Cardio or weight training?

[Patronus]

I've been working on losing weight and getting in better shape for a while now. I went virtually diet alone, then added a 3 mile walk 3-4 times a week. Now I've added 30-45 minutes on the Bow Flex 2-4 times a week as well.

I recently read and have heard before that cardio will actually burn muscle and cause less calorie consumption whereas weight training builds muscle which burns more calories per pound. OK...which is best? Or is the combination of the two the optimum?

Over the last several months my dieting has gotten erratic and I have put back 20 of the 60 pounds I lost from when I started last year. But I have also firmed up and increased strength everywhere. Oh, I still have a hearty layer of neoprene but you can sure see that it's keeping a hell of a six pack protected.

After reading that protein defecit on diets leads to cannibalizing muscle I added protien shakes to the mix to keep me over 50 grams of protien per day. I began taking creatine and L-Arganine and have noticed an increase in my working weights across the board. My goal is to get in good enough shape to do Insanity(R), but at this time I think it would be a waste of money(and possibly suicidal ).

I'm still getting sore(especially in the quads and abs) on a daily basis and am not sure why this has gotten better but not stopped.

My routine is like this:

Monday/Thursday:

Bench - (3 sets, 15 reps with 50 ab-roller crunches and 20 leg lift/reverse cruch-ish between)
Butterflies - (3 sets, 15 reps with 50 ab-roller crunches and 20 leg lift/reverse cruch-ish between)
Tricep pushdown- (3 sets, 15 reps with 50 ab-roller crunches and 20 leg lift/reverse cruch-ish between)
Bar/Preacher curl - (3 sets, 15 reps with 20 situps between)
Dumbell(BowFlex style) curl- (3 sets, 15 reps with 20 situps between)

Then walk/jog the 3 miles with 10# ankle weights on each wrist doing as many curls as I can when walking.

Tuesday/Friday:

Military press - (3 sets, 15 reps with 50 ab-roller crunches and 20 leg lift/reverse cruch-ish between)
Lat Pulls - (3 sets, 15 reps with 50 ab-roller crunches and 20 leg lift/reverse cruch-ish between)
Rows - (3 sets, 15 reps with 50 ab-roller crunches and 20 leg lift/reverse cruch-ish between)
Forward deltoid raises - (3 sets, 15 reps with 20 situps between)
Cross over deltoid(think drawing a bowstring with both hands at the same time) - (3 sets, 15 reps with 20 situps between)

Then walk/jog or bicycle the 3 miles.

I usually get up at 6:30, take my l-arganine with a few sips of a vitawater type energy(vitamin B complex) drink, give it 30 minutes to start hitting the blood and go downstairs to the BowFlex. I hit the road by 8 and am home by 9. All too often I run into one of the older gents in my neighborhood and end up stopping for a chat or walking with one of them, but I DO try to keep it moving as much as possible.

I'm 49 and have spent most of my life eating whatever I wanted til I couldn't eat another bite. Been diabetic for years and smoked for a good 20+ before I quit a decade ago. I also hurt my back and broke my neck at one point but I can function just fine. In fact, the better condition I am in the better able I am to push harder(almost like a normal human being. LOL). My peak weight was 275 so the present 200 isn't all that bad but I really want to be 170-180 and ripped.

Again, cardio? Weights? Combo? And would P90 be a gateway to Insanity? Any input would be appreciated.

 

[white]

I do mostly weights myself. I was up to 270 and dropped to 180 and held steady the last 2 years. I dont really diet just drink alot of water and avoid sodas and things like that

 

[Survivor Johnny]

I've been a roofer for a long long time. I put my first shingle on in 1983. Can I run a marathon - no way. Can I carry 90lb bundles of laminate shingles up a 2story ladder and accross a steep roof all day. Yep, and it sucks. Lesson learned... Go to college all u young bucks.
Patronus, good job brother.... Well played sir. I didn't know cardio eats muscle but I guess if it does you have to mix in hittin the weights

 

[Patronus]

White - That's AWESOME! Holding steady is harder than losing in the first place. When I was focused on losing I knew there were no exceptions, but when I got where I wanted to be I started allowing the occassional burger, then steak, then pizza then oh crap! Diet again.... This "lifetyle chage stuff ain't easy. And give up my one-two diet cokes a day? ARGH!

