Looking for a lil help.

[bowhnter7]

In the spring I had started my annual reduction of cals and increase of cardio to start the slow loss of winter insulation. It's always a slow process with me usually ending up feeling fairly good for my age by hunting season but never down to the weight I want until I get back from the actual hunt.

Bout June I decided to do something different and actually commit to going to the gym 4 days a week with the goal of replacing some muscle for the fat and mixing in some cardio. Still doing hikes on the weekends and some long trail runs too. (long to me is a mix of run/walk 6 miles)

I was given an idea of what to do while I was at the gym and told I should eat some more so I don't starve my rebuilding process so I added some more protien to my daily diet.

I feel I have been working hard in the gym with the weights. Doing some cardio each day I'm there at the end, bout 10-15 min except for legs day cause my legs are shot. One of the 4 days is all cardio.

Strength wise I'm feeling much better. Benching more, squating more, pressing more etc. I have to admit the cardio part I don't feel as well with. Been a few weeks since I did my 6 mile trail run, tried it on Sunday and it wasn't any easier that's for sure. But I have to admit my standard 2 mile time is less than it has been.

So why the long post? Basically short term obsiously my goal is to be in better shape for hunting the backcountry and loose the weight/fat. Long term is to loose more fat, build muscle, over all be in better shape through out the whole year. I plan on staying with the gym the whole year but as the season draw closer I'm getting a bit concerned about the lack of weight lose and wondering about the amount of cardio. I've actually started to put on weight this week.

So I would like to try and find some specific help on me and my goals to make sure I'm doing what I should. I've read a ton of matieral and like everything theres a lot out there.

Anyone of you guys willing to help me out? Guys that are really in the know on this.
I can put it all on here, email, call whatever. Be nice to have a "check" to make sure I'm on the right course and if I am I'll keep driving forward.

Jeremy

 

[HellsCanyon]

I'm not entirely sure what it is you're asking for, but I'm interpreting it as you are worried that you haven't dropped very much weight but have gotten stronger and are worried about how in shape you are for hunting? Only person to answer that question is yourself...

Mike

 

[mohawk32]

1) if you're not feeling like you're in the shape you want to be in until after the hunt, start earlier with your conditioning.

2) I know if I went a couple weeks without a longer run then did a 6 mile trail run I'd feel like poop too.

3) It's hard to formulate a specific plan without knowing what your daily diet and training looks like, but I will say this, if you're lifting more weight and getting stronger, don't be concerned about the scale, but have your body composition checked. You may be getting bigger as a result of getting stronger, and if your diet is right that should mean fat loss too.

Of course I'm basically a rank amateur who just happens to be a gym rat, so take that for what it's worth, bud.

 

[bowhnter7]

Yes confussed or frustrated that the weight has not come off. Figured with as much as I'm doing something should have happen.

I'll be fine for hunting as is but I can tell my cardio (maybe call it stamina) has dropped a bit with more focus on weights.

Short term goal for the next month would be to loose as much weight as possible to reduce the amount I have to drag around.....but only in fat. Make sense? Was buying into loosing fat by replacing it with muscle.

Long term goal is to get stronger and leaner.

I don't want a PT in the gym, I just want to know that if I'm investing in 4 days a week of gym time I'm doing the right thing. Be nice to learn more about the right amount of foods and types of foods too.

 

[bowhnter7]

1) if you're not feeling like you're in the shape you want to be in until after the hunt, start earlier with your conditioning.

My conditioning is ok, I'll be fine. What I meant in regards to your abouve comment is after I get back from the end of the season my weight is way down and physically the fat on the sides and front is way down. Lungwise and leg wise I keep up ok during the hunt.

 

[tstowater]

The only way to get stronger and leaner is three things: food, exercise and time. There are really no shortcuts to the process. I believe that you need a thorough and honest evaluation of your current diet and exercise program to see what changes, if any, you need to make to achieve your desired goals. I personally have found people who are much more knowledgeble than me to work with in my adventure down this road. I set measurable and achievable goals so that I could evaluate progress and then reset or fine-tuned when and where necessary. It does take time and try to stay away from the "2 steps forward, 1 step back" and just try to keep the efforts going forward. Sounds easy, but it isn't, but it is doable if you are committed to succeed.

