Right now i’m a Junior and play football at my HS. This year my emphasis was to gain weight so I’ve been bulking since December and have done no cardio except for tempo runs. I left cardio out because I want to gain as much mass and strength as possible then get back to decent BF levels. Right now I would say I have 12-15% BF, more than I would like but it is expected. I plan doing cardio around late June, early July because I will be pretty close to my goal strength levels and won’t lsoe much strength or LBM. Is this a good idea? For some reason I’m scared of doing cardio and losing strength and LBM, however my lifts are pretty strong. Should I do cardio now or wait? Thanks.
Yes, I have searched.
Tempo runs are cardio work. What more are you planning on doing?
Tempo runs didn’t help keep BF levels down. However I do tempos once a week with a volume of 1000-1500m. I was planning on adding HIIT but I was also curious as to its negative impact on speed. I understand I won’t get to 10% BF or less until I reduce calories but thats pretty much part of my question. Should I coontinue to gain weight and cut sometime in the late summer or should i start now? I just want to keep getting stronger and gain more mass without any problems.
there shouldn’t be any issue with gaining weight and doing tempo. your tempo volume is too low. get your diet in order and you can gain lean mass while getting faster and stronger. obviously, this doesn’t happen over night. it takes a lot of hard work and consistency. if football is your only sport, then you basically have a 8-9 month offseason so you should be training for speed and size this entire time.
Should I have two tempo sessions a week? My diet is in order. I’m taking in surplus calories so obviously a low BF isn’t really possibly. So the question remains, should I keep gaining size now and cut during summer or lower cals now and drop fat?
If you have gained that much fat, your diet is NOT in order. What kind of volume are you doing for your tempo and what is your diet like? Are you doing anything else (any other low intensity work like callisthenics) on your tempo days?
You can gain lean mass if you decide to be very sound with your nutrition. Some of the whey products out there (about 3 of them) contain growth fractions without added high GI carbs. Imagine a growth surge without any insulin rise. Most whey are just building blocks and nothing more. Some of the new “smart” wheys are engineered anti-oxidants power houses and anabolic laced formulas. Most of the products are not cheap and bulk product fans will argue that they are not necessary. I see the difference with my athletes.
Still, I find that adding carbs post training and using a JB method of intra-cycling carbs keeps athletes razor cut. Small differences like this will be flamed by “brilliant” forum hounds.
A symbiotic relationship exists with low intensity trianing and strength phases. Eliminating cardio because you feel that drops in possible strength will happen is not proven. In fact research with DOMS and other signs of intense training prove that light work can aid in recovery. For those larger athletes or those with poor elasticity medball circuits and other means are great.
light aeorbic training increases number and size of michondria, increases capillary denisty, along with other factors that improve recovery.
From the information gathered here I will introduce light forms of cardio. Cycling seems to be a good option, 2-3 times a week for 30 min. Should I consider doing HIIT now or even at all?
In response to Davan’s reply, my volume of tempos is usually 1500-2000m once a week, example 2(10x100m) with 45 sec rest. I just recently started doing pushups in between reps. I’ll put up my diet later because I’m at school right now. I was worried about doing anything for cardio besides tempo because of a fatigue issue. I already lift 4 days a week, I do “plyos” for my school Mon and Weds, and tempo, etc. As long as the cardio is low intensity it should be fine right? Thanks.
I left cardio out because I want to gain as much mass and strength as possible then get back to decent BF levels. Right now I would say I have 12-15% BF, more than I would like but it is expected.
To reiterate the other posts, tempo runs will not change your strength and size.
What is the concern regarding BF%? If you lowered your BF% to 8% would that make you a better football player?
I want to lower BF for a number of reasons. Since I will play linebacker in reality a sub-10% BF isn’t needed. However, I can be faster with lower BF and also there is the vanity aspect of it for summer, but that is very minor.
get your priorties straight. people are giving you valid answers and you dismiss them. if you don’t want people’s advice, then stop asking questions. you haven’t posted anything about your training background, stats, injuries, etc., so its impossible to give you an accurate assessment. in addition, your scope on training and nutrition is very limited. you can search this site for almost all these answers and there are threads that you’ll learn a great deal from. instead, you rather just be spoon fed everything without doing any homework for yourself.
However, I can be faster with lower BF and also there is the vanity aspect of it for summer, but that is very minor.
If you lower your BF% from 12% to 9%, how much weight would you lose? 12-15 lbs or probably more? Would you be that much faster over 20 yds that it would make a significant impact on your performance? How much strength lose would you experience? A light-weight linebacker is going to get trucked on many tackles. Having ripped abs might get a girl or two to notice you, but the opposing tailback won’t care.
Like ccardill wrote, get your priorities straight. Do you want to be a bodybuilder or a football player?
Don’t ask for peoples’ opinions when you’ve already decided on the answer.
ok let me give stats first
Age 17
Weight 205
BF 13-15%
Bench 225x2
Squat 455x3
Deadlift 345x1
40 4.8
Those are some basic stats. Im sorry if I gave off the wrong impression. I am not dismissing any of the advice given. I feel 15%+ BF is slightly too much, If im wrong then I won’t worry about it anymore. And about priorities. I am not looking to lose BF soley for looking good. I want to lose BF for football. I have serached for this topic before and maybe I have the neccessary info and I just don’t realize it.
[QUOTE=Clemson]You can gain lean mass if you decide to be very sound with your nutrition. Some of the whey products out there (about 3 of them) contain growth fractions without added high GI carbs. Imagine a growth surge without any insulin rise. Most whey are just building blocks and nothing more. Some of the new “smart” wheys are engineered anti-oxidants power houses and anabolic laced formulas. Most of the products are not cheap and bulk product fans will argue that they are not necessary. I see the difference with my athletes.
What are some of these products you’re talking about.
sometimes to play ball you need to scarfice what yo want to look like for performance. I once got down to like 8% and was ripped as hell but my performance suffered. Now i play (LB) at like 13% and i perform much better. The decrease in fat will not really help speed much over 20 yards which is all you really need in football, but it will severly hinder you strength. Also, you numbers look suspect a 455x3 squat there is no way that is a legimate since you only can deadlift 345. Not to be a dick but its the truth
i was wondering about that myself…