As we move further into the new year, no doubt many motivated people are starting to find their exercise program (or lack there of) running into some problems. The problems being they are not getting less fat or they are not getting more jacked. Right now the New Year’s crowd is running into their fourth week and if they are only cranking out miles on the treadmill, doing just curls for the girls, or just “ellipticizing” (putting in work on the ever more popular elliptical machines) they are no doubt hitting some plateaus. As such I want to break down a couple of key points that will ensure that you are not another casualty in the war to look good naked (what most of us really train for).
I want to divide this into 2 parts as there are pretty much 2 main groups of us gym goers: 1. The needs to lose fat yesterday group. 2. The has no muscle and needs it group
This is not exclusively divided into male and female groups. If you are a former football player who has ballooned up to 260 lbs (and aren’t 6’9”) you are in group 1, you don’t need to do more Bench Presses with 315. If you are “skinny fat” female who can fool the boys when fully clothed, but is deathly afraid of getting busy with the lights on, then you could use a few pounds of muscle to kick start your metabolism.
FAT LOSS
1. Do Circuit resistance training as your primary form of exercise. There are tombs of research on the superiority of doing higher intensity interval training to steady state cardio and there is more coming out on how20-40 minutes of “Metabolic Circuits” kicks the crap out of even an hour on a piece of cardio equipment. I like 3 full body workouts per week to go with 2-3 days of interval cardio.
2. Master your diet. Cut out unnecessary carbs, and eat quality fats. Everyone knows that when you do resistance training your body needs more protein. Figure out what is portable, convenient, and affordable then be consistent. You can’t out train your diet.
3. Learn your specific triggers that cause you to cheat. Develop strategies that keep you from blowing up the diet and eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Don’t keep crap in your house, don’t go to places that are likely to tempt you with crap. Have healthy foods constantly available so you don’t get into starvation mode and wander into the closest burger joint.
GAIN MUSCLE
1. Train a muscle more frequently. If you aren’t sticking needles in you backside train each muscle more frequently. I like an upper lower split with a day of rest either every third day or fourth day.
2. Choose exercises that stimulate the most number of muscle fibers. Pretty simple, squatting hits more muscles than leg extensions and chin ups hit more than reverse flyes. Exercises that are hard are usually better than easy exercises (sorry to break the bad news).
3. Master the Pre/Post-workout window. Timing of nutrients is huge. Make sure you have something immediately after a workout. Don’t go to the gym fasted. My suggestion is a protein shake before and after a workout, then another meal an hour after that post-workout shake. Your body will use those calories for repair (muscle building) and recover faster so you can workout harder.