Thread: Muscle Tone

Originally Posted by Hollywood06

Im 20 years old and weight about 175. i work out and getting bigger and stronger than ever, people see me that aint seen me in a while and can tell a big difference. i can see say my arms are getting big but my muscles are cut like i want them to be. what can i do to get my arms cut and abs rock hard?

1 - To get cut you need to manage you diet so you're in a slight caloric deficit in order to lose fat.

2 - To get VISIBLE abs, you need to lose bodyfat. To have a strong core, you need to train for it using core exercises like planks, crunch variations, side planks, supermans, side bends, rollouts etc etc.

Is there anywhere i can go to look at the workout for i can know exactly how to do them?

Originally Posted by Hollywood06

Is there anywhere i can go to look at the workout for i can know exactly how to do them?

The ab exercises?

ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Net might have some. Otherwise google them.

yea the abs. there isnt any special thing to do to get cut is there? i heard light weight alot of reps gets you cut. i dont think i have fat on my arms.

Originally Posted by Hollywood06

yea the abs. there isnt any special thing to do to get cut is there? i heard light weight alot of reps gets you cut. i dont think i have fat on my arms.

There is no way to "spot reduce" fat, like doing ab exercises to lose fat on your abs. Thats not how it works.

Fat is a layer around your body which is stored in adipose tissue, some people have more adipose tissue in certain areas (like the stomach) so more fat will be stored there.

For your body to utilise this fat as energy, you need to be in a slight caloric deficit through diet management and training. When i say defecit, i mean under the level of calories you need to maintain what you have.

When the body uses this fat its kinda like draining a pond, there are shallow parts (arms for you apparently) and there are deep parts (the stomach), now how the hell are you gonna drain the deep parts before the shallow parts? You arent, thats how.

High intensity cardio helps training-wise, but it shouldnt be done at the expense of weight training because that is just as important as anything else.

Its a myth that high reps will get you cut, sure it COULD provide enough effort so that you're in a caloric defecit, but it wouldnt be just the high reps that did that.

Think about it, which requires more energy, and effort - 14 reps or 6 reps? The 14 reps may bring about muscular failure easier if you're not accustomed to that volume, but i think you'll agree that heavier weights require a lot of concentration, and overall effort to lift.

I know im far tireder after a heavy session rather than a light one, because i've used more energy and therefore have probably used more calories for that workout.

You see?

Sorry Gaz but I'd have to disagree with you on that one, as a few heavy reps will fatigue your nervous system before they burn off energy stores. That's why powerlifters are often very strong but fat fukkas.

Higher reps do burn more calories overall but I'd agree that working any specific area for fat loss is a waste of time. To really burn off fat via weight training as a technique (as opposed to the fact muscle tissue burns fat and is a great way of slimming anyway) then you have to go pretty extreme such as German volume training.

Supersets will whack your metabolism so silly it'll fall over but you can easily slow down muscle growth if you overdo it. Same with 'circuit training'.

High reps tends to burn up all the sugar (simple term) in your muscle tissue so it's great just before a refeed and massive pump for an upcoming competition, which is why you tend to hear of BBs doing "high reps to get cut".

Really it does come down to diet but it's also true that not everyone has much of a 6 pack if not trained. I've seem peeps so skinny you can see the viens on the belly but still not much of a 6 pack, so while it's true that most people just need to shed the fat you do need to train the abs a little - and it's probably easier than shedding that last 3% of bodyfat! There's a blog somewhere with a guy who does a 'before and after' photoset but on the same day. He has such well developed abs that when clenched they are visible on what looks a pretty fat belly when relaxed. My point is that abs CAN be trained for visibility but if you want them rock hard then only diet will do that as Gaz said.

Of course if also comes down to how long your workout is and other such factors. A heavy session of 2 hours will seriously fatigue you more than a light 2 hour session but generally higher reps means a longer workout, thus more calories.

Will it get you more cut? again, That depends on your diet.

One tip I'll give, work the tricep more than the bicep, as the majority of the time that's what will give your arms a muscular look. You need real cannonballs to make your arms look meaty via the biceps!


B.

thanks for all yalls help. im tryin to eat better now. ive started drinkin nothing but water and eating as little as possible. what are some foods i could eat. my prob is im hungry and wanna snack. hope im not gettin on yall nerves.

Eating "as little as possible" isn't the answer. Eat the right things in the right proportions and you'll be fine. Keep your caloric intake at a level that you know will put you in a small caloric deficit, not one that will leave you starving and eventually lead to binging eating.

holy shit/1 more retarded posts!

READ THE STICKIES BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!

Originally Posted by oneovercabin

Eating "as little as possible" isn't the answer. Eat the right things in the right proportions and you'll be fine. Keep your caloric intake at a level that you know will put you in a small caloric deficit, not one that will leave you starving and eventually lead to binging eating.

+1 to this.

Starvation will elicit the totally opposite response that you want. If you're getting very little in the way of food, your body will store it for later, and probably break down muscle as well.

