I had a summer a few
years back where I wanted to get to the lowest body fat I had ever experienced.
This consisted of discipline, hours in the gym, and a tough diet.
I would go to the gym
for two hours 6 days a week and I had cut my calories down to around 2,000 per
day. My maintenance at the time was around 3,500.
Lots of calories being
burned every day and not so many coming in.
Even just looking at
this I should have been able to get down to a very low body fat percentage
without any outside cardio. The problem was that I had worked landscaping at
the time.
Now landscaping is a lot
of physical demand each day and on a low calorie, high volume plan this was
another factor that I was not adding into my programming. Although I wasn’t
factoring it in, there was a strong effect from this on how my body was
dropping weight.
If I had programmed for
every aspect of my daily life I could have preserved more muscle and focused on
more fat being burned than all else.
Yes, I had gotten down
to the body fat percentage I was looking for, much lower than I had ever been
prior. I got down to around 9-10%. The problem was I did not look great, I felt
like crap, I had no energy, and I messed up my metabolism pretty bad.
I threw every single
thing I could think of at myself all at once. Looking back this was the worst
thing I could have done to get the results I was looking for.
There are so many
factors to play with when attempting to get “in shape” for a specific time range.
The first thing I will say in this regard is to NOT do it this way. Do not try and change everything at one time. It is too much for your body to attempt to handle and causes results to be hindered.
So how should you approach getting fit for summer?
For any instance and for
anyone looking for advice, not everything is a good plan for everyone. Each and
every person is different and in different places in regards to health and
fitness, so keep this in mind.
If things in this post
don’t seem feasible due to your current calorie intake, injuries, work
schedule, stress level, please do not force yourself into things. It will be
much worse in the long run.
The basis of any weight
loss is simple in theory. You must be in a calorie deficit—eating fewer
calories than you are using. This does not always mean that you must decrease
your calories.
If you are already
eating low calorie then DO NOT cut down any lower. The best
thing you can do is speed up your metabolism, which I have discussed in
previous post.
If you do not want to do
it the right, lasting way and need to lose some weight fast then you should start
moving more. Start burning
more calories than you are consuming.
You do not need to do
cardio to add in extra movement to your day. Make practices throughout the day
to move. Whether it’s going for a walk after dinner or taking a lap around your
building at work for every bathroom break.
Tracking your steps is a
great way to manipulate your movement. Start by finding out where you now on a
regular basis. Once you have these figures then look at your current weight
loss each week. Are you staying the same, losing a pound a week, or gaining a
pound a week. Whatever the case may be, make a note of this.
Now begin by adding a
feasible amount of steps per day. I start most clients off by adding around
1,000 steps to their day. We will do this for one week and then check back to
see how it affects their weight, as well as how it affects their day.
One of the best things
you can do while trying to lose the weight is attempt to keep as much muscle on
your body as possible. This is something that I did not do as well as I could
have if I focused on it more.
This will make sure that
most of the weight you are losing is fat. Preserving the muscle is our primary
goal.
Just because you are on
a track to lose some weight does not mean you should start slowing down your
intensity in the gym. Many people start going super high rep and super low
weight because they think their body won’t want to lift heavy.
This is false, you
should still be pushing yourself even if you are losing some body fat. This
will promote muscle preservation, and in some cases some muscle gain.
Many times what I will
have clients do when we begin a weight loss phase is change their training
modality to a new phase. Sometimes this will be putting the client on a
strength phase with low reps even on lower calories.
This approach has worked
wonders for many of my clients and they look forward to this phase each time we
get there.
Now Time For Some Workouts
I will always be
somewhat against cardio. I say somewhat because there are some great benefits
to doing it the correct way.
The problem is that most
people doing it the incorrect way and abuse it to the point where it is messing
up their body.
To get away from this
trend I am not going to promote cardio at all while we attempt to get in shape
for summer.
What I will do is give
you guys some good HIIT workouts and some add-ons to your workouts to promote
fat loss while retaining as much muscle as we can.
I got much of this
information reading some of Rob King’s old work and let me tell you, this guy
knows what he is talking about.
One way we can do this
is adding in some “finishers” to your workouts.
This is something that
you can tack on to the end of your workout to add in a little more volume
without tearing down the muscle too much. If done in the correct way it can
also promote recovery after a hard lifting session.
There are two examples I
will give on the finishers.
Finisher #1- Squat Pyramid
This will be 10 sets of
light squats, do not push the weight too much for this one, stay light.
You will start at 10
reps of squats and each set following this will decrease one rep. You want to
keep the body moving and get the heart rate to drive up a bit. Here is what it
looks like on a program.
- Set 1- 135 x
10 reps - Rest- 30
seconds - Set 2- 135 x
9 reps - Rest- 30
seconds - Set 3- 135 x
8 reps - Rest- 30
seconds - Continue
until you get to 1 rep
Finisher #2- Push-Pull
This finisher will be 2
exercises in a superset instead of one single exercise.
Keep the same pyramid
concept but now do 10 of each exercises and then move down the ladder.
The exercises we will
use are a barbell floor press (set up on a squat rig) and a barbell bent over
row. Dumbbells are a great alternative to this as well! Here is what it looks
like in the program.
- Barbell
Floor Press x 10 reps - Rest- 30
seconds - Barbell Bent
Row x 10 reps - Rest- 30
seconds - Barbell
Floor Press x 9 reps - Rest- 30 seconds
- Barbell Bent
Row x9 reps - Continue
until you get to 1 rep of each
Finisher #3- 50-40-30-20-10
I will give you one more
that has a good high intensity feel but follows a timed option instead of rep
options.
The exercises you will
use are Sled Pushes and Pushups. If you don’t have access to a sled a great
alternative is a farmer carry, all you will need is a timer and some space.
- 50 Seconds-
Sled Push (or carry) - 50 Seconds-
Pushups - 40 Seconds-
Sled Push - 40 Seconds-
Pushups - Continue
until you are down to 10 seconds - Repeat for 2
rounds
You do not need to stop
eating and do a shit ton of cardio to get in shape for summer. Enjoy the
process but make sure you are staying as healthy as you can in the process.
Give some of these methods a shot and see what they can do for you!
JNHealthandFitness@aol.com
