Expert: Ken Alan - 3/20/2005

Question
Hello,

 I am a 22 year-old male, weigh 70kgs (around 150lbs) and 180cm high (5foot 8? Don't know how to convert). Anyways, I'm sort of skinny.

 I am a very healthy anf fit person. I like to run alot, go to the gym regularely, can withstand workouts of 2 hours, love to rope skip, used to do tae bo and the lot.

 I am very pleased with my body's looks and strength. However, I would like to go a step further and start having well-contoured muscles showing, flat abs and chest and so on. The sort of body where you can ditinguish between one muscle and the other. I do not like 'massive muscles', volume and mass. I like to feel light and slim. However, as I understood, in order to reach my goal, it seems that it is inevitable that I go to the gym and do some pumping.

 What I am currently doing is I go to the gym (twice or three times a week), spend 25 minutes doing cardio, sometimes rope skip for 30 minutes as well, then go to the Nautilus machines (gym machines), do about 6 of them, and finally, I end up in the free weight room to do 2 or 3(max.) exercises. I then spend around 30 minutes doing ab and glut exercises. My complete workout that I just described takes about 2 and a half or three hours.

 As for food, although I cannot live through a day without chocolate (cakes, candies, bars, drinks or any other form! Maybe chocolate Gas if there was any!) and coffee, I avoid junk food and eat healthy food. I am focusing on increasing my proteine level (chicken and meat).

My questions:
- do you think that this is the right workout for someone like, who wants what I want?
- Should I increase/decrease my cardio exercises? I heard from some friends that I shouldn't do cardio more than 10 minutes because it will come in the way of my muscle's developments.
- Is it right that I need to increase my proteine intake? And if yes, should this occur before or after the workout? I usually eat fruits before exercising.
- I am very hesitant to go to the free weight room, since I don't want to have bulging big muscles. Should I avoid it? Or should I stick to 2-3 exercises with low weights?
- Finally, what is the secret behind flat abs?

Thank you very much. I hope I didn't ask too many questions: they all come hand in hand to draw the complete picture.

Have a nice day.

Answer
You ask many questions which I need much more information to answer correctly.  I'll briefly address each one.

- do you think that this is the right workout for someone like, who wants what I want?
if you're body is not changing, you need more strength training

- Should I increase/decrease my cardio exercises?
decrease.

- I heard from some friends that I shouldn't do cardio more than 10 minutes because it will come in the way of my muscle's developments.
it can if you do too much. keep intensity high, but keep the duration down to perhaps 20-30 minutes.

- Is it right that I need to increase my proteine intake?
probably.  depends on what your diet is like.

And if yes, should this occur before or after the workout?
after, though before won't necessarily hurt you.

I usually eat fruits before exercising.
good. a little protein is fine to mix in too.

- I am very hesitant to go to the free weight room, since I don't want to have bulging big muscles. Should I avoid it?
No.
Or should I stick to 2-3 exercises with low weights?
probably moderate to high weights will get you better results.

- Finally, what is the secret behind flat abs?  hard, hard training.  get with a professional fitness trainer if you're really interested in that.  
hope this helps.