Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part V: Example Routines - Round 2: Fat Loss Support Routine

Image 1: These abs were not sculpted in the non-existent "fat burning zone" - that's for sure.

Today's fifth installment of "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine" series is about working out for weight, or I should say fat loss. In the past installments of this series, you have learned, how to incorporate your workout sessions into your daily and weekly routines (Part I), you have read about the basic workout types and their goal-specificity (Part II), you have recapitulated the basics about workload, sets and reps (Part III) and you have seen two detailed example routines that would be appropriate for trainees with a health, respectively hypertrophy focus (Part IV). And while both of the previous workouts will unquestionable help you shed fat, as well (assuming you got your diet dialed in), a fat loss specific routine should be more intense than the health routine and distinctly more metabolically demanding than the hypertrophy routine from the previous installment.

Working out for weight loss, not losing weight while working out

Before we get into the details of the actual routine, it is important to remind ourselves that we are not designing a workout to burn a maximal amount of calories. We are not designing a workout to lose the maximal amount of weight. And we are not even designing a workout to actively burn the maximal amount of fat, while in the course of the workout. What we will do, though is to design a workout that will...

• help you keep all your muscle while dieting, and
   
• prevent your metabolic rate from plummeting

This does also mean that the lions-share of your weight loss will happen in the kitchen, i.e. via modulating your macronutrient ratios and total energy intake, and in your bed.. not what you are thinking now! I mean, while you are sleeping ;-)

Figure 1: Effects of 12 weeks on a 800-kcal liquid diet with either endurance or resistance training on body composition and resting energy expenditure per pound of lean body mass in healthy obese men and women (left, based on Randy. 1999), and effects of 6 months of aerobic or resistance exercise in the absence of energy restriction on body composition and resting metabolic rate of young normal weight women (right, based on Poehlman. 2002)

Accordingly long steady-state cardio in the non-existent "fat burning zone", like the ones by which the obese subjects on an 800kcal starvation diet from the 1999 study by Randy et al. effectively" reduced their lean body mass and resting metabolic rate (RER; interestingly measure per pound of lean body mass, so the reduction was not a simple consequence of the muscle loss!) will not be part of your regimen (Randy. 1999; cf. figure 1, left). Likewise, you will not be working out like mad at 90% of your maximal heart rate for 40 minutes on the treadmill, as the young women in the Poehlman study from 2002 did (Poehlman. 2002; cf. figure 1, right) and shut down your metabolism to "make sure" that your weight jojos back up, when you fall of the wagon or simply decide that you have lost enough weight.

Figure 2: Body fat (measured by 4x skinfold), waist circumference and weight loss in women after 10 weeks of 5x week walking at 80%HRMax for either 2x15 or 1x30min (left; Murphy. 1998) and energy expenditure (in kcal/min) before during and after workout a full body resistance training workout with matched workloads performed slow (2s con, 2s con), explosive on the concentric or explosive and heavy (Mazetti. 2007)

What you will do is a combination of frequent, short, intense cardio-vascular workouts, similar to those thrice weekly 3x10-min workouts at 80% of their maximal heart rate, which helped the 47 women (44y) in the 1998 study by Murphy et al. shed more body fat than 1x30 minutes workouts at the same intensity (Murphy. 1998) and explosive lifting sessions (2s eccentric, explosive concentric) in the 8-10 rep range, similar to those 2007 study by Mazetti et al. (Mazetti. 2007; note: I am making this argument rather in view of the amount of glycogen you will deplete during your workout; this will ramp up AMPK and thusly increase your insulin sensitivity and fatty acid oxidation, cf. "AMPK's Effects on Body Composition").

You cannot "work out" a desolate diet! What you put, or do not put in your mouth is the key determinant of successful fat loss. And while we will have a "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Dietary Regimen" in the future, there are two basic rules apply to every non-morbidly obese person: Don't cut your calories back more than -20% unless you have very good reason, such as a bodybuilding contest due in a few weeks, and there is no need to go no-carb or no-fat.

