The start of a new week…the start of a new blog series…about…
Gaining muscle and losing fat at the SAME time!
What inspired the topic? Well, believe it or not, apart from the many “couldn’t care less about my body” folks lounging around the beach this past weekend, there were actually quite a few really good looking peeps sporting some pretty killer bods!
Lean and muscular – which I think most of my male readers would agree to be the “ideal” physique.
I mean, even if you’re female, you’re bound to want something similar – lean and “toned”, if you will.
Everybody wants a lean, sexy body they can be proud of…that’s why we do what we do.
But just how do you go about achieving THAT body?
Gain muscle first, then lose body fat? Vice versa?
OR maybe you might try to lose fat and gain muscle at the SAME time.
Unfortunately, 99% of people who try the latter option fail miserably.
Can it be done?
Yes. But ONLY with a very strategic approach.
Weight training + fat loss diet does NOT equal simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain.
Sorry, there’s a heck of a lot more to it than that.
Have you ever tried to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously? What were your experiences?
Would you like to know how to REALLY lose fat and gain lean muscle at the same time?
At least 600 comments and I’ll be back before you know it to go over several critical components to simultaneous fat loss and lean body mass gain. And as long as the comments keep coming, I promise to give you killer content on this subject all week.
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel
P.S. SNEAK PEEK: Here’s one of the newest methods we’re using:
Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the same time <——- new method we’re using
21 Comments
Over the course of the last week, Vince and I have presented you with a TON of killer muscle building content, including:
6 Reasons You’ve STOPPED Building Muscle, Part I
6 Reasons You’ve STOPPED Building Muscle, Part II
And today we’re back to “solve” your muscle building problems with our latest article, 5 Solutions to Skyrocket Muscle Building Results. Enjoy!
5 Solutions to Skyrocket Muscle Building Results
By Joel Marion and Vince Del Monte
In the last two articles we’ve laid out 6 of the biggest reasons you may not be experiencing the results you DESERVE from your muscle building efforts, including:
1. Lack of frequency
2. Not enough “room” for muscle to grow
3. Muscular imbalances
4. No “down time”
5. Nervous system inefficiency
6. One-dimensional training
And today comes the fun part. Today, we’re going to FIX all of the above problems by providing you with some dynamite solutions to set your muscle building results on fire.
Are you ready? I hope so – let’s jump right in.
Solution #1: High Frequency Training
As mentioned in the previous article, the more you can stimulate a muscle to grow, the more it will grow. Revolutionary, I know.
But as simple as that sounds, so many people are still stuck training a muscle group once a week, and so many others don’t have a clue on how to effectively up the frequency of their training…so today, we’re going to provide you with some real solutions.
That said, what exactly are the major components to effective high frequency training?
1. Utilize a full body or half body approach (ie. upper body vs. lower body split)
2. Vary the stimulus with each session
And essentially, that’s it.
Here are two examples, one with a full body approach and one with a half body approach:
Full Body Approach
Day 1 – Full Body (6 movements, 4 x 10)
Day 2 – Full Body (6 movements, 10 x 4)
Day 3 – Full Body (6 movements, 3 x 25)
Day 4 – OFF
Repeat
Half Body Approach
Day 1 – Upper Body (5 movements, 4 x 10)
Day 2 – Lower Body (4 movements, 4 x 10)
Day 3 – Upper Body (5 movements, 10 x 4)
Day 4 – Lower Body (4 movements, 4 x 10)
Day 5 – OFF
Day 6 – Upper Body (5 movements, 3 x 25)
Day 7 – Lower Body (4 movements, 3 x 25)
Day 8 – OFF
Repeat
With the above two approaches, you stimulate each muscle group via multiple set, rep, and volume ranges throughout the week, up to 5 times weekly. The results are PROFOUND when compared to once weekly training. Seriously, if you’ve never done this type of training, get ready to experience, see and feel the results after just one week.
Solution #2: Loaded Passive Stretching
In our previous article we talked about fascia tissue being a limiting factor for muscle growth due to its lack of elasticity and regulatory feedback. We also mentioned that this tissue CAN be stretched, although few people know how to nor take the time to do it.
And here’s the best part: it requires ZERO additional time in the gym as you can do it between your work sets.
The technique, known as loaded passive stretching, is intense, deep stretching done while muscles are already in a “pumped” state to facilitate the stretching of the fascia tissue in order to create more room for muscle tissue to grow.
