Another question..

[Dakoders]

I think I've been planning all of this out and stating my questions incorrectly. Basically, my goal is not to be hooooooge!, but to be ripped. I want to have fairly decent sized muscles, low body fat, and be extremely strong for my weight. I'm also really interested in doing MMA style stuff. So, by working more on staying in shape and being cut, will I see decent enough gains in muscle size while I build up strength?

Kenn24 posted a picture of himself, and basically that's what I want to look like, but with a bit more muscle eventually. By doing a higher rep workout for strength and muscular endurance and doing a lot of cardio, will I be able to see gains to get there?

Thanks,
koders

P.S. Why I haven't just shut up and started lifting is because of two reasons.
1. Came down with cold over the weekend and am letting myself recuperate a little before I go crazy in the gym.
2. Haven't gotten to working out in our weights class, just setting up current maxes for our progress tests we do every 6 weeks.

What I currently look like:
Marching into Mordor!

[Scrutiny]

Hi mate,

You need to slow down and have a think about which goal you want to achieve firstly.
A) Muscle size
OR
B) Muscle definition/Fatloss
OR
C) Pure Strength

You may not stay very lean while you bulk, as you will always add some fat to a degree.

High rep workouts are mostly only good for endurance, not so much for muscle or strength.

Also remember that training for muscle and pure strength require a different path to take.
You can most defiently periodize your training though, for example, 8 weeks for mass, 8 weeks for strength, and then 8 weeks for some endurance or fatloss work.

[Dakoders]

I want to slowly achieve all of them at once. I have major respect for bodybuilders, but honestly, it's not my forte. I'm an athlete, and as such I need to focus more on strength and muscle endurance and just let the mass come from that as I go. I will still be eating a higher caloric diet, so hopefully that will help with gains a little.

I was thinking of cycle between strength and endurance workouts either every week or every two weeks. Is this a good idea, or just futile?

[kram123]

how do you look now?

[Scrutiny]

Originally Posted by Dakoders

I want to slowly achieve all of them at once. I have major respect for bodybuilders, but honestly, it's not my forte. I'm an athlete, and as such I need to focus more on strength and muscle endurance and just let the mass come from that as I go. I will still be eating a higher caloric diet, so hopefully that will help with gains a little.

I was thinking of cycle between strength and endurance workouts either every week or every two weeks. Is this a good idea, or just futile?

You cannot get a balance of all of them at once.
This is why trainers split up the training into phases.
This way you can spend X weeks on each aspect, for example strength, endurance, muscle mass, etc.

You do need to realise that endurance and strength specific training are quite different. And if you do focus purely on strength or endurance you will probably not gain much significant muscle size.
This is why you would be best sticking with a specific type of training and performing it consistently.

Check out this article about periodizing training, i.e. training in phases to reach your goal.
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/art...odization.html

[Dakoders]

I know that endurance and strength exercises are completely different exercises. I'm asking that if cycling them like I said, would I be seeing improvements in both of those, and also muscle toning? And obviously my muscles won't be as toned as if I were doing bodybuilding workouts, but I'm an athlete. Bodybuiding does not help me much at this stage.

[DannyT]

Originally Posted by Dakoders

I know that endurance and strength exercises are completely different exercises. I'm asking that if cycling them like I said, would I be seeing improvements in both of those, and also muscle toning? And obviously my muscles won't be as toned as if I were doing bodybuilding workouts, but I'm an athlete. Bodybuiding does not help me much at this stage.

Listen to scrutiny please. No matter how much you argue, you won't be able to increase both MUSCULAR endurance and strength, in addition with muscle tone. Muscle tone comes from a drop in fat, not training.

The reason why I put muscular in bold is because there is something called STRENGTH-ENDURANCE. I have been very interested in the workout, and may try it later this year (I am also getting into MMA: starting off with Muay Thai first). Have a try at it, here. I am not sure if this method works, noone I know have tried it before.