Johnny - ROOFER! Wow. cat on a hot tin roof! Especially in GA. When I first started dieting I sweated enough just walking in the morning to completely soak everything I wore and leave squishy footprints halfway home. Now, I still sweat oin the walk/jog but not enough.Two weeks ago I started wearing a long john shirt under my tee shirt for the 3 miles so I'd sweat more. Maybe I should get a job with you. Bet I'd get a sweat on then. LOL

 

[Survivor Johnny]

Man U DON'T want this kinda sweat. I leave wet butt prints on the roof but they evaporate really fast

 

[twd4]

I would raise that minimum protein per day number to 100 at least. 2 scoops of most major protein brands should be close to half of that anyway. I use ON (optimum nutrition) tastes like ass but has less carbs, calories, and additives than others, which seems counter productive to me.

As far as building muscle goes, looking at your daily layout makes me wonder if your actually exhausting any of these muscle groups. Seems like a high number of sets and reps. To build muscle you need to tear muscle fibers. So dont think of working out muscles as cardio. Cardio is cardio lol. I think you would see better results isolating muscle groups and targeting them to exhaustion each workout. I also would say try to increase the weight and decrease the reps on each set, you should be lifting with correct form to exhaustion on each set, except maybe the first which i use as a warm up.

Chest for example... try, 3 sets of incline bench press, 3 sets of flat, 3 sets of dumbbell flys. If you do all those correctly, you shouldn't be able to do a single pushup until the next day, if then =)

 

[Patronus]

Heavy weight, low reps is for bulk though and I'm not going for bulk. If I was skinny, bulking up would surely be the goal. But since I tend to fat by nature I'm trying to burn off the fat and sculpt. That's why I went with 15 rep targets. If I hit 15 all three sets I increase the weight and since I started the creatine I've increased weight at least one on every exercise, twice on chest and trikes.

I get 30 grams of protein per scoop, plus the normal dauiliy intake from food. Usually I'm hitting 50-75. Doubling the protiein shake is no problem. Still only 1 more gram of fat and 8 grams of carbs(2 sugar). I've been taking the Six Star from WalMart(Vanilla Cream) and it tastes pretty good. As a diabetic I also like to intake cinammon to aid with sugar metabolism so I usually open a capsule of cinammon into my protein shake in the morning and it is fantastic. Yeah, increasing my protein shake to two would be a pleasure.

BowFlex lacks some "flexibility" of exercises. Setting the bench inclined is a flat bench exercise position. Setting the bench flat equates to a DEclined bench. When I started I was hitting both positions plus the flies, but dropped the flat/declined position both for redundancy and time. The Bowflex is constant tensions so I am getting a good muscle exhaustion from each exercise. For instance, the "weight" of my bench is presently 130(per side). This, mathematically speaking means I'm benching 260#, 3 sets of 15(last set I'm satisfied with 12). Rest assured, by the end of that trhird set, I'm feeling some exhaustion. Someday I'd like to go to the local gym and see how it REALLY compares to free weights though.

 

[nitrexman]

I've seen White and he looks to be in great shape and he's a great guy!!!

 

[twd4]

Ditch that bowflex as soon as your able and get some free weights imo. If you have any injuries making you want to steer clear of free weights, then look into leverage type systems. bowflex is garbage, sorry to put it so bluntly...

Your original post stated you were looking to build muscle which may be a bit misleading. Sure you can cut up with higher rep low weights, but your not going to increase muscle size without tearing muscle fibers. I might be able to exhaust my chesticals by benching 135 x 40 but its not going to make me any bigger or harder lol. If your not looking to build muscle, but simply lean out and cut what you already have, then jacking up your protein intake is actually probably a hinderance. You would be better of saving money by dumping the supplements and just eating clean. Baked chicken breast and a low carb veggie 3 times a day and some fruit / raw veggies between those meals to keep the metabolism working. If you need any recipes for chicken i have about 80 of them lol. People looking to build muscle use protein powders as meal replacements cause its just an easy source of protein when your already eating 5-6 times a day which can be exhausting just with preparation. Just my 2 cents though, whatever works for you is just fine by me =)

 

[ArmedinAtlanta]

Heavy weight, low reps is for bulk though and I'm not going for bulk. If I was skinny, bulking up would surely be the goal. But since I tend to fat by nature I'm trying to burn off the fat and sculpt. That's why I went with 15 rep targets. If I hit 15 all three sets I increase the weight and since I started the creatine I've increased weight at least one on every exercise, twice on chest and trikes.

I'm not sure about the Bowflex machine- I've always used freeweights. But my experience has been that heavier weight/ lower reps builds the mass that allows me to eat what I want and not rely too heavily on cardio. Below are my Halloween costumes from 2009 and 2010. I was able to achieve this shape mostly by weight training 5 days per week, involving all major muscle groups on each day (I do a 3 day split), and by doing 21-23 minutes of running approx. 3 days per week. If you want, PM me with your email address and I can send you a written plan I made for my buddy who was trying to go from 270 to shredded (he got down to 185, but lost his desire before getting shredded.)