This is NOT normal, passive stretching. This is deep, heavy stretching done with an external load.
As an example, a loaded stretch for the pecs would be to: after a set of dumbbell bench presses, grab a pair of moderately heavy dumbbells and sink into the bottom position of a dumbbell fly. Now hold that position, not relaxing and not contracting, allowing the weight to stretch out your pumped pecs. Repeat the stretch in between sets of any chest exercise you do, up to five times per workout, but only when your chest is in an already “pumped” state (several sets in to an exercise).
This type of stretching is NOT fun and it can be rather painful, but it’s also very rewarding. Of course, should you try it, be mindful of the difference between “proper” pain and “injury” pain.
Solutions #3: Specialization to Correct Muscular Imbalances
The issue of muscular imbalances and regulatory feedback was discussed in our previous article as well, and the ideal solution here is to effectively “specialize” any lagging or weak body parts to balance out antagonist muscle inconsistencies. For example, if your pecs are overpowering your back, you’ll want to take some time off from training pecs directly (perhaps only doing a few heavy sets per week to maintain strength) while heavily concentrating on your back.
Here’s one example way to do this:
Day 1 – Full Body Workout
Day 2 – Back specialization
Day 3 – Full Body Workout
Day 4 – Back specialization
Day 5 – Light back recovery
Day 6 – OFF
Repeat
Bringing up lagging body parts is essential to your muscle building success while avoiding stalled results due to regulatory feedback, or even worse, injury. Start incorporating it today.
Solution #4: Structured Deloading
While frequency is important, it’s not possible to go “all out” and maintain that level of intensity while training frequently all the time. This is where structured deloading comes in.
Two of our favorite deloading protocols are:
1. The “Off” Week – Once every 3 to 4 months, take a week completely off from resistance training
2. The “Light” Week – Once every 4 weeks, half the total volume of the previous 3 weeks
For example, if you were doing 4 movements @ 4 sets of 10 for your main training cycle, for the deloading week you’d then perform 2 movements for 2 sets of 10.
Structured deloading allows you to go HARD during the “on” weeks without burning out, and also allows recovery time to set you up for “supercompensation” once your next training cycle begins. Supercompensation is just a fancy way of saying “take some time off, and then to compensate, your body will have an even greater adaptive response when you return to your normal training.”
Go hard and then back off; it works like a charm.
Solutions #5: Multi-dimensional Training
If you want to hit each type of muscle fiber along with each type of muscle growth, you need to break away from one-dimensional training by varying the stimulus given to your muscles by using a variety of training methods. Here are just a few different ways to activate different fibers and growth responses:
Heavy Training
Light Training
High Volume Training
Increased Time Under Tension Training
Lactic Acid Training
Density Training
High Threshold Motor Unit Training
CAT (compensatory acceleration training) – fast/explosive movements
Varied Tempo Training
Rest-pause Training
Superset Training
High Intensity Training
And the list goes on and on.
If you’re looking to truly MAXIMIZE your muscle and achieve the fastest results possible, then your training program must be comprehensive. It must target the full spectrum of muscle building stimuli, and unfortunately, most trainees only manage to target one or two.
Hello plateau.
Multi-dimensional training yields multi-dimensional results.
What’s Going Down Next Week
Next week, Vince Del Monte is releasing his brand new muscle-building program, Maximize Your Muscle. It incorporates ALL of the solutions from this article (and more) in a very specific, step-by-step, detailed manner, and if I do say so myself, the program kicks serious butt. But today, he’s GIVING AWAY a bunch of copies at his blog — I’m not quite sure when the contest post will be live, but as soon as it is, I’ll be sure to post a link here.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, we’ll be giving of our time again today to answer them for you. Post ’em below!
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel
37 Comments
In Part I of this article, Vince and I shared with you THREE big reasons that may be holding you back from gaining muscle. If you missed that article, be sure to read it first by clicking HERE (page opens in a new window). Once you’ve done that, read on to discover 3 MORE reasons you’re muscle building progress may have stagnated.
6 Reasons You’ve STOPPED Building Muscle, Part II
By Joel Marion and Vince Del Monte
Training your butt off but not really getting anywhere? Put on “some” muscle, but can’t seem to add any more? Simply not progressing fast enough? If you can relate to any of those scenarios, then you’re going to love part 2 of this article as we’re getting ready to unleash three more BIG reasons why you’ve stopped building muscle.
