Fat Burning Weight Training

My weight training has generally been focused on muscle gain (hypertrophy) or strength training.

But the third type – fat burning – hasn’t ever been a priority for me. I do my fat burning through diet and cardio. In fact, part of the reason I do hypertrophy training is to prevent muscle loss from my running.

I’ve been really pushing myself over the past 3 months with heavier weights. And my joints are screaming.

But I’m getting ready for the Oklahoma City Marathon on the 26th of this month. So I decided now would be a good time to try a fat-burning weight training program.

Wow – these workouts are kicking my butt. It’s so intense, but a different kind of intense compared to lifting heavy stuff. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Why go with a fat-burning weight training program now?
Well, a good fat-burning-with-weights program should:

1) use lower weight, so the joint stress is lower; I want stress-free joints entering the marathon

2) involve grueling workouts, really testing your endurance; and I want maximum endurance for the marathon

3) supposedly burn fat right?; well lower fat means I’ll be a little lighter for the marathon and that should make it a little easier

4) relieve a slight boredom that’s been creeping into my workouts since I’ve been on the same routine for about 8 weeks now…

What Is a “Fat Burning” Weight Training Program?
Ed Note: Long after writing this, I have released my exact routine for $10 available here.

There are so many programs on the market for using weights to burn fat. Some of the more popular come from Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training program. Also, in New Rules of Lifting (one of the best weight lifting books you can buy – it’s a physical book), they present some. Each of those resources are like $10 or so. For the ladies: New Rules of Lifting For Women.

The basic ideas of how to make a program to burn fat through lifting weights are:

•12 to 15 reps per set
•lighter weights (related to the first bullet of course)
•not training to failure on a set but going for overall fatigue
•little to no rest between sets
•full-body workouts (not splitting muscle groups from day to day)
Depending on whose program you jump into, there may be cardio components as well. (That’s my one criticism of the aforementioned books’ programs – they eschew most cardio.)

And trust me, you won’t burn fat with a poor diet. That’s made really clear in both The Truth About 6-Pack Abs and in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

But these are just the basic principles. Once you get to an advanced experience with weight training, you can put together your own programs. So that’s what I did.

What Is My Routine?
This would become a really long post if I provided my exact program but here is the main outline:

•I triple-set with unrelated muscle groups
•I used this as an opportunity to add in some exercises I usually don’t do (this ads some fun to the workout)
•It’s a 4-day a week program, each day different
•While each one is full body, I do emphasize slightly different muscle groups on each day
•I still include my running – after all, I’m training for a marathon!

The Big 7 – The Seven Most Important Weight Training Exercises

This is a short article to set in stone the 7 most important weight lifting/weight training exercises. I’ve mentioned them several times in various posts, and also in several of my ebooks, but let’s get this defined once and for all.

Note – these are not necessarily in order. We’ll save the debate about which “one” is the most important for later…

The Big 7
1.Squat
2.Deadlift
3.Chest Press (Bench Press)
4.Rows
5.Chin-up/Pull-up
6.Military/Standing Pres
7.Dips
There are many variations to each of these. Dumbbell versions, barbell versions, seated vs. standing, different grips, different angles, etc.

But the key things about this list:

a) they are all compound movements, not isolation exercises

b) together, they hit every major muscle in the body (yes, they even work your abs for you fitness-models out there!)

c) they produce RESULTS

d) they should form the basis of any good program/routine; if your routine doesn’t include each of these at least once a week, even if you are a beginner, get a new program

e) with the variations, you could do just these 7 exercises for years and never get bored

Muscle Memory – Can Muscles Actually “Remember”?

Ask any bodybuilder what muscle memory means and they will readily answer that it is the ability to regain muscle mass more quickly after a period of inactivity than it took to gain the same mass originally. However, if you type the term “muscle memory” into a search engine on the internet, you will find there are many different interpretations of this term. And depending on which authority you consult, the meanings are diverse.

Some believe that muscle memory is simply the application of learned processes much like a baby learns to walk or feed itself. After many repetitions of the same action, parts of the body are able to react without the person thinking about what they are doing, and the action involved seems to come naturally. If this is true, then muscle memory is actually a neurological function that is built into all humans. According to Andersen, et al. (2005), some studies have shown that neurological and physiological changes occur during skill training, but not during strength training alone. Others believe that there is an actual physiological change that occurs in the muscles during strength training, altering the function of certain muscle fibers, causing them to bring about muscle growth more readily than before training. In both cases, the muscle’s ability to regain both strength and size may be enhanced if training is stopped for a period of time and then started again.

