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[panpan]

Hi.

I’ve recently started working out at the gym (about 2 months). Im also what you would consider a hard gainer, and have a very fast metabolism so its hard for my to bulk up. My question is that I want to bulk up, but also lose the layer of fat that I have on my stomach to get good abs. Im afraid that if I run too much, it wont be able to bulk up. Im already doing some ab exercises, but that wont be any good if a layer of fat is hiding the abs, right? What could I do? Would running hurt of help me in my overall goals? Thanks for your help.

[adrianb]

Since I assume you like to run - I would focus first on bulking up and then once you built a body to your satisfacion then... you could sculpt, tone, or chisel out yur six pack by running and...

What kind of running workout do you do?

[SDNewbie]

Hey there,


I have been on a similar path, but I'm about 6 months into a total body reformation. I am also a skinny guy with a hindering metabolism when it comes to putting on muscle mass. At first I had the same ideas and I wanted it all very fast. My advice is to look at this process as two steps. As Adrian said, there is a lot of time after you build on the muscle mass where you can work on chiseling out some ripped abs, so if you aren't putting on much weight I would try to limit the cardio as much as possible.

In my situation, I was trying to do it all at once and mixing my cardio 3 days a week with 3 - 4 days a week of weight training. However, the gains I was seeing in this period were not up to par with what I wanted to see. I was about 6'0''+, 160ish pounds, I had a broad frame yet still a very small muscle mass. I found that I had to eat about 3 times as much as I initially was expecting in order to really start seeing muscle gains. At first I was worried about eating so much that I would start to pack on a lot of excess fat on top of the muscle I was building, but this has not been the case. I found that as a hard gainer I need to eat and eat and eat some more. Once I stopped mixing in the cardio I really started to put on some good muscle mass... about 15 pounds in 2.5 months and my body fat has also gone down 5%. So, my advice will break down to a signature I saw on these forums + a little tid bit of my own...


Hard Gainer = Under eater and too much cardio


Keep in mind that as a hard gainer with a quick metabolism, once you build the lean muscle you want to have on your frame it is much easier to shed that excess body fat with the extra muscle than it would be without it, as muscle burns fat.

So, keep up the weight routine and try and limit your cardio as much as possible at least for a while until you feel its time to move on from the muscle building phase you are in now. A lot of this thought of doing both at the same time comes from wanting too much too fast, but at least in my personal experience you are probably making the process longer by trying to bulk up and cut down fat at the same time then you would be in splitting them up into two different phases of your fitness routine.


However, don't neglect the ab workout. Have a really strong midsection has definitely increased my ability to life properly and to life more, so while you might not have an 8 pack ripping through your skin at this point you want the muscles to be there to help you know, and so that your cardio phase doesn't need to involve much other than muscle maintenance
and fat burn.


Hope that helps...

Eat clean calories, don't neglect your good fats or complex carbs, workout hard and eat a lot, you'll start to break out of hard gainer hell, and then the idea of bulking up first will not seem so daunting and soon you can get to work on cutting out the muscle you've packed on...

[swanso5]

you can't bulk up and lean down at the same time...i would have you lean down first than build up but sounds as though you just need a better training program...don't do crunches etc, do squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses etc as they will build better and stronger abs