Fat burning commute + Muscle building. Possible?

mq13

Hi all,

Right. So after too many years not riding, drinking and being pretty much couch-bound I've decided to try and get back in shape...or rather in shape. I'm 5'11, 166lbs and not overweight but a bit doughy to say the least. I'm looking to build up my arms, shoulders, chest and back. I'm not thinking Mr. Universe or powerlifting but a healthy amount of muscle and definition would be nice.

To that end I'm trying to build a routine aroundng a 7 mile round trip commute every day with maybe some swimming on a Tuesday for fitness and then some body weight / dumbbell / barbell exercises of an evening Mon/Wed/Fri to build muscle.

I have NEVER done anything like this before, just rested on my natural motabolism...which is probably going to start slipping soon (I'm 28 in July).

I've heard that muscle building and cardio stuff are at loggerheads with eachother in regards to fuel, nutrition etc so I'm not sure if this is even possible. There's just too much information out there for a complete beginner and it's usually tailored either to muscle building OR fitness through cycling.

Has anyone got any tips / experiences that may be helpful? Links are appreciated but first hand knowledge would be good. Also, what direction should I take with diet (Carbs, protein etc.).

The information overload is intimidating to say the least!

Cheers,
-Mark

agg25

I've got similar aims myself, I have a 18 miles commute which I do about 4 days a week, also do 2 gym sessions per week at lunch time and trying to throw a 5km run in at least once a week now as well.
I race XC a bit, do the odd marathon, but I don't want to turn into a stick figure that a lot of the serious racers turn out like. I'm also training for the Tough Mudder in Nov so need a bit of upper body strength.

What works for me is -
2 protein drinks a day
Fairly healthy diet, although a do get drunk once a week or fortnight and have the odd food binge.
Try to throw a few fast intervals into my commute - get on Strava for some extra motivation! I normally ride at 60-70% effort but explode off the line at traffic lights. Aim to be pretty exhausted by the end of your commute.
2 x 45 min gym sessions per week, upper body workout, fairly heavy weights.
1 x 5km run per week without stopping(first one last week took me 3 days to recover!)

Since I've been following this routine, my fat levels have probably gone down 5% and noticing I'm doing better at races, and also gained noticeably more upper body strength and muscle.

Stevo_666

mq13 wrote:

To that end I'm trying to build a routine aroundng a 7 mile round trip commute every day with maybe some swimming on a Tuesday for fitness and then some body weight / dumbbell / barbell exercises of an evening Mon/Wed/Fri to build muscle.

I don't see any big problems with mixing aerobic type stuff with muscle building as long as you're not trying to do either too seriously, which you're not. It's not that far different from what I do now and it seems to work OK for me (I'm in my forties, 5'10" 155lbs and need a bit of upper body strength for downhill fun as well as 'cycling' legs).

Not sure whether a commute of 3.5 miles each way will be enough to get the fat burning well as you'll be finished in 15 minutes for each ride and only really starting to get into your stride - might be worth taking a longer route a few times a week.

njee20

Not sure whether a commute of 3.5 miles each way will be enough to get the fat burning well as you'll be finished in 15 minutes for each ride and only really starting to get into your stride - might be worth taking a longer route a few times a week.

+1, that's sod all riding. Do a longer ride in the morning, before breakfast, and just on water (or something with caffeine, like a Zym tablet, or iced tea to speed up metabolism). You'll train your body to ride off fat, as there won't be such a ready supply of glycogen.

James0911

for the "muscle/weight gain" side of things have a look at mark rippetoes starting strength, its a very easy basic routine that is tried and tested (the whole routine is heavily based around reg parks 5x5 routine, which was used by reg himself and by his most famous pupil, Arnold Schwarzenegger)

mq13

Hi all,

cheers for the replies. I'll look into rippetoes routine and building in some distance to the ride. Any other suggestions welcome!

mcnultycop

I'm losing weight doing stronglifts 5x5 which is based upon Rippertoe's starting strength, I believe. I do a bit of extra isolation stuff in the gym after this too, but it isn't really necessary, I just like doing a bit more. After 17 weeks of this I can now squat 150kg and deadlift the same. I'm coupling this with some cardio in the gym in the week and mountain biking at weekends. Whilst I'm not going to be Arnie or get a call up for the Team GB mountain biking effort I'm losing weight, getting fitter in terms of cycling and also putting on muscle. The diets for the two don't really mesh together, but I'm more focussed on the weight loss at the moment do I'm avoiding too many white carbs and eating loads of protein and vegetables.