Thread: Return of the Buff Soccer Player

First off, I believe cardio is god for the simple reason that it helps my stamina and recovery rate by being the main factor in allowing the whole body to get the essential energy and nutrients it needs to keep pushing harder.

However, the fact that I can run 8+ miles has not changed the fact that my body doesn’t look like it can run 8+ miles… it looks more like a computer gamer who sits on his fat arse for the majority of the day. Thus, my goal: I want to take off all this hideous body fat resting almost solely on my torso and build well toned muscle to replace it and increase my overall strength, especially in my upper body, which was largely neglected due to a sport near devoid of upper body activity.

Currently I weight 185 @ 72” in training gear, including gloves and iPod. I can almost assure you 20lbs of this must be fat on my torso, and is simply unacceptable. To rectify this, I plan to build muscle, which will help to burn more fat, and continue a moderate cardio routine on days between weight training. Tuesdays are scheduled to be Pecs, Delts, and Tris; Thursdays are to be Back and Biceps; and Saturdays are for Abs and Legs. Each day is separated by a 30-45 min cardio workout utilizing 80% Heart Rate. As I’m still relatively new to this (3 weeks of weight training on moderate weights to practice form) I’ll be sticking to multi-joint involved exercises on very heavy weights to build quickly. *Note: I’ve already boosted much of my weights by 15lbs just on my 3 week warm up, probably due to finally reaching correct form and comfort.*

However, I have a serious question. Approximately how many exercises should I use per day, and what rep count is recommended for muscle mass gain? Currently, I use 6-10 reps at 2 sec of extend and 4 sec retract with 60-90 seconds rest between sets. Also, during my initial weight training phase, I was doing 10-16 exercises per day with 3 sets each exercise. These exercises were usually concentrated on a specific muscle, but I’ve been told that this method is a sure-fire road to overtraining (especially doing 5 days a week of weight training with one day of true cardio).

Finally, and most regrettably, my diet is out of my control. It is entirely based on what the galley makes that day and how many meals my work schedule will actually allow me to have. I try my best to pick what I can that is truly healthy and eat small portions, snacking a few times between meals too keep my metabolism moving, but 90% of the time I can’t even make it to the galley and rely on runners to bring back something at least partially nutritious. To counteract the potential negative effects, I’ve started taking a multi-vitamin. My only vice in nutrition to lose weight is that I love orange juice... can’t get enough of it, and I drink about a half a liter of it a day.

I’m still developing the schedule for the next 4 weeks, and any advice you can offer would be much appreciated. I’ve got 6 months to get this right and come home from deployment to surprise the little Mrs., and I cannot express the immense disappointment I’ll have in myself if I can’t get this right and that hideous fat destroyed by then.

Check out this thead in terms of selecting exercises:

Designing a Split Routine
(Note the information intended for beginners. You are a beginner still.)

Check out these threads when it comes to some general information about designing a program and the loading paramters:
Guide To Designing A Routine
Training 101


Don't forget to check out the diet & nutrition section to get things down in that regard.

Happy lifting.