Losing muscle mass

Hi guys,
Now that ski season is over for quite a while for me, I would like to lose a fair amount of the muscle mass on my lower body. To give you an idea, I leg press around 400kg and my thighs are 21" around. Want to lose about 20% of that size. Simultaneously I would like to increase pecs, shoulders and biceps by around 15-25%.

Any tips/tricks on how to do this? Should I leave legs completely alone, work upper body hard and lay off most protein in the hope my body will canabalise the lower muscles to rebuild the others?

:cheers:

i can leg press 700-800 a few times. i am guessing we have similar builds now that you have lost weight, and i have been gaining some (finally) i am 5'7" 155lbs or so.

i will agree that you should just lay off the legs for a while. but WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?!! this is what you must explain.

symmetrics? screw that. i love being able to squat what the 250lb guy is squating next to me. (i work out with 315lbs) besides the point.

just gotta maintain that sleep schedule if you want to build. on a multivitamin? i think you know the basics. do not lay off the protein, but i do take a week off to give my liver a rest, that may be a good idea for you.

good luck keep us posted yo.

Just a matter of proportion. Slim(ish) upper body, slightly narrower shoulders than normal and massively built from the waist down. Better proportion would come from either having a HUGELY built upper body and maintaining lower, or losing a bit from the lower, gaining a bit on the upper body.

Anyway, gonna start a whole lot of upper body free weights and not touch lower body for a while. Maintain a fairly balanced diet and do a very small amount of cardio.

Will let you know how it goes.

trying to gain weight now? if i recall, i believe that you were losing weight about year (or last ski season) ago.

i think you work out at home, right? there are 4 exercises that you can do with dumbells to increase shoulder mass. i think you know what they are.

i am going to tell you right now that if you try to lay off of the lower body building then you are seriously going to regret it. you have stated that you have nice calves, and that is without question one of the hardest muscles sets to build.

height/weight again? i soo think we need a picture thread, but numerous people would be too self conscious/ or they would think it would be gay or something completely immature. this thread would be for comarison, but who the heck cares about what i think, it is about the majority.

make sure you are hitting the traps and lats when you are working out your upper body. those are the muscles that make you look huge!

Height: 5'10"
Weight: 68kg / 150lbs

Pretty happy with the weight, just not the distribution.

Would you mind detailing those 4 excercises for me.

What would target the traps and lats?

hi guys, look i'm sorry to say this but i really got to see your pictures. I mean both of you are around 68-75kgs and you both claim you leg press 400-800kgs a few times so you guys must be huge, and to be this huge you must weigh a lot in muscle in the first place. Now please don't misunderstand me as flaming you both or anything like that, but i am dying of curiosity to see how big someone who weighs 68kgs only and can leg press 400+kgs is. I've been a gym junkie for the last 2 years and a bit and i am sure i could not come close to 400kgs and i weigh 220lbs, mostly of muscle, so thats why i ask to see your photos. thanks.

http://www.thetrainingstationinc.com/shoulder-exercises.html
this site should illustrate the shoulder exercises well.

the 4 i do are the seated dumbbell press, standing dumbbell side raises, dumbbell front raises, and the standing dumbbell rear delt raises.

i work out the front part of the deltoid when i work out my chest and triceps. i work out the rear delts when i do my full back(traps, lats, upper/lower back, and rear delts) and biceps day.

after you thumb through the rest of the site, if you still need help on a routine or what to do for lats/traps, i will respond. i am at work now, and i must get back to doing what i am paid for. :lol2:

now for zwrangler, i am glad that you are all up for this pic idea. as stated i am 5'7" 155lbs and i squat 315lbs(work out with, never maxed it), and i leg press 700-800lbs. in your post you keep putting KGS everywhere and i just want to make sure we are on the same page.

also, not all leg press stations are the same. how well they are maintained and the incline they are set on play a huge role.

400kg is my absolute maximum and I can't do more than a few lifts. 320kg I can do a complete workout on though. Dunno what that is in lbs. Kitted, cheers for that. Will investigate more fully when I'm not at work too. :D

Well OZ i have a perfect workout routine for what you want. The bad news is that you have to give up drinking and sex for the period.





Just j/k :biggrin:



On a serious note. I don't think concetrating on building the upper body and neglecting the legs will work. Muscle building is based on an excess of calories and its a systemic reaction (the whole body adapts to be bigger and stronger).

So as long as you'll take the excess calories to build the upper body and the body itself sends the signal for muscle growth (signal that is not limited to only a muscle group but rather the entire body), your legs will not lose mass or might even gain. Not to mention that will be detrimental for your upper body not to work the legs. That systemic reaction is stronger if you work the entire body.

what i would do is lose legg muscle mass during your next definition phase, in which you'll have a calorie deficiency. During those periods if you don't work out the body will lose muscle mass very fast, so ignore the legs during this period and work out upper, that should cause them to lose mass while upper mass will be maintained.

I hope my iddeas were written clear enough, its 1am here and I'm quite tired.

Well OZ i have a perfect workout routine for what you want. The bad news is that you have to give up drinking and sex for the period.

