Will this workout help me lean down while maintaining/growing muscle mass?

[erinriley93]

So I always kind of experiment with my workouts. This plan I have enjoyed doing the most so far. My legs are great just tryin to grow the booty and the hammies while just shedding the fat so a few exercises to failure coupled with a few low weight high rep burnouts. My chest is disappointingly weak (my max bench for reps right now is 95 for 3 reps) so I figured do a day of just obliterating the muscles and pushing myself to absolute failure allowing 2 days rest then do very low weight with high reps to tone and just shock the chest. My back I feel is pretty strong but not ideal by any means so I am lifting to extreme fatigue if not failure. Arms and Shoulders I do twice a week, for strength when paired with chest, and low weight high rep burnouts when paired together. Abs I will do 3-4 times a week whenever they feel good and I push them to fatigue and failure depending on exercise

Monday - Chest and arms for strength
Tuesday - Legs
Wednesday - Back
Thursday - Chest for endurance and shoulders for strength
Friday - Shoulders and arms for endurance
Saturday - Free for all (whatever I feel needs the most work or hurts the least)
Sunday - Active rest steady state cardio in fasted state for 40minutes to an hour in the morning

As for my cardio I am a HUGE fan of HIIT training. So all of my exercises I am doing 3-4 sets (reps vary depending on strength vs. burnout) and in between each set of each exercise I get on the treadmill for 45s and I run at 8mph minimum and most times with every new exercise I up the speed .5mph so I'd do 3-4 sets at 8mph then 3-4 sets at 8.5mph, etc (maintain 8mph throughout all of leg day). This is getting my heart rate up to 175ish and then I will get it back down to around 140 before my next set.

What do you all think of this plan? Any suggestions to improve this?

[HeroesFall]

So I always kind of experiment with my workouts. This plan I have enjoyed doing the most so far. My legs are great just tryin to grow the booty and the hammies while just shedding the fat so a few exercises to failure coupled with a few low weight high rep burnouts. My chest is disappointingly weak (my max bench for reps right now is 95 for 3 reps) so I figured do a day of just obliterating the muscles and pushing myself to absolute failure allowing 2 days rest then do very low weight with high reps to tone and just shock the chest. My back I feel is pretty strong but not ideal by any means so I am lifting to extreme fatigue if not failure. Arms and Shoulders I do twice a week, for strength when paired with chest, and low weight high rep burnouts when paired together. Abs I will do 3-4 times a week whenever they feel good and I push them to fatigue and failure depending on exercise

Monday - Chest and arms for strength
Tuesday - Legs
Wednesday - Back
Thursday - Chest for endurance and shoulders for strength
Friday - Shoulders and arms for endurance
Saturday - Free for all (whatever I feel needs the most work or hurts the least)
Sunday - Active rest steady state cardio in fasted state for 40minutes to an hour in the morning

As for my cardio I am a HUGE fan of HIIT training. So all of my exercises I am doing 3-4 sets (reps vary depending on strength vs. burnout) and in between each set of each exercise I get on the treadmill for 45s and I run at 8mph minimum and most times with every new exercise I up the speed .5mph so I'd do 3-4 sets at 8mph then 3-4 sets at 8.5mph, etc (maintain 8mph throughout all of leg day). This is getting my heart rate up to 175ish and then I will get it back down to around 140 before my next set.

What do you all think of this plan? Any suggestions to improve this?

I think you're a little all over the place with the programming / planning. Keep in mind when trying to lose weight you won't be adding much / if any strength. You'll be depleted and in burn mode, not build mode. Select a program that has shorter rest periods between sets to keep the heart rate up and you moving. But otherwise, you can still focus on a normal program layout.

I'm not a huge fan of going to failure on every set, or at all. You want to see progress week to week and it can be difficult to gauge that if everything is to failure. If you want your final set to go to failure, that's ok, but not the bulk of your sets. Also, Saturday's plan isn't a great one. Just because you don't feel sore doesn't mean that part is fully recovered or rebuilt. 48 hours for most body parts, 72 hours for legs, before re-training them. If you want to do high rep stuff, you can save that for Saturday, not going to failure, but rather doing an exercise for each body part with no other purpose than to get blood into the muscle - blood brings nutrients.


