Q&A for: 15-Aug-06
1724. Q:
You said that you only build a large amount of muscle by eating more with lifting weights. If you eat less than you need and lift weights you may lose muscle. My question is, if the body turns to burning muscle does it burn muscle over the entire body or only where the largest muscles are located. I know that when the body burns another energy source – fat – it burns fat over the entire body – not just in say the abs area.
A:
It will burn muscle from all over, just like with fat. Chances are the bigger muscles will lose more and the smaller muscles will lose less, but in general it's not something you can predict other than to say that it will happen all over.
1725. Q:
how many calories , protein and carbs a man have to eat to stay at a 200 pound add be fit
A:
It can vary greatly, depending on many factors including activity level and type, age, health condition, prior and current diet (1000 calories of celery is not the same as 1000 calories of rice, as an extreme example), etc. You can fill out my fitness guide specifying 'Tone and Maintain' as the goal (which basically means keeping the weight constant) and you'll see my suggested calorie and protein/carbs/fats breakdowns. Just keep in mind that these are just ballpark figures and everyone will be different.
1726. Q:
Is there any way to make your abs bigger without so you can see them better even with a higher body fat percentage? I am 23 about 5 8 and 145 lbs. I have been trying very hard for the last year to get my abs to pop out. Right now I am see them only a tiny bit when not flexing. My Diet is very good and I have slowly increased my weight about ten lbs and then lost it all twice now. Each time I do see my abs a little better, but only a little. I am not sure if I should just lose more wieght or keep bulking and cutting.
A:
Abs are just like any other muscle -- the only way to get them significantly bigger is to train them while putting on weight (bulking). There's unfortunately no shortcut to get them big and pop out better quickly or without putting on weight (and therefore putting on fat which of course hides the abs). It sounds like you're doing everything exactly right -- great job! Bulk/cut cycles like that are the surest way to build the physique you want. Once you reach the stage where you are now -- already quite fit and borderling having the six-pack -- the progress becomes painfully slow. But all you can do is keep at it, trying to optimize your diet as much as you can and mixing up various training programs to constantly present different challenges to your body. A couple more 'extreme' measures would be to go on a bigger bulk -- adding 20+ pounds (as slowly as possible, of course) before cutting and cutting for longer so you lose more weight. There's no way to predict ahead of time how successful either of those approaches will be, but if you totally feel like you're stuck in a rut those two things are certainly something you may want to consider. However if you're able to make small steady progress with your current bulk/cut approach I would stick with that till it really stops giving results.
1727. Q:
How much cardio would you recommend doing just before a weight session?
A:
I am not a fan of doing much cardio before weight training. I would try to save all the energy I can for weights and only do a light 5-10 minute max warm-up. In general, I recommend keeping cardio and weight training to separate days or at least times. If you absolutely need to do them together, I would do weights first and then cardio.
Having said that, some people find that intense cardio sessions actually psych them up better for weights afterwards. If that's the case with you, then you probably should stick with that approach. But for an average person I would only recommend a light warmup before hitting the weights.
1728. Q:
Hi Mike..About 4 years ago, I made a drastic change and decided to lose weight. I lost about 100 lbs.. I did not do it by just will power, I took some fat burners to help me w/this process, along with alot of cardio and changed some of my eating habits.
I recently moved to a new location in San Antonio, TX, bout 2 years ago, and I have a hard time struggling w/my cardio workout days on the summer time of the year primarily. Prior to this, I did not have a problem, and I have lived in San Antonio for about 10yrs. I do most of my cardio inside a gym.
When i say struggle, my body is used to doing at least 8-10 miles every other day, jogging, but I am struggling. I feel one lung tighter then the other, and I dont wheeze, but just have a hard time of even finishing up 3-5 miles.
Can this be possibly to some of the fat burners I have taken or may this just be seasonal allery thing?
A:
Congrats on your recent weight loss, it's quite impressive! As far as your current problem, unfortunately I won't be able to help. I have not heard of something like this as being a side-effect of fat burners but it's not impossible that they're responsible. On the other hand the fact that it happens seasonally seems to indicate allergies or something like them. I recommend you pay a visit to your doctor and see what he or she says. If it's a matter of allergies I believe they'll be able to do a test and determine it with certainty. Best of luck!
1729. Q:
How much shoudl a 23 year old male wieght at 5'8?
A:
Anywhere between 130 and 160 pounds would be considered normal.
1730. Q:
hey mike, im on your push pul schedule, and need some other tricep exercises. im doing the pushdowns, but overhead extensions hurt my elbows, along with skull crushers. what else is ther?
A:
Pain in your elbows is an indicator that something is wrong -- most likely you're doing too much. I would strongly recommend reducing the number of to-failure tricep sets you do weekly, especially if it's more than 10 now. Remember that all bench press and shoulder press exercises work the triceps quite heavily as well, so it's very easy to overwork them. If you already don't do much tricep work and the pain still doesn't go away you should consider not doing any direct tricep work at all for a week or two.
Aside from that some of the other good tricep exercises are:
- Close-grip bench press -- same as regular bench press, but with hands much closer together together, at about shoulder width. Keep elbows from flaring out to hit triceps most effectively and like any bench press have a spotter if you're going to failure
- Parallel bar dips
- Behind-the-back dips -- put two flat benches parallel to each other, sit on one and put your heels up on the other. Your hands should be holding on to the edge of the bench you're sitting on. Lift your butt of the bench and forward and lower your body between benches by bending arms at the elbow and then straight the arms back out to bring yourself back up.
- Diamond pushups -- same as regular pushups, but the hands are very close together or even touching to form a 'diamond' with thumbs and index fingers. Keep elbows in to hit the triceps better.
You can also do many variations on pushdowns by alternating the angle of the bar (from straight bar, to ez-curl bar, to triagle bar), by using the rope instead of a bar, by alternating overhand and underhand grip on the bar, and by alternating doing two-hand and one-hand pressdowns.
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