4 Days a Week Article Template?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
1

Coach,

I loved the article today, mainly because I am lifting that often. I am currently in a massive fat loss phase and am doing chest/shoulder/tris on mon/fri along with legs/back/biceps on tues/fri, I condition wed/sat/sun, my lifting sessions are in the afternoon, with additional conditioning on the mon/tues/thurs/fri. I was wondering if you had a template you could share for what you feel might best work utilizing the 4 days a week protocol. I understand the concept of maintaining muscle and building on strength and work towards that end, I am guessing due to my diet that my recovery is compromised. Looking for direction from who I feel is one of the top coaches available. Thanks in advance:)

2

Well you are doing a lot of conditioning work and you are likely on a restricted caloric intake, which more than likely supplies a low amount of carbs.

The problem is that glycogen depletion is linked with an increase in AMPK. And in turn when this enzyme goes up, it can turn off mTor. MTor is the trigger that activates protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is necessary for muscle repair and growth (and even maintenance).

Simply put if you are already burning a lot of fuel, especially glycogen it will not take a lot of lifting volume to kill your progress and more than likely end up actually end up losing muscle mass.

I understand that losing fat is an emotional thing. We want the fat off NOW. But if we do too much the risk of losing muscle mass is very real.

I do like a pull/push/legs rotationā€¦ and for 4 weekly workouts you could either rotate through the workouts. e.g.

DAY 1 Pull
DAY 2 Push
DAY 3 OFF
DAY 4 Legs
DAY 5 Pull
DAY 6 OFF
DAY 7 OFF

DAY 1 Push
DAY 2 Legs
DAY 3 OFF
DAY 4 Pull
DAY 5 Push
DAY 6 OFF
DAY 7 OFF

Etc.

Or do lo stress beach work on day 4

DAY 1 Back (lats, traps, rhomboids, rear delts, lower back)
DAY 2 Pectorals/Deltoids
DAY 3 OFF
DAY 4 Legs
DAY 5 Biceps/Triceps/Abs
DAY 6 OFF
DAY 7 OFF

I would keep volume as low as possible to hit all the muscles correctly. Doing too much volume, further depleting muscle glycogen could actually make it harder to maintain muscle mass.

I would have 1 or 2 big lifts per session, trained for strength. I like the 5-4-3-2-1 sets/reps scheme (increasing weight on every set) but really Doing 10-15 reps/exercise in the 80-92% range with pretty much sets/reps scheme will work.

I would only do isolation/supplemental work for you weaker muscles (those that tends to atrophy more when you diet down).

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Thank YOU very much, that all makes complete sense, yes, fat loss is 100% emotional for me, I am not a ā€œwait for itā€ guy. I will put your ideas to use as I want to do this right and make THIS TIME permanent, I have battled the yo-yo thing forever, the Indigo Project saved my life once, you guys are the absolute best!

4

CT, Iā€™ve a question regarding 4 intense workouts a week tip. I guess this thread is right place to ask rather than creating a new one.

Is the frequency much more draining with intense sessions than total workload and volume? To be more clear, like if I do 2 Upper body and 2 Lower body sessions per week respecting your tip, but want to workout more often besides NC workouts and beach work. Would it be more draining for the body to spread the same workload over a Pull Push Legs split repeated twice a week?

5

Jasper, from my experience volume 9especially the number of work sets) is more draining than frequency

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6

Just to be clear the Look Like A Bodybuilder Perform Like An Athlete is an example of a moderate intensity workout that you can do almost everyday as opposed to 4 days a week?

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Correct. Other example are Bench, Squat and Deadlift: How Often? and Bulgarian Training Simplified

8

Sounds good. Thanks!