Weight Lifting (Again)
16
Member
149 days
snailtrail posted 20 weeks ago.
I am 29 and at Christmas weighed 237, benched 485, curled 70lb dumbells, deadlifted near 600. NO JUICE EITHER....however, I was just growing out of clothes and lost the purpose. Since Jan 1 I have upped my cardio drastically, changed my weights to more leg concentrated (squats, curls, extentions), started a weight loss supplement and am now 198 and pretty darm lean. I have been riding 15-20 miles on the bike 4X a week, running 5 miles 3X a week and have been swimming as much as possible(maybe 2 miles a week). It's what I have time for at the moment ie, best I can do. The more bulk I lose up top I am gaining in my legs and am improving my run and bike 10 fold. I am new to the Tri family so I dont know all the answers but I do know that as long as I keep training hard for the 3 areas my body will adjust appropriately. Hope this helps...
...up wind after egg salad
1
Member
141 days
triwill posted 20 weeks ago.
a long slow run once a week in the morning should really help. add some strong coffee and water, no breakfast and go for 90 minute slow jog. prepare to feel trashed for the rest of the day though.
moreover, speed up your metabolism by training more than once a day. also adding some long hill rides on the bike should also help.
similarly, cut out the weights and do some core stability work. the extra bulk from weight lifting is useless in triathlon.
379
Member
419 days
stewarba posted 20 weeks ago.
I've never been a hard core weight lifter, but have been lifting weights 3-5 days a week for the better part of 20 years (with a couple of gaps here and there). Anyway, I feel that it is important to understand your body type in terms of physique. In other words are you an endomorph, ectomorph, or mesomorph or some variation in between. If you tend to have some or all of the characteristics of a mesomorph, you may never get that classic long lean look that you associate with endurance athletes. Thats OK, you can still eleminate as much body fat as possible, but understand that as a mesomorph you have more natural muscle and that you will be able to maintain and build muscle much more quickly conversly if you leaned more towards an ectomorph, you would lose the muscle mass quickly. When I was younger, I wanted to look like Frank Zane, but that wasn't going to happen. I just don't have his body type.
I guess the message I am trying to convey is understand your body type and work with what God gave you by setting realistic goals for how your body should appear.
Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines – Brian Tracy
2008 Sprint Tri A race goals
S: 500m in 10:00 – FS Stroke only
B: 22mph avg over course
R: 5K <= 25:00
Place top 50% for my age group
212
Member
722 days
fastdog5 posted 20 weeks ago.
Though not as drastic a change as some of the others (I went from a bulkier 190 to a lean 165), I was also big-time into lifting before I started triathlon. If you follow a serious tri program for any distance, you'll find you have less time for those lifting sessions; you can lift once or twice a week and still maintain your strength. These will be full-body workouts w/ focus on functional strength for triathlon. I actually think my body looks better now, as all the cardio has burned off the flab that was hiding some of the muscles I had worked so hard to develop.
309
Member
1215 days
nyfan21 posted 20 weeks ago.
I still lift 5 days a week for an hour; hour and 15 mintues a day and I train cardio 1 hour a day then on the weekends I am doing 2.5 hours a day. I still love to lift. But when "season" starts I lean down about 8 pounds. The best ways to lean down:
Good clean diet
More cardio
But to answer your question there is no real way to lose bulk and keep muscle for example. When I weight 195 I bench 225 for 14 reps now I am leanign down to 188 and that 225 is hard for 12 reps.
-MC
212
Member
722 days
fastdog5 posted 20 weeks ago.
nyfan21 wrote:
I still lift 5 days a week for an hour; hour and 15 mintues a day and I train cardio 1 hour a day then on the weekends I am doing 2.5 hours a day. I still love to lift. But when "season" starts I lean down about 8 pounds. The best ways to lean down:
Good clean diet
More cardioBut to answer your question there is no real way to lose bulk and keep muscle for example. When I weight 195 I bench 225 for 14 reps now I am leanign down to 188 and that 225 is hard for 12 reps.
-MC
I agree diet & cardio are the best ways to trim down, but have to disagree that you can't maintain your strength. I am lifting the same weight I lifted 25 pounds ago, & in some cases more, by only lifting 2x/week.
309
Member
1215 days
nyfan21 posted 20 weeks ago.
I agree diet & cardio are the best ways to trim down, but have to disagree that you can't maintain your strength. I am lifting the same weight I lifted 25 pounds ago, & in some cases more, by only lifting 2x/week.
No digs but if you were lifting the same weight 25 pounds ago then you had really high body fat 25 pounds ago. I have been lifting since I was 16 and I can tell that once I lean down from 9% bf to around 6% I get weaker even as my diet gets better. IMO.
379
Member
419 days
stewarba posted 19 weeks ago.
Most body builders I know run a year long cycle of packing on extra muscle and fat in the winter months (they say it kind of runs hand and hand) and then they pick up the cardio in the spring to shed the fat, but they also say when doing that they also shed some muscle mass with it, but they are look for a net gain of lean muscle by the end of the yearly cycle. For example one friend of mine put on 25 pounds this winter. He knows not all of it is muscle becuase to support that muscle growth he had to pack in some serious calories which means some of it got stored as fat. He expects to lose 15 pounds over the next 6 months of which most of it will be fat, but he says you can't lose only fat and that some of the weight loss will be in the form of muscle.
Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines – Brian Tracy
2008 Sprint Tri A race goals
S: 500m in 10:00 – FS Stroke only
B: 22mph avg over course
R: 5K <= 25:00
Place top 50% for my age group
Hi,
Sort of building off one of the topics a few days ago about weight lifting. Some people mentioned that they used to be really into it, and have alot of extra bulk because of it. I am the same way. I lift much less now, but still maintain my bulk, but not nearly the strength as before. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem, and has been successful in losing some of the extra bulk and weight, without compromising all or any more of the strength that has been gained over the years.
Thanks for any suggestions