The workout: Strength + AM/PM HI(I)T sessions

In view of what I have deliberately emphasized in the red box above, i.e. the fundamental role your diet plays when it comes to losing superfluous body fat, the following template is not a workout that will "make you lose fat", but one that will ideally support your "fat loss":

The fat loss support routine, four training days per week
 
• S1: Intense full body compound movement circuit training: You perform one set of each exercise in the given rep range and move on to the next, after one "circle" is completed you start anew. Try to hop from one exercise to the next in ~60-90s to keep your heart rate elevated. Depending on your fitness level perform the circle 2-4 times 
   
• Bench press or hammer strength BP: 8RM
• Squats or Leg press: 8RM
• Underhand pull ups or pull downs: 8RM
• Clean and press: 8RM
• Deadlift: 8RM
   
• As you can see there is no range for the reps. This means that you will perform 8 repetitions of each exercise in each round of your circle - no matter what!
   
• start your first circle with a weight you can lift for 8 reps
   
• on subsequent rounds, if you can still perform...
   
• at least 4 reps - rack the weight, take 10 deep breaths and do as many reps as you can, repeat until you get 8 reps, go to the next exercise
   
• less than 4 reps - reduce the weight by -15% and perform the rest of the reps - if you can't perform the rest in a row, rack the weight, take 10 deep breaths and rep out the rest; in the next round of your circle start with the reduced weight
   
• conclude your workout with 5 minutes on an incline treadmill (e.g. 5km/h at 10° incline) at a leisure pace; the cool-down is the only time in your workouts where you should be able read the flex / cosmopolitan and talk to your friend on the exercise equipment next to you about the latest gossip ;-)
   
• R1: Rest day - well deserved!
   
• H1: HIT + HIIT day - You will perform two training sessions on your high intensity (interval) training day; the first one will require that you set your alarm clock, so that you can jump out of bed, get dressed and perform a 15min HIT workout at 80% of your maximal heart rate on an empty stomach (if you want guzzle 5-10g of BCAAs during your workout). The rest of the day is yours, until either right after your work-day or at least 4 hours before you go to bed (otherwise the workout will interfere with your fat loss and beauty sleep ;-) you perform a 15-25min HIIT workout.
   
• AM: 3min warm-up + 15 minutes at 80%HR doing whatever you like, and fits your type; examples for normal and fit individuals, as well as options for people who still carry more than a few pound too much:
   
• fast-paced jogging
• rowing
• speed skating
• cycling / ergometer
• stepper or cross-trainer
   
• swimming (for the good swimmers)
• rope skipping (for the very fit ones)
   
• hiking / walking
• water gymnastics
• simply taking the stairs to your office in the 25th floor ;-)
   
• PM: HIIT - 3-5 min warm-up + 4-7x 45s intervals with 120s active recovery, i.e. if you sprinted before you just walk now; use whatever equipment you feel is suitable and change things up from workout to workout (I assume you will perform the AM workout at home and head to the gym for the PM workout, so that you should have more than just one option)
   
• sprinting on track or stable treadmill
• cycling preferably on spinning bike or stable ergometer
• rowing on machine with easily variable resistance
• rope skipping
• stairmaster
• etc.
   
• do not neglect the warm-up on any of these workouts - if you injure yourself, your fat loss will come to a screeching halt
   
• do never look at the kcal-counter on any of the equipment you use; remember: you are not there to "burn calories"!
   
• do not confuse intensity with a high resistance or maximal workload; go fast not "heavy" and only increase the resistance on the equipment, when that does not suffice to bring up the intensity; do not use weight vests or similar equipment, unless you want to ruin your joints
   
• do not add a "45min cool-down", believing that this will help you lose body fat; stick to a <5 min cool-down after either of the workouts
   
• H2: Same AM workout as H1, only 3x intervals in the PM workout + additional ab-work
   
• Ab circle: Perform 3 supersets (60s rest between sets) of
• hanging leg raises 15-20
• bicycle crunch to failure
   
• Optional mobility work
   
• R2: Rest day - well deserved!
   
