Ok! I'm a little confused on a few things. I hear the terms 'cutting' and 'bulking', and that you can't do both at the same time. In an essence, isn't that what Mr. Stone did? He lost the gut, but was still weight lifting. I guess I am getting them mixed up. I was co-captain of the soccer team in high school so I have the athleticism, but since I've been way out of shape and have gained 10lbs -- should I be cutting? My goal isn't really to get big, just more so 'ripped'.


My second concern is, what should someone do if they don't own all of the high-tech equipment or have the ability to go to the gym? I only have some dumbells, a bench press, and my body :d_eek: What should I do?

Finally, if I were to be 'cutting' or losing the fat and defining, what should I do for a routine? In the past, I've combined what I've found on the internet and mixed it w/some of Bruce Lee's described in his book.

I tried doing Power 90, but hurt my back, which is ironic because I figure I'd be the last person to be hurt like that, so I stopped.

Any tips, information, and the likes would be extremely helpful as I'm looking to get back on the road again,

Nick :d_wink:

Well I believe cutting is lowering your body fat % and bulking is primarily focused with muscle gain...but for me, I see them as needed joint routines. I've started a "stepped up" workout than what I'm used to 2 weeks ago. I work out about 5 days a week isolating one or two muscle groups a day and then I run/cycle/or stair thing 6 days a week. Each cardio I try to burn around 450 calories which is around 45 minutes. I've been eating much more healthy and have noticed a nice loss of fat around my middle section already. Funny thing is that with all that running and lowered calories I've gained about 2 pounds. :confused: I bought a Tanita body fat % scale to see if my fat % is decreasing...because I'm just assuming I'm losing body fat and gaining some good muscle. Right now I think I'm at about 15% body fat. So for me, it seems like I'm losing and gaining at the same time which is awesome. One book that comes to mind is "Body For Life". Lifting weights and running were a big combination (along with eating healthy)..and it seems that the pictures showed people were cutting and bulking very successfully. Maybe the same can work for you? No matter what, do what works for YOU. Everyone is different and one's own body handles routines a bit differently than someone else.

When "cutting" you are eating a caloric deficit in an attempt to lose the fat. When "bulking" you are eating a caloric surplus in an attempt to gain muscle. That's why they say you can't do both of them at the same time. Cutting requires a deficit and bulking requires a surplus.

Weight training is a part of both cutting and bulking. When cutting, you are going to lose weight but you want to lose the fat and not the muscle. In very unscientific terms, weight training signals the body that you need those muscles and it had better burn the fat instead.

If you want to cut, the first thing you need to address is your diet. You need to be eating low fat protein, low glycemic index carbohydrates and good fats.

The second thing to do is to start a cardio routine. Some people chose HIIT and others chose moderate intensity cardio for longer periods of time. The choice is yours. I'd suggest at least four cardio sessions per week.

The third suggestion is to start weight training at least three days per week. If you have a bench and dumbbells then you have enough to get started.

My most important suggestion is to tell you to simply get started! No, you won't have a perfect program, no one does. Just get started, keep reading, and tweak your program as you go along.

Yes it is possible to gain muscle and loose fat at the same time. I am doing it successfully right now and I'm getting great results. The trick is to eat extra protien (more than 1 gram per pound of your Body weight) and still keep your body in a calorie deficit (around 10X per pound of body weight). Which means you will have to eat clean, CLEAN, CLEAN, protien to do this. It has worked for me and the fat is melting off every week. I will give you my example of what i'm doing:

I'm 6 feet tall and weight 222 lbs.
So I eat around 2100 calories per day,
I eat around 240-250 grams of protien per day
**The protien will help spare and even build muscle while still being in a calorie deficit. Combign this with cardio 3 Times per week and Weight lifting 3-4 times per week and you have a good combination.

Anyway, the calories for you might need to be tweaked some as I am still tweaking. I am going slightly below 10X my BM for calories, but thats whats working for me right now.

Ok! I'm a little confused on a few things. I hear the terms 'cutting' and 'bulking', and that you can't do both at the same time. In an essence, isn't that what Mr. Stone did? He lost the gut, but was still weight lifting.

There is a common misconception that weight lifting = bulking. This isn't true. Whether you are looking to cut or bulk, weight lifting has to be part of your program. The difference lies in your goals and your diet.

I believe John has no interest in bulking (but I may be wrong, I don't want to put words in his mouth.) If you look at his diet and measurements, he's done everything to maintain very low body fat and has added relatively small amounts of muscle. I'd say he has a swimmer's body, which is what a lot of guys are looking for. However, there are a lot of people who want the opposite. They are looking to add muscle mass and are willing to deal with a higher % of body fat to do so. So, they eat more calories, do less cardio, and lift weights differently.

It's all a matter of how you want the end result to look. A lot of people will go through cycles of bulking to add muscle mass and then cutting to get rid of the fat.

Ahh, good information. Thanks for everyone's input; it's appreciated.

If my goal is to look like john's physique, does that mean I should follow his initial workout?

I'm tempted to go back on the Power 90 program - which seems kinda fruity (atleast the first circuit) - but I'm not sure. It definitely works me out, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of weight lifting like that of which John does.

confused,

nick.

I am new, I have learned as much as i can in the past 3 days, the best thing i can tell you about trying to learn somthing is do mass research, and trust the %age of these people when they tell you somthing, i myself am doing weights and cardio 6 days a week, mixing up the weights from lower to upper body everyday, this way i dont over stress 1 part of my body, im taking in about 1700 cals. a day ( maybe a little more, maybe a little less ) I'm not really sure of anything other than my carbs, i am keeping them fairly low i would have them at 40 a day but with the workout im taking in about 100 - 120, some may say that is to low, and i would agree, but that # makes me happy, showing you even more that its always better to make your own plan and follow it, if i see too much weight coming off to fast then i will boost my carbs up alittle so that weight lost is weight i will never see agian.

Derek

Everyone has a different idea of what's the "best" workout. John's routine is as good a place to start as any. Just pick something that looks good to you and try it for 6 to 8 weeks. If it's not working, change it up. Even if it is working you may want to change it up. Keep the body guessing.

I don't know how much weight lifting experience you have, but there really is a method to the madness in the order of the exercises or the splits in the routines. Generally, you work the large muscle groups first and follow with the smaller muscles. For instance, you never work the triceps and delts before a bench press. That seems obvious to me but I can't tell you how many New Year's Resolution beginners that I've seen doing things in the wrong order.

Any published routine will pretty much have things in the right order. Just pick one and go with it. You'll soon figure out if it's working for you or not.