Tag Archives: Weight loss

Fitness

Returning To Hybrid Training

With each flip of the calendar, ideas for training that once worked become less successful. It is the growing mind that constantly looks for new ideas to try. Some ideas are great. Others are left behind. Read any stereotypical body building magazine and the routines contained in them have you doing 12 and 15 rep sets and low rest periods. Read a strength training manual and the sets have much lower rep counts and longer rest periods. Why can’t both be used?

Without going into too much detail about fast and slow twitch muscles, the idea of doing a mixed training routine is not a new one nor is it without some merit. The pursuer of any such routine must be aware of two major compromises:

  • There will not be enough volume to fully inflate the muscle bellies
  • The weights will not be heavy enough to build full strength

Often such compromises are fine for those not going to compete on stage in a pose off nor a power lifting event. The idea with hybrid training is to take the best of strength training and high volume and put them together. Training routines are made to last 45 minutes to an hour. Strength is done first, hypertrophy volume next. Do not neglect the negative portion of a rep on any set. The negative portion is very important for building strength and hypertrophy.

Enough hand waving. What about a routine? Sure, soon enough. The split for a week is two days training, one day rest, then two more days training and another day of rest. If you are too worn out or want align it better for a week, take two days rest at the end of a cycle. Such a schedule make be as so: train Monday and Tuesday, rest of Wednesday, train Thursday and Friday, rest over the weekend.

First Day Session – Legs

Training of legs starts with squats in a 5×5 format, with pyramiding weights for each set. The idea is to finish each set and you should be quite tired by the end of the last rep. Fail to hit 5 reps on any set, reduce the weight and finish out. Use that weight for the subsequent sets.

High rep walking lunges and standing calf raises finish out the routine. It may seem simple and easy, but it isn’t. Do not be surprised when your quads are screaming for the next couple of days.

The Routine

Squats – Warm Up – 45 seconds rest

  • Bar only – 5 reps
  • 30% 5 rep max – 5 reps
  • 40% 5 rep max – 3 reps
  • 60% 5 rep max – 2 reps

Squats – Work Sets – start with 75% of 5 rep max – add enough weight after each set to reach 5 rep max on last set. When all reps are done for all sets, add weight for each set the next time until a new 5 rep max is reached.

  • 75% 5 rep max – 5 reps
  • 85% 5 rep max – 5 reps
  • 90% 5 rep max – 5 reps
  • 95% 5 rep max – 5 reps
  • 100% 5 rep max – 5 reps

Dumbbell Walking Lunge – use a weight heavy enough to tax for the whole set, but not too much you get off balance

  • 20 reps – 4 sets – 90 seconds rest

Standing Calf Raises – same weight for each set. Vary the foot placement for inside, middle, and outside portions of the calf. Hit each part with 2 sets.

  • 20 reps – 6 sets – 2 sets each for inside, middle, outside

Up next, chest and upper back. It will be time for push/pull super-sets. Be ready.

Fitness

Finally Reaching Below Average

Though I’ve been recording my workouts for over a year, it wasn’t until I started using the Multi-Year application on my iPhone that I started to see some more improvements. I installed this application a few weeks ago and have been using the Big 6 program.

Once installed, the Multi-Year asked a few questions: weight, height, age, diameter of the wrist and diameter above the ankle. It uses these various measurements to determine where to start. A long read through the website will tell you want it does with all that information. No worries. Let’s go.

Being 6’5″, 215, and 45 years old, my strength pretty much sucked. For many days, the charts showed be below above average. Not fully sure what that mean (see long website pages for that). I charged my macros, thanks much to My Fitness Pal, and my strength started to climb and my body fat percentage slowly dropped. So did the pounds. Within two weeks, I was done nearly 5 pounds. When the weight started to come back on a bit, it was all muscle. This past week my body fat percentage dropped before 21% for the first time. Excitement.

Having returned to weight lifting more than a year ago, it is quite wonderful to finally be up to below average. My new charts looks like this:

photo photo 2

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Fitness

Tell Me Again About My Metabolism

Fitness
Fitness (Photo credit: JAMES LORD productions)

Growing up, I was the skinny kid. Though I liked to play sports, I was usually the last picked in school games and I hated “shirts v. skins”. Being 6’5″ and 150 pounds soaking wet, I was very self-conscious of my body as a teenager.

After high school, I did gain a little bit of weight over the years. In 1990, as I approached 22, I started to start lighting and learned what I could. I didn’t have much money for supplements, so I ate quite a bit. The first 20 pounds to 190 were easy. After that, I got stronger, but had plateaued in my weight. No worries. For the next several years, I lifted regularly and did ski patrol during the winter. Then we had kids.

I took too many years off and when I finally got back to working out on a regular basis, I was over 200 with a 36 inch waist. I wasn’t in the best of shape and looked forward to gaining some more proper weight. That was about two years ago.

The first year back, I used the 200 pounds of dumbbells I had at home, pulling each heavier set out of the garage when I reached their need. It was humbling to start at 5 pounds, but that is life. During this first year, I noticed I was still gaining in the waist, so I started cutting back on sandwiches and at more salad. It made a small, but noticeable difference.

A year ago I upped the game.

Now all sandwiches are out. Gluten was giving too much weight gain in the gut. I also really started to cut my sugar, fructose in particular. The more research I did on sugar, the more I realized what a poison it is for the human body. Artificial sweetners are not much better. Best to get rid of it. I also cut back on beer, chocolate, pasta, tea. I greatly increased the amount of water I drank in a day to at least 3 liters. More lean protein, brown rice, red potatoes (sometimes sweet as well), more fiber, good fats, nuts.

My workouts also changed. I had been doing many of the workouts Steve Holman gives in his articles in Iron Man Magazine, but now I did them more split. I also started to look at the suggestions and articles of others. I was spending too much time in the gym. I upped the intensity and aimed to finish in an hour, warm up and stretching included. Now sets were 20-30 reps, done in 1 second positive/2 seconds negative caidance. I did hyper-extensions and crunches before every workout.

Then came November and the planking challenge.

The first few days were easy, but once it got to more than a minute, it became tough. I mean very tough. My abs shacked. My shoulders shacked. I had to pause, then go again. The results, however, spoke for itself. My abs started to get tighter. It helped my squats. It helped my dead-lift.

A year later and the result is I went from average 209 pounds to 215, but my waist is now an inch smaller. I went from a 35-36 inch waist to 34-35. Yes, a year to lose an inch. Me. Mister High Metabolism and eat anything. Because, I can’t eat anything I want. My cheat days consists of a single doughnut. No more going crazy over the weekend. The crap food I used to eat now makes me ill. I’ve not gone fully Paleo, but I am headed that way. Eat like the government tells you and you will gain weight. That is a given. Eat like you should and the results will be their own encouragement.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta