Please help a bro out

[jtnhtown]

I'm 5'10'' 210 lbs and about 18% BF.

My goal is to increase lean muscle but mainly to lose fat. I want to cut up my whole upper body. I've been an athlete all of my life and worked out off and on for 10 years. I've been hitting it hard for the last couple of months but I think I might need to change some things up.

Here is my workout routine.

Monday. 6:00a.m run 4.0 miles in 32 minutes on treadmill
6:00 pm chest and triceps

Tuesday 6:00am run 4.0 miles in 32 minutes on treadmill
6:00pm lats, biceps, shoulders

Wedneday : no cardio and complete let workout about 4 sets of 10 with squats, leg press, hip abducter, hip adducter, calf raises, extensions, curls.

Thursday repeat Monday
Friday repeat Tuesday

Saturday; repeat Wednesday

Sunday; rest, rest, rest.


Here is my questions:

I've gotten some suggestions to break it up and do my shoulders on the day I do legs and no cardio, is this a good suggestion?

Am I doing too much for my goal?

Should I do less cardio or more cardio?

How many sets do you do for chest alone? For example, I'll do 4 sets of bench, 4 sets of flys, 4 sets of incline, 4 sets of decline. Is that enought?

My biceps are the least developed muscles on my body, how do you suggest I attack them? I've been doing them last and they usually fatigue quickly, should I work them out first on that day?

What about abs? How often should I do abs? How many sets and how many different exercises per workout?

Thanks dudes, any help is greatly appreciated.

JT

[Tobey]

Hey jtnhtown,
First off welcome to the board. Your present workout routine looks ok. If you wanted to change your shoulders to your leg day I don't see a reason why you could'nt. I useually train different muscle groups with their opposeing secondary groups as well on the same day. From what I can see of your cardio it appears that if you are running 4 miles in 30 minutes and your heart rate should be up to where it should be to burn suffuicent body fat. There is only one way to know for sure though and that is to figure up your maxium heart rate, training intensties as well as your present caloric intake along with sevesal other factors.. I have made several post in the workout section on how to figure these areas up. If you need any help feel free to drop me a PM and I will be gald to do them for you. I personlly do abbs everyday. The abbs are not like any other muscle group as you train them for density and not bulk. For this reason you can train them as often as you like however they may get stronger you really need to work on your present diet and cardio to burn off the excess body fat.
As far as your chest routine is concerned you are also ok. It is very similar to my present routine. It will do you good to swithch this up to somthing a little different after awhile though. The chest is a large muscle group and it like other muscle groups need to be shocked from time to time. This only requires that you change one or two excersises.
If I was going to change anything I would drop the hip abducters and the hip adducters. These areas are worked out well ehough in your normal leg rotuine and as a general rule men do not hold alot of body fat in these areas. You can increase the cadio but it depends on your caloric intake as to weather you are going to burn of body fat or lean muscle mass. I think that I have covered everything but if I have'nt shoot me a PM and I will be glad to clairiffy any thing up.
Oh yeah, check out the reciepe section here in the diet section of the board. It has some really good ideas on how to spice up your diet. Good luck.
Tobey

[timvds]

Jt, we have about the same build probably. Im 5'11'' 220. I know i have classified myself as an Ectomorph. Ive changed up my routine recently from lifting heavy to lifting lighter with twice as many reps. Reping out until falure every set. The gains ive seen recently have been outstanding!

So IMO if you want to cut try lighter with higher reps.

[jtnhtown]

Thank all you guys for the input.

TIMVD: Did you get the PM I sent you? Where do you workout?

[timvds]

Jt, yeah i sent you a PM here a week or so ago. I work out at home, invested in a couple of machines. Ill send another PM

[dumbells101]

Are you natural? How old are you? The reason I ask is simply to make sure you don't overtrain. You most definately need to keep up the cardio and perhaps up the time to 45 minutes. As Tobey mentioned though you need to make sure you're targeting to ensure fat burning and not glycogen. That means training at a level of intensity that allows your body to burn fat for fuel. Here is my workout thoughts for you. When you work chest and tri's on Mon. then you will also work delts as synergist (especially on bench) so your best bet is to train delts with chest and tri's if you will keep this 6 day routine. Moving them with legs will only tire your delts for the next day's chest and tri workout. If you rest the day after the legs/delts workout you can then be ready for the chest/tri's workout. I also agree with Tobey on cutting out the ad/ab workout. Your squats will work those muscles as well, and you can save time/energy for your ext/curls. No cardio on leg days. For your diet you want to only feed your lean mass of 172.2 lbs and that will require about 205 grams of carbs (no more) and between 258-309 grams of protein. Consume your carbs 50-100 grams after your weight training and the rest dependant on your activity level over the 3-4 hours after the meal. Eat as much fibrous veggies as possible and avoid refined starches as well as white potatoes, white rice, and bread. Eat yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice and some good pasta (1/2 cup servings) Get an EFA oil to add to your shakes, and you'll be on your way. Drink a gallon of water ED. Feel free also to pm me if you have any questions that I did not answer.