lose weight (including muscle mass) but keep or even increase power?

[halffttime]

i plan to take up boxing hopefully within the next 6 months. right now, i'm hitting the gym hard and on a 10 week journey to gain as much strength as i can.

my best lifts sets/reps
deadlift 315 x 7
squat 265lbs x 5
bench press 225 x 1

goals
deadlift 400lbs x 5
squat 315lbs x 8
bench 250lbs x 1

right now i'm 210lbs at roughly 25% bodyfat at 5'10. i want to drop down to 165-170lbs. would it be possible to increase strength or atleast maintain it while at the same time dropping some muscle mass?
i'm thinking if it is, i would probably need a different workout routine.

also, for boxers who fight at 160lbs or 168lbs, at what weight would they be during training prior to the weigh in? what would their walk around weight be and at roughly what bodyfat do you guys think? obviously it depends on the fighter but a good standard for both would be a nice guideline for me.

[halffttime]

if anyone also has lift stats for any boxers, pleast post them.

[Danny Gunz]

I'm confused in this 10 week period are you looking to gain strength or lose weight? If you want to lose that weight in 10 weeks likely all of your lifts will go down.

[halffttime]

Originally Posted by Danny Gunz

I'm confused in this 10 week period are you looking to gain strength or lose weight? If you want to lose that weight in 10 weeks likely all of your lifts will go down.

bro, i'm not looking to lose as much weight/fat as possible within those 10 weeks. to be frank, those 10 weeks is just a timeline for me to see how far i can get in terms of strength at the same time lose weight/fat. lifting wise, i'm going really hard, but fat/weight loss wise i'm not going extreme.

i've been working out on and off since 18 years old, with my weight fluctuating up and down. within that time period, 170lbs was my lowest weight (with a lot of skip rope and eating very low calorie. right now i'm about 207lbs and the strongest i've ever been with more knowledge on diet and lifting.

i strongly believe i have a really bad metabolism because for a fat guy who's pretty active and watches his diet, i don't lose that much weight/fat.

i'm on my second week of that 10 week timeline right now but it's actually been 6 weeks since i began seriously working out again. i've only lost 3lbs or so, but i'm not that worried yet. if by march and i'm still not under 200lbs, then i'll shake things up.

[Danny Gunz]

Originally Posted by halffttime

bro, i'm not looking to lose as much weight/fat as possible within those 10 weeks. to be frank, those 10 weeks is just a timeline for me to see how far i can get in terms of strength at the same time lose weight/fat. lifting wise, i'm going really hard, but fat/weight loss wise i'm not going extreme.

i've been working out on and off since 18 years old, with my weight fluctuating up and down. within that time period, 170lbs was my lowest weight (with a lot of skip rope and eating very low calorie. right now i'm about 207lbs and the strongest i've ever been with more knowledge on diet and lifting.

i strongly believe i have a really bad metabolism because for a fat guy who's pretty active and watches his diet, i don't lose that much weight/fat.

i'm on my second week of that 10 week timeline right now but it's actually been 6 weeks since i began seriously working out again. i've only lost 3lbs or so, but i'm not that worried yet. if by march and i'm still not under 200lbs, then i'll shake things up.

Imo you should commit to either the weight loss or strength gain rather than trying to do both.

If your ultimate goal is to hit 170 pounds I would say focus on that first. Because if you get some big gains on your lifts then try and get down to 160-170 you are going to lose a lot of your gains. Especially seeing as your body fat% is really high now you will want to focus on getting down to the mid teens then you can dabble in bulking and cutting to get bigger gains.

Just my opinion, it's your body so try some different things out and see what works best

[hayZ]

What do you workouts consist of right now? and what do you plan on making your workouts consist of when you aim to get down to that weight?

I am kind of in the same boat as you, I'm 5"11 at 180 pounds, aiming to get down to about 170 then do a clean bulk to about 175 (don't want to get heavier than that). Now I'm the strongest I have ever been and I am cutting lol.

[halffttime]

Originally Posted by hayZ

What do you workouts consist of right now? and what do you plan on making your workouts consist of when you aim to get down to that weight?

