Q&A for: 23-Feb-08
2582. Q:
how many calories do you burn in an hour playing football?
A:
It depends on a number of variables, but in general somewhere around 500-600 calories per hour.
2583. Q:
Besides the health risk of smoking how does having two to three cigarettes a day affect you ability to build muscle?
A:
In short term casual smoking will have no affect on your ability to build muscle. But in the longer term (years) your cardio recovery capabilities will be hurt which will in turn hurt muscle development, so you'll never reach your peak potential.
2584. Q:
HI MIke, Thanks for the information on Q#2576, what I neglected to add to the question was, by doing the 'motionless exercise' , the infomecial claims that one could lose fat/weight and inches off the gut, and where ever fat is stored!!
A:
You're welcome! That claim -- that contracting and holding muscles will burn fat around those muscles -- is false. There is absolutely no way to target a specific area of the body for fat loss. All you can and should do is optimize your diet, do full-body weight training along with cardio and you will lose fat all over. But there's no way to force your body to lose fat in just one specific area. Crunches do NOT burn stomach fat, tricep exercises do NOT burn fat on the back of the arm, and adduction/abduction machines do NOT burn thigh fat, and certainly holding a contraction on some muscles will NOT burn fat around that area.
Holding a muscle contraction, especially against resistance of gravity, takes energy and will help you burn overall body fat, but it is not a particular time-effective way to exercise. As I said before, you'd get much better results through a traditional weight training program coupled with cardio and good diet.
2585. Q:
Hi Mike, I'm following your 1930 calorie plan for fat loss, and I do whole body weight lifting 3 times a week. The first 3 meals I eat exactly as you have listed in the plan. I always make sure to eat 2 more meals, but sometimes my 4th and 5th meals are a little different from what you have listed. Sometimes I think I might not be eating enough for those last two meals. I've been on the diet for about a week and a half now. I weighed 175 pounds before I started, and now I'm around 169-172, but I haven't lost any inches around my waist. It's probably too early to see that yet, but could possibly not eating as you have listed for my 4th and 5th meals make that big of a difference? How long until you generally see inches gone?
A:
Small changes in meals from my sample plan should not hurt your progress. In fact, if you look through my Diet article you'll find a section towards the end describing how to customize meal plans to your tastes. But a couple of weeks is way too early to judge the success or lack of success in any program. What happens in the beginning of any diet is a rapid loss of few pounds due to water weight loss (read my Weight Loss article to learn about water weight loss) which are really irrelevant and should not be counted. After that initial fast change you should settle into a groove with slow gradual weight loss of about 1 pound per week. And, of course, you should be doing weight training and cardio for best results. So give it at least a full month before you judge your progress.
Even with slow weight loss of 1 pound per week weight training will make those inches come off quickly as you lose fat and build muscle. So while you may only lose 4 pounds of weight per month, it might actually be that you lost 7 pounds of fat and gained 3 pounds of muscle (net change of only 4 pounds). How pounds convert to inches is very individual, but typically it takes 5-10 pounds of true weight loss (not water weight loss that you experienced in the first week) to lose 1 inch off the waist. Again, the main thing is to trust the program and give it time to work. Good luck!
2586. Q:
I'm 13, wat type of exersize routine should i be doing? I want to build a bit of muscle and become faster and more agile. Can you help me?
A:
At 13 your body is probably still limited in how much muscle you can build. Most guys hit prime muscle-building age around 15 or 16. But what you can do in preparation is build up strength (you can get stronger without necessarily building much, if any, new muscle). Start by looking at my bodyweight training program. This program uses your own bodyweight as resistance to develop strength and build muscle. You can do this program daily or, if you feel really ambitious, twice on some days. It will get you a lot of strength in a hurry. Don't worry if you can't do many (or any) pullups or pushups -- do your best with partial pullup or pushups and strength will eventually build up so you can do them easier and easier. Follow this program for a while until it presents no challenge at all and then you can upgrade to weight training with adult supervision. Note that with any resistance training, always remember that safety must come before anything else -- a serious injury at your age can stunt your growth.