• H1 or S1: A bodybuilder on a contest diet would perform S1, while a slightly chubby person wanting to look good naked would repeat routine H1; optional: rotate from week to week
   
• R3: Rest day - well deserved!

This is just a template! I have said that before, but I will repeat it once more. The above routine is just a template. Beginners for example can tweak it to their individual conditioning and skills, by reducing the number of circles and intervals they perform and selecting the right HI(I)T exercise/equipment. It is also possible to replace the exercises in the strength workout - even a machine based training is better than no strength training at all - but it would be better to start with 10-12 reps and a trainer or mentor to teach you how to perform the compound exercises properly than to simply avoid them completely. It should also be mentioned that a "fat loss support diet", just like any fat loss diet, is not something to stay on forever - rmember that and take a week or two off, before digging a whole from which you cannot escape anymore (cf. "The Over-Motivational Roots of Overtraining & Orthorexia")

If you have never trained twice a day before, this may seem like overkill. Having done that, as well as the stupid 45-90min workouts in the "fat burning zone" (everybody makes mistakes, when he/she is young ;-) many people still believe were the non-plus ultra for fat loss, I can yet tell you that the AM-PM routine is not only way more productive, it is also comparably "light". So, if there was anything you should be concerned about in the above workout, that would be the lifting session. I can guarantee, you will soon realize that the rest day thereafter is more than "well-deserved" ;-)

Keep moving! And don't watch TV in-between workouts if you cling to life ;-)

And as with all the previous as well as the strength workout template which is going to be published tomorrow, staying active even when you are not in the gym is the key not only to an improved body composition, but more importantly to your health. After all, Matthews et al. have shown only recently, that the positive association between all-cause mortality and the time US adults spend in a sedentary state was not "fully mitigated" even by high levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity - specifically, if this time was spend watching television (Matthews. 2012). So don't dare lying on the couch on your rest day, if you don't want to rest... ah, risk shortening the rest of your life ;-)

How Much Cardio Messes W/ Your Weight Training Results Depends on Recovery Times: Cardio + Weights in One Session vs. AM + PM Training vs. Doing Each on One Day

Who would have thought that? After dozens of contradictory and highly inconclusive studies, this could finally be the one study designed to yield the answers to many of our questions about the effects of concomitant endurance and strength training.

A "concomitant trainer" that's my way of labeling someone who performs both strength and endurance workouts. Someone like the fifty-eight amateur rugby players who volunteered for an experiment ([mean ± SE] age, 25.5 ± 0.4 years, ranging from 21 to 28 years) scientists from the French federation of rugby union conducted last year. All were free from severe injuries for the last year. Their practice volume was ~4 to 5 hrs per week with only minimal experience in resistance training.

For the whole seven-week training period, the volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the five experimental groups with three concurrent strength and endurance training groups, one strength-training group and one control group.

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The entire experiment was performed during the summer off-season. Therefore, subjects performed only one of the five training programs. They were asked to restrict fatiguing efforts at least two days before each test session and were also advised to maintain their normal dietary intake throughout the study. No food supplement was administered during all the protocol duration.

Speaking of which, the experiment itself was 10 weeks long with the first week dedicated to familiarization with all equipment and testing procedures, the second week involved the initial tests, the next seven weeks the training programs and the last week the final tests .

Overview of the timing of endurance and strength training in the experimental groups.

The independent variable was the treatment effect of five different 7-week training programs with one control group (CONT), one strength only training group (STR) and three concurrent strength and endurance training groups. The latter consisted of two sequences a week of each quality.

• Aerobic Training: Aerobic exercises included three 6-min sets of high intensity 15 s/15 s interval training on a field. Subjects, wearing cleats, alternated 15 s runs at 120% of their individual MAV with 15 s of passive recovery.
  
