Health & Exercise Thread! 2.0

[PeanutButterMunky]

Hey guys. Been weight training for almost two months now. I'm cutting right now and my calories are seemingly in check and so is my weight loss thus far

I was just wondering if jumping on the treadmill is a worthwhile substitute for leg day? Since I've been back in the gym I've only trained with weights and it's been going alright, but seeing as I'm looking to drop weight I decided to incorporate the treadmill/cardio this week on Monday, after I hit my back and triceps. I probably spent about 25 mins on it and it felt pretty good after - refreshing

The reason I'm asking if it's a worthwhile substitute for leg day (which is today [Wednesday]), is because at the gym today I noticed I was just unable to leg press or squat as much as I usually do. At that point I just lowered the weight and tried to hit it with higher reps but that kinda left me dizzy more than usual, and out of breath..I was running on empty

So yeah, does incorporating treadmill into my plan make sense if it's taking away from my performance on Wednesdays? Or is it unrelated? Only reason I would consider cardio is of course because I'm cutting so burning more calories help but I wanted to improve my general health and stamina also

Something else I thought of was that I may be feeling more tired at the gym than usual not because I ran, but because I didn't adjust my calories/carb intake accordingly now that I'm doing cardio. I should be eating a bit more, right?

A treadmill is never a substitute for squats. There isn't an exercise that replaces squats... and leg press certainly isn't one of them.

If you're feeling a complete lack of energy when you're doing your legs, you should consider eating a LOT more carbs pre- and post-workout. You need to make sure your glycogen stores are in check (glycogen is stored in your muscles and liver and are your muscles' primary source of energy).

Also, you need to separate your strength training days and your cardio days. If you want to do cardio, that's great, but do legs one day and cardio the next on a day when you're not doing strength training. It's okay to warm up or cool down for 5 minutes on the treadmill, but never do a straight up cardio routine before or after your strength training. You don't want to deplete your energy beforehand and your glycogen stores will be kaput afterwards which will only serve to cannibalize your muscle while you're running on the treadmill... not a good thing.

You're on a caloric deficit right now and you need to conserve as much energy as possible when you're working out. Don't go crazy, keep it simple. You don't need to increase your calories, you're on a deficit for a reason. You just need to rearrange your diet so that most of your carbs for the day come right before and right after your workouts. After that, your remaining carbs should be complex carbs.

Also, if you're feeling completely burnt out no matter what you're trying to do... take a week off... then when you come back, drop the weight down 10-20 pounds and start your way back up again. You're not really trying to "build muscle" when you're dieting. You're trying to preserve your existing muscle while cutting the fat. Keeping your protein intake relatively high and lifting weights helps to preserve lean body mass and "lean you out". You're not breaking strength records here, just trying to lean out and stay healthy.


Can you list your entire routine for the week here? Exercises, sets/reps, duration, etc...