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Resistance training and weight training require a combination of strength and motor skill. As a person learns how to perform certain exercises, it is important to learn the right patterns of movement that will achieve the desired muscle growth (Jensen, Marstrand & Nielsen, 2005). Many people define muscle memory as muscular hypertrophy, kinesthesia, proprioception or a result of neuromuscular facilitation. To some extent, all of these definitions play a part in muscle memory. Let’s start by defining these terms and showing their interaction with one another to facilitate “muscle memory” during strength training and bodybuilding (as well as other types of exercise).

Muscular Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy is the increase of the size of an organ or select area of tissue that occurs due to an increase in the size of cells. Muscular hypertrophy occurs through increased contractile proteins. Myosin heavy chain isoforms, or MHCs, refer to the types of protein seen in a given muscle fiber.

MHCs determine how the muscle fiber functions. There are two types of MHCs – IIX, which are neutral until they are put to use by the muscle, and IIA, which have a specific purpose of causing muscle growth. Certain MHCs undergo a change in response to resistance exercise and serve as a reservoir of sorts for muscle hypertrophy because they can transform themselves into the types of fibers which grow easily in response to training (Haycock, 2004). Many scientists believe that once these types of muscle fibers are generated by regular resistance or weight training, they remain in the muscle, waiting to be reactivated. If a person does not exercise, or detrains, for a long period of time, and then begins an exercise regimen again, the fact that there are an abundance of muscle-growing fibers already present from previous workouts helps to regain muscle more quickly the second time around. In fact, certain types of strength training advocate detraining for a period of time in order to facilitate this type of response in the muscle, therefore eliminating the possibility of hitting a plateau that is difficult to overcome (Haycock, 2002; also see our post for “hardgainers“). Without that plateau, a bodybuilder is better able to continue growing in muscle size and strength.

Kinesthesia
Kinesthesia is the body’s ability to sense the position and movement of all parts of itself, such as limbs and muscular tension. For example, if a person closes their eyes and holds their arms straight out in front of them, they are able to tell without looking if their palms are facing up or facing down. For a bodybuilder this translates into the body’s ability to know the precise location and position to stop during a repetitive exercise in order to achieve the right amount of flex and tension to maximize the results. If you’ve taken part in a good program of resistance training, you will retain the ability to repeat the correct movements even if you stop training for a while.

It is important to note, however, that learning the correct way to perform an exercise is the key to achieving the best results. If a person learns the wrong movements, they will not achieve the same results. It is best to use a personal trainer or receive some sort of instruction when learning to exercise the different muscle groups, because learning the wrong form can cause damage or result in a workout that does not meet the exerciser’s goals. [Check here for the proper form videos for many major exercises; or here for the best weightlifting form for various muscle groups.] And the time and effort involved in unlearning bad technique can be substantial and can totally demoralize the individual.

Proprioception/Neuromuscular Facilitation
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation is the term used to describe stretching exercises that increase range of motion in a muscle, thereby increasing strength and flexibility. It is often used as therapy after an injury or long periods of inactivity such as bed rest. By stretching and contracting and rotating a muscle, sufficient use can be regained even though the muscle has not been used as much as it would be normally, thus allowing a person to regain normal function. Stretching is an important part of physical fitness because it prepares the muscles for the physical activity involved in performing certain movements. It can reduce muscle strain and the danger of injury during a workout session. In order to be in top physical condition, a person must have good flexibility. Of course, there are different types of stretching for different routines (see our previous post on stretching for strength training).

Is Muscle Memory a Myth or Fact?
Many articles and studies exist that discuss whether muscle memory in relation to bodybuilding and weight training is a myth. Some experts believe that muscle memory is simply a normal function of the body, that it is more related to the way the brain sends signals when performing any movement. However, we’ll use the term to define the memory of a learned pattern of behavior, such as how to make the correct movements while performing resistance training exercises to obtain optimum benefit.

Based on my interpretation of the literature, as well as my own experience, muscle memory is real and does have an impact on a person’s ability to regain muscle mass quickly after a period of no exercise when they previously practiced a regular exercise regimen. A good analogy is learning to ride a bicycle or learning how to swim – once a person learns how to do these things, even if they don’t do them for a long period of time, they are able to operate the pedals and retain their balance on a bicycle, or kick their feet and rotate their arms to stay afloat when swimming.

Creatine users have more DHT in their blood

Creatine [structural formula shown below] may work through an additional mechanism and not just by increasing the amount of energy-generating phosphate groups in the muscles. According to sports scientists at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, creatine increases the amount of the androgenic testosterone metabolite DHT [structural formula also shown below] in the muscles. The researchers report this in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.



In their article the South Africans describe an experiment they did with twenty rugby players, average age 19. Half of them took a placebo for three weeks. The other half were given creatine and glucose. The function of the glucose was to improve the uptake of creatine in the muscle cells.

The test subjects in the experimental group took a daily dose of 25 g creatine and 25 g glucose for the first week. In weeks 2 and 3 they took a daily 5 g creatine and 25 g glucose.