  A 5-min warm-up, consisting of moderate to cruising runs, preceded each aerobic training session. Subjects wore an individual heart rate monitor (Polar Electro Oy, Kempele, Finland) during each session in order to assess the cardiac workload and to regulate the distance to cover during the 15 s efforts.
  
  Distance to cover for the next sessions was higher if heart rate was lower than the rate of 90% of the maximal heart rate.
• Strength training: Every session began with a warm-up focused on abdominals/core training. Strength-training sessions consisted of 3-4 sets of 3-10 RM of the lower limbs (half squat - HS and leg press . LP) and upper limbs (bench press BP and BR).
  
  
  

  

  Concomitant Training: Cardio Before or After Weights? Cardio First Triggers 916% Increase in Growth Hormone. Plus: 7x Higher Testosterone & 3x Higher IGFBP-3 Peaks | read more

  Training was divided into three periods during which the intensity progressively increased. The first period (weeks 1-2) aimed to prepare participants for a maximal strength training by performing 3 or 4 series with 10 repetitions a set at 70% of the 1RM. The second (weeks 3-5) and the third periods (weeks 6–7) were designed to increase maximal strength performing 3 or 4 series with 6 and 3 repetitions a set close to 80 and 90% 1RM, respectively.
  
  The 1RM was checked each week in order to regulate strength workload. Each set of HS, done on a guided machine, was immediately followed by plyometric jumps. Also, sets of LP were combined with eccentric exercises on hamstring muscles. Rest between sets ranged from 2 to 3 min according to strength-training recommendations (hypertrophic vs. maximal strength),
  
  All contractions during upper limbs exercises were performed in isoinertial conditions with free weights. The ones done during lower limbs exercises were performed with specific Cybex guided machines (Medway, USA). Exercises were randomized during each training session, alternating lower- and upper body tasks.

With the workouts being identical (see above), the only difference between the C-0h, C-6h and C-24h groups was the recovery delay between strength and endurance sequences. In all groups, strength training was always performed first and was followed

• strength training was done immediately after resistance training - 0h rest (C-0h),
• cardio in the AM, strength training in the PM - 6h rest (C-6h) or
• cardio on day 1, strength training on day 2 - 24h rest (C-24h)

by endurance training. The STR group which served as an active control for the "maximally possible" strength gains (without concomitant endurance exercise) only completed the strength sequences.

Figure 1: Rel. changes (%) from baseline for the strength parameters maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs), test exercises and counter-movement jumps (CMJ | Robineau. 2014)

The training routines were planned to ensure that there were at least 72h between the two strength sequences for all training groups (C-0h, C-6h, C 24h and STR). The CONT group, which served as a passive control did not train during the entire duration of the experimental protocol and only performed pre- and post-tests. Accordingly, the training effects had to be judged against both the CONT and the STR group, to answer the questions: (1) Were there any significant gains in strength and endurance performance; and (2) Were there significant disadvantages in the concomitant training groups when it comes to strength gains compared the STR (strength only) group?

Before you are asking about body fat and lean mass data: The scientists did not measure the effects on the body composition of their subjects. Quite a pity, because I suspect that this could well have tipped the scale in favor of the concomitant training. Sillanpää, et al. (2009), for example, found that a combined resistance + endurance training protocol lead to 110% more body fat loss in middle-aged and older women. Similar improvements in body fat loss were observed in middle-aged women on a endurance + resistance training protocol that would resemble the C-24h regimen in the study at hand (Park. 2003). Without at least some body impedance data from the study at hand, it's yet just an educated guess that we would have seen improvements in body composition - specifically increased fat loss - in all of the C-groups.

Figure 2: It should not come as a surprise that trained football players don't get an endurance benefit from doing resistance training (Robineau. 2014) - Maybe you remember this fact, the next time you are huffing and puffing, because you had to run to catch the train or realize you can't keep up w/ your 5-year old, bro?