In this case a large deficit doesnt necessarily equal faster results.

A few hundred calories a day at MOST, and i would build up to that gradually over a few weeks.

Originally Posted by Biggly

Sorry Gaz but I'd have to disagree with you on that one, as a few heavy reps will fatigue your nervous system before they burn off energy stores. That's why powerlifters are often very strong but fat fukkas.

Don't get me wrong, im not talking about singles, doubles, or even triples. Im talking relatively here. Im talking about a range of 6-10 compared to a usual "high" rep range of 14-20.

I think reps that high will fatigue the muscle and bring about concentric failure/lactic acid buildup before enough of an 'impact' has been made. I know after a heavyish (see above, lol) workout my muscles arent as painful as after a high one, but they are fatigued for a day or two afterwards.

When i do higher reps, yeah they hurt in the gym and it seems like a good workout, but after an hour or two i could do it all over again.

I honestly think the same training configuration can work for contrasting goals when you manage other factors like diet.

I mean, over the last 6 months i've been doing pretty damned intense workouts that most people would call strength or hypertrophy workouts, but because of my diet i've cut down bodyfat and gained a six-pack.

I do still stand by the fact that more muscle recruitment (heavier loads) will use more energy than less muscle recruitment (lighter loads), but you need a balance between volume and intensity, and obviously diet is always gonna be the deciding factor between whether you gain or lose.

I think theres a lot more to take into account than we can actually write out on here, because lets not forget that intense workouts will result in things like EPOC, and supersets and heavy loads are a great way to do that.

Plus things like circuit training can be used to great effect as a form of high intensity cardio, though they arent really completely cardio.

Hell, i think it all really boils down to two points:

1 - Exercise.
2 - Manage your diet.

:P.

I think there can be multiple paths to the same destination, yknow? Thats why training is such an awesome thing to learn about.

True enough if comparing to something such as 20 reps, which won't do much to raise your metabolism. I thought you were referring to the really heavy stuff where you do a couple or three reps, go for a cup of tea and come back to do a different exercise, ie "powerlifting".

That's seriously intense but simply doesn't have time to burn many calories. Somewhat simplified but calories are literally burnt, meaning oxygen, meaning aerobic rather than anaerobic. I know it's splitting hairs but very low rep stuff just doesn't burn many calories, intense or not. Running out of steam for the 6th rep doesn't mean you've burnt all your body's energy reserves via either aerobic or anything else, just that you've fatigued enough fibers that you can't lift that weight anymore - and most of that is from neural motor units, not glycogen reserves or anything.

Heavier weights will recruit more fibers but not twice as many, yet with high reps you can easily be doing twice the reps, even triple. If you look at a graph you can easily see a big difference in volume for example. Take 6 reps at 50lb, for whatever exercise, that's only 300lb total. Make it 3 sets, 900lb.

Now do 14 reps at 30lb - that's 420lb per set, 1260lb for that exercise. Simple physics sez 1260lb requires more calories and is more work than 900lb.

When you increase the weight not only the reps but the overall volume goes down, as muscles don't behave perfectly linear - your 12RM isn't half of your 6RM, its more like 3/4 of it (I can check and be precise if you like but you get the idea!).

What was the question again?

what are some foods i could eat

I would answer that but you overloaded even my nerdiness.

Lean meats, eggs, fish, veggies, wholemeal or wholegrain carbs. There ya go.



B.

Originally Posted by Biggly

True enough if comparing to something such as 20 reps, which won't do much to raise your metabolism. I thought you were referring to the really heavy stuff where you do a couple or three reps, go for a cup of tea and come back to do a different exercise, ie "powerlifting".

That's seriously intense but simply doesn't have time to burn many calories. Somewhat simplified but calories are literally burnt, meaning oxygen, meaning aerobic rather than anaerobic. I know it's splitting hairs but very low rep stuff just doesn't burn many calories, intense or not. Running out of steam for the 6th rep doesn't mean you've burnt all your body's energy reserves via either aerobic or anything else, just that you've fatigued enough fibers that you can't lift that weight anymore - and most of that is from neural motor units, not glycogen reserves or anything.

Heavier weights will recruit more fibers but not twice as many, yet with high reps you can easily be doing twice the reps, even triple. If you look at a graph you can easily see a big difference in volume for example. Take 6 reps at 50lb, for whatever exercise, that's only 300lb total. Make it 3 sets, 900lb.

Now do 14 reps at 30lb - that's 420lb per set, 1260lb for that exercise. Simple physics sez 1260lb requires more calories and is more work than 900lb.

When you increase the weight not only the reps but the overall volume goes down, as muscles don't behave perfectly linear - your 12RM isn't half of your 6RM, its more like 3/4 of it (I can check and be precise if you like but you get the idea!).

What was the question again?

"How are you?"



Lol, yeah tell me about it - like i said, there are many different pathways to get where you're going.

Thank god for that, discussion is what makes the whole subject interesting.