I am kind of in the same boat as you, I'm 5"11 at 180 pounds, aiming to get down to about 170 then do a clean bulk to about 175 (don't want to get heavier than that). Now I'm the strongest I have ever been and I am cutting lol.

what's do you think your lean (at 10%) body weight is? what's your lift stats?

i go to the gym mondays to thursdays. exercises are in order of execution..

monday- chest
4 sets of bench press (usually 5-7 reps, i'll do a single or two now and then)
4 sets of flat dumbbell
4 sets of incline dumbbell
3 sets of cable crossovers

tuesday - back
6-8 sets of deadlifts
4 sets of straight bar cable pulldowns
4 sets of machine pull
4 sets of freemotion cable pulldowns superset with 4 sets of another different angled cable pulldown

wednesday - arms
4-5 sets of dumbbell shoulder press
4 sets of machine lateral flies
3 sets of bent over lateral flies
3-4 sets of dumbbell curls
3-4 sets of concentration curls

thursday - legs
5-7 sets of squats
5-7 sets of leg press machine
(..and on occasions i do)
3 sets with hamstring machine
3 sets with machine where you kick one leg back

i feel like my leg workouts are lacking the most. at the same time, i do spend about 45 minutes in the studio room doing all kinds of conditioning stuff after every workout. i used to hate doing back and it used to be my weakness, now i look forward to back days. i don't do much core also, i feel i get more than enough core workout from the deadlifts.

when i get under 180lbs and closer to my goal weight i'll probably toss everything out except deadlifts and squats. then i'll probably start doing olympic style lifting as well. and of course a bunch of conditioning...

[hayZ]

Your workout is pretty decent for building strength and packing on some muscle but didn't you say you wanted to drop your BF% down? Since you weigh quite a lot for someone who is 5"10 (no offence).

I would say do compound movements and start some cardio and you haven't mentioned your diet also. I have heard GREAT things about intermittent fasting and you should give it ago man. I've been doing it and have lost a lot of weight that way.

Get some running, skipping, heavy bag in there and use the crosstrainer as well...rack up the incline/resistance on it and you will get a nice leg workout if you are going at a good pace with a good incline/resistance. You have good strength at the moment tbh, when you cut you may lose it a bit it really depends how your body reacts to it and how big you already are.

At the moment, what I am doing for my weight loss:

5 minute warmup stretch
1 round of just shadow boxing
50 rows (rowing machine)
3-4 sets of dips
3-4 sets of pull ups
50 rows
15 minutes on the treadmill with incline HIIT training (google it)
15 minutes on the bike
20 minutes on the crosstrainer
50 rows
3 rounds on the heavy bag
Finish off trying to do as many pressups as I can.

Pretty much circuit training, kind of what boxers do. I could do some skipping but I am waiting for knee to heal up a bit.

On ocassion, I do some dumbell incline presses but I don't go too heavy because it's a bit weird on my wrist, I prefer doing the flat or incline bench press. Should squat/deadlift but they are a bit tough on my back and I don't want to risk it especially because most people in my family have back injuries.

I play football (soccer) so I get a good leg workout there combined with the **** load of resistance training/walking I do on a daily basis, plus legs/shoulders/triceps are by far my strongest muscle groups naturally. I am going to get back to my proper weight lifting regiment once I shed the body fat, from the results I am seeing on my self I don't seem to be losing muscle..visibly anyway and I am feeling fitter than ever.

[Alder]

Its a great topic and very informative. All posts are wonderful. Thank you all for sharing your ideas. According to me running is best exercise that is good for energy and strength and helps i increasing power.

[halffttime]

reply to hayz ^

no offense taken, i know i'm heavy and i am trying to lose it. like i said earlier i've been trying to lose this for a while now and it's only until these past 2 weeks where i've noticed it on the scale.

when i first started going to the gym again, i'll admit i lacked big time in cardio. since i've got back on the skip rope (back when i was 18 this is how i got to 170lbs), and i'm in love with it again. i find myself doing some new "tricks" and picked it up pretty fast, although i gotta pick up more speed and gotta stop missing the rope. also, one other thing i haven't mentioned yet is i'm recovering from a knee injury. this past june i twisted it and couldn't walk for a good month. no broken bones, just a torn ligament (i think?). there is still a feeling of discomfort and very minor pain on it, i feel it mostly on lateral movements. it also prevents me atleast for now, to run FULL SPEED.

diet. my diet has been pretty consistent since the holidays. in terms of knowledge diet is my weakness. i'm definitely eating under maintenance if i had to guess, probably under 500cals right now. i take a protein shake, eat mostly chicken/fish/beef, i try to stay with brown carbs but once a day i will have a small portion of white rice (can't resist that *****). i'm taking multivitamin, ultra fiber, and fish oil as well. i'm eating low carbs right now and starting to feel it in my workouts. the energy is there, but i'm not feeling as strong as i feel i should be (except for deadlifts). i don't know if i mentioned earlier but i believe i also have a very slow metabolism.

here's exactly how my day went today:

brunch - boiled 7 ounce chicken, 1 and a half slice of brown pita bread
snack - 2 scoops of protein shake
pre gym - small portion of white rice, about 8 ounces of tilapia
post gym - about 1 cup of cottage cheese, half a slice of brown pita bread

3pm - 30 minute skip rope
930pm - shoulder workout for 45 minutes, skip rope for an hour