lifting + TRX(suspension training)

[CPA37710T]

i know this isnt the bodybuilding forum, but its impossible to get an answer in there, i know theres many gym rats here so here's my inquiry

i've been cutting for a few months from home, then 2 months ago i started doing TRX at a gym, then 1 month ago i included a lifting routine at another gym before going to TRX, so its like this 4:30pm i hit the weight gym 5:30 i leave, 6:00 TRX class starts for an hour then im done.

my TRX trainer says its cool to train every day cause that will improve my muscles and get me ripped faster.

my lifting trainer says i should do less TRX and workout only 4 days a week.

I personally dont feel tired, in fact i could even add an extra hour of any other activity.

what do you guys think i should listen to ?

btw im looking to go 12% body fat, im currently 15%


5'11 ---- 172 pounds


thanks in advance

[TheSquealer]

Personal trainers are almost all retards - doubly true in the US in chain gyms.

"TRX Class" - that screams chain gym trying to create programs that add a perception of value to a membership
"TRX Trainer" - that screams retard.

TRX? What does TRX have to do with anything? It's just a different way of doing body weight exercises. Doesn't matter how you do it or what you call it. In that sense, your personal trainer is right to tell you to lay off. You train upper body, you burn off all your stored sugars, deplete your blood sugar and then jump right back into it and guess what??? Your muscles now provide the fuel and get broken down for energy.

If you are lifting and not trying to get bigger... then why not just do cardio? You'll burn more calories and its less redundant and you won't be over training your upper body.

Diet is everything. You need to dial your diet in check FIRST. If neither one of them discussed that with you in detail, then they are both twats. If you don't have your diet in check, there is no point in asking or anyone answering any other questions. Weight loss only gets harder as your body fat goes down and you have to be on top of your diet.

[CPA37710T]

hi Squealer:

regarding diet i keep it pretty clean and balanced

meal 1:
Whey + plain oats (i change this one sometimes for 6 egg whites 1 yolk)
animal pak
CLA
carnitine
musclepharm shred matrix

Meal 2:
brown rice
lentils or any grain or salad no dressing
lean protein source (no fat, pinch of salt or no salt, no sauce)

Workout time
Musclepharm Assault Preworkout
Scivation Xtend while working out
(i wake up pretty late i work during the night)

post workout:
Plain Yogurt + almonds or walnuts

Meal 4
whatever is leftover from the uncle ben rice i ate in the afternoon (its the 90 second package instant rice)
salad or grain again (smaller portion than the afternoon meal)

Meal 5
lean protein source only
sometimes a salad again no dressing, no croutons


Meal 6
Casein Protein


i really doubt im exceeding my calories!, ohh! and i forgot to include i added the lifting session cause ive been stalled for a month already in the 172 pound limbo!

[TheSquealer]

Originally Posted by CPA37710T

hi Squealer:

regarding diet i keep it pretty clean and balanced

meal 1:
Whey + plain oats (i change this one sometimes for 6 egg whites 1 yolk)
animal pak
CLA
carnitine
musclepharm shred matrix

Meal 2:
brown rice
lentils or any grain or salad no dressing
lean protein source (no fat, pinch of salt or no salt, no sauce)

Workout time
Musclepharm Assault Preworkout
Scivation Xtend while working out
(i wake up pretty late i work during the night)

post workout:
Plain Yogurt + almonds or walnuts

Meal 4
whatever is leftover from the uncle ben rice i ate in the afternoon (its the 90 second package instant rice)
salad or grain again (smaller portion than the afternoon meal)

Meal 5
lean protein source only
sometimes a salad again no dressing, no croutons


Meal 6
Casein Protein


i really doubt im exceeding my calories!, ohh! and i forgot to include i added the lifting session cause ive been stalled for a month already in the 172 pound limbo!

There are a few people here who are a lot more knowledgeable than me.. but who knows if they'll chime in so take everything with a grain of salt. I do however, own a gym and deal with this every single day.

I dont know anything about you or how many calories you need a day. Could be 6000 to maintain, could be 2500. That is a very critical thing to know. Don't really know exactly how many calories you are burning a day through exercise, the level of intensity, the workout types etc (i mean you could be doing light circuit training with weights or lifting heavy, focusing on heavy compound lifts like legs, dead lifts, bench etc)

If you hit a plateua, you still need to look to diet. You can power through it often by adding more and more exercise - but the cost can be severe are you start losing an increasing amount of muscle as you do. When you push harder and harder as your body weight gets lower like that, you can find up to almost 1/2 of your weight loss being lost muscle mass.

