fasted cardio | Cardio 101 | Forum

Post edited 11:56 pm – May 27, 2010 by gregsfc

Lately I've been taking in only quickly digested foods before I work out.  A B12; a banana; 1/3 of my three-serving protein shake; and maybe one or two egg whites.  I take another banana, the rest of the protein shake and about three or four more egg whites with me to the gym (I leave the egg whites in the car).  Formerly, I had been trying to down all the egg whites and some oatmeal before leaving for the gym.  After I finish the intense, compound movements, I'll drink the second third of my shake and about half my banana.  I do a few isolated movements, like for calves, then I drive 30 min. to work (on work days).  I finish the protein shake and banana at the start of my drive; then I eat the egg whites immediately upon arriving at work.  I don't get a chance to eat again for 2 1/2 hours.

My energy seems about the same as fasted using this method, but I'm not making much progress (pre workout meal seems to have no positive or negative affect).

I plan to go through a corrective/flexibility phase with regards to training and then to a pure strength phase, using a book by Michael Mejia and John Bernardi "Scrawny to Brawny".  I've followed their plan before, but I couldn't physically or financially adhere to some of their advice.  I'm going to try it again but try to stay closer to the training guidlines.  Their nutritional guidelines, however, require a lot of monitoring and experimenting that only unemployed lifters could manage, but I'm going to do what I can.

Any input?

They've got some measurements to take in that book that show how well a person can hold muscle mass.  These measurements are based on ratios of the distance between two, opposing bones, to the distance betweeen two other, oposing bones.  If I remember right, it's the distance between the bones at the top of one's shoulders to that of the distance between the pointy bones at the top of one's pelvis.  The greater the distance between the shoulder bones, as compared to the pelvis bones, the better.  The vertical distance may also work into this as well.  They give examples of results of two ectomorphs (the two authors).  Based on this ratio, both of them can hold muscle mass much better than me.

I'm not a classic ectomorph.  I'm not tall and lanky; nor do I have long legs, but I'm very small built and have a short torso.  My elbows, wrists, ankles, and knees are very small and have very little tissue around them.  But I still love working out and trying different things to improve.  And I get alot of glycogen in my muscles when I workout, and it makes me feel muscular for a few hours, especially when I work my lats, upper back and chest, however, I work my whole body with the same ferver.  But when I read how everyone should be making consistent progress each session or each week, it frustrates me, because I only make progress for the first month or two after beginning any program, and then I stall.  If I take a break, I'll come back and get back to where I was, and then stall.  Last year, I was eating 4500 calories per day.  I got up to 158.  I was using the book.  I got only slightly stronger, but  I was getting fat, and I got bad blood results, showing too much uric acid in my blood at my physical.  That was the last straw.  I deserted that program.

…but also,  I've had one instance of success, which I think helps keep me determined.  In 1993, I was 28.  I had previously been struggling, trying to gain muscle mass for years.  I bought a package called Cybergenics.  I read about the program, plan, and diet,  and immediately thought the thing was a sham.  I had already spent the money, however, so I tried this crazy idea.  Work out one body part per day; five days per week.  Start with 90% of your max weight, go to failure.  Drop the weight by half, go to failure.  Drop by half again, go to failure.  Go to the next exercise.  With lat downs, for instance, you would do six sets like this with 1-minute rest periods; then go straight to seated, cable rows for four more drop sets. 

The nutrition plan was just as crazy.  You could not eat after 5 PM until after your workout the next morning.  Only coffee and water.  After that, you could drink milk on some mornings, but other times, only afternoons.  No whole wheat, but no bleached wheat either.  All kinds of other crazy stuff that engulfed my whole life for 60 days.  There were also a few pills that had inert stuff in them like steric acid.

The plan worked.  I got strong, even in realworld type movements, like throwing a ball.  I gained only about 8 lbs. but felt great and was ripped.

From everything I've read since then, including the book I have and info at your site, the science of that program is garbage.  It's certain to cause overtraining.

I've tried to duplicate that volume and intensity but I absolutely wear out after only a couple of weeks and get negative progress.

So, to finally answer your question, I don't think it's from lack of intensity, proper rest, or mental determination.  I don't think it's from lack of nutrition.  I feel like there has to be something more; something that can help me improve recovery; improve my own output of GH and testostorone, because I think that's what happened before.  I could feel myself getting stronger every workout.  It was noticeable almost immediately.  I don't think Cybergenics could do it again, but I think there has got to be more than lifting, eating, and resting, to get me to a normal man's strengtth, especially with regards to my legs.

The term "hard-gainer" usually represents someone trying to bulk-up but has habits of a good weight-loss person.

The term spot-reduction involves fat-loss. you can absolutely lose muscle in a specific area. Just don't work that muscle. Quads is a harder area because in cardio your legs get worked a lot though.

That being said, I hate oliptical because they don't really work your muscles. If you take a common oliptical user and do any other type of cardio with them they will complain that their legs are tired. In this case though, that's what you want to do….

Long story short, use soemthing like a Precor Oliptcial. the Octane ones are actually pretty good, so stay away from using those, you want bad olipticals, not good ones. This is just another example of fitting equipment and your program to your goals.

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Cameron

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