 

[G Posik]

When in the gym are you doing heavy weights with few reps? Are you doing lighter weights until failure? Your cardio are you doing your runs in fat burn heart rate, red zone or some where in-between? Your daily diet are you running 40% lean/pure proteins, 40% good healthy carbs and 20% good fats? You need to figure out your goal that you would like to get to. To loose one pound of body weight you need to burn 3500 more calories than you take in over a week. So running a 500 calorie def. a day.

As an example my workouts are as follows, Mon, Tues, Thur&Fri I run 4-6 miles in the morning. I try to hit anaerobic for about half of the run. The other half I try to stay in the fat burn area on my heart rate. These same days I spend 35 minutes at the gym during lunch. I break weight s to 4 groups, back shoulder, chest, legs& arms. I do core all 4 of these days and one group. I usually do 3-4 exercises per muscle group. I do lighter weight and do 2-3 sets until failure. Saturday is hike day. Since I do not have hills or mtns in Houston, I go to the high school stadium. I wear my pack with 70 lbs in it and do bleacher climbs. I also use a snorkel to breath through. This help to work with less oxygen. I do 30 minutes of climbs. Take the pack off go do 100 yd dashes at about 70% effort. Put the pack back on and climb. I do 3 sets of this. I usually spend a fair amount of time in the low end of the red zone. It has worked well. You might want to spend a couple dollars and go see a nutritionist and trainer. I can send you some more detail information if you like.

Glenn

 

[HellsCanyon]

When in the gym are you doing heavy weights with few reps? Are you doing lighter weights until failure? Your cardio are you doing your runs in fat burn heart rate, red zone or some where in-between? Your daily diet are you running 40% lean/pure proteins, 40% good healthy carbs and 20% good fats? You need to figure out your goal that you would like to get to. To loose one pound of body weight you need to burn 3500 more calories than you take in over a week. So running a 500 calorie def. a day.

As an example my workouts are as follows, Mon, Tues, Thur&Fri I run 4-6 miles in the morning. I try to hit anaerobic for about half of the run. The other half I try to stay in the fat burn area on my heart rate. These same days I spend 35 minutes at the gym during lunch. I break weight s to 4 groups, back shoulder, chest, legs& arms. I do core all 4 of these days and one group. I usually do 3-4 exercises per muscle group. I do lighter weight and do 2-3 sets until failure. Saturday is hike day. Since I do not have hills or mtns in Houston, I go to the high school stadium. I wear my pack with 70 lbs in it and do bleacher climbs. I also use a snorkel to breath through. This help to work with less oxygen. I do 30 minutes of climbs. Take the pack off go do 100 yd dashes at about 70% effort. Put the pack back on and climb. I do 3 sets of this. I usually spend a fair amount of time in the low end of the red zone. It has worked well. You might want to spend a couple dollars and go see a nutritionist and trainer. I can send you some more detail information if you like.

Glenn

And I thought I looked weird riding a Mtn bike up our road with romeos and calf high socks with shorts on... I can just imagine the looks you get with a pack and snorkel on running stairs!

Mike

 

[fillthefreezer]

haha, thats what i was thinking! i thought 10in boots with gym shorts a sweatband and a big camo backback was bad

 

[G Posik]

Its not that bad unless the 3 other guys that train the same way are there. Try to get there early before to many people show up. I feel it really helps in dealing with the lack of oxygen. Now I could not do that mask thing. That would most likely get the invite to leave the school grounds and not return.

 

[bowhnter7]

The only way to get stronger and leaner is three things: food, exercise and time. There are really no shortcuts to the process. I believe that you need a thorough and honest evaluation of your current diet and exercise program to see what changes, if any, you need to make to achieve your desired goals. I personally have found people who are much more knowledgeble than me to work with in my adventure down this road. I set measurable and achievable goals so that I could evaluate progress and then reset or fine-tuned when and where necessary. It does take time and try to stay away from the "2 steps forward, 1 step back" and just try to keep the efforts going forward. Sounds easy, but it isn't, but it is doable if you are committed to succeed.

