Are you leveling up outside of EQ? (fitness thread)

[Lhancelot]

Originally Posted by maskedmelonpai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've made it up to about 21% body fat and gotta say, i am pretty fricken happy with my shape. would like to lose 5-10lb of muscle though. thought about implementing some length unfed cardio sessions in a protein deficit, but worried I might lose lower body mass and don't want that. mostly just want smaller shoulders, arms, chest. got a bit a imbalance between chest and back and it; combine with desk work assaultin my posture. thinking about tackling these separately. liek maybe first I work on the chest/arms by doing liek super high reps to exhaustion with insufficient protein and lotta stretching to break down and limber up my chest/shoulders/arms and THEN finish balancing it out by building up my back a bit with liek proper routine and okay good protein intake. any suggestions?

Why not just do more cardio, and light weight/higher reps for toning? Keep protein intake at normal range no need to take in tons of protein, just enough to sustain body healthily. main thing is also not to eat/drink protein supplements unless you ensure the caloric intake is not high. Most of these types of supplements are packed full of calories and you will grow stronger but also bulkier.

If you trying to lose the bulkiness to your muscles, then do more cardio and do not do heavy weight training/lifting and that should do it. Higher reps will burn more calories alongside the cardio.

You could do calisthenics too, instead of lighter weight training... do floor braces, pushups, pullups, floor lunges, body squats, etc. So many exercises that you can do with zero equipment and these exercises not only sculpt your body well but give you practical strength, not just muscles that are big when you flex them.

That's what I would do if I was trying to lose bulkiness and yet still keep my strength. I honestly feel calisthenics are by far better for you than any weight lifting that involves exercise weights.

There are some really impressive books out there too, that go really deep into the science of calisthenics, my favorite is this one:

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I realize the book appears gimmicky, but once you open it up and read the information inside, it blows you away! It goes into the history of past strongmen, how they exercised, has pictures of them, and also goes into detail of the history of how modern weight training evolved. The author is a big proponent of using calisthenics to gain strength, and basically explains why in great detail. It starts you out with very basic exercises to get your feet wet slowly before it progresses you into the harder exercises. I highly recommend this book.