So I am coming off a nearly 6 month long serious illness. I have lost a huge amount of muscle mass and I want to get fit again but I don't want to get big. When I lift weights I just seem to bulk up.

I was in the best shape of my life when all I did was trail run before my job working construction, rock climb or boulder after work and alpine climb on the weekends and vacations. I specifically made workouts out of my work e.g. lift and carry 4 x 6 beams by pinch gripping them, doing a set up pullups to failure every time I walked under a framed doorway, carrying two 90 lb sacks of cement at a time, etc. At 5'9" I weighed under 145#.

Following a spinal injury 10 years ago I began lifting weights in addition to running. Initially I followed recommendations in "Extreme Alpinism" then later found a trainier who specializes in climbers. Regardless of amount of weight, or number of times per week, high reps/low reps, etc I got really big. My weight ballooned to 185#.

I would like to keep the weight off but regain strength. Any hints on workouts to restore strength and muscle tone without getting big? Pilates? Yoga? Body weight only exercises? Just go climbing?

Thanks,

EB

I would give Crossfit a try, I have done it for awhile and love it. While there is weight lifting involved its not the main focus. Its a much more well rounded workout. Just my .02

Incorporating a workout while working was excellent. Why not try to do something similar. I have a high bar and set of rings in the garage and a training handhold bar on the threshold to the bedroom. I run and bike and work in sets on all three. I throw in a variety of pushups too. Happy with the results. Stretching has become a routine too as a preventative measure.

harryquach wrote:I would give Crossfit a try, I have done it for awhile and love it. While there is weight lifting involved its not the main focus. Its a much more well rounded workout. Just my .02

I looked into Cro$$fit and the one studio we have in town is prohibitively expensive.

ExcitibleBoy wrote:
I looked into Cro$$fit and the one studio we have in town is prohibitively expensive.

Take some workouts off the Crossfit site. You can't do much better than pull-ups regularly for upper body if you want to stay away from weights.

Putting on an extra 40 lbs due to weight training seems a little surprising especially from doing low weight/high reps. Are you saying it was all muscle mass? Must be your genetics-it seems like lots of people who want to put on lots of muscle mass find it extremely difficult.

Best of luck getting back in shape. I'm doing my my own reconditioning after tearing my achilles tendon 4 months ago. Weights are a core part of my conditioning but then I don't go heavy so I've never gotten over bulked.

MikeTX wrote:if you've had some lifestlye changes since your 145# days, your metabolism may have slowed down. i would look for ways to boost that, if possible.

I was in my late 20's when I weighed 145# and since changed jobs to a completely sedentary one (I write software now), I got married to an excellent cook, and I am now in my early 40's. I'm sure my metabolism has a lot to do with it but other than eating right and exercising I'm not sure what I can do about it.

Putting on an extra 40 lbs due to weight training seems a little surprising especially from doing low weight/high reps. Are you saying it was all muscle mass? Must be your genetics-it seems like lots of people who want to put on lots of muscle mass find it extremely difficult.

Not all was muscle mass, but most was. I come from a line of broad shouldered, big chested men. My father was a lineman and wrestled in the unlimited weight class. He was the lightest of his brothers.

I should also say that I struggled to stay below 150#. I ate very carefully, and relatively little so I could stay light for rock climbing. I definitely have a propensity to gain weight. One week last year I ran 50 miles on trails in the mountains, 35 miles on roads, lifted weights 4 times (John Long's work out from hell - an hour each session) and went alpine climbing two days. I gained 2 lbs by the end of the week.

ExcitibleBoy wrote:I would like to keep the weight off but regain strength. Any hints on workouts to restore strength and muscle tone without getting big? Pilates? Yoga? Body weight only exercises? Just go climbing?

Thanks,

EB

Pilates 1X/week and Yoga 3-4X/week would be really good to prevent injury from the workout. Your entire body is different now and it's about to make another change. Pilates will readjust the little muscles around the joints and spinal, the Yoga will increase your flexibility throughout internally and the bigger muscles. Have to think of your body as an entirety. Though I think you'll want some weights down the line.

Dan
Keep in mind the weight gain comes from food, not the weights. That being said, weight lifting makes me hungrier so it is a struggle to keep the weight down.
But if you can eat well and stay calorie deficient, it will be tougher (impossible?) to gain weight.
You don't need a crossfit gym to do crossfit. You can take the workouts and do them at the YMCA, etc. Routines like Cindy (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes) will be great for General Preparedness. (Keep up the long days on the weekends)
Let me know if you are up for climbing something this summer, and I'll get in a day early so we can hit the gym!
Eric

P90x has been great for me for all around conditioning. Scott

ExcitibleBoy wrote:I would like to keep the weight off but regain strength. Any hints on workouts to restore strength and muscle tone without getting big? Pilates? Yoga? Body weight only exercises? Just go climbing?

All muscle has hypertrophy potential, but type II have more potential and are stimulated with high forces. So like you and others have said, avoid heavy resistances.