The bodies of the test subjects in the experimental group reacted to the creatine in the way you expect the bodies of serious athletes for whom weight training is not the core fitness activity to react. Their lean body mass increased slightly and their fat percentage decreased by a miniscule amount.



Nothing new so far. But when the researchers did a blood analysis of the hormone levels in the players, they made a discovery. At the end of the first week, during which the rugby players had taken 25 g of creatine a day, their DHT level had risen by 56 percent. In the following weeks, when they took a lower creatine dose, the subjects DHT level went down, but remained raised.



"This effect was a large increase in DHT rather than a marginal and possibly physiologically insignificant effect", write the South Africans.


The testosterone concentration in the test subjects blood remained constant. You expect the test subjects would also have produced less estradiol, but the South Africans dont mention estradiol at all in their article.


The researchers suspect that a creatine supplement increases the activity of the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase somewhere in the body. This enzyme converts testosterone into DHT, but exactly where this takes place the researchers dont know. Not in the muscles is all they can say for sure, as the muscles dont contain much 5-alpha-reductase.


Nor are the researchers sure whether the athletes build up more muscle fibre as a result of the metabolic change. This could be the case, they speculate. "Biochemical studies of androgen receptor affinity indicate that DHT is 4 times more biologically potent than testosterone", they write. The build up of muscle in creatine users, so often reported by sports scientists, may be partly due to endocrinal changes.


The scientists believe that their discovery is important for athletes. They warn of the potential side-effects of creatine, and argue that more research should be done on whether creatine increases the risk of baldness and benign enlargement of the prostate.


Source:
Clin J Sport Med. 2009 Sep;19(5):399-404.

Carb Cycling for MMA Fighters

By Shelby Starnes

As MMA fighters, we’re constantly looking for ways to improve our game. We sharpen our skills, improve our conditioning, and increase our strength, all with the goal of being better warriors. However, many of us fail to take advantage of a very important key to success in the ring (or cage)—optimal nutrition.

How many of you are exactly the weight you want to be right now? How many of you currently possess your “ideal physique?” If you’re like many of us, you probably have some extra “fluff” weighing you down, that once lost, could substantially improve your speed and agility (not to mention your “game” with the other sex). Perhaps you’re on the other end of the weight spectrum and could stand to gain some extra “buff” to help you overpower your opponents and bring more force to your strikes and grappling.

Well, there’s a method of eating that can be used to address either of these scenarios all while having plenty of energy to continue pursuing your skill, conditioning, and strength goals. The method is called carbohydrate cycling. Its main premise is that by exploiting your body’s insulin levels via cycling your daily carbohydrate intake, you can maximize its anabolic (muscle building) and anticatabolic (muscle sparing) effects while minimizing its ability to store fat and maximizing your body’s ability to burn fat. And how do we do that, you ask? Let’s get started!

Put in simple terms, we consume a high carbohydrate diet on some days of the week (typically on our most physically demanding days such as training days or days of heavy skill work) and a low to moderate carbohydrate diet on the other days (typically on days that are less physically demanding or on rest days). The high carbohydrate days raise our insulin levels, fill our glycogen stores, keep our metabolism burning efficiently, and stave off muscle catabolism. The low carbohydrate days are the “fat burning days.” They keep insulin levels low enough to allow for maximum fat burning while retaining muscle.

If your goal is to lose fat (and retain or even gain muscle), you will only have one or two “high carb days” per week. The other five or six days are your low to moderate carb days. If your goal is to gain muscle (while keeping fat gain to a minimum), go with two to four of these high carb days (the number will depend on your metabolism and work load, or in other word, how many days per week you train and at what intensity). The rest of the week is your low to moderate carb days.

Macronutrients and meal frequency

The macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Though this diet is called “carbohydrate cycling,” manipulation of your protein and fat intake will also play a key role. The following are general guidelines for each macronutrient on a typical high carb day and a typical low to moderate carb day. Note that we lower protein on our high carb days and also keep fat as low as possible. Also, keep in mind that for optimal blood sugar levels, metabolism, and amino acid turnover, it is best to divide your daily totals into 5–7 meals per day (about every three hours or so).

Carbohydrate Protein Fat
High carb day 2–3g per lb/bw 1–1.5g per lb/bw as low as possible
Low to moderate carb day 0.5–1.5 grams per lb of bw 1.25–1.75g per lb/bw 0.25–0.5g per lb/bw

*bw = body weight



Example set up

Here’s how to use the funky table using a 200-lb fighter as our example.

On a high carb day, our fighter would shoot for the following totals:

500 grams carbohydrate (200 lbs x 2.5)
250 grams protein (200 lbs x 1.25)
30 grams fat (while we aim to keep fat as low as possible on high carb days, there will always be an incidental amount in the foods we eat)
Dividing these numbers evenly over six meals, we get approximately 83 grams of carbohydrates per meal, 42 grams of protein, and five grams of fat.

