Losing Bodyfat : Training frequency

[imported_gazz]

I have been reading a lot of the forum posts to gain insight into hat people are doing & frankly have ended up somewhat confused r training frequency particularly whilst trying to lose bodyfat.

Background : I'm 47, trained a long time (usually HIT) but have found that as I get older I'm adding a lot of unwanted bodyfat (I am currently around 90 Kg & 23%.)

I would like to do some HST cycles to hopefully get me down to 15% or lower which I feel is realistic, WITHOUT sacrificing muscle ( I am not niaive & recognise that I will not be able to BUILD musle on a colory deficit diet, but woul love to keep what I've got).

My question to you is regarding the routine to use to achive this. Bearing in mind that I love to train & would happily bash away 7 days a week, which routine in your opinion fits best with my objectives:

a) Standard 3 days/week ful body (with or without aerobic work on off days)
b) Whole body 6 days per week
c) Alternating upper/lower body 6 days per week
d) whole body twice per day 3 days per week
e) upper /lower split twice per day, 3 days per week

Should I incorporate some sort of aerobic work (incline walking)with all routines & if so how often. I do realise that I will have to us a restricted calory diet to achive what I want.

I'd love to hear your opinions, experiences etc particularly those who ar of a similar ageand/or experiencing similar problems.

Gazz

 

[Totentanz]

I would do full body six days a week, followed by some cardio a little while after each workout. I'm going to start cutting soon and that's what I plan on doing.
However, if you did do full body six times a week, I would keep the routine simple. Mostly compounds. The routine I'm toying with using will include dips, military press, squat, chins and good mornings. I figure like this, you can keep your calories closer to maintenance. The way I see it, you want to take your time losing the weight, that way you can be confident that you are sparing as much LBM as possible.

 

[skinnyman]

yes i would agree with totentanz about muscle sparing. drop your calories gradually or else it would be a crash diet (bad)

totenz - would you know how much inches you will lose if you cut down? i'm thinking of cutting too.. as soon as i guns big enough for cutting.

 

[Old and Grey]

B or F (whole body twice per day, 6 times per week...basically one set per bodypart each workout...12 workouts per week. It will help keep your metabolism running high and you won't really have to have too much of a caloric deficit to lose fat. 2 weeks 15's, 2 weeks 10's, 2 weeks 5's and 2 weeks at 5 RM plus drop sets. If you have the energy, add HIIT after each workout for ten minutes.)

 

[imported_gazz]

Quote[/b] (Old and Grey @ May 15 2005,10:48)]B or F (whole body twice per day, 6 times per week...basically one set per bodypart each workout...12 workouts per week. It will help keep your metabolism running high and you won't really have to have too much of a caloric deficit to lose fat. 2 weeks 15's, 2 weeks 10's, 2 weeks 5's and 2 weeks at 5 RM plus drop sets. If you have the energy, add HIIT after each workout for ten minutes.)

Thanks for the replies gents. They pretty much said what I was hoping (ful body six days per week).

Old & grey : interesting twist. Why would you prefer whole body twice per day 6 days per week. Would a better option not be to do uppe/lower split twice per day. I note that you restrict to 1 exercise only per bodypart, but even at this 12 full body workouts per week sounds extreme. Also, presumably you would use multiple workouts eg Chest w/o 1 bench, w/o 2 Flies w/o 3 dips etc otherwise if you did only 1 exercise throughout the two week phase you'd be looking at 24 incremental increases in weight. How many different workouts would you recommend.

Again thanks for the replies.

Gazz

 

[Old and Grey]

gazz, to answer your question, I have posted my current workout routine below. Note that I actually hit my lats 3 times per day. I believe that frequency is a key for me to see continued gains since my muscles are pretty well fully developed already (I have trained for 47 years...going to be 60 in a month.)

AM:

Incline bench press
Chin ups
Shoulder press
French press
Squats

Mid Day:

Pull ups

PM:

Dips
Seated rows
Shrugs
Curls
Leg press


I am currently doing the workout only 4 times per week but I have had great results with body fat lowering using the same type of routine 6 times per week.