Question for Mop

[Diekan]

I've been told about 4 different things now, and I'm not going to pay a fee to ask my doctor, so I'll ask you.

I'm at 194 pounds with around 8 to 10% body fat. I'm trying to add a little more size to the chest, shoulders and arms... not a problem I'm eating about 175 grams of protein per day and have a good, solid weights schedule. Now, I like to run.... a lot. In fact once a week I run 2 hours for about 14 miles. The rest of the week I usually slow it down and run between 45 minutes to an hour (5 to 6 miles, give or take) - that usually every day.

I can't seem to add the extra bulk I want - and I've been told that running will inhibit muscle development. Ok, that makes sense with ass and leg muscles, but I can't see how running really inhibits chest, arm and shoulder growth with enough protein intake per day.

I've been told that running will inhibit all muscle growth, I've been told that it only affects leg and ass muscles, I've been told it doesn't affect anything but body fat content, and I've been told that it only slows growth when the amount of protein needed isn't being ingested.

So which is it? Given that all four opinions are from trainers - it makes me wonder.

Edit -

Oh one of the trainers said that the constant jolting of the chest muscles (every day) causes tearing and the fact that I run every day is taking away the time they need to heal.... now that makes sense, I can see that....

[Tae-Bo]

eat more imo

[Diekan]

No - I don't want to add too much weight - just increase the size of the chest and arms... eating more will add more size the waist line as well - that's a no go.

[Tae-Bo]

welp

i see we have no idea how hypertrophy works

peace out

[Tae-Bo]

if you stopped running you'd prolly gain that size you wanted


cus you'd be burning less overall cals

[Diekan]

yeah I know what hypertrophy is.... that's what the protein is for and the 2,200 calories per day.

regardless - I'll probably take a break from running for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.

[Mop]

Ill answer the easy way since ive had a couple glasses of wine and lil tipsy atm,

Running causes you to burn muscle as it is easier to break down than fat / protein as a food. I would substitute running with either, 20 - 25 min of incline walking trying to keep your hr around 125- 130ish, to keep body fat burning while trying to gain muscle - also it will cause your body to go from burning muscle to burning fat instead. - thus giving you more energy in a lifting sense. Saying it only burns fat is a bull shit statement as no cardio just burns fat - esepecialy high intensity where you have to burn muscle in order to keep energy as it is near impossible to eat enough carbs while running at a decent pace to resupply the body. for example you would burn 700 - 900 calories an hour while running give or take at your weight, that is roughly 14-16 servings of gatorade.

I would also try a couple days a week of HIIT cardio. 30 seconds high intensity and 30 sec low - since i can no longer run and I miss it like crazy I use this to give me the same high and same dulled out sense in my head that running gave me over long periods.

Now for weights, my big suggestion of gaining any sort of mass - would be tone down cardio to 2 - 4 times a week. just to keep your body fat low, for no longer than 30 min. weights I would develop a split that hits - chest / back twice a week and shoulders / arms / legs once a week. For weights, keep it simple pick 3 maybe 4 movements you like and do a pyramid scheme: something like this,
*example of chest routine - I would either do legs or bicep with this

Push ups, 3 sets as a warm up 20 - 30

bench Press 7 sets
2 sets about 50 - 60 % of your max, so about 15ish reps
1 set of 65 - 70% of your max, bout 10 reps
2 sets of about 80% of your max about 6 - 8 reps
one power set of 4 reps maybe 5 probaly about 90% of what you can get up
one last set of about 15 - 20 reps ( these are slow and very controlled around a 3 count up and down )

4 sets of something else chest, personally I like the Hammerstr incline, due to my shoulders but I would go free incline with freeweights. Range of motion here go for about 65 - 70% of your max get about 10ish reps up for each

last I would go with a 8 set isolation mountain climb. ( i used this alot and it fucking hurts but jesus it is great for burning the muscle out as fast as possible ) use a machine for this if possible to be safe, cable cross at worst.
so you start at something very light, 20 reps, with no rest adjust the weight up about 5% and do 15 reps, then no rest again adjust another 5% and go for 10 reps, then if you get through 10 adjust the weight again, and get 6 reps up. Every set you start the weight a notch higher so that everytime you finish you cant get the last reps up, you should fail between the 10th rep set or the 6 rep set. if you can go longer, you are not using enough weight. The reason I suggest a machine for this is so that form on the last few sets doesnt suffer.

[Mop]

I forgot to mention;

You should take 2 - 3 min between each set to allow lactic acid to be gone from the muscle and allow allow you to get back to about 90 -100%, eat before you work out for more energy, and make sure you eat right after you work out, leaving it to long allows your body to go into starvation mode causing you to burn more muscle.

I would recommend creatine and no2 for 6 weeks cycle.