A low carb day for the same fighter might look something like this:

200 grams carbohydrate (200 lbs x 1.0)
300 grams protein (200 lbs x 1.5)
70 grams fat (200 lbs x 0.35)
Again, dividing these numbers evenly over six meals gives us approximately 33 grams of carbohydrates per meal, 50 grams of protein, and 12 grams of fat.

A sample week of carbohydrate cycling for a fighter looking to lean out might look like this:

Monday: MMA training and cardio/conditioning work; low carb
Tuesday: Weight training; high carb
Wednesday: MMA training and cardio/conditioning work; low carb
Thursday: Rest day; low carb
Friday: Weight training; high carb
Saturday: MMA training and cardio/conditioning work; low carb
Sunday: Conditioning work; low carb
The days and set up will vary depending on your own situation and goals. Just remember that if you’re trying to gain weight, use a higher number of high carb days (3–4 per week). If you’re trying to lean out, only go with one or two high days per week, and on your low carb days, look at taking carbs all the way down to 0.5 grams per pound of body weight. If your MMA days are more demanding than your weight training days, look at making them your high carb days. Also, try to space out your high days during the week. Having them back to back can lower your insulin sensitivity, which is what we’re trying to exploit with carb cycling in the first place.

Okay, what do I eat? Not cheeseburgers and ice cream! Stick to healthy whole foods for this diet. If you can’t kill it, grow it, or pick it, you probably shouldn’t be eating it!

Here are some examples for each macronutrient category:

Carbohydrates: oatmeal, brown rice, potatoes, yams, fruit
Proteins: chicken breast, turkey breast, lean red meat, eggs, fish, low fat cottage cheese
Fats: almonds, cashews, all-natural peanut butter, olive oil, flax oil, fish oil, avocados
Wrap up

Not only is this diet “the bomb” in terms of results and ease of use, it’s also very easy mentally. It’s a lot easier to push through a day of lower carbs when we know we have a day of high carbs coming up! Using the guidelines above, you should be able to set up a diet that will not only allow you to reach your physique and training goals but also improve your health and well-being. What more could you ask for (cheeseburgers and ice cream, right)?

BCAA Supplementation Roundtable

By Jamie Hale

Do we need BCAA supplementation? The debate rages on. The following is an excerpt from Knowledge and Nonsense: The science of nutrition and exercise by Jamie Hale.

J. Hale: Many contest preparation specialists promote the use of mega doses of BCAAs even when the person is in a positive calorie balance and eating a ton of protein. Have you seen any evidence or is there a logical reason to assume BCAAs from supplements are superior to BCAAs found in food?

D. Moore: No, this is completely wrong. If eating within maintenance levels with adequate protein, you will already be getting sufficient BCAA content. Let’s think about this. Most whole food proteins (including protein drinks) are made up of about 15 percent BCAA. Therefore, a 220-lb bodybuilder who eats 2 grams/pound/day is already receiving about 66 grams of BCAA per day. Even if cutting, most bodybuilders still eat sufficient protein. Therefore, he would still be consuming sufficient BCAA. I think somehow people started to believe that BCAAs are magical where lean mass retention is concerned.

I think most believe that during exercise our bodies are utilizing huge amounts of BCAAs for energy. While we do use some, the increase is far smaller than other macronutrients. In fact, the increased turnover in protein from exercise is only about two- to three-fold versus 20- to 30-fold for carbohydrate and fats. Now, of course, this protein should be replaced. However, I don’t believe it’s necessary to increase BCAA ingestion above what is already consumed in whole protein.

Of the three BCAAs, leucine appears to be the most important in stimulating protein synthesis in skeletal muscle. The consumption of leucine alone is nearly as effective in stimulating protein synthesis as supplying all three BCAAs. Of course, creating a synthetic environment would be very advantageous to a bodybuilder. If this could occur to any great extent during a cutting session, that would be even more advantageous. Unfortunately, there is little scientific evidence to support the idea that in a hypo-caloric state, increasing BCAA content above what is obtained from food is necessary or of any consequential advantage in increasing synthetic rates.

Recently, it was reported that co-ingestion of protein and leucine with carbohydrate stimulates muscle protein synthesis and optimizes whole-body protein balance when compared with the intake of carbohydrates alone after 45 minutes of resistance exercise. There may be some accumulating evidence now that supports the idea that orally-ingested BCAAs have an anti-catabolic effect during and after exercise. But again, there is nothing in the scientific literature that shows that these BCAAs must be supplied in a separate form from whole food.