If you missed Part I, click HERE (page opens in new window)
Reason #4: No “down-time”
Did you know that strategically taking time OFF from your training (when done in a very specific way, and when strategically setting up the rest of your training to benefit from it) can actually lead to MORE muscle growth?
It’s very true.
Simply put, your body performs and responds best when it’s pushed and then is given time to recover. Let’s face it, you can’t go full-out, “balls to the wall” 100% all the time. That leads to burn out and overstimulation.
But you can learn how to cycle strategic periods of “down-time” into your training, either by scheduling time completely “OFF” every so often, or by using “lighter” training periods within your training cycle.
Utilizing this one tactic alone will have a profound effect on your results, and we’ll show you how to do it properly in tomorrow’s article.
Reason #5: Nervous System Inefficiency
Fact: You’re NOT going to gain muscle unless you can stimulate muscle tissue to grow with loads challenging enough to induce an adaptation response—and sadly, most people simply aren’t.
Why? Nervous system inefficiency.
Perhaps the most important thing you can possibly do when it comes to building muscle is strengthen your nervous system connection. You see, your nervous system controls:
- how fast your muscles contract
- how hard your muscles contract, and
- how many motor units you’re able to recruit
Amongst other things.
An efficient nervous system leads to faster, harder, stronger muscular contractions.
An inefficient nervous system leads to slower, weaker, haphazard muscular contractions.
Can you guess which one is going to lead to more muscle?
Fact is, most people’s nervous systems aren’t efficient enough to allow them to use loads heavy enough to adequately stimulate their muscles to grow. And when the stimulus is lacking, trust us, the results will be lacking as well.
Fortunately, we’ll be back to teach you an easy way to fix this tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Reason #6: Your Training is One-Dimensional
Did you know that there are three types of muscle fibers? (Type I, Type IIa, and Type IIb)
Did you know that there are two types of muscle growth? (Myofibril, the “protein” portion of muscle cells, and Sarcoplasmic, the “fluid” portion of muscle cells)
Did you know that you need to strategically train in a very specific way to stimulate each ONE of these 5 pathways, each of which requires a differing training stimulus?
Did you know that there are at least 7 OTHER pathways to stimulate the generation of calorie-burning lean muscle?
Most people don’t, which is why most people fail to unlock more than 80% of their muscle building potential.
To make an analogy, let’s imagine that you’re trying to grow your bank account, and your sole method of doing so is depositing your bi-weekly pay check into a checking account.
The number will continue to rise on a slow, steady basis.
But, what if that money was in an interest bearing account? What if you took some of that money and invested it in 3 or 4 or 10 different places? What if you set up a side business that was generating even more money to deposit in to that account?
Do you think that over a period of 6 months you’d have SUBSTANTIALLY more money than if you continued to solely rely on the “paycheck deposit” method of growing your bank account?
YES.
Similarly, there are MANY ways and avenues and pathways to stimulate and generate muscle growth, and if you’re hoping to experience optimal growth, you need to be utilizing all the different pathways.
And in tomorrow’s article, we’ll share several methods to ensure you’re hitting multiple pathways with your training.
Wrap Up
Alright, there you have it – 6 of the biggest misconceptions surrounding muscle growth and some BIG reasons why you may not be experiencing the lean muscle building results you’re after, but don’t worry, you can “fix” all of these problems, and we’ll be back tomorrow to share a bunch of solutions.
Stay tuned.
Comment Time:
In the meantime, we’re hear to answer your questions and respond to your comments below, so be sure to drop yours below. If you’ve yet to comment on the blog, make today your first! And if you’re a regular commenter, continue with that “action-taking” habit. The more you act, the more we interact, the greater your results will be. This is a community and we’re here to help you.
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel and Vince
58 Comments
As promised, Vince and I are back to go over some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the topic of building muscle, and several BIG reasons why your current weight training regimen isn’t leading to the lean muscle gains your after. Part I of this article will cover 3 reasons, and then we’ll be back tomorrow with 3 more. Enjoy!
6 Reasons You’ve STOPPED Building Muscle, Part I
By Joel Marion and Vince Del Monte
Training your butt off but not really getting anywhere? Put on “some” muscle, but can’t seem to add any more? Simply not progressing fast enough? If you can relate to any of those scenarios, then you’re going to love this 2 part article as we’re getting ready to unleash six BIG reasons why you’ve stopped building muscle.
