No Cardio - Are You Serious?

[nickd30]

I have just finished reading this S2B (twice - due mostly to complete confusion! These guys should pay some of us to go through the program on our own and make notes for the badly needed 2nd edition) and done the corrective phase and moving on to Phase II starting this week.

Obviously I am serious about gaining mass and strength to be doing this program, but I am having a hard time accepting that I should cut out cardio from my week! My reason for wanting to get stronger is so that I can perform sports better, and I don't know if I can cut these out of my week without losing my mind. I swim 2km, 3x a week with a swim club, and do yoga a couple times a week to stay flexible: 1) I really enjoy the time I do these activities, 2) It's part of my social network, and 3) This has been part of my routine for years! Also, I don't have a car and ride my bike everywhere - sometimes 30-60 minutes a day.

Yeah, yeah, my routine has left me a skinny bastard, but should I suck it up and just do as the book says for 12 weeks and take up reading during all the time I used to spend doing cardio? Am I missing something in the book? I really don't know if I have the mental ability to only do 3x 45 minute workouts a week for exercise, I need to be doing stuff all the time or I lose my marbles!

HELP! I am at risk of putting this book down and walking away from it forever... again!

[Lost Dog]

So, are you really a hardgainer? Many people think that they are, and they aren't. You'd be surprised how many people just eat like birds and are surprised to find themselves not getting bigger.

That being said, what are your priorities? You are in sports. You want to get stronger. I'm guessing that you want to get bigger, since you you are doing S2B. Maybe you can't do all of these things. Maybe you can.

Track your food (fitday.com) for a a few days to see how much you are eating now. You might not need S2B levels of food.

Bottom line. The more you don't sit on your ass, the more you have to eat. And, if you plan to go back to swimming all that time after the 12 weeks, you might as well suck it up and learn to eat enough to support your swimming habit.

[nickd30]

Other than adding the 3 protein/carb shakes on work-out days, my diet is pretty much in line with what the book says. I eat about 6 meals a day, clean food, and balance my fat, carbs and protein well. I can gain weight if I don't do ANYTHING, but that isn't how my brain/metabolism works... I go crazy if I am sitting still. So am I supposed to put all my sports on 'hold' for 12 weeks while I do this program? I am here to gain muscle, so I am willing to do that if that is the answer, just having a hard time imagining how this changes my routine without driving me nuts.

[Lost Dog]

The more activity, the more you have to eat. The more you swim, the more you should eat.

Is the yoga so intense that you're worried about it being too much activity?

You can keep the same activity level you have now and just keep adding more and more food until you start gaining.

And, you might eat 6 meals a day, but how many calories is that? John Berardi's DIET plans also have six meals a day. What's the size of the meals? How many calories?

Keep in mind that if you cut down on the cardio and gain muscle, and then add the cardio back in, you're going to go back to where you are now. It takes calories to gain muscle and to keep muscle, too. It won't stay once it's there, without plenty of food to support it.

It makes the most sense to live the physical lifestyle that you know you're going to live and adjust what you can to accommodate it. That might mean eating a lot more calories.

Decide what's more important, size or swimming and weigh your decision based on your answer. You might not be able to keep both. You can try though.

BTW, how scrawny are you?

[nickd30]

77kg, 198cm or 170lbs, 6'6"

[nickd30]

Okay, I used the fitday website - great tip - thanks! I am definitely under my caloric intake, I hit 3000 for a training day, including the protein shakes. Guess I need to shovel more food in... it's going to be hard to do without eating empty cals... and expensive!

[Lost Dog]

Cool. Track every once in a while to see how you're doing.

[Barrett]

Yea I have the same probelm I am a dedicated runner and it is hard for me to gain muscle unless I eat like 4000 cals a day . I feel your pain.

[nickd30]

Using Fitday.com helped me figure this out fast... I find I have more energy now from eatting better, and have put on about 4kg in 5 weeks while actually getting trimmer in the gut where I tend to hold fat. Anyone know what a healthy target for gaining weight would be for 12 weeks?