There may be some relationship to BCAA and fatigue from low intensity, long duration exercise, but this isn’t something most bodybuilders have to be concerned with. Unless of course, their pre-contest preparation involves very long durations of exercise and they have a low fatigue threshold that they wish to increase.



J. Harris: I’m more of a fan of BCAAs in the off-season. BCAAs, specifically the BCAA, L-leucine, are very anabolic compounds. They are somewhat insulinogenic in their actions, and L-leucine is shown to essentially be the specific amino acid trigger for protein synthesis. Because of this, I feel they can provide benefits above and beyond the typical amino acid profile found in most foods. Unfortunately, when dieting, we are not looking for a state of anabolism. We are looking to halt catabolism. BCAAs can be utilized directly by the body for energy, which is a different mechanism than other amino acids.

I believe in their benefit so much (especially around weight training sessions) that I formulated my own product called Anatrop. Anatrop contains specific amounts of BCAAs and L-leucine, which I feel creates a higher level of anabolism when the body is most receptive to those nutrients.

B. Haycock: BCAAs are great as a pre-workout supplement, especially when taken with a good amount of carbs. Outside of that, they are not a very good use of one’s money. A regular protein drink or other high quality protein will work just fine for the rest of the day.



M. Berkhan: No, you get plenty off BCAAs from food protein sources, especially whey protein. There’s nothing showing any benefit of excessive dosing. Because BCAAs are very glucogenic, they will most likely end up in your bloodstream as glucose. Bodybuilders who eat piles of protein and consume BCAAs on the side are throwing money down the drain.

A. Aragon: No, supplemental BCAA is not necessary unless you’re not consuming enough high quality protein. Bodybuilders get marketed to death about the benefits of free-form BCAA when there’s no objective evidence of their benefit over the pre-existing BCAA within the matrix of real food. People forget that BCAA is abundant in many foods in nature, especially animal proteins. I base all of my beliefs and recommendations on scientific evidence, not subjective placebo and marketing driven testimony. You can be sure that if someone believes (by whatever means it took to convince him) that extra BCAA will work, it will. However, it’s the belief that’s the active agent, not the BCAA.

You can create the same effect by convincing someone that a lucky rabbit’s foot in his right pocket will increase his lifting strength. If the person is truly convinced or even if the person has deeply vested hopes in the product or protocol, it indeed will work. The mind has powerful effects on the body. It always has and always will.

Until I see solid replicated scientific evidence of the benefits of stacking supplemental BCAA on top of a pre-existing high protein intake (as compared to simply increasing total protein), I’m not going to buy into the hype. I’ve even experimented with my athletic clientele and had them ditch supplemental BCAA in favor of an increased protein intake. Not only did I save them a lot of money, but their performance and body composition continues to improve. I know that it’s not a tightly controlled experiment, but it definitely puts me at ease that I’m not missing out on any “magic.”

L. Norton: BCAAs have been shown in scientific research to increase protein synthesis and reduce protein degradation. However, many people suggest that one can just increase their consumption of whey protein, which is rich in BCAAs. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The BCAAs in whey are peptide bound to other amino acids and must be liberated through digestion and absorbed into the bloodstream in order to exert their effects. Even though whey protein is relatively fast digesting, it still takes several hours for all of the amino acids to be liberated and absorbed into the bloodstream. However, BCAAs in supplement form are free-form BCAAs and require no digestion. Therefore, they are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, spiking blood amino acids to a much greater extent than peptide bound amino acids.

Even a few grams of BCAAs will spike plasma levels to a much greater extent than a 30 gram dose of whey protein. It will also impact protein synthesis to a greater degree. The reason a supplement has such a powerful effect on the blood levels of BCAAs is that unlike other amino acids, BCAAs are not metabolized to a significant extent by the small intestine or the liver. Therefore, an oral supplement is almost like a BCAA injection because it reaches the bloodstream so rapidly.

Additional comments

M McDougal: The usefulness of BCAA supplementation in a hypercaloric state depends on a few factors. If one is eating significantly above maintenance calories with lots of protein, benefit may be limited. However, for the most part I’m not a big fan of eating well above maintenance unless one is trying to hit a weight goal under a time constraint.

Unless somebody has a very long way to go with either muscle gain or fat loss (super skinny or obese), I’d rather see people following more of a dialed in re-comping approach involving adding small amounts of muscle and dropping small amounts of fat concurrently.

Under these circumstances, I think one can find value in adding high doses of BCAA, especially during and after workouts. This way, one can keep their total calories lower to minimize fat gain while still keeping protein synthesis high by reaping the benefits the mTOR cascade we’ve all heard so much about in the past year. In my experience, one could reduce daily calories by about 300–500 and not sacrifice any lean body mass if BCAA intake is high enough around workouts.

