Quote: (09-27-2014 02:58 PM)Kaizen Wrote:
^6'3.
Lift weights about 4x/week. I experiment with different programs to see what works best. Right now Ive begun something called 'Visual Impact' which is a 6 month program.
The HIIT I do is Cardio, which is purported to burn more calories than steady state treadmill stuff for burning calories. Also has the benefit of not being boring. Resistance training is definitely for muscle building; also, having more muscle mass makes it easier to remain lean as your BMR is raised in doing so.
The fittest dude I know eat's pretty crap; so much muscle on him it's just burned off; mind you he's a bit of a genetic freak.
Yeah, I believe that here, we attempt to focus on aspects (practices) within our control; however, there is NO doubt a considerable role for genetics. I had a friend in high school who always was quite buff, and he was about my same height (5'9") his neck was like a bull's compared with mine with accompanied trapezoid muscles. He never really worked out very much in high school, and even when I met him around 20 years later, he told me that he did NOT work out very much, but still he retained quite the build of a weight-lifter.
I believe with HIIT, you can structure the exercises to be either heavily cardio or more muscle building in nature. Like, for example, sprinters are known to be able to retain pretty decent muscle mass in part based on their approach to HIIT training methods.
Maybe some of us will come to different conclusions about priorities, but I personally consider diet to be the most important, then sleep (rest) and then exercise, and I strive to maintain each of them.. even though they can become mixed up, depending on work, travel and other socializing/recreational activities. I only really fixed (and focused on fixing my diet and sleep in the last 3 years), and then while I was doing that I ended up tweaking my exercise, too.
I also attempt to maintain an exercise schedule that I will be able to keep over the long term - even though the intensity and the number of days of week and the kinds of exercise has varied over the course of years. In the past about 10 years, sometimes I have intensive weeks of salsa dancing - which can screw up my ability to carry out other kinds of exercising - even though I have been preferring the social aspects of salsa dancing - for fairly obvious reasons...
Regarding frequency, in the last 3-4 years, for the most part, 3 days a week of exercise would be on the low end for me, and 6 days a week would be on the high end.