Reason #1: Lack of Frequency
The old adage of training a muscle once per week to allow for recovery is DEAD. If you’re not training a muscle multiple times each week, you’re simply NOT going to make optimal gains, period.
But, let’s go back and dissect the “reasoning” of this whole philosophy.
If you train, and train hard, you’re likely to get sore. Conventional wisdom tells you that you should wait until you’re no longer sore to train again. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom is faulty here.
You see, if you don’t train your body to improve it’s recovery capacity by training when you’re sore, then you’re body has no reason to improve it’s recovery capacity.
Want to train a muscle 3 times per week and reap double or triple gains? Then you need to teach your body to recover faster by training more frequently.
Beyond that, let’s further bury the myth that training a muscle while sore hampers recovery.
- Nosaka K, Clarkson P.M. Muscle damage following repeated bouts of high force eccentric exercise. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc., 27(9):1263-1269,1995.
- Smith LL., Fuylmer MG., Holbert D., McCammon MR., Houmard JA., Frazer DD., Nsien E., Isreal RG. The impact of repeated bout of eccentric exercise on muscular strength, muscle soreness and creatine kinase. Br J Sp Med 28(4):267-271, 1994.
- T.C. Chen, Taipei Physical Education College, and S.S. Hsieh, FACSM,. The effects of a seven-day repeated eccentric training on recovery from muscle damage. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc. 31(5 Supp) pp. S71, 1999.
All 3 of these studies came to the same conclusion: training a sore muscle does NOT adversely affect recovery. In fact, when done properly, doing so can actually speed up the recovery process by shuttling nutrient rich blood to recuperating muscle tissue.
Here’s the deal: The more frequently you can stimulate a muscle to grow, the more it will grow. Sounds simple, and it is.
One small caveat, however: obviously when upping training frequency you can potentially run in to the problem of “overreaching” or burning yourself out. The important thing is to listen to your body and train as frequently as possible. If you’re motivated to train and feel “good”, then have at it.
Reason #2: You’re muscles don’t have enough “room” to grow
Huh? Not enough “room”? Allow us to explain.
All muscle is bound by connective tissue called fascia, which surrounds individual muscle fibers (endomysium), groups of fibers (perimysium), and entire muscles (epimysium). This fascia tissue is continuous with the tendon and functions to conduct the forces generated by the contractile proteins actin and myosin through the tendon, to the bone.
Here’s the problem: these “protective coverings” that surround all muscle tissue lack elasticity. Meaning, when a muscle grows and fills the “bag”, trying to shove more muscle into the same size bag becomes difficult.
Think of a hot water bottle that holds 16 ounces of water. Now fill it with 20 ounces of water. Go ahead; do it!
What do you mean you can’t?
You see, no matter how hard you try to fit 20 ounces into a 16 ounce hot water bottle, it aint gonna happen, not unless you somehow stretch the bottle so it can hold more water.
Well, it’s the same thing with fascia tissue; it can only hold in so much muscle, and when the lining gets full, the rate of growth is dramatically decreased.
Enter “regulatory feedback”.
Essentially, you very well may be stimulating your muscles to grow through proper diet and training, but if the surrounding fascia tissue is not expanding at the same rate, you can bet your bottom dollar that your brain will respond by putting the kabosh on growth.
Fortunately, there are several things you can do to “stretch” this fascia tissue and avoid this form of regulatory feedback — we’ll teach you those in another article this week.
Reason #3: Muscular Imbalances
While we’re on the topic of regulatory feedback, it’s fitting to address another major initiator of R.F. activity, and that’s muscular imbalances.
Simply put, your body wants things to be symmetrical and even, and when they aren’t, it will prevent further adaptations from taking place that will ultimately throw things even further out of whack.
For example, let’s say your training is full of pressing movements, which has caused your chest to experience significant growth. On the other hand, you don’t do a whole lot for your back…no rowing or heavy pulling movements, leaving your back rather weak and underdeveloped.
The body’s response: no more growth until you bring your back up to speed.
And this is true across the board, over virtually all muscle groups.
Have you ever seen someone with huge biceps and puny triceps? No, it simply doesn’t happen because your body doesn’t let it happen.
Why?
One is the issue of injury. Large pecs and an underdeveloped back put a huge strain and pull on the back and result in poor posture and ultimately injury, especially if things were to get really out of whack (which the body won’t allow).