Exactly, I understand this. I'm not looking for short cut, that's not me and anybody that know me knows I'm a hard committed worker.

I would love to have someone knowedable to talk with to make sure I'm doing the right things. That IS what I'm looking for.

 

[bowhnter7]

When in the gym are you doing heavy weights with few reps? Are you doing lighter weights until failure? Your cardio are you doing your runs in fat burn heart rate, red zone or some where in-between? Your daily diet are you running 40% lean/pure proteins, 40% good healthy carbs and 20% good fats? You need to figure out your goal that you would like to get to. To loose one pound of body weight you need to burn 3500 more calories than you take in over a week. So running a 500 calorie def. a day.

As an example my workouts are as follows, Mon, Tues, Thur&Fri I run 4-6 miles in the morning. I try to hit anaerobic for about half of the run. The other half I try to stay in the fat burn area on my heart rate. These same days I spend 35 minutes at the gym during lunch. I break weight s to 4 groups, back shoulder, chest, legs& arms. I do core all 4 of these days and one group. I usually do 3-4 exercises per muscle group. I do lighter weight and do 2-3 sets until failure. Saturday is hike day. Since I do not have hills or mtns in Houston, I go to the high school stadium. I wear my pack with 70 lbs in it and do bleacher climbs. I also use a snorkel to breath through. This help to work with less oxygen. I do 30 minutes of climbs. Take the pack off go do 100 yd dashes at about 70% effort. Put the pack back on and climb. I do 3 sets of this. I usually spend a fair amount of time in the low end of the red zone. It has worked well. You might want to spend a couple dollars and go see a nutritionist and trainer. I can send you some more detail information if you like.

Glenn

Thanks for the post.

Here is what I'm doing now:

MON is chest and back. 4 set of flat press 4 sets of incline press, 4 sets of DB flies and 4 sets or cable flies. 4 sets of machine rows, 4 sets or DB rows and 4 sets of lat pulls, then 3 to 4 sets of pull up on a body weight assisted machine. I have been trying to mix it up as far as number of reps vs weight to figure this out but definatley reach failure at some point. I may reduce weight on the last set or two so I can maintain the number of reps and still get failure.

TUES is all cardio in a HIIT format. I run for 2 miles on the TM, 2 min at 6.5 then 1 min at 9mph, then back to two for 6.5 and so forth. This runs right about 17 mins or so. Next is 100 floors on the stepper. I change the resistance of the stepper back and forth put try and get in 90 to 100 floors in 17 min. Then switch to the bike for 17 min and try to hit miles or so. After all this I do 3 sets of Abs. I might substitute a 6 mile trail run for all this if it's not too damn hot out. Its in the foothills of Co.

WED is biceps and tri's. BB curls for 4 sets, BD curls for 4 sets then cable curls for 4 sets. Cable tri extensions or push downs for 4 sets, a tri machine for 4 sets then some dips for 3 sets. Same thing usually in the 8 to 12ish as far as reps. Something to where I'm really feeling a burn.

THURS is legs and shoulders. Squats, leg press, leg ext and leg curls. Usually 4 sets or squats and presses with 3 sets of the others. Shoulders is BB military presses, front and side raises. All 4 sets in the 8 to 12 reps. To be honest sometimes I don't count I just go till I cant anymore, if I feel it's a high number I raise the weight.

FRI is off day

SAT and or SUN I usually hike or trail run.

Food wise I eat a bowl of "healthy" cereal in the morning before the gym, protein shake after the workout, yogurt with cranola and a banana at 9am. Lunch is a chicken salad with letuce, spinage, cucumbers, peppers and eggs. Bout 2pm I eat a HB egg and maybe some carrots with celery. 4pm I eat a bowl of fruit. About 6 I eat dinner, it's usually elk, deer (on a good year) or chicken or lean pork, with veggies.That's about it. I don't drink soda or eat anthing bad in my opinion.