As the data in Figures 1-2 tells you, there were such differences. As the scientists point out, gains in maximal strength for bench press and half squat were lower in C-0h compared to C-6h, C-24h and STR.

Moroever, the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) during isokinetic knee extension at 60°·s-1 was likely higher for C-24h compared with C-0h, and the changes in maximal voluntary contractile force (MVC) at 180°·s-1 were likely higher in C-24h and STR than in C-0h and C-6h.

On the other hand, differences in the training-induced gains in isometric MVC for C-0h, C-6h, C-24h and STR were unclear and the VO2peak, a measure of aerobic conditioning increased only in those groups who actually did cardio training, i.e. C-0h, C-6h and C-24h.


In that, it is interesting to observe that the long(er) rest periods between endurance and strength training in the C-24 group lead to significantly greater increases in VO2peak in the subjects in said group compared to those who had been randomized to the C-0h and C-6h (AM, PM) group. With respect to the mean strength gains, on the other bench, the half-squat and the bench row, though, the AM-PM, i.e. the C-6h protocol appears to offer a non-significant advantage that stands in contrast to the ameliorated gains in maximum voluntary contractile force in this group. This part of the results is thus in fact "unclear" (Robineau. 2014).

So no concomitant training? Bullsh*t! Firstly, if you can do "cardio" and "weights" on seperate days, there is no problem at all. Secondly, if you can train only thrice a week, but pack in morning cardio + a strength training session in the PM, that's unlikely to hamper your gains significantly - specifically if you replete the glycogen stores and consume enough protein in the time between the AM+PM workout. Thirdly, even if you cannot do either cardio and weights on separate days or AM + PM sessions, the most significant result of the study at hand is that the cardiovascular disad- vantage of doing no cardio at all is significantly larger than the marginally reduced MVC gains if you do cardio and weights in one session. So what? Get your ass off that bench and move it ;-)

Bottom line: Overall, the study at hand proves that the interference between cardio and strength training depends on the recovery delay between the two sequences. That's practically news and has not been tested by any previous studies, which implies that "[d]aily training without a recovery period between sessions (C-0h) and, to a lesser extent, training twice a day (C-6h), is not optimal for neuromuscular and aerobic improvements." Accordingly, the Julien Robineau et al. are right, when they recommend: "Fitness coaches should avoid scheduling two contradictory qualities, with less than 6-hours recovery between them to obtain full adaptative responses to concurrent training" (Robineau. 2014).

Practically speaking this would mean: No cardio before strength and AM+PM cardio + strength sessions only as an exception to the rule. That's a sound recommendation, but if you look at the actual data, the strength gains on the bench, half-squats and the bench row do not necessarily warrant this advice (see Figure 1). The same goes for the improvements in counter-movement jumps. Are the detrimental effects on MVC gains, really relevant enough to warrant the previously cited recommendation if this is the only way you can do both, cardio and weights? I am not sure.

Furthermore, it remains to be elucidated, whether the existing detrimental effects would occur in trainees who have adapted to this routine over years of practice... personally, I have my doubts. Likewise questionable is, whether the use of protein and/or carbohydrate supplementation in-between the sessions would have changed the study outcome. And last but not least: For those of you who have decided to kick 2015 off with a weight loss regimen, the potential decrease in strength gains are irrelevant | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Park, Sang-Kab, et al. "The effect of combined aerobic and resistance exercise training on abdominal fat in obese middle-aged women." Journal of physiological anthropology and applied human science 22.3 (2003): 129-135.
• Robineau, Julien; Babault, Nicolas; Piscione, Julien; Lacome, Mathieu; Bigard, André-Xavier. "The specific training effects of concurrent aerobic and strength exercises depends on recovery duration." Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: Post Acceptance: December 24, 2014.
• Sillanpää, Elina, et al. "Body composition, fitness, and metabolic health during strength and endurance training and their combination in middle-aged and older women." European journal of applied physiology 106.2 (2009): 285-296.