The other is the issue of symmetry. It’s almost as if your body wants to prevent you from looking like a moron. Thank you, body. It won’t let your biceps grow too much beyond your triceps, even if you work your biceps every day.
Bottom line: you need to correct imbalances to prevent regulatory feedback from stopping you dead in your tracks. We’ll share some strategies for correcting imbalances in another article later in the week.
Wrap Up
In yesterday’s article, we talked about why YOU want muscle.
In today’s article, we discussed several reasons why you may not be getting it as fast as you want it.
Bottom line, there ARE things holding you back, and in order to achieve your goals you need to understand and learn how to correct each one. If you don’t, it’s going to be a long, frustrating road, and that’s the last thing we want to see you deal with.
As mentioned, in another article this week we’re going to provide practical and strategic solutions for all the “problems” mentioned in this 2 part article. Today we covered 3 biggies, and in Part II (tomorrow) we’ve got 3 more coming your way.
Until then, train hard and train smart.
Joel and Vince
Comment Time:
Learn something today? Have a question for us? Vince and I will be checking in throughout the day today, giving of our time to help you. Take advantage by taking time to respond and interact with us below. We’re here to help.
Talk to you in the comments section below!
14 Comments
Welcome to Body Transformation Insider! For some of you, you’ve been here hundreds of times before (more than 25,000 comments posted in the last 18 months alone), and for others, this may be your first time — either way, this gift is for YOU! Consider it a “Welcome” or a “Thank You” (or both!)
You see, within the fitness industry, I happen to “know” a lot of people. Which is a great thing, because I’m always scoring free stuff and special deals for you as my reader (not to mention loads of free blog content from me each week).
Well, John Romaniello, the creator of the Final Phase Fat Loss system just so happens to be one of my best friends.
And here’s what we have in store for you:
A *FREE* Bodyweight FPFL Density Workout that you can do anywhere with NO equipment!
No need to sign up anywhere or anything like that, just click and download below.
(Right click and select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to save a copy to your computer)
Whether or not you are one of the 10,000+ new Final Phase Fat Loss users or not, you can begin using this workout to accelerate your results today…and it costs you nothing (just right click to download).
(Right click and select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to save a copy to your computer)
Enjoy your free gift! I’ll be back with more blogging and body transformation strategies soon.
Your friend,
Joel
P.S. And if you haven’t yet picked up the entire Final Phase Fat Loss system (all 24 Density, Dynamic, Lactic Acid, and Strength workouts, plus bonuses), for a limited time you can still save $60 as a “Friend of Joel Marion” HERE. It’s not quite the 52% off Grand Opening price, but it’s darn close! Always lookin’ out for ya!
==> Save $60 HERE
P.P.S . And feel free to drop a comment below. I’d love to “meet” and interact with you and give a helping hand however I can!
39 Comments
The below article is being reprinted with permission of John Romaniello and FinalPhaseFatLoss.com
Beings that John is such a good friend of mine, he’ll be stopping in again throughout the day today to answer questions you might have about the article and the awesome content he’s been providing at FinalPhaseFatLoss.com for the last week or so.
Fighting Hormones with Hormones
By John Romaniello
As I’ve covered previously, when you are breaking through a fat loss plateau or trying to get to the Final Phase of leanness, things get a bit murkier than they do with traditional fat loss.
Rather than dieting excessively in order to create a Calorie deficit, we seek to enter into energy debt by way of intelligently designed training protocols. In addition, keeping energy intake high ensures that leptin levels don’t drop and throw another hormonal monkey wrench into the machinery.
Because, as we know from yesterday’s article, when you’re getting very lean or you’ve hit a plateau, fat loss is not just about Calories in vs Calories out–it’s about your hormonal environment and the way that affects fat storage, and thereby fat loss.
When you’ve lost the first 20 or 30 or whatever pounds, you’ve lost the “easy” fat. What you’ll notice about your body is that you’re now holding fat specifically in your trouble areas; and those trouble areas are determined by your specific hormonal environment.
If you’ve been following along, by now you know that it’s not just about energy debt or cardio or to a lesser extent diet (although all of those things do factor in quite a bit, obviously).
When your fat loss has stalled and you’re trying to break through that wall, or when you’re trying to rid yourself of those last stubborn 5-10 pounds, it’s a hormonal battle.