Diet
Diet
Diet

Make sure the macro nutrient ratios are in check (30/50/20 or whatever baseline you start with)
Make sure you are eating balanced meals (I dont' see fat)
Play with fat/carb ratios (i dont see fats)
Be consistent with diet and those changes and you'll find what works.

When it comes to weight loss and sports nutrition, fat is not the enemy and often too little fat is the problem.

If you're choice is to lose more weight by doing more exercise, you're going to find yourself simply doing more harm to your body, more damage to joints, experience greater muscle loss, diminished ability to recover (you're not eating for added exercise) etc.

If you play with diet and get it dialed in and be fanatically consistent, you won't need to do more exercise - but if i was going to do more exercise, it would be light cardio... not more resistance training.

[DukeSkywalker]

Originally Posted by CPA37710T

i know this isnt the bodybuilding forum, but its impossible to get an answer in there, i know theres many gym rats here so here's my inquiry

i've been cutting for a few months from home, then 2 months ago i started doing TRX at a gym, then 1 month ago i included a lifting routine at another gym before going to TRX, so its like this 4:30pm i hit the weight gym 5:30 i leave, 6:00 TRX class starts for an hour then im done.

my TRX trainer says its cool to train every day cause that will improve my muscles and get me ripped faster.

my lifting trainer says i should do less TRX and workout only 4 days a week.

I personally dont feel tired, in fact i could even add an extra hour of any other activity.

what do you guys think i should listen to ?

btw im looking to go 12% body fat, im currently 15%


5'11 ---- 172 pounds


thanks in advance

At 5'11 172 you are pretty under muscled and /or small framed. I'd just lift hard 4 on 1 off do cardio for 30 mins 3 days a week. Legs legs legs. No need to be adding fancy stuff into the mix. Getting ripped is about diet & cardio & drugs. If the drugs aren't for you, diet & cardio. @ 5'11 172, if you're not ripped at that weight you need to concentrate on getting bigger. Target weight at 5'll you'd be 200 lbs with a 6pack; Tyson was 5'll 220 just for a frame of reference. Before my knee injury I was 228, 6 pack, at 5'5 benching 425 for 4 reps. Personally, if I were you'd I'd join a good jitz gym, some spin classes, & go that route.
Ds

[CPA37710T]

thank you squealer, this really helped me out

Cheers!

[CPA37710T]

Originally Posted by DukeSkywalker

At 5'11 172 you are pretty under muscled and /or small framed. I'd just lift hard 4 on 1 off do cardio for 30 mins 3 days a week. Legs legs legs. No need to be adding fancy stuff into the mix. Getting ripped is about diet & cardio & drugs. If the drugs aren't for you, diet & cardio. @ 5'11 172, if you're not ripped at that weight you need to concentrate on getting bigger. Target weight at 5'll you'd be 200 lbs with a 6pack; Tyson was 5'll 220 just for a frame of reference. Before my knee injury I was 228, 6 pack, at 5'5 benching 425 for 4 reps. Personally, if I were you'd I'd join a good jitz gym, some spin classes, & go that route.
Ds

THIS! my trainer of the lifting gym told me that i should start cutting when i get to 200 pounds, and to bulk for now with clean sources!!

ok so i think the muscular guy knows better than the TRX trainer lol

well i will just focus on weights and eat more i guess, thanks duke, btw what kind of injury you had?

[DukeSkywalker]

I tore my menuscus. I had surgery a month ago. Just getting back on my feet now.
Duke

[TheSquealer]

Originally Posted by CPA37710T

thank you squealer, this really helped me out

Cheers!

NP. Just remember that if you are trying to bulk or cut down, diet is everything. As a rule, always look to diet first, everything else second. That means having a plan. Not "eating clean" by some random definition of gut feeling or opinion, but knowing exactly how many calories you need, how many grams of fats/carbs/proteins and making sure you are on point every time you eat. If you aren't consistent in that area, you won't know what needs to change. Also remember that burning fat means burning muscle (literally - they go hand in hand... all that you can do is minimize muscle loss).... so more exercise to burn fat means more muscle loss as a result. Not a good plan for a fairly lean guy who is trying to get leaner.

btw... here is a very old site of a guy and his weight loss as an example - http://www.johnstonefitness.com/
basically you can see him doing exactly that... working harder and harder and eating less and less until he got his body weight down but he had lost a significant amount of muscle mass because he wasn't eating enough and was working out too much.