Aside from potentiating a lower calorie re-comp, a high dose of BCAA during workouts (30–40g) tends to significantly reduce DOMS. In addition to the empirical evidence, this was also demonstrated in a study last year out of Japan with athletes finding reduced soreness after a squat workout. I don’t really care about being less sore, but what I do care about is being able to effectively train 3–4 extra days out of the month due to accelerated recovery.

J. Hale: If you are consuming a sufficient quantity of protein, there is no need for BCAA supplementation (from a physiological standpoint). It is hard to get this point across to athletes who have been supplementing with BCAAs for the past 5–6 years (or longer). Dietary supplementation seems to offer a psychological benefit to some athletes (because that’s what they have always done and many don’t like change). If this is the case, BCAAs may be beneficial.

The Perfect Workout Checklist

by Lee Boyce

If you've ever lived in a place where the temperature routinely drops to zero (you poor, poor bastards), you know the Automotive Gospel by heart: start your car and let it run for at least a few minutes before driving.

Why "warm up" your car? Two reasons: so the oil can thin and circulate (improving your car's performance), and because no one wants to freeze their ass off while driving a '77 Chevette to the gym.

What's this got to do with you? Well, jumping straight into your working sets with heavy weight without a proper warm-up is like starting your car and immediately driving on the highway while it's colder than a witch's tit outside. It's also a good way to guarantee you'll get ho-hum results since your muscles aren't prepared.

If "warming up" before your workout—or God forbid, during your workout—doesn't sound like any fun, well, I've got to agree with you. But as you know from reading TMUSCLE, if you want uncommon results you gotta do uncommon things. And since most guys' idea of a warm-up is a few jumping jacks it's easy to see why they have average bodies: they're just not willing to put in the work. You're different.

This article by Lee Boyce is a checklist for the perfect workout, and while it goes over some warm-up techniques, the coolest part is the "dirty tricks." These are exercises and strategies Boyce and other coaches recommend to get the most work out of your muscles and ensure you're building the best physique possible.

Now who wouldn't want that?

— NG


The Problem
Having the right exercises in your workout is great, but you should also be focused on priming your muscles to lift heavy weight and get bigger. You want your sets to be worth something, right?

In my gym it's rare to see a guy go through a sufficient warm up and activation exercises before and during his workout in order to squeeze the most juice from his muscles.

From my experience, most guys fall into two warm-up categories:

The "Jog on the Treadmill" Guy

Sure, doing some kind of physical activity is good for elevating your heart rate and increasing overall body temperature, but what this guy doesn't understand is that his seemingly innocuous warm-up is really just getting his body accustomed to producing force in one direction. And if your program has you doing a variety of exercises that require different movement patterns (which it should) you'll be unprepared to get the most out of those exercises.

The "Warm-up Set" Guy

This is the guy who'll start his workout cold, walk up to the bar, and do a set with 30 percent of his one-rep max to "get warm." How sad. This completely rules out whether or not certain muscles are being inhibited due to tightness, or if other muscles are being compensated for due to lack of stability at load-bearing joints.

With both of these examples, better results would come from asking one question: what muscles you are trying to work during the training session? From there it's simply a matter of getting them warm, ready, and stimulated. (Insert your own sex joke here.)

But before we talk muscle, let's quickly start with the foundation: your joints.


Preparing for the Perfect Workout
The "Big 6" static stretches

The first thing we want to focus on is increasing the range of motion at as many joints as possible, preferably all the muscles you plan on training and the surrounding muscles. So if it were "chest day" you'd stretch your chest, triceps, and shoulders. If you were doing a total-body workout you'd stretch everything.

It's been argued that static stretching lowers the muscle's neurological involvement and essentially weakens them. That may be true if you static stretch and then jump right into hardcore lifting, but we're going to make sure that before you begin your first set your nervous system is amped and ready.

You only need to do one set of each stretch, but make sure to hold it for 30 seconds before moving on.

Quads — Get into a lunge position with your knee on the floor and hold on to your rear foot. Be sure to stay tall, and if possible, reach for the ceiling with the same arm as the leg being stretched. This will open up the iliopsoas group.

Hamstrings — While standing, put your heel on a bench. Make sure your knee is as straight as possible. Hold your pelvis with your hands and stand tall. Now simply tilt your pelvis forward until you feel a deep tweak along the hamstrings belly. It won't take much. Avoid rounding the lumbar spine.

Chest — Face a wall, and place one palm (reaching with a straight arm) against the wall at eye level or slightly above. Begin slowly moving the entire body away from the wall, while maintaining full contact with your palm. When you feel a good stretch through the chest, deepen the stretch by a) depressing your shoulder and b) rotating your elbow towards the floor.

Lats — Hold any support beam (the ones on a universal cable system work well) with a palms-out grip. In other words, make sure your arm is internally rotated so your palm faces away from the body. Bend forward with a flat back while holding the beam and "fall away" from it. Let your weight fall into your seat, so your body is only being held by the hand holding the beam. Make sure to unlock your shoulder. This is an instance where we don't want to activate the lower traps. Push your chest as close to the ground as possible and hold.