And there is only one way to win: fight hormones with hormones.
We’ve established that there are three specific hormones that cause the three most common types of regional fat storage.
As a quick recap:
1. Estrogen – the female sex hormone responsible for lower body fat storage patterns.
2. Insulin – Or rather, insulin resistance; this nasty little dude heavily influences fat storage in the love handle and lower back area.
3. Cortisol – the appropriately dubbed stress hormone is part of the reason you’ve got more flab than ab.
Those are your enemies.
Now, I want to talk to you about how you can actually increase the production of other hormones that offset the above “bad” hormones–through the manipulation of training methods.
In this corner…
Estrogen vs. Testosterone
Now that we’ve established (again, with apologies to the ladies) that estrogen is the main reason lower body fat storage occurs, we need to know how to work around that.
Well, how else would you combat estrogen but with testosterone? In all honesty, when if comes to fat loss and muscle gain, testosterone good, estrogen bad.
It’s for that reason that professional athletes, bodybuilders and the juicers down at the Jersey Shore use illicit steroids that are derivatives of testosterone.
Of course, that’s not an option for us–and certainly not desirable.
Instead, we are going to increase testosterone levels naturally, through training. Not only will this increase the net fat-burning effect of all exercises, but more appropriate to our purposes here, it will also facilitate in getting rid of lower body fat.
I should mention something here to alleviate any concerns: it is NOT possible to produce a detrimental amount of testosterone through training. So ladies, you don’t have to worry about any masculinizing effects.
Instead, training produces what we would term a ‘high’ amount of testosterone from a physiological perspective, relative to what your body normally produces. For the guys, this means that such training will help you put on a bit more muscle–just not steroid muscle.
Got it?
Okay, moving on.
At this point, I know you’re thinking, ‘all right Roman, get to the point, what do I do?”
Great question. And the answer is Density Training.
Training in a way that seeks to increase training density is one of the best ways to spur your body to produce and release more testosterone, which will (obviously) help you lose that estrogen related fat storage.
Training density can be defined as the amount of work you do in a given amount of time during a training session. If you want to increase density, you can do more work (sets, reps, or both) in the same amount of time, or do the same amount of work and decrease the time in which you do it.
However, I’ve come up with a method of density training that is specific to radical fat loss, and this means that not only will you produce the testosterone necessary to mitigate your regional fat issue, but you’ll also lose more fat on the whole.
Pretty cool, eh?
So here is how we do it. As an example, let’s pick 3 exercises: the overhead press, the dumbbell row, and the squat.
Setting these up in a circuit fashion, you perform them one after another with little rest in between.
Sounds like just about any circuit training protocol, right?
WRONG.
Instead of having a set number of reps, we’re going to be forming each of these exercises for TIME–you simply have to do as many as you can in a given time period.
To make it easy, let’s say you did each of the above exercises for 30 seconds. In performing such a circuit, your results might look like this:
Overhead Press: 25 pound dumbbells for 20 reps
DB Row: 40 pound dumbbells for 18 reps
Squat: 100 pound barbell for 22 reps
Not too shabby. Now, HERE is where it gets crazy.
We’re going to take advantage of some cool things that happen in the body; triggers that happen which will make you more efficient and more capable.
To do that, we’re going to INCREASE the weight by 10-20% and try to do MORE reps.
Does that seem impossible? It isn’t. Due to neuromuscular junction and neural activation, in almost ALL cases, you’ll be able to do just that.
Your second attempt at that circuit might look like this:
Overhead Press: 30 pound dumbbells for 23 reps
DB Row: 50 pound dumbbells for 20 reps
Squat: 120 pound barbell for 25 reps
I know you’re having trouble believing that outcome is even possible, much less common, but I implore you–try it for yourself!
Density training is fun, challenge-based, burns a heck of a lot of fat, and–most importantly–is one of the best training modalities around for increasing testosterone production and release.
Training for increased workout density will help you shed stubborn lower body fat, and as we’ve mentioned more fat on the whole.
Insulin Resistance vs. IGF-1
As I mentioned in the video above, insulin resistance is combatted very nicely by a hormones called IGF-1, or Insulin-like Growth Factor one.
Producing extra IGF-1 via training will help you (and me!) improve insulin sensitivity and begin to rid ourselves of love handle and lower back fat.
