Amino acids and 6 day split advice

[JamesCannell]

Hey guys. I'm after some more advice. if you read my other post a few weeks back you will know i'm trying to pack on some muscle and get a decent looking body. I've changed my diet over the last 6 months. I eat really clean everyday apart from saturday when I might go out for dinner and have the odd pint. Just have a few questions.

I currently use protein shakes but am wondering whether to start using amino acid tablets too. Can anyone advise me on a good brand and also when and how to take them.

For the last 6 months i've been working out at home doing full body workouts 3 times a week. 4 weeks ago I changed this to a 3 day split consisting of...

Monday - chest, shoulders, tricep

Wednesday - legs, abs

Friday - back, biceps

After trying this for a few weeks I joined my local gym as the weight bench at home is pretty terrible and I can't add any more weight to it. The guy at the gym told me that if i wanted to I could up this workout and do it twice in a week. I've been doing it like this for the past few weeks.

Monday + Thursday- chest, shoulders, tricep

Tuesday + Friday - legs, abs

Wednesday + Sunday - back, biceps.

I make sure to hit the gym at 10 am every morning and work out doing 10 minutes cardio and spend no more than 50 minutes doing the weights.

I've read online that 72 hours is a good time to leave working out the same muscle groups, but I was wondering if I could get your thoughts and opinions on this.

[Rockslide]

To me, that schedule looks pretty solid, just make sure you listen to your body so you don't overdo it. And remember that rest days are really important, even if you don't always want to take them. Having said that, if after a few weeks of this routine you want to change things up, maybe look at doing some more compound work? I've gotten a lot of great benefit in the past few weeks by switching from isolation exercises to things like deadlift, press, squat, etc.

On the topic of amino acid supplements, I am not really in a position to tell you if you need them or not; that's really something you need to decide based on your diet and activity level. However, I will say that having extra aminos around in case your muscles need them can hardly be considered a bad thing in my opinion, so why not? I haven't really looked into any amino acid tablets, but I have been using a powder amino formula for the past month called BPI Blox. You can take it before, during, or after a workout, whatever you prefer, however I like to have mine in a water bottle for sipping during my workouts. I just take a swig between exercises to make sure that I have a steady stream of aminos for my muscles to utilize. Helps me maintain a good energy level and pump out a few extra reps sometimes. If you have a good recovery protein that you use already after your workout, I would do the aminos either right before or during lifting.

[Barmacral]

You might also look into adding hemp hearts to your diet, as they are, from what I understand, the single best natural source for all of your amino acids. Also they have a bunch of other health benefits like being anti-oxcidents.

Edit: Here's a link that talks a bit about it. http://www.canadahempfoods.com/faq.html

[bigm141414]

You can do a 6 day split if your body can handle it. What type of exercises are you doing?

As for BCAAs there is research showing that taking them roughly 45min before training will help. I don't have my notes in front of me at the moment though to give you better info.

[JamesCannell]

Cheers for the respone guys.

Rockslide - Yeah I will take rest days. At the moment the routine seems to be ok. I feel more alert in the daytime and seem to sleep better at night. If I need extra rest days i'll probably just drop down to 3 days a week for one week and then back to 6.

bigm141414 - I am doing various excercises. Normally 4 sets of 6-8 reps for each body part. 1st set is a warm up. Set 2 and 3 are quite heavy, then final set is to failure. Stuff i do is pretty standard, cable crossovers, bench press, squats, leg curl, standing and seated calf raises, side lat raises, upright rows, tricep pulldowns etc.

Barmacral - Cheers for the link, i'lll look into it.

Would it also be good to take some sort of thermogenic tablets to help lose the stubborn bits of fat?

[rtalencar]

I've been following the Lift-Run-Bang template with pretty good results (It's like a seven part series so to find it go to lift-run-bang.com and search for 'Getting Jacked'...or buy his book).

The basic split is:

1 Heavy Press

2 Heavy Legs

3 Light Pull

4 Light Press

5 Light Legs

6 Heavy Pull

I do four workouts per session, but I have a bit more time than you and I'm only lifting 3 times a week. I really like the concept of lifting for power on the main lifts, and lifting for hypertrophy on the more isolation exercises. His 15 paradigm (5,4,3,2,1,1,1) helped me break through some plateaus I hit when I was doing StrongLifts 5x5, and I also like shooting for 4 or 5 sets of 20 for upperbody hypertrophy work and 4 or 5 sets of 30 for lower body hypertrophy work. Limiting my rest time for the hypertrophy sets is helping me improving my cardio.

The final thing I'll mention is that you may want to be doing more than 10 minutes of cardio at a time. As it would seem that you have a 60 minute time limit, you may want to pare down your lifts to 40 minutes so you can get 20 of cardio in. Just speculation (and some personal bias) though, good luck either way.

I don't use AA's so I can't comment on them, I'm probably going to start soon though.

[rtalencar]

Cheers for the respone guys.

Rockslide - Yeah I will take rest days. At the moment the routine seems to be ok. I feel more alert in the daytime and seem to sleep better at night. If I need extra rest days i'll probably just drop down to 3 days a week for one week and then back to 6.

bigm141414 - I am doing various excercises. Normally 4 sets of 6-8 reps for each body part. 1st set is a warm up. Set 2 and 3 are quite heavy, then final set is to failure. Stuff i do is pretty standard, cable crossovers, bench press, squats, leg curl, standing and seated calf raises, side lat raises, upright rows, tricep pulldowns etc.

