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I think I plateau'd. Any suggestions?

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
I'm 30yrs old and it's been almost exactly 1 year since I started riding, eating right, and exercising religiously.

My initial conditions were: :twitch:
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 239lbs
Bodyfat: 32% (according to the bathroom scale,fresh batteries)
Blood Sugar: Average 182 (measurements every night for 1 week)
Cholesterol: 210
Blood Pressure: 147/93
Resting Heart Rate: 78 bpm
Shirt: XXL
Waist: 48" around belly button
Average Ride Time: 30min (before yacking)

My current conditions are: :banana:
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 215lbs
Bodyfat: 24% (according to the same scale, fresh batteries)
Blood Sugar: Average 117 (measurements every night for 1 week)
Cholesterol: 142
Blood Pressure: 131/68
Resting Heart Rate: 42 bpm
Shirt: XL
Wasit: 40" around belly button
Average Ride Time: 3hr (before yacking)

I've been stuck at my current conditions for almost 2 months. I've tried changing my diet, changing my workout routines, types of rides, yoga, bowflex, heck I even started road riding. Any ideas on what to do or should I just wait it out for another month then crank it up even more? :hmm:

Oh yea, here are my goals for the next year:
Height: doesn't matter
Weight: 190-200lbs
Bodyfat: 18-20%%
Blood Sugar: anything below 120
Cholesterol: anything below 120
Blood Pressure: 135/70 (normal reading)
Resting Heart Rate: anything below 50 bpm
Shirt: L/XL
Waist: 35" around belly button
Average Ride Time: 4+hr (before yacking)
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
Some info I forgot, you might wanna know what I've been doing so you guys can offer suggestions:

Mon: 10min jog, 2hr lift session (chest, back, shoulders)
Tue: 1-2 hrs road ride, ave 18mph
Wed: Dumbells (arms, tricepts, free fly)
Thu: 16-32 miles of 1mile sprint/2mile chill/ 1mile sprint....
Fri: Muscle Failure Session (till I can't move anymore)
15pushups
20 unweighted squats
10 dolphin dive pushups
15 (4 count) bicycle crunches
Sat: 30min yoga w/ 1hr stretching
Sun: Any ride I can get

Please Help!
 

macko

Turbo Monkey
Jul 12, 2002
1,191
0
THE Palouse
That's a pretty good workout session you're on there ... the only advice I can give you if you're looking to drop weight is to work more cardio.

I recently went through a bit of a physical alteration: back in Feb/March I weighed around 214 lbs (I'm 6'3"). I began religiously commuting by bike to work (15 miles each way, 3-4 days a week) and run between 15-25 miles a week. I know that's a lot of cardio, but as of this morning I weigh about 188 lbs.

I don't weight lift, but I do crunches & push-ups most mornings, as well as rock climb once or twice a week to maintain a little upper body strength.

Basically, run or ride a lot more and you'll lose more weight and gain more [general] endurance. Is that what you're looking for?
 

SPINTECK

Turbo Monkey
Oct 16, 2005
1,370
0
abc
If you want to drop weight, you need to decrease your lifting or increase your reps to an insane amount. Not sure about your habbits, but when I drink sweetened tea/soda and/or eat late at night, I don't loose a pound. But when I drink more water and don't eat at night- weight comes off.

If you decrease your upper body workout by an hour and do a road ride, you might get better results if you're looking for a trimmer look- as you know it's all compromises.
 

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
This guy disagrees with the 'more aerorbic to lose weight' idea.


Not Lifting Things Off the Floor

I'm not going to go into a diatribe on EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) and its role on fat loss. Okay I lied. I am going to go into a diatribe. It's my article so deal with it.

If you haven't learned by now that "intense" resistance training is FAR superior compared to long duration aerobics or steady-state cardiovascular exercise in terms of TOTAL caloric expenditure in a 24-48 hour period, than you shouldn't be surprised that you still have the "skinny-fat" look.

It's quite the paradox, because if we compared a 45-minute cardio session to a 45 minute resistance training session, you're apt to burn more calories minute-to-minute doing cardio than you are lifting weights. That's why most people are under the assumption that cardio burns more calories overall and is the most efficient approach to fat loss (along with restricting calories drastically too low). However, what many trainees don't take into consideration is EPOC, which are the calories you burn AFTER you train.

What is often neglected is the fact that you have to look at total caloric expenditure in a 24 hour period, NOT just what you do while at the gym. How many calories you burn during a training session plays a small role compared to the total number of calories you burn in the 24-48 hours afterwards.