We established yesterday that insulin resistance is very common, particular in people who were previously overweight; so if you have lost some fat and you’re now struggling to lose a bit more, and that fat happens to be in your love handles, I’m willing to bet you’re suffering from some degree of insulin resistance.
In order to get rid of that fat, we have to do fat burning workouts (obviously) and increase insulin sensitivity to the greatest degree that we can through the training effect. To that end, we need to employ what I call Dynamic Training.
Dynamic training is pretty much the over-arching concept of how I design fat loss training programs–it consists of using fast-paced movements to teach the body how to move more efficiently. Combination movements, like the squat-to-press I demonstrated in the above video are also brought to bare.
Because this style of training is extremely expensive in terms of energy (Calorie) demand, by and large dynamic training is excellent as a general fat loss modality.
Perhaps more importantly, however, is the fact that utilizing these types exercises and setting them up in a non-competing circuit fashion under the dynamic training umbrella is an incredible way to produce IGF-1–and that is one of the most effective methods to mitigate insulin sensitivity.
Take it from someone who knows; nothing is better for combating love handle fat than increasing insulin sensitivity–and one of the most effective ways to do that is to produce more IGF-1 through dynamic training.
Cortisol vs. Growth Hormone
And now we come to our final bout of the evening–the main event, as it were.
We have touched on cortisol a bit, so I won’t rehash that too much. Suffice it to say that the higher your cortisol levels are, the more fat you’re going to be storing on your belly. Given that fact, it stands to reason that if you store fat primarily in the abdominal region, you’re a victim of high cortisol.
Never fear, though: Growth Hormone is here.
Also known as the “fountain of youth”, growth hormone is the single most effective compound your body can produce to affect both fat loss and muscle gain. The more you produce, the faster you’ll lose fat and build muscle. It’s just as simple as that.
Now, in addition to that awesome little fact, growth hormone is going to whoop cortisol’s ass and help you burn belly fat.
Also, you’ve probably heard that one of the ways to reduce your cortisol levels is to get more sleep. That’s something you hear on nearly all the medical TV shows. What you don’t hear is the reason.
You see, sleeping is one of the main ways by which your body produces growth hormone. Or, saying it another way, while you’re asleep is your body’s primary opportunity to produce growth hormone.
And, as I stated previously, growth hormone is one of the main hormones that reduces the effects of cortisol.
Sleep more and you’ll produce more GH. Produce more GH and you’ll have less cortisol. Therefore, sleeping more results in lower cortisol levels. Got it?
Of course, I’m not suggesting you can just sleep your way past a fat loss plateau; although getting more sleep does help. I’m merely illustrating the relationship between cortisol and growth hormone.
Which leads us to the production of growth hormone as it relates to training.
While nearly all forms of exercise produce both growth hormone and cortisol, some types are better than others. Cortisol, as I mentioned in the previous article, is produced heavily in long duration cardio sessions–so let’s not do that.
Instead, we’re going to utilize a style of training that produces more growth hormone.
To do that, we’re going to employ a training method known as Lactic Acid Training.
In order to get to the growth hormone, you must first produce lactic acid.
Lactic acid, by way of a definition, is a byproduct of the chemical reactions that take place during exercise. This substance is wildly irritating to the nerves, and your body responds.
Think of lactic acid as sort of a type of oil igniting fires as it flows through you–your body will call the fire department to put those fires out. And your body will do that by dousing them with soothing, cooling growth hormone.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little simplistic with my metaphor, but it gives you a general idea.
In any event, we must structure training to produce the most lactic acid possible. And, because lactic acid is primarily produce in the concentric (positive) phase of anaerobic exercise, we extend that period, and decrease the eccentric period.
What that means is that we lift the weight very very slowly, and lower it very very quickly so that we can have a fast turn around.
As an example, if you’re doing a squat, you’ll descend to the bottom the squat very quickly (drop down fast, but still controlling the weight somewhat) and then lift the weight sloooowly, oh so sloooowly–over a period of 4-6 seconds.
This will create tremendous amounts of lactic acid, which will intern send GH production into overdrive.
I must mention that training in this way necessitates the use of lighter weights than you normally would on any given exercise. Therefore, if you’re interested in lactic acid training, I suggest you reduce the weight you’d use on any exercise by about 30% in order to be both safe and effective.
With traditional training methods, you’d lift the weight pretty quickly and lower it slowly. Here, we’re doing the opposite, in order to produce the most lactic acid possible, which will then lead to a corresponding increase in the production of growth hormone.