Work smarter... not harder

[incredibleworkethic]

For me, I always did harder work first, then factored diet in. I find that I can't get in the routine of eating less, but find working harder first easier (to start up).

After hard work, I would then combine healthy eating with hard work to get a better result. Am I crazy or just looking at an alternative way of motivation?

[2013]

Just found this pic of the OP

[CPA37710T]

Originally Posted by 2013

Just found this pic of the OP

not too far from reality lol

[2013]

just took this snap shot of my dogs

[The Duck]

If you are able to complete a TRX session after doing weight lifting you are not working hard enough.

[Choopa Phil]

Time off = time recovering. Working out everyday is not smart IMO. 4-5x a week max. Id learn what you can and ditch your TRX trainer TBH. If you can train every day youre not working out hard enough, that goes without question.

Im looking to get down in weight as well currently 5'7 178 8% BF, on the road to 5% just to see if i can do it mentally, then possibly compete? Let me know if you need any advice

Duke, damn bro 5'5 228! Beast mode! Heaviest I got was 192, around 12% bulked WAYYYY too hard this winter, 5k cal/day. Dropped it down to 3100 keto based and the fat has been melting away

[PR_Glen]

TheSquealer you are priceless man hehe love it.

One thing I would add is that the level of training would be more of a determination of how many times a week you should be going. When I'm just doing regular maintenance work, which is still pretty hard, i will go as much as 5-6 days a week because my energy stores don't get all depleted and no need for test recovery from mid level workouts. Now if i were doing serious heavy pushing, hard strip sets and leaving it all on the table at the gym i would need a day or two in between for recovery. Basically if you are really sore (not the same as injured) after a workout, give your self a day off or two.

Sounds like you are doing more of a cut right now though at those levels. You CANNOT eat things like oats and rice on a cut. If you are gluten sensitive like a large majority of the planet it will just keep you swollen anyway. If anything save the rice and the high carb meals for post workouts. This will help feed the muscles and spike insulin levels for optimal protein absorption in the same step. Eating it before a workout or on an off day will just store as fat. Switch out cardio for hiit instead, it's more effective and you can get better results in far less time.

[pornguy]

YOU NEED REST.

Take Wednesday Saturday and Sundays off. On Sat and Sun do some walking or similar but Wednesday sleep late and dont exercise.

[Choopa Phil]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

Sounds like you are doing more of a cut right now though at those levels. You CANNOT eat things like oats and rice on a cut. If you are gluten sensitive like a large majority of the planet it will just keep you swollen anyway. If anything save the rice and the high carb meals for post workouts. This will help feed the muscles and spike insulin levels for optimal protein absorption in the same step. Eating it before a workout or on an off day will just store as fat. Switch out cardio for hiit instead, it's more effective and you can get better results in far less time.

He will only gain fat if hes in a caloric surplus. Water weight yes, fat, no...i believe its 2.7 grams of water for every 1G carbs. You can still have carbs and cut weight without question, its just much faster to cut without them.

What I would consider for your goals is hitting the weights harder, dropping the TRX and start doing fasted LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio. 30 minutes a day, 8-max incline 4mph, 4x a week. Once I introduced this cardio in line with my keto based diet, youll be sure to shred.

[CPA37710T]

Originally Posted by Choopa Phil

He will only gain fat if hes in a caloric surplus. Water weight yes, fat, no...i believe its 2.7 grams of water for every 1G carbs. You can still have carbs and cut weight without question, its just much faster to cut without them.

What I would consider for your goals is hitting the weights harder, dropping the TRX and start doing fasted LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio. 30 minutes a day, 8-max incline 4mph, 4x a week. Once I introduced this cardio in line with my keto based diet, youll be sure to shred.

yes i agree here, i cant drop carbs, and the amount of carbs i consume is not really significant, i mean a pack of 100 calorie oats and then a 2 serving bag of rice throghout the whole day, i think its low enough.

If i take a look at all answers i think the winning answer is to just lift more and forget the TRX lol

i think the diet is good already, i will tweak a little on it

btw, for body to start keto it will take 3 days with no carbs to get ignited right? i read that somewhere i cant recall

[Choopa Phil]

Originally Posted by CPA37710T

yes i agree here, i cant drop carbs, and the amount of carbs i consume is not really significant, i mean a pack of 100 calorie oats and then a 2 serving bag of rice throghout the whole day, i think its low enough.

