Lactate-Inducing Workout

I have been reading the “Refined Physique Transformation”. On the Lactate-Inducing Workout what type of reps and sets are they supposed to be? Whole body lifts like a power clean, bench press, etc.? I want to start this transformation, however I am confused what to do these days. Also it says to do 30 minutes low-intensity ESW.

What is a good cardio to accomplish that and where should my heart rate be? Are those the only 2 days I am supposed to do cardio as well? Thanks for all of your advice.

from what i gather on reading a bit about these and doing the RFFL program you want the rep range to be mid-hi(er) but the point is to mix it up, one day do 3 set of 15, the next 4 of 10, and so forth…

bench press is not a whole body lift, yes it uses some big, major muscle, but for this purpose you want more “complex” movements, if you did a DB floor press/ serratus crunch combo, thats would be more along these lines… that actually sounds pretty good, hmm…
you want explosive sets and very short rest periods…

and as for the steady state cardio, walk. :slight_smile:

I have to disagree with the last poster. Unless you are including a lot of compound movements in your program, and/or are signfiicantly strong in the bench press, stick with the regular bench press or floor press. You’ll want to use the most weight possible.

Although hybrid lifts (like the floor press + serratus crunch) are neat they are probably not optimal for most people. The whole point of a hybrid lift, is to add extra work to a movement to burn more calories and more metabolic demand. The problem with hybrid lifts, is that you’ll wont be doing as much work, since the load will have to be so much lower.

That being said, i know RFFL calls for starting the workouts with some “heavy lifting”, so you could get away with more hybrid lifts and complexes if the heavy lifting is already in place. Remember from “the heirarchy of fatloss” heavy lifting is top priority.

As for lactate inducing workouts, I find that there are two major purposes of a lactate inducing workout.

  1. To deplete glycogen stores

  2. To increase growth hormone (poliquin style)

So if you are cutting, then LA training would be option 1, and should likely be accompanied by lower carbohydrates and a caloric deficit. Some form of carb cycling would be beneficial so that you can deplete, burn fat, and then supercompensate.

If you are trying to build muscle, then you are using LA workouts similar to option 2. These would be accompanied by higher carbs and a caloric surplus. Something like nutrient timing would be beneficial here.

Either way, heavy lifting is important.

***Another note

There are different ways to induce lactic acid. You can do slow reps, or fast reps, but what really matters is TUT, and rest breaks. Think of German body comp training vs. “superman sets”. You have decide which one is better for you at different times. I can think of arguments for both for either cutting or bulking.

Hope this helps.

And as for cardio after lactate workouts. IMO you should only be doing cardio after LA workouts if you are cutting. In this case, you are just trying to burn calories, and since glycogen stores should be fairly empty, most of those calories will come from fat (or muscle). You can do some moderate instensity intervals, like 1 minute work / 1 minute rest or even 2minute work / 1 minute rest. It doesn’t really matter. If you are using LA workouts for building muscle, then you probably shouldn’t do cardio after, although this may help you keep fat gain down while bulking, it will have a negative effect on the GH production.