This will result in not only reducing cortisol, but also reducing cortisol related fat storage in your belly.
On top of it all, it’s great for fat loss in general!
Closing Thoughts
Although the battle against hormone-related fat storage can be a tough one, it’s certainly easier when you yourself have hormones on your side–tougher, stronger, better looking hormones!
Say goodbye to cortisol and belly fat with increase growth hormone production via lactic acid training.
Make lower-body fat (and man boobs) along with estrogen issues history through density training.
And combat the ol’ love handles and insulin resistance with dynamic training and IGF-1 production.
With Final Phase Fat Loss, stubborn becomes easy. Slow becomes fast. And it’s all because every single workout within the Final Phase system has been specifically created to combat the hormonal reasons you’re NOT losing fat.
——————————————————————————————————
Again, John & I are here to answer your questions, so go ahead and ask away by posting a question or comment below!
Secondly, John is giving away FIVE FREE copies of the entire Final Phase Fat Loss System right now at his blog — Click HERE to Win a FREE Copy of Final Phase Fat Loss ($369 Value – ends today)
62 Comments
An Extremely Content-Rich Interview with my friend Vince DelMonte, and a special guest appearance from his girlfriend, Flavia!
Vince and Flavia at their recent photo shoot in the Domincan.
Alright, let’s get right down into it, Vinny. A lot of people work out, few people see real changes from their efforts. Why do you think so many people fail to see results from the time they spend in the gym?
People are focusing on time spent instead of time invested, and that’s an extremely important distinction. For example, last night I saw this dude in the gym attempting a Bent Over Row. He picks up the barbell, leans forward about 2 inches, does about ten reps with maybe a few inches of movement, racks the bar, stands up tall and gets some water. No sweat. No noise. No change of facial expression. Nothing. I’m thinking to myself, “Go home, man! Where’s the intensity? Take up knitting or basket weaving!”
Two problems:
1. Most trainees do not know what intensity looks like. They are a product of their environment and the lack of energy and intensity rubs into their own workouts, whether they are aware of it or not. After you become a fly on the wall and watch my DVD’s you’ll see and hear what real intensity looks like. We don’t use professional athletes or scripted models in my DVD’s. Instead I use real weights, real intensity, real sweat and real effort.
Click here to continue reading
43 Comments
Just getting back into Tampa after spending an awesome weekend back “home” in Philly watching the Eagles crush the Giants 40-17.
Oh how sweet it was to watch that masacre up close and personal, just 7 rows from the field :-)
Now if only the Phillies can get their their act together for the final two games of the World Series…
We’ll see.
Regardless, after a weekend away I was ready to get back in the gym today, and after completing a pretty crazy session just moments ago, wanted to share it with you.
It all started with a 5 minute warm-up on the mill o’ tread, followed by some brief stretching, and then into the below beast of a circuit:
Click here to continue reading
102 Comments
Okay, I’ll admit it. I suck as a morning person.
In fact, I’ll go as far to say that I just may be legally “broken” until about noon every day.
Now, I don’t generally go to bed until about 2 a.m., so perhaps that is part of the problem. For example, it’s currently 1:13 a.m., and I’m just sitting down to write this blog post.
Pretty standard behavior.
Regardless, whenever I wake up (generally around 10 or so), I suck at being productive. I’m pretty good at eating, but productivity, that comes somewhere around 3 p.m.
The point, you ask?
Well, it should be pretty obvious by now that I’m about to share with you the definitive best time of day to conduct your workouts.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t so obvious.
BUT, here it goes.
Click here to continue reading
No Comments
They say that there’s no such thing as something for nothing.
You know what I say to that?
“They” must not be on my newsletter list, because I’m always giving away free stuff, and today is no exception.
In fact, today I’d like to do something a little extra special. I just finished writing a new “mini” eBook entitled 7 Advanced Strategies for Packing on Serious Muscle, and I want to give it to you for free.
There is no “process” to go through to receive it, no forms to fill out, just my way of saying thanks (again) for being my subscriber. In fact, if you can right click your mouse, then you’ll be downloading this thing in about 30 seconds from now.
To give you a little information on what’s in store:
7 Advanced Strategies for Packing on Serious Muscle is a little over 15 pages of exceptional, unconventional, and sometimes downright unorthodox and counterintuitive muscle building advice from yours truly.
Click here to continue reading
Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...