In one study, a group of people did a sample full-body workout consisting of four sets of ten repetitions and another group did nothing but steady-state cardio. Both group's energy expenditure was monitored during the workout and over the next 48 hours.

The steady-state group did expend slightly more calories in the 45-minute span compared to the resistance-training group. However, over the next 48 hours the resistance training group burned an ADDITIONAL 700 calories above baseline in addition to what they burned in the workout (compared to roughly 50 calories for the steady-state group). How do you like dem apples?

The amount of metabolic stimulation from the resistance-training workout sped the metabolism up to such a degree that the body burned an amount of calories equivalent to 1/5th of a pound of fat. When you train with weights, you break muscle tissue down, which takes energy (calories) to repair. Compare this to steady-state cardio, where there is little to no "spark" as far as metabolism is concerned (truthfully, long duration cardio slows down metabolism), and you can see which is more effective in terms of overall fat loss.
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
hmm, so according to this guy, I should do more resistance training? I think he's onto something. When I lift, I feel warmer longer after the workout than when I ride for 1-2hrs. Feeling warmer is a sign of a higher metabolism right?
 
L

luelling

Guest
I lost 30 lbs in a relatively short amount of time, so all I can do is give you the advice I used. I have two thoughts on weights and aerobic, and the more muscle you build lifting the easier it is to lose the weight, but muscle adds pounds. I was loosing weight to race XC again, coming from downhill, so I built the upper body, used it to help lose the fat, and then cut my diet to drop the additional muscle. Losing weight is a mathematical equation, burn more than you take in.

If you have reached a flat spot you may try increasing your calories (only slightly) for a week and then backing down again. Another problem could be that you are training too hard with no rest. Some of the times I have lost the most weight have been on off weeks when I'm only doing light training. One other thing to consider is intensity of training, the higher the intensity the more cals burned. One hour hard can burn more calories than two hours easy.
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
I was forced to take a recovery week starting last tuesday. Been pushing so hard lately that I started to aggrivate an old ACL injury from 10 years ago (right) and a recent patella injury from last feb (left).

After 2 days of taking it easy, I dropped 1 pound, so I guess there is something to taking a break. Gonna try bringing the calorie count up a notch then back down once I start training again. Thanks for the info, keep it comin! :thumb:
 

J_B

Monkey
Sep 20, 2004
849
0
In My '09 WRX STI
I was forced to take a recovery week starting last tuesday. Been pushing so hard lately that I started to aggrivate an old ACL injury from 10 years ago (right) and a recent patella injury from last feb (left).

After 2 days of taking it easy, I dropped 1 pound, so I guess there is something to taking a break. Gonna try bringing the calorie count up a notch then back down once I start training again. Thanks for the info, keep it comin! :thumb:

I was going to suggest just taking a week off, maintaing your diet and then getting back into the current workout.

I've gone from lifting heavy to moderate weights now. Definately helped and I am down from 195lbs, 10% body fat to 170lbs with about 6% body fat. That was a ego killer as I've always lifted heavy, been big and what I thought was strong. Losing that weight helped in all of my riding...from road to trail to dirt jumping to racing DH.

Lifting weights for 2 hours is alittle too long IMHO. You should only be hitting the weights for an hour or so. I either superset or do giant sets so I get alittle bit of cardio plus weights in.....If I do it right, I can get biceps, chest, shoulders and abs in about an hour.

I saw that your weight workout is on Mon & Wed......breakdown your body parts into those 2 workouts. Chest, Back & Abs on Mon and Shoulders, Tri's/Bi's & Abs on Wed.

Your Friday workout looks pretty good and I think I'm going to "borrow" it for a few weeks. Maybe throw in some front squats, box jumps, jump squats, lunges for legs.

You are definately working hard....keep at it!!
 

macko

Turbo Monkey
Jul 12, 2002
1,191
0
THE Palouse
This guy disagrees with the 'more aerorbic to lose weight' idea.
It's fairly obvious that the muscle requires energy, even in a "non-excited" state; building muscle also burns many more calories than the alternative (not building muscle?).

Here's the deal, though. I'm not huge gym rat but in the summers here, when it gets up to 115 degrees, it can be difficult to go running and riding. So I hit the gym. In all the times I've been chugging along on the treadmill I have made an over-all observation: runners are thinner than lifters. That's my point.
 

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
One thing that I think ought to be included is some hamstring work. Cycling can throw the quad/hamstring ratio out of whack. I also agree with J B that you should divide the upper body up. A whole workout devoted mainly to arms seems a waste.


