Confused on what to do now in the gym

[asianboy]

Hi there,

I am kind of confused on what type of training I should do and I have a couple of questions.

I am 5"7, 76kg/168lbs. I have a 39chest, 14arm, 22legs and 35.5 waist.

I would want to get bigger but right now I would like to lower my waist ( as it is getting too big) while getting bigger in other areas.

What type of workout should I do? Any recommendation of routines? I will be starting to work soon (long working hours) so won't have as much time to workout.

and a side question: Is it neccesary to do deadlifts to get a bigger back? or other back exercises works too?

[asianboy]

I would like to also add that I am currently 23/24% bodyfat %. How much should I aim to lower it to? below 20%?

[inflated]

Originally Posted by asianboy

I would like to also add that I am currently 23/24% bodyfat %. How much should I aim to lower it to? below 20%?

Definitely, you need to get your bodyfat % below 15% before you consider adding mass. 23% is fairly high, get in shape first then worry about mass.

[asianboy]

Thanks, what type of workout should I be doing? Any suggestion? Should I focus more on cardio than weights now to get to below 15%?

[inflated]

Diet, lower your overall amount of carbs, and minimize the amount of sugars you are consuming. Diet is more important than anything.

[Bigm999]

Originally Posted by inflated

Diet, lower your overall amount of carbs, and minimize the amount of sugars you are consuming. Diet is more important than anything.

THIS.

If your stats are at all accurate, you need to get your diet sorted before even thinking about cardio.

[MuscledHorse]

Can't speak to the training thing since i don't know a) how long you've been training or b) what kind of routine you are currently using.

As for the BF issue it's a case of diet more than exercise. Two factors here. 1) burning more calories than you take in and 2) consuming mainly clean calories and supplements. And this a is big area. Just learning to read labels (and I'm assuming that you are in the USA here) is half the battle. Look at your carbs and then look at the sugars subcategory and assess the ratio of added sugars to actual complex carbohydrates. You'll quickly discover that in America everything has sugar added now (see Jeef O'Connels' excellent "Sugar Nation" for everything on that. Stick to mainly clean stuff: chicken breasts, turkey, sandwich meat form the deli and not prepackaged, eggs, brown rise, potatoes/sweet potatoes, fish, etc.). On the supplement side, if you are drinking stuff like gatoraide, stop. it's got as much sugar as a Coke (get rid of sodas, too) and unless you are running a marathon or playing a full game of basketball odds are very high you don't need that stuff. Stick to water. ditto on the workout supps. Many of the post workout stuff is loaded with sugar to inflate the carb content. And the preworkout stuff is just high shots of caffeine and sugar.detox form it all. you'll be miserable for half a week and then you'll feel better than you ever realized.

[asianboy]

Thanks for the responses.

So right now I should aim to see my weight go down right? I am hoping to build muscle too. So it feels weird and sad to see my weight going down on the scale when I cut down my bodyfat%.

[MuscledHorse]

Originally Posted by asianboy

Thanks for the responses.

So right now I should aim to see my weight go down right? I am hoping to build muscle too. So it feels weird and sad to see my weight going down on the scale when I cut down my bodyfat%.

Just remember that muscle weighs more than fat so you may not see as much of a dopr as you are anticipating as the fat is burned away and replaced with built muscle from good diet choices and a solid gym performance (I hate to "routine" because the last thing you want your workouts to be is routine).

[Pecmass]

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat are both a pound.
Muscle, is, however denser than fat and a pound of it takes up less space than a pound of fat.

[MuscledHorse]

Originally Posted by Pecmass

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat are both a pound.
Muscle, is, however denser than fat and a pound of it takes up less space than a pound of fat.

Good point pec mass! pound for pound they are the same but muscle takes up less space than fat within that pound. In any case the net result is that my BMI says I'm pretty overweight at 5'10" 200# even thogh very little of that is fat. :-\

So I will rephrase my statement: In terms of occupying equal volume and space, muscle will weigh more than the same amount of fat.

[Pecmass]

The BMI scale is an abomination, as I'm sure you're aware. At 6'4" and 270 pounds I'm considered morbidly obese! I can assure you I'm not.

One of the first questions I ask someone, weather they're trying to lose weight, or and especially if they're trying to bulk up, is how many calories are you taking in daily. I've found that most people have no idea, and thats a recipe for failure. I use a great little app called "myfitnesspal" it helps me track EVERYTHING I eat. Has an extensive online database, and a barcode scanner. It tracks protein, carbs, sugar, fat, etc, even some vitamins. I've found it to be a great tool to add to any fitness arsenal.

p.s. myfitnesspal is an ios app

[MuscledHorse]

Originally Posted by Pecmass

The BMI scale is an abomination, as I'm sure you're aware. At 6'4" and 270 pounds I'm considered morbidly obese! I can assure you I'm not.

One of the first questions I ask someone, weather they're trying to lose weight, or and especially if they're trying to bulk up, is how many calories are you taking in daily. I've found that most people have no idea, and thats a recipe for failure. I use a great little app called "myfitnesspal" it helps me track EVERYTHING I eat. Has an extensive online database, and a barcode scanner. It tracks protein, carbs, sugar, fat, etc, even some vitamins. I've found it to be a great tool to add to any fitness arsenal.

p.s. myfitnesspal is an ios app

I agree about the BMI, though that flaw in the formula is a constant so you can still see over time how the USA has gotten significantly fatter. certified trainer and medical pro here too. Drives me nuts people have no idea how to read boxes of food or medicine--the whole contry has just been trained to respond to key words as selling points for buying something without looking at the whole product. If i have one more persons tel me they are eating healthy becasue they are eating gluten free I'm going to scream. If you don't have Celiac disease, it's not making any real difference.