To help shed body fat is it ok to alternate Day 1 and Day 2 6-days a week followed by a 20 minute HIIT session? So I would be doing Meltdown and HIIT 6 days a week. I have already been doing Meltdown for a few weeks now and was just wondering if this would lead to overtraining. Thanks guys.
Can anyone help me?
I don’t recommend your approach.
If you want to up the workload from Meltdown (I presume you’re doing Meltdown I), do Meltdown on M-Tu and Th-F, do your HIIT two days a week and then take 3-4 30 minutes walks per weeks.
The difference between your training and my layout is 6 versus 4 Meltdown sessions, 6 versus 2 HIIT session, and 0 versus 3-4 low intensity cardio sessions per week. This is a drastic difference in both the intensity and volume of work. Following your layout would be great for 2-3 weeks following which you would likely develop a nice cold.
Now, if you are a semi-elite athlete, you might be able to follow the program you mentioned … but I assume since you’re asking, that you aren’t at that point yet. Even an elite athlete would probably need optimal nutrition, recovery, and sleep to pull that plan off.
Regards,
Mark
PS On a side note, Don Alessi (the Meltdown author) had an interesting combination of Meltdown I and Meltdown II simultaneously for massive fat loss along with a detailed nutrition program. Use search and look for an older “Iron Dog” article (maybe search for “ripped in 8 weeks”).
Thanks for taking the time to answer my post. I really appreciate it. I read the article you referenced to and I read that meltdown could be done alternating days for 6 days and do interval training in the morning. Since I am not a morning person I was wondering if I could just do it after the meltdown training. Do you still believe this is a bad idea. I know I can do I just don’t want to over train. I am trying to shed as much fat as possible before Summer gets here. Thanks for your help.
I did Meltdown 1 twice but both times holidays interefered. Also, both times I did meltdown I lifted mon, tues, thurs, fri, with a 30 minute walk on the tread after and hit running or jump rope on wed and sat am’s. I don’t recall how much weight I lost but a high stress job, poor nutrition, school, and a poor mindset helped contribute to overtraining; I don’t know if training made it worse.
Try it and if you start to feel overtrained - lethargic, moody, depressed, foggy minded, weak, all those sorts of things, take it a little easier.
Don’t underestimate the importance of rest either. I believe the premise of Meltdown was to lose weight while ELIMINATING boring, excessive cardio. If I were you I would check my diet first, then add either walks in the am OR short (15 - 20) hiit work on wed and sat, with lifting mon, tues, thurs, and fri. Check your weight and bf% weekly to see where your weight loss is at; 1.5 pounds-ish a week is good, don’t get to greedy.
Try something like Meltdown and the Velocity diet or T-Dawg 2.0 diet for 4 weeks and see how that goes. I’m sure a good diet and some HOT-ROX will expedite the weight loss process.
[quote]tryingtogetinshape wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to answer my post. I really appreciate it. I read the article you referenced to and I read that meltdown could be done alternating days for 6 days and do interval training in the morning. Since I am not a morning person I was wondering if I could just do it after the meltdown training. Do you still believe this is a bad idea. I know I can do I just don’t want to over train. I am trying to shed as much fat as possible before Summer gets here. Thanks for your help.[/quote]
To follow up a bit,
I would not recommend doing Meltdown I (or Meltdown II for that matter) 6 days per week (with or without other HIIT).
As a side note, Meltdown I is quite similar to HIIT training with weights. Therefore you might consider a different style of workouts to pair together.
If you really want to add a bunch of work, you could try either 1) HIIT running + 10x3 in a single exercise 4 days per week --or-- 2) Meltdown I + 10x3 4 days per week. If you choose to do the 10x3, make sure to rotate exercises (chins, dips, squat, deadlift, power clean, etc. … big compound movements). Of course, in teh place of 10x3 you could do Meltdown II.
Also, I would highly recommend not doing the two workouts per day back-to-back. You’ll lose intensity … if morning is a problem do one in the afternoon and the other before bed with a nap in between. Get lots of sleep at night and plenty of protein!
In reality, what Dan John said at one point is quite important, we (both you and I) are adding several things into your program at once. We can not predict how these things will interact for you.
The best option would be to 1) introduce 1 program component gradually (say 3 then 4 then 5 Meltdown sessions per week), 2) scale back the Meltdown (to 3 or 4) and add HIIT or 10x3 to the tune of (1 or 2), then 3) gradually up the work of both. So, over several weeks, you might do:
[3 Melt]
[4 Melt]
[4 Melt]
[3 Melt, 1 HIIT]
[3 Melt, 2 HII]
[4 Melt, 2 HIIT]
[4 Melt, 3 HIIT]
[4 Melt, 4 HIIT]
or some such gradual progression. When you started to feel like crap, you could start scaling things back … you listen to your body and adjust.
I suppose I would recommend something like this as a realistic option (with walk being a long slow cardio … 30 minutes uphill or some such and with HIIT possibly being 10x3 single exercise or Meltdown II instead):
[4 Melt, 1 HIIT, 2 Walk]
[4 Melt, 2 HIIT, 2 Walk]
[4 Melt, 2 HIIT, 3 Walk]
[5 Melt, 2 HIIT, 2 Walk]
[5 Melt, 2 HIIT, 4 Walk]
[5 Melt, 3 HIIT, 2 Walk]
And see where you are at in 6 weeks. You might want to do a “drop week” between week 3 and week 4 that might look like:
[2 Melt, 1 HIIT, 4 Walk]
You could also do this at the end of the program.
But hey regardless of great planning, we all have to prep for summer, so crazyness is at least a little acceptable!
Regards (and good luck),
Mark
…or you could get lipo, or you could cut off a limb, or you could join a wrestling team and take an ephedra/caffeine stack.
I did the third in high school and lost 30 pounds in 30 days!!
Seriously though, unless you’re a bum and you sit at home all day I don’t know how feasible a plan that is. I also believe in a point of diminishing returns; a point at which additional exercise becomes excessive and unproductive. ONE meltdown per day and a PERFECT (not good) diet will do the trick.
How much weight are we talking here?
One more thing, quoted from the Meltdown article:
“While the program can be repeated, it’s best not to do it - at least not without changing the movements - for more than 6 weeks.”
I have a question, I am looking to lose Quite a bit of body fat. I’m about 24% and I have been lifting very heavy for the last 5 months. I have seen great gains in my strength, but I need to cut fat to see the results in my physique. I just started the Meltdown workout and I was wondering how long it takes on average to see results? My diet is really good and I walk a great deal since I’m stationed in Iraq. If any one can help answer my question I’d appreciate it.
[quote]Crutch wrote:
I have a question, I am looking to lose Quite a bit of body fat. I’m about 24% and I have been lifting very heavy for the last 5 months. I have seen great gains in my strength, but I need to cut fat to see the results in my physique. I just started the Meltdown workout and I was wondering how long it takes on average to see results? My diet is really good and I walk a great deal since I’m stationed in Iraq. If any one can help answer my question I’d appreciate it.[/quote]
If you do Meltdown I with a low (sub-100 grams) carb diet, you will see results quickly (week to week). Get sugars into you pre/post workout. Protein all the time.
Since you’ve been lifting heavy weights, Meltdown I would be a nice change of pace (lighter weights, but switching to metabolic intensity).
Thanks for serving.
Regards,
Mark
PS How the hell did you dig this thread out of the graveyard. I forgot I even posted about this!
Thank you for the advice. I am new to T-Nation and I came upon the Meltdown routine. This thread popped up and yo useemed to be very knowledgeable, so that’s how it got resurrected.
Thanks again,
Crutch