Type I still has hypertrophy potential, so of course you can still make some hypertrophic gains from doing bodyweight exercises (and even forms of cardio), but certainly won't be as big. And that's probably what you want.

You don't need a gym but could you go to some park? Somewhere you'll be able to do pull ups on something? Pull-ups, push ups, dips, inverted pull ups, leg raises, single leg squats, plyometric jumping, etc... all would be great to incorporate. Add some static and balance poses (like pilates) and do it in a few mini circuits and you'll be pretty good to go. Perhaps you could choose to focus on the exercises that are more specific to your goals (climbing?).

Like Bird said, you won't get huge anyways unless you eat a lot...and I'm the same as him as I found I find my appetite is greater when I lift weights...I find specifically that when I lift heavier my appetite is the greatest, while bodyweight exercises its much less, and even worse with interval cardio then steady cardio. So if you focus on that stuff, you'll probably have less desire to eat anyways.

For most of my life, my upper body conditioning came from pushups, pullups, and dips. With some ingenuity, you can do these about anywhere. Most of my abs strength comes from holding my body rigid while doing pushups.

That said, these exercises put a lot of strain on the tendons. Pushups especially put a lot of strain on the lower back, and I don't know how that fits with someone who has had a spinal injury. Pullups are tough on people with golfer's elbow. Dips can blow out the rotator cuff. I've spent months in PT eschewing these body-weight exercises, and gradually recovering with 5-lb dumbells. As you get older, body-weight exercises may seem riskier and riskier.

I found that a set of full-extension pushups -- say 90-100 -- was appetite-suppressant; in fact it would leave me breathing hard and slightly nauseous. I also think that a person who does a lot of pullups subconsciously keeps the weight down, for the simple fact that the more s/he weighs, the harder it is to do pullups. If your typical count drops, that "failure" stays in the back of your mind the next time you reach for the chips.

My "Yoga" consists of just 4 exercises when I'm watching TV: upward-facing dog; extreme triangle, with my crotch about 8" off the floor; near splits; and alternate leg pulls with my head on my knee. By nature I'm a stiff person, but this little bit seems to be enough to keep me pretty limber, without taking more than 15 minutes 2 or 3 times a week. I don't find "Yoga" to be an efficient cardiovascular workout.

At my age, the best workouts come from going to the nearby mountains.

bird wrote:Dan
Keep in mind the weight gain comes from food, not the weights.

That's true in a sense, that is, you need calories to gain weight, but if you're training to add muscle mass, the heavy lifting (in combination with good eating) increases the muscle size, hence more weight.

Mountain Impulse wrote:

bird wrote:Dan
Keep in mind the weight gain comes from food, not the weights.

That's true in a sense, that is, you need calories to gain weight, but if you're training to add muscle mass, the heavy lifting (in combination with good eating) increases the muscle size, hence more weight.

All the training in the world will not cause you to gain mass unless you are taking in a caloric surplus - assuming you don't have a bunch of extra fat to provide energy as you lose it. Even then it's very hard to gain muscle and lose fat a the same time.

Yeah, can't burn fat and gain muscle at the exact same time. One is anabolic (build up), the other catabolic (break down)

Protein synthesis is stimulated by high forces on muscles, the higher the better (this is why eccentric contractions can yield highest gains). For ~ 24 hr after, the body needs to be in an anabolic state (calorie surplus with sufficient amino acids) for protein synthesis and muscle hypertrophy to occur.

If you rely on fat burning during that period, you will be catabolic and protein synthesis will stop...so you can't do both at the exact same time. However, if you are only weightlifting a few times a week (and trying to build muscle) you can still be at caloric deficit at all the other times.

Just don't eat too much and don't lift too heavy. Of course everyone is different and maybe the OP really gains muscle easily so he'll really have to not lift heavy nor eat much.

actually I don't even think I said anything new, just rambling...

John Duffield wrote:

ExcitibleBoy wrote:I would like to keep the weight off but regain strength. Any hints on workouts to restore strength and muscle tone without getting big? Pilates? Yoga? Body weight only exercises? Just go climbing?

Thanks,

EB

Pilates 1X/week and Yoga 3-4X/week would be really good to prevent injury from the workout. Your entire body is different now and it's about to make another change. Pilates will readjust the little muscles around the joints and spinal, the Yoga will increase your flexibility throughout internally and the bigger muscles. Have to think of your body as an entirety. Though I think you'll want some weights down the line.

This is good advice, although I do more Pilates and less Yoga. Basically, I take one Yoga class a week and then use elements of the Yoga during my wind down from hard Pilates sessions which I do several times a week.

Be careful, some Yoga practices emphasize hypermobility of the shoulders, not a good thing for climbers. Strong and good range of motion, yes. Extra flexibility at the cost of stability, not.

Also for bodyweight training this is a must read book:

Bodyweight Exercises For Extraordinary Strength by Brad Johnson. Ironmind Enterprises, pub.