Hello

Stats: 22 y.o., 5'11, 185

I have recently started working out again. I am trying to developed a well defined overall body, while maintaining my weight. I have been taking Hydroxycut and Multivitamins twice a day. Once in the morning, and once 30 mins before I work out. My workout is as follows.

Mon: First thing I do is HIIT on treadmill (Warm up for 3 mins, then run on 10 mph with 3 incline for 30 secs. Then walk on 3 mph for 1-2 minutes. I do about 6-8 intervals.)
Chest, Legs, Abs

Wed: HIIT, Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, Abs

Fri: HIIT, Chest, Back, Biceps, Abs

Sun: HIIT, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs

My questions are; Is this a good routine, espically if I am working on getting ABS? Should I do HIIT before my workout or after? Does hydroxycut work, will I still be able to develop the body I want if I substitute hydroxycut with CE2 Creatine??

Any help is appreciated!

This is my opinion:

1. Pitch the Hydroxicut (YOU are the FAT BLASTER and the one to make your metabolism FASTER)

Diet and exercise are your Thermogenic.

2. Keep the Multivitamin

But, choose one with the least amount of fillers and additives you can find.

3. You do not have any lower body work in your routine, and you need to add these.

Do you have any medical problems? Such as knee or hip complications? Variants of the Squat, Deadlift (can be considered an upper/lower exercise, but one negotiate its placement), and lunge, are three exercises to consider.

4. Diet

The diet is the ultimate king on whether you gain tissue weight, lose tissue weight, or maintain your current tissue composition.


Have you learned how to determine your:

1. Base Line of calories?

2. MT Line of calories?

If not, go here:

Nutrition 101

Delaware Consumer Health Information Services (Originally Posted by Wrangell)

5. Personally I do not like your weight routine, and you do not list your VOLUME of sets/reps. Unless there is a typo, you are splitting up your arm work (bi/tri on two different days), Back and Chest get trained once per week, and shoulders twice per week. Direct ab work 3X per week is fine.

Its my opinion, your weight training routine needs to be reconstructed.

You may want to consider an Upper/Lower Split or FBW (3x per week)



You continue to ROCK! Welcome to this fabulous forum. I think you will find it enjoyable here, and I wish you the best of luck.


Have a great day.

Best wishes to you in life and within fitness,


Chillen

Thanks for your advice Chillen! I really appreciate it! I will try what you are saying. Two questions though; Is taking CE2 creatine good? Also, is better to do HIIT before or after lifting weights?

Be sure to educate yourself on what Creatine's purpose is and the "potential" it may present to you in your weight training.

Dont expect a "miracle worker" but it can prove to be a minor "coworker" in your fitness plans.

There is a biological necessity for water with Creatine Mono (CM) while with Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE) there is not.

You may experience some water retention if you choose Creatine Mono. If you stop taking Creatine Mono, the water retention will decrease.

THIS IS NOT muscle tissue loss. Its just a reduction in tissue swelling from loss of water.

To PREVENT misreading ONES BODY and forbid personal heartache: IMO one should be proactive in education prior to purchase of any supplement they plan on consuming.


I have seen many posts by people new to fitness and training on the forum. Some of these posts were from those that had freshly taken Creatine Mono a week before, and were disheartened that they gained weight when deficit dieting--->or are misinformed in believing the water retention their experiencing is actual muscle growth.

The informed person would realize this is temporary water retention and not "really" tissue gain.

With Ethyl Ester, one does not have this problem--or potential confusion.

Thus the importance of education BEFORE taking any supplement.

If I were to choose MONO or CEE, I would choose CEE over MONO.

Mind you I am not saying one shouldnt take Mono, it is as good as Ethyl Ester, IMO.

Just understand their are differences in side effects and understand the potential bodily feed back when taking them. There are no known side effects with CEE--that I am presently aware of.

=========================================================

There is no shortage of info on Creatine MONO, if one takes the time to read up.

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Various Info on Creatine Mono and CEE, and Creatine Articles:
=======================================================

Some "relative" info on Mono:

Creatine Information Center: The honest and responsible facts about creatine and nutritional supplementation.


Some "relative" info on Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE):

Creatine Ethyl Ester

About creatine-ethyl-ester :: Supplements :: Ingredients

Virtues of Creatine Ethyl Ester

An "opinion" on which is better:

Newsletter - Issue 44 - Creatine Monohydrate vs. Creatine Ethyl Ester

Additional Info on Creatine: Does it assist training, etc:

Everything-Creatine - Creatine Articles
(some good info, but seems a bit "commercialized")

Creatine Fact and Fallacies - The Basics on Creatine Supplementation

Interesting Link:

How To Take Creatine for Maximum Effect

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I dont use Creatine myself, and I am not a very big fan of supplements in general.

This statement is not saying I dont support the use of it (I do) nor saying that Creatine doesnt have some personal fitness benefits (it can).

It does have some good scientific research behind it.

I just prefer to allow my body and diet manifest itself into what I want, and I have done fairly well. Personally, I only use: Whey Protein Powder, flax and fish oils.

Creatine in of "itself" doesnt put on lean tissue mass; however, with allowing you to push out an extra rep or two or provide just a tad more intensity (coupled with a good diet), it can "assist" in the 'possibility" of putting on more lean tissue mass than one would have "possibly" without it.

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There is debate over doing HITT before Weight training or not. But I think the general concensus is to do your weight training first.


Best wishes in all that you do within diet and fitness,

Chillen

Hey I have a question. Do I HAVE TO DO WEIGHTS WHILE DOING HIIT? I want to burn fat, but will HIIT alone burn fat or do I HAVE to do weights to get any effect what so ever?

Thanks

The issue of lifting before/after cardio has been dealt with before. See a recent example. Save your juice for the weights and then do cardio afterwards or on a separate day.

So fat burning is your goal?

Well, the fastest and most efficient way to burn fat is cardio. It'll burn calories and fat, as well as speeding up metabolism to burn even more fat.
HIIT gets metabolism going even better than just plain cardio, so by doing lots of cardio with HIIT mixed in you'll burn plenty of fat.
Technically, you don't need to lift weights at all to burn fat.

Not that I'm recommeding this, just answering your question. It's probably not a good idea unless you seriously need to lose fat. Weightlifting also boosts metabolism, so it too can burn fat, especially when you lift using the big muscles of the glutes and hamstrings. Rebuilding muscle takes energy, after all. More importantly though, weightlifting will build muscle.

Again, if fat burning is your goal, make cardio your main workout, but ideally you should supplement it with HIIT, cross training, and weightlifting (just be sure to use low weight with 8-12 reps)

How much do you weigh though misterboy? What kind of body fat percentage do you have? Before you go nuts burning fat by following my advice above you might consider first putting on some muscle

Getting some good advice here, I see! Keep it up! work hard!