In all the times I've been chugging along on the treadmill I have made an over-all observation: runners are thinner than lifters. That's my point.
Thinner doesn't mean fitter.

Runners also don't need any upper body strength like mountain bikers do. If we are talking about roadies then...
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
hmm, I'll replace 1hr of my monday lift session with 30min on a nordic trac. That machine really gets my hams burnin. The reason I devote a whole workout to arms is that I use relativly low weight. Just as with my friday workouts I do a circuit. I work the bicepts, tricepts, delts, forearms at 10reps each, rest, then do it again and again and again tilll I can't pickup my towel. Each subesquent session is either follwed by an increase in weight or number of sets (full circuits)

I <3 muscle failure and the gains afterwards.
 

reflux

Turbo Monkey
Mar 18, 2002
4,617
2
G14 Classified
Here's the deal, though. I'm not huge gym rat but in the summers here, when it gets up to 115 degrees, it can be difficult to go running and riding. So I hit the gym. In all the times I've been chugging along on the treadmill I have made an over-all observation: runners are thinner than lifters. That's my point.
My feeling on the gym are "blah." I don't mind going, but don't want to go if I can get my workout elsewhere. At home in the morning, I do ladder workouts of pushups and pullups. 1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1. It doesn't take care of my legs, but I save that for running, biking, and infrequent gym trips. Whatever.

Have you read that article that Wumpus posted? I've noted a sad trend at the gym: the fat (pc: larger) people at the gym who spend weeks, or at least an extended period of time, doing cardio rarely lose a significant amount of weight. A lifting regimine coupled with high intensity cardio will yield the best results.

As for your observation, what is the goal of the lifters at the gym? To build muscle mass or lean muscle?
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
From what I've seen (just among my friends and friends of friends), there are lifters who go for the mass (size) and those who go for strength (lean and mean). I have a few basket ball buddies that go for the lean and mean, and a few beach babe hounds that go for the size.

Personally, I'd go for lean and mean.
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
Apparently one of my clients is a personal trainer. He pointed me toward a nutritionist who gave me this awesome sounding 7 day diet. I'll set it up tonight and try it for 7 days. If it works, I'll post it up. If it doesn't work, I'll still post it up so yall can critique it. Hopefully it works, cuz if it'll work for me, it'll work for just about anybody!
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
HOT DAMN!!! Four days into this diet and I've dropped 6lbs with my normal workout routine. Once I finish the 7 days, I'll post up the diet, proceedure, food list, and my results.
 

TBFKAHG

Monkey
Aug 11, 2005
165
0
hmm, I'll replace 1hr of my monday lift session with 30min on a nordic trac. That machine really gets my hams burnin. The reason I devote a whole workout to arms is that I use relativly low weight. Just as with my friday workouts I do a circuit. I work the bicepts, tricepts, delts, forearms at 10reps each, rest, then do it again and again and again tilll I can't pickup my towel. Each subesquent session is either follwed by an increase in weight or number of sets (full circuits)

I <3 muscle failure and the gains afterwards.
I would say your really need to re-vamp the weight-liftign sections of your program. Your friday routine is actually pretty cool but your weight sessions could definitely use some improvement.

For starters, I would say that with your goals you don't really have anything to gain by Isolation exercises (and the reality is that the only people that really have anything to gain by Isolation exercises are body builders). Then there is the intensity level of what you are doing.

I've gone through stages where I would spend 2-3 hours at a time int he gym lifting but I wasn't really working out that smart.

Do your self a favor and pick up the book New Rules For Lifting. It's an excellent book and will give you some great insight into how to construct programs designed to meet your goals.

-Kit
 

Jettj45

Monkey
Oct 20, 2005
670
3
Butthole of NC
Your Diet is as if not more important in your daily regiment to loosing weight. I'm not sure what you are on now but apparently it is working for you. I'll throw mine up here maybe its simular to the one your using, its pretty much just a healthy eating style you should do always.
1) you take out all processed foods, they are no good.
2) Depending on your day do 4-6 meals a day.
3) make portions according to your weight and body fat
4) Consumtion of a lot of water is a big metabolic booster, i drink around 120oz a day.

I do 6 meals a day because im still in college and have plenty of time for it. You should be eating about every 2-3 hours.

