Hi all,
Decided to sign up here as most of the other forums I visit don't have
that great exercise sections.
Backinfo: I'm 18 years old (just turned). Been gyming for about 16 months, with an 8 month period where I was not on any protein, and was not hitting the gym with a great intensity. I've been back on the protein for the last 3 months and having more intense workouts. I am at uni 5 days a week, and so I gym it on every weekday. I'm 170cm tall, 68-69kg (+- 1kg water/food at weigh time).
My gym goal is to stay at relatively low body fat percentage while bulking up muscle mass. Once I bulk up a bit more mass, I'll hit the cardio more heavily (my diet is already quite good, but I'll make it better when I want to cut). Basically I'm not too worried about strength and its practical uses, that is secondary to my main goal of just looking good.
So, my questions:
- Is it best to do cardio before or after a strength workout for maximum muscle gain? When should I be taking the WPI (eg. before cardio but after weights)?
cardio after wo. take your pwo shake after cardio. cardio should be done in low intensity for 25 minutes or so post workout.
- Is a 5 minute warm up to get the blood pumping beneficial (I've heard from some people that warm ups can have some negative effects in some training )?
it is , but you have to warm up muscles as well
- What is a good break time between exercising the same muscle group? I ask this because I have 5 sessions of gym to load up with routines, and I could either focus on a specific group each day (with a 1 week break), or do what I'm currently doing (a pecs,tris,abs / back,shoulders,bis / legs split)
depends on your recovery , and routine used.
Starting in January a friend and I will be hitting the gym up hard, going on a creatine pre-trainer and WPI morning, postworkout, and night. Based on your advice, I'll post up my program for further critique.
Any help is much appreciated!