advice for a new guy

[philp]

Hi - I'm quite new to the world of bodybuilding, and I wondered if any of you guys on here can give me some advice. Basically, I want to put on some muscle and slim down a bit in time for the summer - i'm not really into getting absolutely huge, i just want to look a bit fitter than i do at the moment! Having read through these forums, it seems that the best thing for me to do is to do full body workouts three times a week with a bit of light cardio on my off days. Trouble is, when i work out my legs (squats, deadlifts) I find that my legs totally kill me for about four days afterwards. I've therefore decided to include my legs in only one workout a week. The pain is all muscle and is the normal kind of soreness that you get for a couple of days when you've worked your muscles hard in the gym, so i'm not worried about injuries or whatever. However, the fact that my legs are so painful and weak feeling for a few days after my workout makes it really difficult to do any cardio work on my off days, as most cardio seems to involve your legs.

How should I get around this? Should I just work my legs less hard (which seems a shame, as I enjoy pushing myself in the gym)? Or are there other ways of getting a good cardio workout which would give my legs a bit of a rest.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[GymRat7197]

Building muscle = anabolic state; calorie surplus

Losing fat = catabolic state; calorie deficient.

You'll need to choose one.

Base around compound movements- squats, deadlifts, horizonal/vertical pushes and pulls.

Eat lots of calories from clean sources- chicken, fish, eggs, rice, veggies, fruit, protein shakes.

If your legs hurt after squatting and deadlifting, it's the iron telling you welcome to the sport. Soreness is an indicator of your body being supplemented to something it wasn't used to and will go away after you increase your athletic tolerance of weightlifting.

 

[Andy G]

Yes, what GymRat7197 said. Your tolerance will increase, you have to start somewhere. I also notice when I'm eating very clean, and hitting my macro nutrients consistently, I seem to repair much quicker than when eating garbage and spacing my meals too far apart. Nutrition is key. Good luck.

 

[MoTiV]

If you want to limit your soreness try the following:

1) Drink EAAs during your workout (2-3 scoops of Purple Wraath)

2) BEFORE you leave the gym make sure you sit on a mat and stretch your legs for at least 10 minutes, 15 minutes for really hard workouts.

The difference is night and day for me since I've started stretching after my leg workouts. The soreness is a lot more tolerable and does not last as long.

 

[lennoxchi]

Yes, what GymRat7197 said. Your tolerance will increase, you have to start somewhere. I also notice when I'm eating very clean, and hitting my macro nutrients consistently, I seem to repair much quicker than when eating garbage and spacing my meals too far apart. Nutrition is key. Good luck.

Nutrition is the key. losing fat while maintaining muscle is totally possible with this mind set, gain a lot of muscle while losing fat is hard to do, 2 different things. the right amount of cardio, diet and resistence training will give you that, despite what some may say. losing fat during cardio, just make sure you have some weight training in there to maintain muscle, if all you do is cardio then your muscle will waste away....use it or lose it