Kind of bogged down in work the next month but plan to focus on fat loss afterward.
Had an article bookmarked which praises Metabolic Resistance Training as the most time efficient way to train for fat loss:
The article notes that metabolism is raised up to 36 hours after such a workout due to EPOC (Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption)
Workouts tend to pair upper body and lower body exercises and employ supersets and short rest periods.
I’ve read elsewhere that this EPOC effect is not significant from an overall calorie expenditure standpoint. I can’t find the source off hand but I seem to recall it came to something like 6-15% of total calories burned during training.
So for an intense workout burning 1,000 calories this would only result in an additional 60-150 calories over the following day which does not seem particularly meaningful.
It would seem that the PROs for employing this would be as follows:
Since this involves superset exercises workout time would presumably be cut down significantly
At some point “every little bit helps” in terms of cutting calories
The CONs might be:
To complete a workout involving supersets with short rest periods, you would need to reduce weight significantly so the workout would not seem to do much for strength/muscle gain - the article does suggest doing a few heavy sets of low reps before the main work to offset this.
When already in a calorie deficit such intense workouts might lead to overtraining
Not sure if I am missing anything - have you employed similar workouts? Is there more to the effectiveness of metabolic resistance training than the calorie deficit created through EPOC in terms of body composition?
I did have some success with this type of training, but was coming off a layoff and quite a bit younger so presumably had more of a “margin of error” when it came to overtraining.
I agree. I would focus on Calorie intake as the primary driver of fat loss, include some low intensity steady state cardio for heart health and some modest calorie burn and then stick with some standard strength training/Bodybuilding training to maintain or even build some strength and muscle. This method is pretty Time-tested and generally sustainable.
Yeah, more to it than just calories burned after exercise. Hormones or something.
Short rests increase lactate an raise levels of Human Growth Hormone. hGH enhances the way your body mobilizes and burns fat. So exercise, EPOC and even regular metabolism are all “better” for fat loss.
This type of training is often Full Body and full body workouts lower your appetite and signal your body to store less fat. Through leptin sensitivity or something.
Some fat people claim insulin resistance. Interval style training is rumored to clear that up to.
So all the calories burned of exercises. Plus the muscular benefits of weight lifting. And some cool hormonal stuff.
As a longer term strategy it is a tool, along with many others.
While anything can be written off as “insignificant” for what ever reason, the main factor that is often required to be ignored in order to do this is Time.
Fortitude training. And other “fancy” training styles do lots of cool stuff to keep the Density of workouts high, like the agonist/antagonist supersets, tri-sets, etc.
But they do other stuff get around the problems OP mentioned. Like Fortitude has the sets of 4,4,4 on “big” lifts included to keep the strength going Up. And a rotation of “heavy” and “light” workouts to prevent overtraining.
Other systems use methods like EMOMs or Clusters, with a bunch of low reps sets and short short rests, on big lifts for strength. Then use supersets, circuits, tri sets or whatever on the assistance lifts where the weight doesn’t matter as much.
Anyway, training like this doesn’t have to mean you have to do 100% squat thrusts and dumbbell lunging curls for a workout.
After warming up, choose a weight representing about 70% of your 1RM for whatever exercise you’re about to do. That usually equates to a weight you can do around 12 reps with.
Do 3 reps. Rest 15 seconds.
Do 4 reps. Rest 15 seconds.
Do 5 reps. Rest 15 seconds.
Do 6 reps. Rest 15 seconds.
Do 7 reps. Rest 150 seconds (two and a half minutes).
This week in hotels I’ve been doing basically 2-3 “main” lifts supersetted with a non-conflicting muscle, then a giant set to finish up.
So, like yesterday, I did chest and biceps.
I did smith machine inclines superset with dumbbell curls, then bench superset with hammer curls.
Then 3 rounds of a giant set of flyes, presses and pushups.
Then 21s superset with crunches.
It at least felt like my heart rate was up, I still hit movements I’d normally hit, and it was quick and I felt big at the end. I dunno, maybe we’re onto something.