What, so he can live like you? :grinyes:


j/k

I've lost a lot of muscle mass myself over the past 6 months.... joining new gym tomorrow morning though :)

What, so he can live like you? :grinyes:





What are you talking about i like in Party Town USA. :smokin:



















Wait....NO its the other way around....... :(

After a week, it's going well. Haven't touched the lower body or the diet really, but the upper body is responding really well to resistance training.

Haven't done much upper body stuff for ages - have been really surprised by the results this far.

Cheers for the advice guys.

First off, to minimize leg mass, you'll want to avoid stairs and stick to toning rather than building mass. (ie less weight more reps) Some cardio 4-5/week wouldn't hurt for reducing those quads either.

As for shoulders, kittedb18's exercises are excellent for hitting the basic movements. If you want to here some more advanced workings of shoulders, read on;

The shoulders are comprised of 3 heads. (anterior, medial and posterior) Any pressing movement targets the medial heads, and some anterior. Side raises target the medial, and fornt raises obviously target the anteriors. I find doing sets of barbell for this, and then a couple quick sets of dumbells immediately after give an incredible burn. Also don't forget your rotator cuffs, which tear somewhat easily if abused. Never roll your shoulders when doing shrugs.

I'm quite picky about rear delt however, a lot of exercises claim to hit them and most involve other back muscles (traps, lats, rhomboids and infra spinatus) that end up taking over. There's agreat seated raise that involves two dumbells over your heads and lowering them to about level and back up. It's sort of a vertical chest fly or a reverse side raise motion. Some people find these quite awkward, but I find nothing hits my rear delts as good. Dumbell rows also hit the rear delts reasonably well, so I often have shoulder days after or on back days.

The key to building mass is starting with dumbells and gradually working up with heavy reps. Keep the reps fairly low and avoid smith machines. Smith amchiens aren't evil, but they do isolate muscles which inhibit stabilizer muscle growth and take from overall development. Same with cables, they are resitance machines and typcially tone or bring out striations in the muscles rather than build mass. Use them in moderation.

BTW 400Kg = 880lbs, or 9 45's and 1 35/side on most machines, a fairly serious amount. 320kg (700 lbs) is a lesser 7 and a half 45's/side, a little more than what I use to finish up my last set.

Sorry for the longish post, but I've read thousands of pages on this stuff and always feel obligated to share what I've learned.

:cheers: Porsche. Good post. Could you clarify the seated excercise a little further? Keen to try it.

Sorry, I looked and looked for it,b ut couldn't find a thing. I have it listed in a book, may post sometime.

her'es a good alternative though, http://www.weighttrainersunited.com/directory.html

they have some great exercises both common and rare.

good to have you back in the forum porsche. what you have stated about the shrug exercise canNOT be stressed enough.

Well porsche makes good points. However i would not be so fast as to put machines down. I think both unstable free weights exercises and stable exercises have their place for muscle growth. Personally I do combinations of them.

The 2 biggest advanges that machines have is that they allow certain movements that would simply be imposible or very akward with weights and they allow you to push your muscles to the absolute limit without the risk of a weight dropping on you.


But I think the most important thing is to not allow your muscles to settle into a routine. I like to change fairly often the weights the angle the speed etc...(of course always maintainting a proper posture and doing the exercise the right way with no cheating). You must keep the muscles guessing and forcing them to addapt to further the muscle growth.


I also notice a lot of people advising low reps high weights. But I find that the 8-12 reps suits me the best for muscle growth. I try to do the first rep of 12 and then while keeping the same weight drop in reps.

something along the lines
1st 12
2nd 10
3rd 9
4th 8

or another routine would be 4-6 reps of heavy stable weights, followed without break by 8-12 unstable light weights hitting the same muscle of course.

And of course the all important nutrition is an absolute must.

This type of routine worked pretty well for me, at the end of summer I was at 193 now I'm at 197.3(i like to think of it as 220 sounds better;))

The other way to stress the muscles with the first set and then drop it back is to maintain the same weight (I only have 8kg dumbbells at home) but decrease the length of time one repetition lasts for.

Try taking 10 seconds up and then 10 seconds down in the first set, then 6 seconds in the second set and finally 3 seconds in your last set.

12 reps at 20 seconds per rep can have great results.

Quite true Neutrino, I should have mentioned that Machines are the best way to lift when you're pushing yourself to the limit and beyond.

I'm just avoiding them right now as I don't feel I've built up my stabilizers enough to leave barbells and dumbells just yet.

As for not settling into a routine, can't stress it enough. The only way muscles grow is when they are put under differing loads. I personally change my workout routine each time, by fairly small amounts. I may work on my upper middle back for a few times, and then focus on outer back or lower lats then next couple times.

It's wodnerful to have so many exercises to choose from to make this possible, I like to keep 3 or so core exercises and then have at leats 1 more that changes almost each time I work out.

As for a return I may make, it'll be progressive, school is killing me and there's so much activity here, it's hard to keep up. Nice to see a lot of familiar faces though.

:thumbsup: All the good info in this thread rocks. You guys rock.

Any suggestions for back excercises to do with dumbbells? Don't have a bench unfortunately.