preacher curls (4x10) and then cable w/ rope curls (4x10) and lastly concentration curls where I superset alternating between 30 to 25 to 15 to 10. Move to tri's starting with Skullcrushers (10, 10, 8, 6, 6, 4, 10) and move to weighted bench dips, (45lbs, 65 lbs, 80 lbs and lastly 90lbs and often we will do a last set of burn outs with the partner resistance) move to chair with overhead tricep extension with dumbells (4x10) and finish up usually with kickbacks (4x10).

Wednesday: Legs and shoulders. Leg Press machine (10x5) Leg extensions (10x4) Hamstring curls (10x4) Calf Raises inner and outter (20,15,12,12, 8) move to shoulders with shoulder press (Military press) (10x5) Shrugs (10x4) Name slipping my mind when you use an easy curl bar and you pull the weight up to your face with your hands almost touching in the middle of the bar (10x4) I'm prolly confusing a lot of people right now. and lastly arm extensions to the side or front depending on mood (10x4)

I repeat Mondays work out on thursday, tuesday and friday and wednesday on saturday and sunday I either rest or at the most do some cardio.

Any suggestions to make me buff like all you studs?

Any info will be greatly appreciated. I am really serious about improving and I know with this communities help I can achieve that no problem. You people are awesome. (<--AR community pimping it's fro of "awesomeness")

[superbeast]

1. The type of cardio that you do is not important. As long as your heart rate is at least 70% of its max, you will be burning fat. Personally, I try to mix it up to avoid getting bored.

2. $99 is expensive for a personal trainer, especially in Columbus. I would look around a little more. If you find a really good one, you might be surprised at the difference they can make. I work as a trainer. The last client I picked up was 6'1" and 212 lbs. His bodyfat was a little over 15%. He had been working out for 1.5 yrs. Just by adjusting his diet and showing him some training secrets, he put on 7 lbs of muscle and lost 2 lbs of fat in 4 weeks, naturally. I don't give my advice otu for free very often. The problem is really finding a good trainer, but you will probably be fine without.

3. Leg training can be done with high reps for good results. You can even go in the 15 - 20 rep range. This will allow you to use lighter weights and still get results.

[beenie]

Superbeast has it right. To me it sounds like your workout regiment is really aggressive. Personally I think thats great. As Superbeast says 70% of target heart rate works best for leaning.

If this is what you are already doing than the next thing you will have to change is your diet. Sad but true. There are a bunch of good diets to try many of which are effective, and on the right one you will see very fast results with such an agressive workout schedule.

And your gym gets $99/hr for trainers. Mine gets $86 and I though that was a rip off. I think Chelsea Piers is also $99, but that is the most I have seen anywhere. Some people hire trainers independently. Not saying that you can afford to every time bu its a worthwhile investment every frew months or so to have a few sessions and have a professional shake up your routine.

[jbrand]

Originally posted by Beat Down Wrinkles
2) I have a lifting partner that helps motivate me and to spot me. We are both novices but we read a lot and with the help of great people liek you we know a little something about routines. Would it still be advisable to get a personal trainer? Or armed with the knowledge of literature and advice of fellow lifters, would I be ok to succeed with just my lifting buddy? Main reason I ask is that here they are 99 bucks an hour. I cannot swing that very often so I want to make sure it would be anywhere near beneficial before I tried having one.

From my own personal encounters, personal trainers are not the brightest of people. It doesn't take an expert to receive certification, and at the rates these guys charge they should be better prepared IMO. On the brighter side of things, if you do choose to use a personal trainer at least you will be involuntarily forced to leave the gym at the tick of the hour, you can bet your ass your trainer is watching the clock closer than he is spotting you . Heavy weight training causes serum testosterone and growth hormone levels to rise in the bloodstream and research has been published indicating that if an intense workout exceeds an hour time frame, these hormonal levels will fall (even below baseline levels). So you can pay $99 a session or just get a watch with an alarm, the latter would be cheaper. JMO.

[Wimmpy]

I have had some trouble losing some stingy pounds. Recently I have switched to more interval training on the bike and stair climber instead of the flat steady pace. It has worked great for me. I don't overdo it and still throw up the weights afterwards and have found it's coming off slow but I am not losing a lot of muscle. Might want to try it?