Quote:
Originally Posted by Now_Rudi
Much appreciated! I'm looking forward to trying them out. I can see myself continuing to use them after the hand heals for certain lifts. Looking forward to using them on pull-up bar for lower abs. I can usually lift my hips for more reps than my grip will allow me to hang on to the bar. Forearms don't start burning before I'm finished, but diminished grip strength in the right has was a factor before.
Side note, since I haven't been able to lift for almost 2 weeks now; (it's really driving me insane but I also realize there are those out there with far worse injuries than mine, so I try not to bitch too much) I've been even more focused on caloric intake and cardio. Some gray area here on how I feel about it, but the results since Sunday are hard for me to fathom. Since Sunday I have lost 3.8 pounds and almost a full percent of body fat. I'm not a fan of weighing as little as I do right now, it honestly kinda scares me; but with a high percentage of body fat and low weight, I've got to break past this skinny fat mode. As soon as I can start lifting again, the cardio will be cut back to about 25% of my gym time and only done in order to keep my calories for the day where I need to them be. At the end of the day progress is progress, just trying to be mindful to make it not be bad progress.
|
I can understand. To get past the "skinny fat" mode.....you have to start putting on more muscle. Once you get to a point where your body fat is at an acceptable level for you, I would slowly transition into a maintenance phase. Add back just enough calories to where you are not losing any weight, but not gaining any weight. This will give you your baseline.
Then I would stay at that baseline, and start focusing on gym progress. It can be weight, reps, etc....but try and best your previous workout if even by a minuscule amount and ride that until progress stops for at least a few weeks.
Your body will actually build a little bit of muscle during the maintenance phase as a form of "recomp". One progress stops....even just an extra 100 calories a day can put you back into a positive balance for gaining.
Once you get to a certain point, you will find your body burning more calories than normal as more muscle means more calories needed to support it.
My training partner told me at the very start when I was asking all of these questions about bulking and cutting...he said no matter what you are doing with your calories....you always need to be in the mindset of trying to build muscle.