Saturday, October 13, 2012

How to Lose the Most Fat and Gain the Most Strength in 30 Days

The dream of everyone who trains is to lose maximum fat and gain maximum muscle strength in the shortest period of time. While it is definitely possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, in my experience, the best results come from concentrating on one major goal at a time.
Let me put it this way: to lose fat, you need a caloric deficit. To build strength, you need a caloric surplus. If you try to do both at the same time, you may just remain exactly where you are!
So the question before us is - how do we maximize both fat loss and strength gains, in only 30 days?
It's simple - we focus on both goals in the same program --- but not at the exact same time!
By alternating rapidly back and forth between reduced-calorie fat loss training and a slightly higher-calorie strength-oriented training, you can accomplish both goals at the same time. You can actually use the two opposing goals to feed on each other and send your results through the roof!
How quickly do you lose weight each time you start a diet after several months (or more) of not dieting at all? I'll bet it's pretty fast! That's your body rapidly adapting to a stress - the stress of rapidly switching diet and/or exercise routines.
What's the result of this switching back and forth? Extremely rapid fat loss and extremely rapid strength gain.
To maximize the effects of this switching, you must tailor your training, diet and supplementation towards your specific goal during that particular time. Proper manipulation of these factors will greatly enhance the body's hormonal response to this program, which is the real key to maximizing your results.
Here's an example...
For 5 days straight, you would target everything about your training and nutrition towards fat loss...
1. You would reduce your caloric intake below maintenance levels to promote fat burning.
2. You would reduce the rest periods between sets in your weight training to increase the intensity of the workload and boost your metabolism.
3. You would increase your training volume, performing more sets for each body part.
4. You would not push your body to muscular failure - pushing to failure can be too stressful to the muscles when on a reduced-calorie diet. Stop one rep short of this point.
5. You would include cardio training, preferably High Intensity Interval Training for best results, to burn calories and further boost your metabolism.
6. It is best to follow a low-carb diet during this time for maximum effectiveness. Eating this way will be especially powerful when you switch to the next phase of the program.
After five days, your metabolism would be just starting to get used to this new training and nutritional program. Now you would throw it a curveball and change everything!
For the next five days, you would be focusing your training, nutrition and supplementation completely on strength training.
1. You would increase your caloric and protein intake to promote strength gains.
2. You would increase your rest periods in between sets to allow for more recovery and increased strength in your sets.
3. You would decrease your training volume, doing fewer sets but with greater intensity. This is the time to really push your muscles to the edge! You're feeding them now, so don't be shy about training them hard.
4. You would eliminate all cardio training in order to maximize strength gains.
5. You would NOT follow a low-carb diet during this time. We want a few extra healthy carbs in you to provide energy and promote insulin release (the body's primary storage hormone). This insulin release will help shuttle protein and other nutrients into the muscles to help with building.
The body's hormonal response to this huge change in training, nutrition and supplementation is tremendous.
After 5 days of this training, your metabolism will be cranking along, happily building strength. Now we'll pull the rug out and go right back into fat-loss training for 5 days. Since your body is used to getting more food and your metabolism is still moving fast, switching to fat-loss training at this time will immediately result in your body burning far more fat than if you were using a conventional fat loss program.
In 30 days, you'll complete three rounds of this rapid-adaptation training. As you will soon experience, this switching back and forth between a short, targeted fat loss program and a short, targeted strength-building program can have a tremendous and rapid impact on your appearance.
Think this program sounds good? You ain't seen nothing yet...

No comments:

Post a Comment