If i take a look at all answers i think the winning answer is to just lift more and forget the TRX lol

i think the diet is good already, i will tweak a little on it

btw, for body to start keto it will take 3 days with no carbs to get ignited right? i read that somewhere i cant recall

Really depends on your current stats, i went into ketosis 30 hours into my diet. Keto sticks ftw. Keep the rice for post workout, and the oats for first thing in the morning. if you can ditch the 2nd serving of just do 1 1/2 servings split 2x a day that would be better as well. The oats are negligible thats for sure. What I did to keep myself full, is eat veggies. Ill replace 1 cup of rice with 2 1/2 cups of broc or other green. That alone helped significantly.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by Choopa Phil

He will only gain fat if hes in a caloric surplus. Water weight yes, fat, no...i believe its 2.7 grams of water for every 1G carbs. You can still have carbs and cut weight without question, its just much faster to cut without them.

What I would consider for your goals is hitting the weights harder, dropping the TRX and start doing fasted LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio. 30 minutes a day, 8-max incline 4mph, 4x a week. Once I introduced this cardio in line with my keto based diet, youll be sure to shred.

a lot easier to be in a caloric surplus when you're eating rice wouldn't you say? ;) As you said it is possible to cut with eating carbs but if it takes you a lot more time whats the point? Isn't the goal to do these things as fast as possible?

I wouldn't recommend low intensity steady state or whatever you call it to anyone but a senior with a heart condition or someone recovering from injury.. Talk about testosterone stalls... basically anything longer than 20 mins cuts into gains, anything cutting into gains is slowing down fat burn. Hard and fast keeps test peaked from your workout plus has you burning calories for the rest of the day/night in the process where as long and slow stops as soon as you do. If your heart is up for it go hard for 10-15 then go home!

I understand where you get this from though, lots of gigantores at the gym finishing their workouts doing long and slow on the treadmills, but the thing is with them they are generally pretty lean already and not one of them gets cut faster than I do with my method.. took me about 25 years of trouble shooting to figure it all out but is very effective in a short spell.

edit: i just realized the Phil I was talking to.. I started on this path from your advice last year actually, your new avatar threw me off.

[Choopa Phil]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

a lot easier to be in a caloric surplus when you're eating rice wouldn't you say? ;) As you said it is possible to cut with eating carbs but if it takes you a lot more time whats the point? Isn't the goal to do these things as fast as possible?

I wouldn't recommend low intensity steady state or whatever you call it to anyone but a senior with a heart condition or someone recovering from injury.. Talk about testosterone stalls... basically anything longer than 20 mins cuts into gains, anything cutting into gains is slowing down fat burn. Hard and fast keeps test peaked from your workout plus has you burning calories for the rest of the day/night in the process where as long and slow stops as soon as you do. If your heart is up for it go hard for 10-15 then go home!

I understand where you get this from though, lots of gigantores at the gym finishing their workouts doing long and slow on the treadmills, but the thing is with them they are generally pretty lean already and not one of them gets cut faster than I do with my method.. took me about 25 years of trouble shooting to figure it all out but is very effective in a short spell.

edit: i just realized the Phil I was talking to.. I started on this path from your advice last year actually, your new avatar threw me off.

Haha yea I was tired of having people gauge their replied based on how I looked. But I didnt get that advice from any gigantore idiots, I got it from my coach who also does preps for many competitors. Kinda stepped things up a little bit. LISS should be done fasted up waking up, not post lifting. When you do that post workout you most definitely will start to cut into gains without question. Personally when I run (Yes, I do cardio now!) after a workout I sweat pure ammonia smell which is a sign of the body breaking down protein for energy.

You have to realize there is a time and place for everything and regardless of what ANY one tells you, this is more or less a journey of learning. Your body will respond to things one month, then the next you will see negligible changes and be stuck at a plateau. So please take all our advice together as a whole and apply it. Learn your body, track what you eat (this is the most important!!!!) Myfitnesspal is a great app to get if you dont already have it.

Personally I'm beyond "getting big" I had a great run of bulking from 110-192, now I want to cut and bring out all the hard work. Switched gear from eating anything and everything 24/7, to a perfect 3100 cal 20% Carb/ 40% Protein / 40% Fat Macro. And let me tell you, my blood work and my body has thanked me. I thought I felt good before, but now I feel great. Lighter on my feet if you will, brought back some athleticism!