Upper Traps — Hold a light dumbbell in your left hand. Let it hang straight down by your side as you take your other hand and place it on the rear left side of your head. Gently pull your head downward and to the right. Depress your left shoulder at the same time to feel a deep stretch through the upper traps. Make sure not to tense the arm holding the dumbbell. Repeat on the other side.

Glutes — Sit on the floor as though you were about to sit cross-legged the way kids do, but put one leg straight back. Lean with a straight back over your knee.

Mobility and dynamic exercises.

Now that the muscles are loose, your joints still need a bit more work. To further maximize the ranges of motion it'd be smart to go through a few mobility drills to release more synovial fluid and lubricate each joint, especially the hips and shoulders since they are responsible for more degrees of movement.

Key exercises to focus on are forward leg swings, side leg swings, and arm circles.

Remember to gradually increase the range of motion and speed with each rep, and focus on fully relaxing the muscles involved. The mobility drills actually have a twofold benefit, since they will also dynamically stretch the muscles surrounding the joint.


The Perfect Workout — Getting Down to Business
Most guys are lucky to complete three or four sets that are, as Dave Tate says, "worth a shit." The other sets simply go to waste. Don't believe me? Well, how many times during an average workout do you feel that your muscle fibers were completely active and your tempo and breathing were perfect? How often do you focus on maximal contraction?

Despite what you may tell yourself, the reality is technique becomes compromised without a watchful eye, strength decreases, and muscles may get tight or deactivate themselves.

Here's how to get the best out of every set.

Prime your nervous system.

After doing static stretching and dynamic flexibility, your muscles are ready to actually do something. It's time to establish a connection between your nervous system and your muscle fibers.

As you know by now, you need to hit the high-threshold motor units. One of the most effective ways to do this is by taking a movement pattern you plan on doing that day and doing a ballistic variation of the same movement.

Gonna bench press? Do some plyometric push-ups. Gonna squat? Do some weighted squat jumps. You can read an article about ballistic training for muscle here.

The point is not to fatigue the muscles, but to stimulate them. For this reason the reps and sets should stay quite low. I usually recommend three sets of five reps without a lot of rest.

Doing these ballistic moves before our loaded sets means that we'll have more fast twitch muscle fibers involved in the lift for a greater portion of the set, which will contribute to more force production, and ultimately, more hypertrophy potential. This puts a couple of "warm-up sets" to the crypt any day of the week.

Static stretch the antagonist.

Stretch during the workout? I gotta be kidding you, right?

The truth is, dulling the nervous involvement of the antagonistic muscle (the muscle not currently working) can make the working muscle take on more responsibility in the lift, leading to more strength and motor-unit recruitment.

In virtually any compound movement for the legs, for example, the quads are going to get involved. If you're squatting for quad and glute development it means your quads are probably going to get in the way of developing your posterior chain if you let them dominate the lift. Even with what appears to be correct technique, tight quads and subsequently tight hips can lead to poor rear-side development and wasted sets of work.

A quick way to reverse that effect and make sure you're hitting your glutes hard is to hold a static quad or hip flexor stretch for 30 seconds on each side in between your sets of squats. This will weaken their neurological involvement. Since the quads have now been mildly deactivated, the glutes and hamstrings will step in to bear the load the quads are now giving up. The result? A bootylicious squat.

Want to get stronger on your pulling exercise? Do some scapular activation.

I've found that when it comes to the muscle tissue of the shoulder retractors and depressors, brief isometric holds of about five to ten seconds where you're really focusing on stimulating every last fiber in that muscle can help you get more out of your next set.

For example, the lats are responsible for internally rotating and adducting (pulling inward) your upper arm. So take your arm and do just that. Rotate your straight arm inwards so that your palm faces away from the body, pull the arm back and towards the midline simultaneously. Hold for five to ten seconds and really try to feel the squeeze through your entire lat. Immediately follow this with your set of lat pull-downs or chins.

How about a pressing exercise? More scapular activations!

Doing light sets of back exercises before a pressing exercise will aid your pressing movements since it adds stability to the entire shoulder capsule, which is needed so that the rotator cuff doesn't undergo undue stress.

The added tightness in the upper back muscles help keep the scapulae in a mildly retracted position, so that you'll last longer in your bench press without your shoulders coming up off the bench.

Before your chest or shoulder exercise, do a light set of seated cable rows for 15-20 reps. Use roughly 30 percent of your 1RM. Another good exercise is the bent-over reverse fly with dumbbells, but make sure to use a supine grip (palms face away from the body).