Pretty sure that's it.

 

[jmez]

You doing any of your lifting in circuits? Looks like you are doing mainly mass/strength training. This is ok and I do it but I change it up every 4-6 weeks.

Heavies 4-6 weeks, basically strength building. When I'm doing heavies I also do cardio every day. Moderate weight 10 reps circuits 4-6 weeks. Light weights 20 reps circuits 4-6 weeks. When doing circuits I do not rest between exercises or sets go as fast as I can with as little rest as possible. I do five sets and cycle through the different exercises. When doing the circuits I also do cardio at home every night, biking or cross fit type workout without weights.

Today was leg day and I'm on moderate right now, 10 burpees, 10 squats 225lbs, 10 box step ups each leg holding 80lbs, 10 lunge walks each leg holding 80lbs, 10 straight legged dead lifts 165 lbs, 15 calf raises done slowly with full extension no bouncing, 20 V ups. I go through this 5 times and today it took about 35 minutes. When I got home tonight I did 10 burpees and then immediately sprinted up my driveway (75 yards and up a steep hill) I did 5 sets of these. Alot more concentration on cardio/stamina than actual strength.

I do that type of stuff 4 days a week, legs, back, chest, shoulders. Day 5 I swim laps and do a cardio workout that involves some combination of burpees and a stairmaster.

Weekends I hike with a weighted pack in the Black Hills or go on extended mountain bike rides then some sort or cross fit type workout at night.

If I lift like you are I will put on mass and size pretty quickly . Doing what I have this year I'm much more lean and still pretty strong. I think you need more emphasis on cardio/stamina/burst type training.

 

[rhendrix]

Do heavy squats, deadlifts, bench and military press and some pullups/chinups then go home. You don't need all the accessory work, it's just hampering your recovery time and giving you a less than optimal chance to improve your conditioning. Focus on improving your cardiovascular fitness and maintain your strength by doing 3 sets of 5 reps of the movements I listed above twice a week (workout a: squat, bench press, pullups; workout b: deadlifts, press, chin ups). If you complete all 15 reps for a given movement bump the weight up 5 pounds next session. Keep doing HIIT, and walk with a loaded pack on an incline until you're bored to tears, rest on your days off, eat clean, and most importantly, keep it simple and have fun.

 

[trkyslr]

IMHO I think the results you are looking for could be found if you replaced about 75% of the weight training with crossfit. Your strength for the real world events (minus "weight lifting") will be better as will your cardio. Lots of info on here on crossfit and online.

 

[shaun]

Yes confussed or frustrated that the weight has not come off. Figured with as much as I'm doing something should have happen.

I'll be fine for hunting as is but I can tell my cardio (maybe call it stamina) has dropped a bit with more focus on weights.

Short term goal for the next month would be to loose as much weight as possible to reduce the amount I have to drag around.....but only in fat. Make sense? Was buying into loosing fat by replacing it with muscle.

Long term goal is to get stronger and leaner.

I don't want a PT in the gym, I just want to know that if I'm investing in 4 days a week of gym time I'm doing the right thing. Be nice to learn more about the right amount of foods and types of foods too.

I am not really understanding what you are asking but after reading over this a few times I think I have an idea. You are asking how you can keep the muscle you have and just burn fat. I have messed with this quite a bit especially before summer time. The thing I found worked best was put my body in a KETO state witch means your body is running off of fat for energy (Ketones). I could get real in depth with this but if you google Ketosis you can read it for your self. I have done this alot and it works. Feel zombie like for a few days until your body kicks over but that doesnt last too long. Diet wise there are alot out there right now my diet consists of. Greens, Lean Meat (chkn, turkey, lean beef, venison), Brown rice, Sweet potatoes, Cottage cheese. Peanut or almond butter, Oats and of course meal supplements (Protien). I measure and weigh portions daily and the wife hates it except the part that I dont let her cook for me anymore

 

[ohhiitznik]

Lots of bodybuilding advice once again. Get away from iso movements. Compound movements that move your body through space are ideal. I can get a cardiovascular workout in while lifting my weights. Up your intensity and you'll see results. I actually lower my weight and do the reps faster with little to no rest. I am a crossfit coach so i do suscribe to that training style. Get away from your bodybuilding split and regimented workout and think outsife the box. Train outside and move your body through space.

