Then why did you tell me to use pm when I can't ?

Hi John,

Let me ask - what exactly are you trying to accomplish with this routine? Just general toning? Or are you shooting for the "Conan The Barbarian" look? (admittedly, that is my longterm goal. )

Personally, what I always felt was best was lifting 2 nights a week (remember, that the Muscles grow on your OFF Days - not on the days you lift, the days you lift are to "shock"/break down the muscles, so that they grow stronger on the off days.

So, personally - I would suggest either a "Push/Pull" (1 night you do all your "pushing" cycles- I.e., Bench Press, where you PUSH away from you, and the next night your would do any "Pulling")routine, or an overall routine that you repeat 2 nights a week (i.e., Monday and Thursday) then do your cardio every day.

If, you start to smell an AMONIA smell coming from your body, then you will need to modify your LC diet, because that is one of the signs that you are burning Muscle, and you don't want to do that!

Generally, trying to lift to get BIG, and an LC diet simply don't go hand in hand very well, because you don't want to burn any of your Lean Muscle, so on the days that I were lifting, I would perhaps eat a little more complex carbs prior to lifting - you're going to burn them up during your workout.)

I just started lifting again (it's been close to 10 years! Yikes), and just started walking (I quit smoking a week ago- after 17 years of a pack and a half per day habit) so I'm still working on my routine.




Tim

I am definally doing it to get bigger muscles, bulk up...

This is why i am doing 2 muscles/day and lifting heavy....

I am taking protein shakes after workout... as well as glutamine to assist w/keeping lean mass.. I did up my carbs a tad...more veggies... So far so good.. the scale stopped moving a bit.. but i hope its lean muscle going on...

Just wanted to note that i just got designer protein.. OMG is it disgusting... lol..

I dont mind it cause i gulp it down fast.. as fast as i can so i dont taste it...

the past roughly 5 weeks of lifting i have upped up lifting weigh a lot.. which is great... i am really excited... bi's and tri's have shown the most improvement...

chow

Just a quick note on the smelling of ammonia. Apparently if you take 1000mg of sugarless vitamin C right before your weight training and 1000mg directly after you will control the burning of muscle and stop this from occurring. I read this on the Hussman site. Check it out - it has heaps of great info. http://www.hussman.org/fitness

Okay, I'm not an expert but I can give you an idea of my own experience. I own a Soloflex and about a month after I first started this way of eating I decided that I would work out every single day. For about a month and a half I was lifting every day and only saw about a two lb. per week loss at best. Now for a lot of people this might seem like a nice amount to lose but I"ve been used to losing much more per week on previous diets so I decided to try to shake things up a bit. During my second month on Atkins and went to an every other day workout routine. I was still doing cardio on the treadmill every day but cut my weightlifting in half. For the next month after making this change I religiously lost 4-5 lbs. per week which made me a believer. Now about a month ago I once again got into the weights after joining a local gym. For two weeks I went in each morning and did both cardio and weight lifting and once again the scale become my enemy, not only decreasing the weight I'd lost but actually STOPPING. For some this would not be a problem. They could rationalize (and rightly so) that although the scale wasn't moving they were still losing fat but gaining muscle. As for me.....well this was the greatest "mind-screw" of all time. I have to see the scale move so once again I moved my weights to 3 times per week and 'voila'...the scale began to move in 4-5 lb. increments again. If you can handle the scale "mind trip" then by all means build that body you've always wanted. As for me, I would rather hit my goal weight first and then try to firm up. I still do some shoulder lifts, some pectoral lifts, some bicep/tricep lifts and some dips but for the most part I'm concentrating on burning calories on the stairmaster. I'm a scale junkie and can't help myself. Hope this information helps. Dave

I'm curious if I am reading this right. I see one day chest & Biceps. You say 4 pyramid-ed sets, 4 exercises per Muscle group. You don't say how many reps/set in your pyramid.
the picture I get in my mind then is something like:
A1. Bench Press, WarmUp, 1x10,1x8, 1x6, 1x4 pyramid
A2. DB Flyes 1x10, 1x8, 1x6, 1x4
A3. Incl BB Press, 1x10, 1x8,1x6,1x4
A4. Pec Dec 1x10, 1x8, 1x6, 1x4
B1. EZ-bar curls, WU, 1x10, 1x8, 1x6, 1x4
B2. Hammer DB curls, 1x10, 1x8, 1x6, 1x4
B3. Rev BB Curls, 1x10, 1x8, 1x6, 1x4
B4. DB Preacher Curls 1x10, 1x8, 1x6, 1x4

Is this similar to what you are doing, in terms of volume?

I now see that this is a really old thread just resurrected - feel free to disregard my post if it is no longer topical.

Is it actually possible to gain muscle on a low carb diet? I have read somewhere before that you need glucose and carbs to build muscle and feed it?

Find a way to do skin fold measurements in a few different areas and use that to guage your fat loss. You don't even really have to worry about calculating body fat % as long as the measurements are going down.

Muscle gain will fluctuate from one person to the next depending on that person's level of conditioning. During a fat loss phase, muscle gains are usually minimal if any. Creatine is cool to use, but, IMO, it's not really a good measure of added lean body mass. As fleating as creatine gains are, I wouldn't personally count on that.

Is there any special exercise to do that will help with building the muscles in my legs and hips?

I got me one of those elastic bands and have been doing exercise with it.
I saw on TV a couple using them and thought I would give them a try and I love it.

Deadlift or, if you're really feeling masochistic, try Hindu squats