New to the forum

[Mars Cheung]

Hello everybody,

A friend of mine referred me to this site, saying it's filled with great information regarding fitness and such. I've looked around and this looks like a great place to be.

I'm no stranger to fitness but am still a neophyte in many areas in which I hope to accomplish some of my goals in and am hoping I can learn a lot from everyone here.

I'm 155 lbs. I used to weigh in at 161 but decided to drop weight because I didn't enjoy eating the large quanities of food needed to pack on extra mass. I'd like to spend more time maximizing what I have(change my body composition, more lean mass and greater strength/endurance) and am getting into kettlebells in hopes of accomplishing this goal.

I guess my question is, can you alter your body composition and maintain weight (gain muscle and burn fat simultaneously)? What kind of exercises and diet would go a ways towards this?

[Allen Yeh]

I'm 155 lbs. I used to weigh in at 161 but decided to drop weight because I didn't enjoy eating the large quanities of food needed to pack on extra mass. I'd like to spend more time maximizing what I have(change my body composition, more lean mass and greater strength/endurance) and am getting into kettlebells in hopes of accomplishing this goal.

There is nothing magic about KB's in changing body composition, the same principles need to be applied with all different modalities. What other equipment do you have at your disposal? Gym access?

Working on strength and endurance at the same time seem to be goals that are at seperate ends of the spectrum. What type of experience do you have working at these goals? Are we talking limit strength? Power? What type of endurance are you seeking? The ability to run longer...etc?

I guess my question is, can you alter your body composition and maintain weight (gain muscle and burn fat simultaneously)?

Short Answer: =Yes

What kind of exercises and diet would go a ways towards this?

What diets have you tried in the past when bulking up? What diets have you tried period? Successes/failures? What do you do right now?

The exercise question will depend upon what you have available to you as well as your skill level?

Some Questions for you:
Height?

Current body comp? Approximately?

How long have you been training? What have you done?

[Mars Cheung]

Hi Allen,

I don't have too much experience with endurance development, but being someone who's interested in Brazilian Jiujitsu and Kickboxing, I suppose muscular and cardiovascular endurance are what I'm after. Explosive power would also be a goal, something that I try to incorporate into my workouts(jumping squats, handclap pushups, etc...). I just decided to pick up kettlebells because it'll give me the option of working out at home a little everyday.

That said, I have access to a fully equipped gym with free weights and machines (bench, dumbbells, treadmills, power racks, T-Bar rowing machines...)

When trying to bulk up in the past, I'd try to consume at least 3500 calories a day, breaking it up into seven meals. I stayed away from most fats, getting the essentials by consuming almonds and walnuts. Most carbohydrates were complex in terms of whole wheat bread, pasta, brown rice, fruit, etc. Protein came dominantly from eggs, chicken and protein shakes. I occasionally used Cytogainer towards the end of the day to try to make things a little easier as consuming that much food was uncomfortable. I got up to 161-163.

When I decided I didn't want to do that anymore, I decreased my caloric intake and dropped back down to 155/6. Still pretty much consume the same foods but in lesser quanities. I average about 2700-2800 calories a day? My weight has pretty much stabilized around this area so I want to try to optimize myself here rather than try to put on more muscular mass that's hard to keep.

I'm about 5'6''. I'm no expert at body composition, but if I had to guess, then probably 12% bodyfat, 88% the other stuff(for lack of a better term).

I've worked out hard since I was 16 but only really saw results when I learned how to do it right at the age of 21 in terms of diet and rest. I used to do a lot of cardio way back when, but cut it out when mass building. Nowadays, most of my cardio comes from my martial art workouts.

[-Ross Hunt]

Do you ever do heavy lower body work?

e.g.--Back squats, front squats, split squats/lunges, deadlifts, power cleans, power snatches?


If you haven't done these, and you just add in some of that conservatively, you will probably see an instant positive change in body comp, basically like the effect you have when you start benching for the first time. Not just in the legs, either--Squats, deads, and oly lifts throw a load on your back, torso, and whole body in a way that benching doesn't. You might well get a lot of muscle mass and definition out of this initial training.

YMMV but many people on this site will tell you to slowly phase out the grains in favor of fruits and veggies. In my experience this works very well with respect to body comp.

[Allen Yeh]

Ever read through some of Ross Enamait's stuff? He's talking about boxing in particular but those principles can I believe transfer to other disciplines.

In regards to strength training:
http://www.rosstraining.com/articles...htraining.html
In regards to bulking up:
http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/hardcore.html

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Mars Cheung

When I decided I didn't want to do that anymore, I decreased my caloric intake and dropped back down to 155/6. Still pretty much consume the same foods but in lesser quanities. I average about 2700-2800 calories a day? My weight has pretty much stabilized around this area so I want to try to optimize myself here rather than try to put on more muscular mass that's hard to keep.

I'm about 5'6''. I'm no expert at body composition, but if I had to guess, then probably 12% bodyfat, 88% the other stuff(for lack of a better term).

What are your macros looking like now approximately?

[Mars Cheung]

Allen,

You'll have to pardon my ignorance, but what's a macro?

[Steven Low]

Macronutrients -- e.g. 40% carbs, 30% fats, 30% protein

Based on your objectives I'd suggest a combination of:
~Heavy barbell work -- squats, DLs, oly lifts
~Metcon -- things especially like fight gone bad for MMA/jiu jitsu
~HIIT

[John Alston]

Originally Posted by Mars Cheung

Allen,

You'll have to pardon my ignorance, but what's a macro?

Macro is a macronutrient - a carb, a fat, or protein, but you don't have to add those ideologically correct percentages after them.
He's way too low on the fats in my opinion.

[Mars Cheung]

I'd have to say my macros are in the 40-35-25 area (carb, protein, fat).