[quote]Nominal Prospect wrote:
trextacy wrote:
NP,
Thanks for answering my question about the biblelife.org website. I appreciate the link.
I’m here to learn. I don’t care to flame.
I’m curious as to what you think the best diet/lifting/cardio protocol is for fat loss (for someone who is fairly well muscled and around 15% bf).
What do you think about HIIT? What sort of split/program is best.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I think the most important thing for fat loss is cutting carbs out of your diet.
After that, do High Intensity Circuit Training (HICT) for your weight training. This means you should rotate between different exercises to keep your rest times low and your work rate high.
I think that all bodybuilders should train this way, even if they aren’t trying to lose fat. That is how I train. There is no point for a bodybuilder to ever do two consecutive sets of one exercise (unless they are dropsets). Why sit around and wait for your muscles to recover when you could be hammering something else? I’ll give you some examples below.
I also believe in finding just one or two effective exercises for each muscle and hammering them hard. I don’t take the “kitchen sink” approach with exercise selection.
So, to give you an example, one of my days is Chest/Back/Lats. It is basically horizontal push/pull, with vertical pull (but not push - I don’t do any pressing, either horizontal or vertical…completely unnecessary for hypertrophy).
I only do three exercises and that covers everything:
-Cybex Lat Pulldown
-Underhand Fly’s on the Lever Pec Fly for chest
-Seated Row for the back
I do those exercises in order as a mini-circuit, and go through that circuit about 5-6 times. That is all I do for Chest/Back/Lats, once a week. It is extremely effective. You can and should use as much volume as it takes to go to complete exhaustion.
Every set of every circuit after the first should be taken to failure. My sets often last two minutes. On all unilateral exercises, I keep going after I reach concentric failure and do assisted reps (with the opposite limb) and eccentric overload.
Those machines are all next to each other at my gym, so it is very convenient. You should not rest between sets, only after each circuit, and even then, not for long.
My split looks like this:
Delts & Traps (4 exercises)
Legs & Abs (6 exercises)
Bi’s & Tri’s (3 exercises)
Chest/Back/Lats (3 exercises)
Most people are taking the kitchen sink approach and doing way too many exercises because they haven’t figured out what works.
I do advocate HIIT to my clients, but not based on personal experience - only on what I’ve read. I think that anything is better than slow, steady state cardio.
Brant_Drake wrote:
Ohh . . so experiance and all that is irrelevant now.
Well, you reminded me of another one of my observations which you’re just going to love.
What do you think is the single most important factor for “getting big”?
Is it having the right genetics? Nope.
Is it eating tons of food? Nope.
Is it training heavy and often? Nope.
Using gear? Nope.
Is it being consistent with all of the above? No.
What, then? What could it possibly be:
Easy. It’s your age, dummy.
How many people who “ate everything but couldn’t gain a pound” in their youth turn into big, stocky chumps when they grow older? It’s an awfully high percentage.
If you want to get “big”, simply wait until you’re 50. Nearly everyone in Western countries spends their last few decades oversized. That is why it I find it so idiotic to yell at poor kids for “not eating enough” the way that so many people are fond of doing on this board.
But I hear you whining, “Buh buh butt mussel mass ain’t the same thang as fah fah fat!”
Trust me, you won’t care after 40. I can tell you this even though I’m in my 20’s. When you get old, excess weight slows you down. It doesn’t matter if its leftover muscle from your glory days or just blubber from coach surfing. It slows you down all the same and you want to get rid of it.
I have worked with old guys who used to be weightlifers and football players and their bodies are a wreck. All of them would gladly give up their old “mussel” in order to lose 50 lbs. After 40, you just don’t give a shit about that kind of stuff anymore.
And on the other side, I’ve had many overweight people tell me how “skinny” they were back in HS/College.
“I used to be able to eat everything, I couldn’t gain a pound!”
Really? Tell me about it.
Bottom line: If you want to get big, just wait until you’re over 30. It WILL happen. It happens to everyone. You have nothing to worry about.
Unless you have some sort of medical condition, like hyperthyroidism, worrying about “never being able to get big” is as dumb and irrational as a high school virgin worrying that he’ll never get to go out with a girl.
In the meantime, “big guys” who yell at young kids because they of their fondness for slim, aesthetic physiques and ab definition are assholes. Don’t tell that skinny teen to eat more food - he’ll be fat soon enough as it is. Why not let him enjoy the few years of his life where he’ll actually be able to see his abs?[/quote]
Nominal prospect, indeed.
