Q&A for: 12-Nov-05
1016. Q:
Hey mike, 996, are you saying that like when im 20 ill still have puffy nipples and manboobs?
A:
I'm saying your lower chest will always be softer than the upper chest. If you exercise and eat well for the next 4 years you most certainly will NOT have 'man boobs' and you and your chest will look great. But your lower chest will still be softer than the upper chest. Think of the cheeks on your face vs. the lower jaw. Cheeks feel softer than the jaw, but you don't think of them as being puffy in any way. The same thing will be true for the lower chest vs. upper chest.
1017. Q:
Will starving once in a while like once a week and exercising rest of the week(including eating healthy) like the person from Q. 1004, get rid of man boobs?
A:
Starving is NEVER a good idea for successful long-term fat loss. Doesn't matter if it's once a week, once a month, or once a year. It's NEVER a good idea. You may choose to starve or fast for other medical or religious reasons but if you're doing it just to lose fat, then you're doing the wrong thing as I explained in Q&A #998. Starving every other day is really wrong, starving once a week is wrong, starving once a month is a little wrong, but they're still all WRONG.
1018. Q:
OK Mike. You persuaded me in a good way : ) I am the person from most of starving questions. I will NOT starve myself to lose weight. I am just going to eat right, exercise, and weighttrain everday, 24/7. I hope to look better that way. I know for sure I will FEEL better :)
A:
Very glad to have convinced you :) It's great that you have a positive enthusiastic attitude towards getting more fit -- that's the most important thing. Just don't overdo training: 2-3 hours per week of weight training and another 2 hours or even less of cardio per week is all it takes and more is not necessarily better. Follow the advice in the articles on this site and I promise you will both look better and feel better :)
1019. Q:
How much is a 5'9, 14 year old be able to bench press?
A:
There's no expectation for any specific weight for a 14-year old to bench press. In fact, it's not such a good idea to find your bench press (or any other exercise) maximum at such a young age at all because you risk stunting your growth should you suffer an injury. At the very least, have an experienced adult supervise and spot you.
If you want some benchmark to compare to, then an averate ADULT male can bench press about 135 pounds (remember that an average person does not weight train). I think being able to bench press your own weight is a respectable mark and being able to bench press 1.5 times your own weight is very very impressive and very rare.
But again, those benchmarks apply to guys over 16 years of age who are almost or completely done with growing. At your age, very heavy weight training is not the greatest idea because of the risk of injury and stunted growth. I'd suggest using medium weights and never going to failure on any exercise till you're at least 16.
1020. Q:
hi
i am 46 years old, female. height is 1.75 cm, weight was constant between 58 - 60 kg since 1994. Started cardio training (treadmill, cross country runner and bike) March 2004. Noticed as time went by, that I was picking up weight. Now, I weigh 63 kgs, don't fit into my clothes and am unhappy. And confused. Reading though your section, I get the idea that my training (which has been improved on immensely) is the problem. Unfrair - at 46 I ge fitter than I've ever been, but become fat and ugly? What do I do? I'd really appreciate some advise from you. Thanks, Tina
A:
First off, at 175 cm 63 kgs you are in absolutely terrific shape, especially for 46 years of age! So you should by no means get down on yourself because 1) it's underserved and 2) it's very counter-productive to achieving your fitness goals. Positive attitude can be just as important as diet and training.
With that out of the way, even though you're in terrific shape already you probably can do even better. Age will always be working against you so you'll need to be wiser about your diet and training and get more out of them. You haven't mentioned diet at all but I have to assume it's not bad for you to be in the great shape you're in. Still, check out my diet article and see if you can improve it a bit. A common problem is eating too few calories with too many of the calories (more than half) coming from carbs. A higher-calorie diet that distributed those calories about evenly between protein, carbs, and fats would be better to rev up metabolism and restart fat loss. This fat loss diet is about what your daily diet should look like, and you can probably even eat a little more than this since you're pretty physically active.
The other thing is your training. It sounds like what you're doing is a ton of lower-body cardio. No question that's great for your health, but you can do better as far as losing fat (as I think you've already discovered). You should introduce weight training into your routine, cut cardio down to no more than 2-3 hours/week max.
It would also be great if you could diversify your cardio to include some upper body too -- swimming is perfect for that or you could shadow box. Another great idea to change up your cardio is to do HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). In HIIT you alternate 30-second or so intervals of all-out efforts (sprinting, biking at max speed, swimming as fast as possible, etc) with 30-second recovery periods when you perform the same exercise at leisurly pace (walk, bike slowly, swim slowly, etc). A single HIIT session can last 5 to 15 minutes or 5-15 all-out 30-second efforts alternative with 5-15 30-second revory periods. You shouldn't overdo HIIT so 2-3 such sessions per week is all that's needed. You can start HIIT at 2 sessions per week, 5 minutes per session and add 1 minute each week till you do two 15-minute sessions per week in addition to your 'regular' cardio.
Hope all these suggestions help you. And remember to stay positive! :)
1021. Q:
Hi Mike, I am the one from # 985. I have not resistance trained for 5 days now, (had alot of company over etc: )but I am starting back up, and I would like to know if me missing 5 days of resistance will make any big difference? Although during that 5 days I did walk 6 miles for cardio :) but nothing as far as resistance training :) Thanks!
A:
Don't worry about it, just get back to your program. Your program is just a guide and it's of course expected that you won't be able follow it exactly day after day after day. Occasional breaks from training (about 1 week of break for every 2 months of training) are actually beneficial. Great job on doing cardio and now just get back to resistance training as well!
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