Barmacral - Cheers for the link, i'lll look into it.

Would it also be good to take some sort of thermogenic tablets to help lose the stubborn bits of fat?

I run into a lot of trouble if I try to change a bunch all at once. Since you're considering different AA's I'd suggest finding one that works for you before trying to add therms in on top of that. If you add a bunch of new things at once it's hard to tell what worked and what didn't.

[JamesCannell]

The final thing I'll mention is that you may want to be doing more than 10 minutes of cardio at a time. As it would seem that you have a 60 minute time limit, you may want to pare down your lifts to 40 minutes so you can get 20 of cardio in. Just speculation (and some personal bias) though, good luck either way.

I do have more than 60 minutes in the gym if needed, it's just that I read on many websites that lifting weights should take no more than an hour due to the rise of stress hormones in the body. Thanks for the information you provided. I shall check that out.

One more bit of advice i'm after. I've still got about a stone in weight to lose. Would it be better to lose this now, or add some muscle first then lose it. Also, is carb cycling going to be beneficial towards this?

[161803398874989]

I do have more than 60 minutes in the gym if needed, it's just that I read on many websites that lifting weights should take no more than an hour due to the rise of stress hormones in the body.

Horseshit. I don't know where you got that from, but that just isn't true. Just ask Jim Wendler.

[MMyers]

Horseshit. I don't know where you got that from, but that just isn't true. Just ask Jim Wendler.

I'm sure it depends a lot on the individual, intensity, etc....

[rtalencar]

I do have more than 60 minutes in the gym if needed, it's just that I read on many websites that lifting weights should take no more than an hour due to the rise of stress hormones in the body. Thanks for the information you provided. I shall check that out.

One more bit of advice i'm after. I've still got about a stone in weight to lose. Would it be better to lose this now, or add some muscle first then lose it. Also, is carb cycling going to be beneficial towards this?

60 minute cap? I've never heard of anything like that. There are valid reasons for limiting lifting time that I know of, but none of them include monitoring a stress hormone. Specifically, reducing lift time means shorter rest periods, which can turn a relatively easy workout into a true ballbuster. It's kind of silly to go to the gym, do a weak triple, and then sit around staring at the cardio chicks (ok...maybe that's not so silly...but I digress) for 20 minutes waiting to do another weak-ass set. When you go to the gym, you should have a purpose, a set plan. On top of just knowing the exercises, sets, and reps you're shooting for, that means timing your rest and tracking that as well. It's the only way you know if you've actually improved; 2 sets of 5 at a weight with 60 seconds rest in between, to me, is far more impressive than 2 sets of 7 with 19 and a half minutes spent lolly-gagging. There are situations where lengthy rest times are appropriate, like when you're working power sets near your max. That should be a conscious decision though, and you should still track your rest time in that case. Given that you're going to the gym six times a week, you *should* be able to finish your workout in a reasonable amount of time (off the cuff I would guess somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes), but you should also dedicate some time to cardio if possible. You don't need to run a marathon daily, but I wager you'd benefit from putting in more than 10 minutes. Again this is just a random guess knowing very little about you and your fitness level, but try 25-30 minutes on for size and see how that treats you (25 minutes, 3 sets: 2 minutes fast walk* pace, 2 minutes jog pace, 1 min sprint pace | 30 minutes steady state cardio). And again, like with lifting, you should be recording your progress on cardio as well and working to improve that too.

*obviously if your cardio of choice is say the row machine, you can't 'walk' that, but you get the idea

With respect to your weight loss question, it all depends. The only thing that should change with your lifting routine between a cut and a bulk is your strength and potentially the volume of training. You should, for the most part, be doing the same stuff in the gym regardless. I mention volume because if you have a lot of high rep hypertrophy stuff for bodybuilding, that can be extremely tough to complete on a big calorie deficit. Most people who are new to lifting or are coming back after a long break from lifting benefit from cutting first. Newbie gains allow people to gain some muscle mass and see big jumps in strength even on a cut. Also if you're at a high BF%, gains in muscle don't have the same visual effect as losing fat. From a high BF%, losing fat tends to have a bigger bang for the buck in terms of aesthetics.

[JamesCannell]

Given that you're going to the gym six times a week, you *should* be able to finish your workout in a reasonable amount of time (off the cuff I would guess somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes), but you should also dedicate some time to cardio if possible.

Yeah I do finish the weights normally around 45-50 minutes. I'm pretty strict. Warmup, work my balls off with 30 second rests between sets, then do some cardio.

With respect to your weight loss question, it all depends. The only thing that should change with your lifting routine between a cut and a bulk is your strength and potentially the volume of training. You should, for the most part, be doing the same stuff in the gym regardless. I mention volume because if you have a lot of high rep hypertrophy stuff for bodybuilding, that can be extremely tough to complete on a big calorie deficit. Most people who are new to lifting or are coming back after a long break from lifting benefit from cutting first. Newbie gains allow people to gain some muscle mass and see big jumps in strength even on a cut. Also if you're at a high BF%, gains in muscle don't have the same visual effect as losing fat. From a high BF%, losing fat tends to have a bigger bang for the buck in terms of aesthetics.

Well i'm new to lifting and can notice some definition in my arms, but the gut still has a way to go. Is there any sort of cutting advice you can give me?