How to figure out protions:
Take your body weight (175lbs) and subtract your body's fat percentage (10% ie: 17.5lbs) This number(157) is how many grams in protein you should consume in a day as well as carbs. Since I eat 6 meals a day I consume about 26-27 grams of protein and carbs per meal. Now 20%(17g) of that number is how much healthy fat(ex: flaxseed oil, fish oils, canola oil) you should have in your diet. I usually just put a tablespoon of canola oil one of my protien shakes.

I'm just going to take a screen shot of my personal schedule to give a clear idea of meals and some examples of things that i like to stick to.

My weight lifting is split up into body parts and when I do my legs I do low weight and a lot of reps ie my leg squats i do with 150lbs 4-5 sets of 20 with maybe 10 sec rest. I'm just trying to get my legs into the best shape I can for next season's races.

PS: warning on the flaxseed oil i stopped using that as a healthy fat source b/c it would make me sh!t around 10 times a day...might not do the same for you but a warning.







Regarding to the post above me, definitely true. But just for clarification I have separated muscle days because im trying to gain muscle in some areas. I would not reccomend if for a yearly routine. This is just the first 2-3 months of my off season training.
 

X3pilot

Texans fan - LOL
Aug 13, 2007
5,860
1
SoMD
The times I have been working out, dieting and trying to lose weight, for me at least, I've lost weight faster by uping my nightly snooze to 8 hours or more.
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
I fell off the diet/exercise stuff and have recently started up again. June 1 I was at 210. I have lost 15lbs so far and can attribute the weight loss to a good (not perfect) diet and workouts that focus on multiple muscle groups. I only spend 1 weekly workout with freeweights or machines. Everything else is done outside at the park or on the bike.

Here's one of the exercises I do:
Front-Back-Go (done in quick succession, no breaks between exercises):
1 rep:
Front = 5 push ups
Back = 5 crunches
Go = sprint 10 yards

Usually:
6 FBG's
1min break
5 FBG's
2min break
4 FBG
3min break
3 FBG
4min break
2 FBG
5min break
1 FBG

break periods vary depending on how winded or fatigued I am.
 

knittingfiend

Monkey
Jun 13, 2008
193
0
A tick north of Seattle
How long have you been doing these? Sounds like a good routine. It's good to vary your routine, too. Keeps your muscle (and your brain) from "getting bored". I don't know if you like any other types of exercise, and I wouldn't want to talk anyone OFF a bike, but, cross training will go a long way for overall fitness, and yes, weight loss. I used to do TONS of weights, and never really liked it much, but I did kick-boxing for years and got into the best shape of my life. Resistance training against a heavy bag, or using your own body weight, builds incredible strength, muslce definition, and translates to all sorts of other abilities (like better balance and finesse on a bike!).
My 2-cents......:brow:
 

ultraNoob

Yoshinoya Destroyer
Jan 20, 2007
4,504
1
Hills of Paradise
Week 1:
Monday: Front Back Go, Flutter kicks, road bike 1hr ave 18mph
Tuesday: Unweighted squats, jump training, flex tai chi
Wed: warmup, stretch, dvd yoga for 30min
Thurs: road ride 3hrs ave 16mph
Friday: rest
Saturday: drink
Sunday: trail ride

Week 2:
Monday: Get up, get down, move it around, dolphin dive, run 2miles
Tuesday: wind sprints, tires, shadow boxing
Wed: pump track for an hour or till I puke (or jump rope)
Thurs: bowflex, arms, shoulders, back, chest, hams
Friday: rest
Saturday: drink
Sunday: trail ride

Week 3:....
Week 4:....

Rinse and repeat. I'm having fun doing it and i'm sure as hell not getting bored.
 

knittingfiend

Monkey
Jun 13, 2008
193
0
A tick north of Seattle
Week 1:
Monday: Front Back Go, Flutter kicks, road bike 1hr ave 18mph
Tuesday: Unweighted squats, jump training, flex tai chi
Wed: warmup, stretch, dvd yoga for 30min
Thurs: road ride 3hrs ave 16mph
Friday: rest
Saturday: drink
Sunday: trail ride

Week 2:
Monday: Get up, get down, move it around, dolphin dive, run 2miles
Tuesday: wind sprints, tires, shadow boxing
Wed: pump track for an hour or till I puke (or jump rope)
Thurs: bowflex, arms, shoulders, back, chest, hams
Friday: rest
Saturday: drink
Sunday: trail ride

Week 3:....
Week 4:....

Rinse and repeat. I'm having fun doing it and i'm sure as hell not getting bored.
:banana:
 

burninup99

Chimp
Jul 25, 2008
8
0
YOu have to constantly and periodically change up your plan. all different types of cardio and weight training.