As I've mentioned before, the strength training part of our fat loss program is the most important for you after eating clean foods. It is the cornerstone of your programming. Your goal is to work every major muscle group and movement pattern frequently, and with enough intensity to add lean muscle to your body, and create a disturbance that increases your metabolism and keeps it elevated for several hours after you've finished working out.
As we did with the conditioning post last week, let's look at some research that will help drive this point home. A 1999 study compared the effects of aerobic exercise versus strength training on lean muscle mass (LMM) and resting metabolic rate (RMR). The aerobic group did (4) 1-hour sessions a week. The resistance training group did 2-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions (very light to moderately heavy weights) of 10 exercises 3 times a week. Both groups drank an 800-calorie liquid diet during the study to take any dietary variables out of the equation. The strength training group lost significantly more fat and did not lose any LMM, while increasing their metabolism. The aerobics group actually saw a decline in their metabolic rate.
Another 1999 study assigned test subjects to 3 groups: a "diet only" group, a "diet plus aerobics group", and a "diet, aerobics and weight training group." The "diet + aerobics group" exercised 3 times a week starting at 30 minutes per session and progressing to 50 minutes. At the end of 12 weeks, the results were:
> The "diet only group" lost 14.6 pounds of fat
> The "diet plus aerobics group" lost 15.6 pounds of fat (only 1 additional pound)
> The "diet, aerobics, and weight training group" lost 21.1 pounds of fat
This study alone should tell you the importance of resistance training and fat loss.
So what should your strength training consist of and how long should it take? After our clients finish their "base phase", which is usually between 3 and 6 weeks depending on the their conditioning, we focus primarily on compound movements (those exercises that target more than one muscle group such as a back row that works your back, shoulders, and biceps), and have them work the complete body every session. Do NOT use machines for the majority of your workout. Machines have been shown to promote dysfunction in the body by locking you in to possibly unnatural movement patterns. We program our strength training sessions for about 25-30 minutes. When you're training at a fairly high intensity, you can't effectively go much longer than this. Remember from our conditioning segment that intensity and time are inversely related. The longer you exercise, the lower your intensity has to be.
And to maximize our clients' use of time as well as their recovery between sets, we have them do alternating sets or supersets, where they work different muscle groups (for example their back and their front thighs) in combination with little or no rest between sets. This helps amplify that metabolic disturbance. Then, after their base phase, we have our clients work out at least 3 times a week to see jaw-dropping, head-turning results. That's less than 2% of your total weekly hours!
So now you have 6 of the 7 keys to health and fitness success. Your action item for today is to add some bodyweight or free weight compound exercises to your routine. These can include squats, push-ups, lunges, and overhead presses. Our last discussion will be about something we don't usually think of when it comes to fat loss and our overall health--recovery. See you in a few days.
Move Better. Eat Better. Live Better!
DON
No comments:
Post a Comment