some advice from new member

[littleblue]

Hi my name is Craig and I've reached a bit of a plateau in my training. Basically untill a year ago i put on some weight (fat) and went upto 16 stone from 12, so I decided to diet and do hindu pushups and pullups combined with kettlebell clean and jerks. The problem is now for the last 4 months I'm pondering at 12 st 10 kilo with a little pot belly that will not go down and feel I'm loosing muscle. The question is where should I go from here? I'm looking for the Iggy pop look I once had as opposed to Michelin man.
I'm 5 8 age 36
Thanks

[Erik]

I find the only thing that really slims me out (instead of bulking me up) is running.

If your diet is good, then you need to look at varying your routine, adding in two or three days a week of cardio (sprints, distance running, biking, swimming, whatever) to get you where you need to be.

Hope that helps.

[Jec]

Like Erik said, the running has helped me too.
Don't necessarily go by the scale!
A couple of years ago, I tried a pushup routine without cardio, doing around 200 a day. I gained about 5 lbs and quit, thinking it must be fat since i wasn't lifting anymore.
This time around, I started running first 3-5 days a week before i added the pushups and initially lost around 12lbs. Then as my pushup volume increased and my running time increased up to 45 minutes 5 days a week, I actually gained back 6 lbs. I was really getting discouraged and had a new weightlifting routine picked out to go back to when I started getting compliments about how I looked different.
Pretty much, I've only lost a total of 6 lbs but my body composition is completely different. Before I was kind of a skinny guy but flabby. Now I have more lean muscle and it even shows in my face.
Good luck!

[littleblue]

thanks for responding
You have a good point about the scales - the only problem is i'm not moving the scales at all at the moment and my stomache isn't decreasing as it was(I'm not putting on any weight). As for the cardio I'm doing a kb routine based around the clean and jerk and after 40 mins the floor is a pool of sweat. Maybe I should eat more lean protein and cut the carbs to a minimum. At the moment I'm still trying to trim the fat (the pot belly albeit smaller than it was before) and keep the muscles in trim but it seems my body is hanging on to the reserves.

[Erik]

The kettle ball routine is good, but it isn't a cardio routine. It's an anaerobic muscle routine. It has you gasping because you are engaging muscle groups with little rest (if I'm thinking of the routine correctly) which forces your body to gasp for air to get more oxygen into the bloodstream. Kind of like burpees.

Try a more aerobic routine as part of your workout, or part of your cool-down.

You might also try creating a whole new routine and going on it for a month. That will also shake things up a bit.

Remember, the last 10 are the hardest to lose, so keep at it.

[Dave.cyco]

Erik, you're def right about the kettlebell drills he is doing. The clean and jerk is quite anaerobic, compared to other possibilities like the swing. Kettlebell swings are quite a bit more aerobic and I would recommend those instead of the C&J if you're looking to burn fat. I bet you can keep them up for longer without having to drop the intensity (I can anyway).

As far as running, I wouldn't know, I've never really been into it. Skipping rope is great, but before I get too far ahead of myself, I should say that I have an ectomorphic body type and never noticeably gain fat anyway.

Good luck with your goals, and yeah mix it up, like Erik said.

[cheesedog]

This is kinda going in the opposite direction from Dave and Eric, but I've had good results in the past from doing high-intensity circuits of sprints and kettlebell lifts like swings, snatches, thrusters and the like.

[littleblue]

Good responses
I think you are right about the C&J - it's such a great exercise though; there is always this thing at the back of my mind that I'm going to start loosing muscle as opposed to fat, but I guess the Swing covers this as it hits alot of muscle groups aswell but allows you to work for longer. I'm probably loosing my primary target which was to burn the fat away initially. It's interesting because the first 2 stone I lost was done by walking and doing lots of hindu pushups ( aswell as diet).