As far as agility and speed training, getting stronger through the program I linked for you above will certainly help you somewhat with speed. But specific speed and agility training is an involved topic and program prescription will depend on your specific goals. In general, for both speed and agility you need to simply practice the drills, whether they be running a 100m sprint or going through an agility course. Do the drill 4-6 times per day allowing plenty of rest in between repetitions (3-5 minutes) and do this 3-4 times per week. Hope this helps!
2587. Q:
Is it good to train my biceps after my back and triceps after my chest?
A:
There's no single 'right' way of training -- some perfectly good programs will combine back/biceps and chest/triceps and others, equally good programs, will split them up on separate days. My recommendation is to try both approaches and see which one feels better for you.
2588. Q:
Mike my legs are bigger than the normal.Seems i got too much effort into them.The guy at the gym told me to stop doing squats for that reason cause this exercise says gives muscle mass to the legs.I just started the cutting face now.So i wont be able to gain more muscles as i ll consume less calories anymore.What is your opinion?I dont wanna bigger legs just to tone them.Should i cut the squat exercise?
A:
Absolutely, if you don't want more leg muscle mass then you shouldn't train legs. And while squats are an awesome whole-body exercise they do primarily target legs so it makes sense to skip them.
2589. Q:
hi mike: my name is rodrigo and im from bolivia (see how far a good web can go) im always looking your articles because they are great. well my question is ¿ i have 20 years old my bf is 26% and i want to lose 20 pounds and go to 10% bf while i take nitro tech hardcore to built muscle and get cut this is possible? and how? my weight tranning teacher said to me to take one nitro tech instead of breakfast , eat a normal but low carb lunch and take for dinner another nitro tech sake please let me know your opinion i will with cardio in the morning and weights after that please let me know your opinion
A:
Thanks for writing, Rodrigo, it's certainly great to get questions and comments like yours from all over the world!
First thing I must say is that if you already have a trainer then you should follow his/her advice. Trying to follow two different programs or advices at the same time is never a good idea. Having said that, let me outline how I would approach it if you were my client...
You didn't mention your current weight but if you are currently at 26% body fat, then it will probably take more than 20 pounds to get down to 10% body fat. Furthermore, it's unlikely that you could do it in a single 'cut' -- meaning that you will probably lose some weight and get down to maybe 15-17% body fat and then your fat loss progress will greatly slow down or stop. This happens because as we lose weight and fat our bodies adjust to lower calorie intakes and no longer 'want' to lose fat. When that happens you need to temporarily increase calories and regain some weight as muscle ('bulk up') and boost your metabolism. After that you can restart the weight loss again by cutting the calories down. It may and probably will take a few such zigzags of cutting and bulking before you reach your ultimate goal of 10% body fat.
As far as your current diet, while there is nothing wrong with NitroTech (besides its price :) I would not recommend that you use it as a complete meal replacement. NitroTech provides protein -- which is important -- but any well-balanced diet still requires nutritious fiberous carbs and healthy fats which NitroTech does not provide at all. NitroTech also has creatine which is a good supplement but not at all necessary for a beginner like yourself. Please check out my Diet article for comprehensive approach to dieting and Fitness Guide for a sample meal plan that would be appropriate for your situation. Your current diet, in my opinion, is too low on calories and will result in weight loss that's far too fast to be sustainable. Instead, I would eat more (healthy foods, of course) and be patient. Slower weight loss will allow you to build more muscle while losing weight and ultimately reach your goals sooner.
But again, as I said before, if you have already hired a trainer then you should probably give his/her approach a chance and not try to follow two advices at once. Good luck!
2590. Q:
Hi im 13 male,i want to know should i be lifting weights
A:
While you could start on weights with adult supervision, I would recommend that you first master my bodyweight training program. This program will allow you to build great strength only using your own body's weight as resistance. Once you can do this program easily, then you can move on to weights.
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