 

[Arrowslinger]

Hunting is an aerobic activity and you need to train your body to be efficient and effective at a low to mid heart rate. I've never heard someone complain while hunting that their triceps are giving out, their abs hurt or that their lats are worked. Hunting is about legs and lungs, period. You need to build an aerobic base, then concentrate on specific hill workouts to build climbing muscles and heighten your LT and AT. Running is tops when it comes to caloric burn (rowing is close) and will help shed pounds faster than crossfit, lifting, or any other home workout.

You mentioned you gained weight? Could it be less fat and more muscle gained? That's something we see in training new runners -they gain weight after week 6.

If you need help running, with workouts, or how to train, please let me know.

 

[bowhnter7]

Do heavy squats, deadlifts, bench and military press and some pullups/chinups then go home. You don't need all the accessory work, it's just hampering your recovery time and giving you a less than optimal chance to improve your conditioning. Focus on improving your cardiovascular fitness and maintain your strength by doing 3 sets of 5 reps of the movements I listed above twice a week (workout a: squat, bench press, pullups; workout b: deadlifts, press, chin ups). If you complete all 15 reps for a given movement bump the weight up 5 pounds next session. Keep doing HIIT, and walk with a loaded pack on an incline until you're bored to tears, rest on your days off, eat clean, and most importantly, keep it simple and have fun.

I like this idea, thanks.

Lots of bodybuilding advice once again. Get away from iso movements. Compound movements that move your body through space are ideal. I can get a cardiovascular workout in while lifting my weights. Up your intensity and you'll see results. I actually lower my weight and do the reps faster with little to no rest. I am a crossfit coach so i do suscribe to that training style. Get away from your bodybuilding split and regimented workout and think outsife the box. Train outside and move your body through space.

Thanks!

Hunting is an aerobic activity and you need to train your body to be efficient and effective at a low to mid heart rate. I've never heard someone complain while hunting that their triceps are giving out, their abs hurt or that their lats are worked. Hunting is about legs and lungs, period. You need to build an aerobic base, then concentrate on specific hill workouts to build climbing muscles and heighten your LT and AT. Running is tops when it comes to caloric burn (rowing is close) and will help shed pounds faster than crossfit, lifting, or any other home workout.

You mentioned you gained weight? Could it be less fat and more muscle gained? That's something we see in training new runners -they gain weight after week 6.

If you need help running, with workouts, or how to train, please let me know.

I understand what your saying, been a runner for a long time since HS and in the Military I did plenty of running. It's really not much fun anymore to be honest but I do as much as I can stand. I like the hiking so that works when I can. Time-wise during the week a work out at the gym before work is most efficient for me.

I don't know about the weight, guess you could be correct but I'm not sure if after 6 to 8 weeks of weights if I will see the weight or not.

Thanks for your post.

 

[jmez]

Hunting is an aerobic activity and you need to train your body to be efficient and effective at a low to mid heart rate. I've never heard someone complain while hunting that their triceps are giving out, their abs hurt or that their lats are worked. Hunting is about legs and lungs, period. You need to build an aerobic base, then concentrate on specific hill workouts to build climbing muscles and heighten your LT and AT. Running is tops when it comes to caloric burn (rowing is close) and will help shed pounds faster than crossfit, lifting, or any other home workout.

You mentioned you gained weight? Could it be less fat and more muscle gained? That's something we see in training new runners -they gain weight after week 6.

If you need help running, with workouts, or how to train, please let me know.

I disagree on the Abs not hurting. You put 50-60 lbs on your back and do a lot of hiking you need ab strength. I think core strength is critical to carrying a pack in mountainous terrain, as important as legs and lungs.