Wrap-up
A solid training program isn't just a bunch of exercises thrown together with random sets and reps. Priming your muscles with warm-up techniques beforeand during your workout will not only help prevent injury but will activate all your muscle fibers, unlock your tightest areas, and make you stronger from set to set. That means better workouts, better muscle growth, and a better body for you.

Training in the afternoon slightly more effective than in the morning

In the short term it makes no difference whether you train in the morning or afternoon. But if you can choose, then probably in the long term its better to train in the afternoon, write sports scientists from the Finnish University of Jyvaskyla in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.

Theres something magical about doing power training early in the morning. Pumping iron while the rest of the city is still asleep sounds special. But is it more effective? Do you really build more muscles if you train at seven o'clock in the morning than at, say, six o'clock in the evening? The Finns tried to answer this question by doing an experiment with 24 men whose average age was 30.

Eight men did nothing at all; they were the control group. Sixteen others trained their legs, doing squats, jump-squats, leg-presses and leg-extensions. For the first 10 weeks they all trained late in the afternoon to perfect their training, then the sixteen were split into two groups. Nine men trained for 10 weeks between 7 and 9 o'clock in the morning. Seven men trained for 10 weeks between 5 and 7 o'clock in the evening. Morning and afternoon athletes followed the same programme.

After 20 weeks the researchers measured the growth in the quadriceps muscle in the test subjects legs. They saw that the leg muscles of the afternoon group showed a greater increase in volume than the quads of the morning group. The difference between the morning and afternoon groups was not significant. Compared to the men in the control group, who had done no exercise, both groups had gotten bulkier muscles.



The researchers also measured the subjects� increase in strength. Here the difference between the morning and afternoon groups was negligible. The weight at which the morning group just managed 1 rep with the squat increased during the 20 week period by 46 kilograms. In the afternoon group the figure was 45 kilograms. The mens training scheme wasnt actually aimed at strength, but was designed to achieve hypertrophy.


The researchers conclude that for a period of 2-3 months it doesnt matter whether you train in the morning or afternoon. If you are training to build up strength, it doesnt matter at all. But if you're training because you want to develop larger muscles, then in the long term training in the afternoon is perhaps more effective.


An American sports scientist recently published the results of a study in which bodybuilders who trained after 6 o'clock in the evening built up more muscle mass and lost more fat mass than bodybuilders who trained before 10 o'clock in the morning. Theoretically it is not so unlikely that doing power training in the early evening is more effective. There are fundamental studies which show that you are at your strongest in the evening. Whats more, the balance between steroid hormones like testosterone and growth hormone and the catabolic hormone cortisol is better in the evening than in the morning.


Source:
J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Dec;23(9):2451-7.

Dieting bodybuilders retain muscle with high protein foods

When you reduce your daily energy intake to 60 percent of what you burn, you dont necessarily have to lose muscle mass. If you increase your protein intake your muscles will stay as they are, write sports scientists from the University of Birmingham in England in an article that will appear soon in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.


If we disregard the experience of tens of thousands of athletes for a moment, and just look at the scientific literature, we dont know much at all about weight loss in power athletes on a high protein diet. Most of the studies that have been done have involved overweight people. They not only lose more kilograms on a protein-rich diet, they also retain more kilograms of muscle mass. Do power athletes also react as well to a protein-rich weight loss diet? This was the question to which the researchers sought an answer.


The Brits put 20 bodybuilders aged between 18 and 40 on a two-week long strict diet. The athletes consumed 40 percent less energy than they burned each day. Before going on the diet the athletes diet consisted of 15 percent protein. Per kilogram bodyweight they consumed about 1.6 g protein per day.


One group of bodybuilders just reduced what they ate. As a result, their protein intake fell to 1 g protein/kg/day. The other group not only ate less, but replaced fats and carbohydrates with protein. Their diet therefore consisted of 35 percent protein and their daily protein intake rose to 2.3 g/kg. The test subjects got their extra protein from shakes.


The figure below shows that the raised protein intake almost completely blocked muscle mass breakdown. The high-protein group only lost body fat.





The protein diet had no effect on the subjects 1RM on the bench presses. The test subjects on the protein diet managed a few more reps at 60 percent of the weight at which they could still just manage one more rep.



The researchers think that the amino acids in proteins have a direct anabolic effect on the muscles, and that this is the main way a protein-rich diet helps retain muscle tissue. What a protein-rich diet also does is maintain levels of anabolic hormones. In the bodybuilders who just reduced their intake, the level of free testosterone fell by 26 percent. In the bodybuilders who lost weight on a protein-diet, testosterone only decreased by 7 percent.


"The practical implication of these results is that the protein content of a hypoenergetic diet may play a crucial role", the Brits conclude. "Athletes aiming for body weight reduction while maintaining lean body mass may be advised to keep protein intake high."


Source:
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Nov 13.