For cardio, I was told a heart rate between 120-130 is ideal. I don't have experience with HIIT though, but I was told that the range I listed is the "fat burning" range. You'll burn fat in the others, but supposedly it can also impact things like muscle retention.


Good luck!

[birdiefu]

Heros made a good post. What's with all the "shocking", "failure", and "obliterating"? Work smarter, not harder. Get on a proven progressive lifting program and adjust your nutrition to gain or lose. You either put on muscle/fat with a preference towards muscle by lifting right, or lose muscle/fat while preserving as much muscle as possible while lifting right.

Focus on lifting when you are lifting - not doing HIIT in between sets...your plan looks like a plan to total burnout and potential injuries, sorry.

You mentioned in another thread you are a certified personal trainer? Do you train your clients like this?

[erinriley93]

Heros made a good post. What's with all the "shocking", "failure", and "obliterating"? Work smarter, not harder. Get on a proven progressive lifting program and adjust your nutrition to gain or lose. You either put on muscle/fat with a preference towards muscle by lifting right, or lose muscle/fat while preserving as much muscle as possible while lifting right.

Focus on lifting when you are lifting - not doing HIIT in between sets...your plan looks like a plan to total burnout and potential injuries, sorry.

You mentioned in another thread you are a certified personal trainer? Do you train your clients like this?

Absolutely not. I experiment with myself and stick to proven exercises with my clients.

[erinriley93]

I think you're a little all over the place with the programming / planning. Keep in mind when trying to lose weight you won't be adding much / if any strength. You'll be depleted and in burn mode, not build mode. Select a program that has shorter rest periods between sets to keep the heart rate up and you moving. But otherwise, you can still focus on a normal program layout.

I'm not a huge fan of going to failure on every set, or at all. You want to see progress week to week and it can be difficult to gauge that if everything is to failure. If you want your final set to go to failure, that's ok, but not the bulk of your sets. Also, Saturday's plan isn't a great one. Just because you don't feel sore doesn't mean that part is fully recovered or rebuilt. 48 hours for most body parts, 72 hours for legs, before re-training them. If you want to do high rep stuff, you can save that for Saturday, not going to failure, but rather doing an exercise for each body part with no other purpose than to get blood into the muscle - blood brings nutrients.


For cardio, I was told a heart rate between 120-130 is ideal. I don't have experience with HIIT though, but I was told that the range I listed is the "fat burning" range. You'll burn fat in the others, but supposedly it can also impact things like muscle retention.


Good luck!

So do you suggest I just stick to x number of reps and increase weight or rep number each week (or at least attempt too?)

[oregonchick76]

Follow a professional routine that is geared towards your goals.
Eat in a deficit to lose fat, a surplus to gain muscle. Pick one goal.

[HeroesFall]

So do you suggest I just stick to x number of reps and increase weight or rep number each week (or at least attempt too?)

Yes. When I lost my weight I followed a program incredibly similar to the one I'm on now. Only difference is I did shorter rest periods between sets (to keep my heart rate up to help with burning fat) and thus lighter weight. For example, leg exercises 60 seconds rest between sets, everything else 30 seconds. That said, I still went into every workout with the mentality to increase the weight if I succeeded on it the previous week or reps if it was on a very isolated exercise - example lateral delt raises, I increase by a rep each week from 10 -> 14 reps then at 14 reps I increase my poundage and back to 10, rinse repeat.


As a natural, your gains in muscle will come from gains in strength, they are directly related. I haven't seen any conclusive studies that state pump training works for people who aren't assisted. It makes you feel good, but there are no trackable improvements. You must increase your strength (reps, weight, or reduction in time between sets) to increase your lbm - and feed it with food and rest.


I reached a point where I started to "falter" in lifted weight week to week. Biggest example was on Incline Bench. At that point, you reduce the weight and still push to get it. If you continue to taper down on that exercise, swap to a different exercise for the same bodypart for variety (and also to help avoid the inevitable mind-fuk that occurs). Understand you aren't losing muscle at this point, you're losing glycogen and other things that would otherwise help you to PR.



Hope I answered your question(s).