Starting again

[PowerBuilder]

Hi, this is my fist post.

Stats:
25 year old, male
height 6 feet
weight 218 lbs
about 17 % body fat

I lifted throughout highshool, but I completely
stoped during college and I began lifting again
about a month ago. I know that a lot of you
experienced bodybuilders don't try to gain muscle mass while loosing fat. Several months ago I considered trying to get my body fat down before I began lifting but I couldn't get into it - trying to get inshape dieting and cardio but no lifting. What I am doing now is lifting heavy 4-5 days a week, I eat 5 meals a day, have at least 220 gm protein, and a 400-800 cal deficit. Is this the right way to go if my long term goal is go gain mass? How long should I take to loose fat before I should consider trying to gain mass? What % body fat should I try to get to. I am interested in educating myself about Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) use and will probably eventually try a cycle. How long is a reasonable length of time to train "natural" before trying a cycle?

Thanks.

 

[tad69]

Train natural as long as you make gains. Eat well and train hard! Add cardio and bust your ass! The fat will drop while you train for mass. Evaluate your diet often.

 

[Beast_19_301]

Welcome too the board.

Whats your current split that you are using?

 

[Beast_19_301]

Also the how many total sets for each muscle group?

 

[tad69]

What Beast is getting at is..............DO NOT OVERTRAIN!!!!

 

[Beast_19_301]

pretty much, i see alot of it latley so i wanna keep on top of it.

 

[PowerBuilder]

My split

It's not completely set but what I've
mostly been doing is

Every 4 days I repeat:

Day1: Chest bench 3-4 working sets
tris 5-6 sets pushdowns and/or
skullcrushers

Day 2: Back/ bis

Day 3:

Day 4:

 

[PowerBuilder]

My split

Sorry I hit return by mistake.
It's not completely set yet but what I've
mostly been doing is

I like the push/pull split so
Every 4 days I repeat:

Day1: Chest bench 3-4 working sets

tris at least 6 sets pushdowns and/or
skullcrushers

Day 2: Back / bis
Pullups with weight support 4-5 sets
will do real pullups when I get strong
enough

6 sets Standing barbell or dumbell curls

Day 3: Legs Been doing leg extensions
did 3 sets of squats yesterday
but overtrained

leg curl 4-5 sets

Day 4: Off

abs/ calves every other day

It is hard for me to ever feel like I work
my arms, except the other day when I
was doing scullcrushers and had a spotter.
I feel like I can recover fully everything
in 4 days.

 

[PowerBuilder]

shoulders

shoulders are not in my split yet because I've
been having a slight discomfort in my right shoulder - may be rotator cuff but it is not that
bad so I will start shoulders soon on my chest
day. What also bothers me is that my right
shoulder cracks evertime I push my arms strait
up but my left shoulder doesn't.

 

[Beast_19_301]

Maybe you should go and get that shoulder checked out.

Your only doing 3-4 working sets for chest and your doing 6 sets for tris?
You are doing 4-5 working setsfor back and doing 6 sets for standing curls?

Okay you can increase the sets and add a excercise for the larger muscle groups. 6 sets is fine for the small muscle groups.

How many reps do you use?

 

[PowerBuilder]

reps

- started at about 15 first week to get my muscles ready. Now I do 5 - 10. For example I try to use the same weight for 4 sets and start with 10 reps and end up being able to do 5 on the fourth set. But I do 10-15 reps for arms.

I was trying to arrange my routine so that I feel tight or a slight soreness the next day in the muscles I worked. If I do 3-4 sets of bench with a spotter I definitely get that feeling - consider that I've only been lifting for a month. Then I do 6 sets for arms - no spotter and it doesn't feel like I worked them the next day.

 

[Beast_19_301]

i'm glad you did the 15 reps when you started too train again, so you obiviously know what you are doing.