Charting Progress

So, you are following a good diet, you do cardio and train with weights. But are you getting anywhere? This is the question that so many people just don't ask themselves. They keep on doing what they have been doing for years and then say something to the effect that nothing works.

Hence, a very important component of a fitness regimen is getting constant feedback in terms of your weight, measurements, photographs, clothing size and most importantly body fat percentage and skinfold thickness. Ideally, you should check your weight and composition every week and observe some improvement. If you are following your regimen just right you should loose between 1 to 2 pounds per week. If you did not loose or instead the weight increased, examine your past week to make sure you actually followed the program, more likely than not you slipped. In that case, don't see it as failure but as valuable feedback about how much "cheating" is too much for your body. Tighten your belt and get set for the next week.

Depending on your weekly observation if you find that you have really hit a fat loss plateau you can try one of these or a combination of these: decrease calories, tweak the macronutrient ratio, meal frequency or timing, increase the duration, frequency or intensity of cardio, change the kind or timing of cardio, incorporate HIIT and if nothing works do double cardio (twice a day). So, unless you have tried all these the excuse that nothing works is lame.

The ultimate lesson of the whole process is simple: each individual is different and you have to find your program for yourself by doing a little experimentation. If someone tells you that you can eat exactly this and workout exactly that you will get your perfect physique then he or she is trying to hoodwink you (or they don't know any better). Also, there are "programs" which tell you that all the fat loss can be achieved by using their magic product and working out for 20 minutes a day because they know that "easy" sells. But ask yourself, if it was all that easy why don't you see a lot more fit people around?

My advice, get into fitness only if you can give it some priority and incorporate it in your lifestyle. If you want to do it for only 2 months your time would probably be better spent elsewhere. Hit the gym with passion and a clear sense of your goal, commit to your program and the results would astound you!

Weight Training

Let me begin by saying that book extending over volumes have been written on the subject of weight training so try as I may I cannot cover a lot on a blog. I will try to stick to the most important points in my opinion and even then it's gonna be a longish post. First of all, weight training is an essential component of a fat loss regimen. The view that one should do cardio for first couple months to loose the fat and then start weight training is bogus at best and disastrous at worst. Weight training (combined with a good diet) is the thing that keeps your muscle intact when you are on a fat loss program. Also, muscle being an active tissue burns calories even at rest and not to forget the post workout metabolic boost provided by weight training. In essence, your fat loss program is incomplete without weight training.

Now, on to the bullets:

1. Duration: I suggest 45 minutes to 1 hour and not more than that (beginner or advance). Excessive workout leads to overtraining and injury, I personally overtrained for more than a year with very slow results and also managed to injure myself a couple times. Even if you bubbling with enthusiasm, take things easy coz when it comes to weight training it's said "Less is more".

2. Frequency: This one depends on your experience and goals. For a beginner or for a guy concerned with general fitness and an alright amount of muscle 3 days a week is a good option. As you progress or modify your goals to put on more muscle you can add a 4th or a 5th day. Yup, you don't need to push weights 6 days a week to get in a good shape. In fact, it's the rest time when your muscle recover from the hell you put them through during the workout.

Here's a quick guideline for frequency: for beginners it's three workouts per week on nonconsecutive days, full body each workout. For intermediate, it's three or four workouts per week on two day split routine; half the body one day, half the next (each muscle group worked no more than twice per week). For advanced, it's four or five days per week, on a three or four day split routine, each muscle group worked once every five to seven days.

3. Variations: Stands for types of exercise per muscle group. Quick guideline being:

For beginner: One exercise per muscle group/full body routine.

For intermediate: Two exercises per muscle group/ two day split

For advanced: Three(four) exercises per muscle group/three(four) day split

4. Sets: Stands for number of times you do a particular variation and depends on size of the muscle group. Smaller muscle groups (like biceps or triceps) can be exhausted by lesser number of sets as opposed to larger muscle groups (like back or chest). A thumb rule of 3-4 sets per variation works in most cases and depending on the muscle group you can add an extra variation later.

5. Repetitions: There is a lot of back and forth here from 1 rep max to 20-25 reps and the number also varies with your goal. Without going into the philosophy of the spectrum here's a quick guideline based on goals:

Strength/Power: 1 – 5 reps

Hypertrophy (size) & some strength: 6 - 12 reps

Local endurance/ little size: 12-20 reps

Abs & Calves: 10-25 reps

4. Rest: The idle time between sets. No, you are not supposed to strike up a conversation after one set! One minute is the rest duration you can't go wrong with however for maximal fat loss 20-45 sec. is still better. You can squeeze a little more rest (up to 2 minutes) for large muscle groups or for very heavy workouts.

5. Progressive overload: I need not say this but you ought to train hard in the gym and push yourself while you are there. I see people lifting the same weight they did 2 years back or talking away on cellphone while cycling and they get nowhere. Having said that, you need not train to failure (point when you can't do another rep) all the time. The key is challenging your muscles in new ways, pushing them a little more than the last time.

Progressive overload is just that, you start with a weight that you can do 8 reps with. Next time you hit the gym, you try to do 9 reps with the same weight and so on. Once you can do 12 reps, put that weight down and pick up a heavier one and do 8 reps and so on. You get the idea! Now, this process is not always as neat and arithmetic as in the example. Sometimes you wouldn't be able to do one more rep, you may even do one less rep but the aim should be on progression and it can work as one step back and two steps forward. Besides there are myriads of variations once you feel you hit a bad plateau on a particular exercise.

6. Choice of exercises: Again, people go so fancy with their exercises without knowing the basics. They'll try spider curl and zottman curl before getting simple barbell curls. Suggestion: choose basic exercises in the beginning and only once you have a good form try something else. Anyways, it's the basic compound exercises that are the best.

7. Split routine: Concerns about how to group body parts for workout. Here are some examples:

Beginner’s workout: Full body workout

1. Bench press with dumbbells, barbell or machine (chest)

2. Dumbbell side lateral raise (shoulders)

3. One arm dumbbell row or lat machine pull down (upper back)

4. Dumbbell extension behind head (triceps)

5. Dumbbell Bicep curl (biceps)

6. Leg extension or lunge (thighs)

7. Standing calf raise (calves)

8. Lying leg curl (hamstrings)

9. Crunches (abs)

Intermediate workout: Two day split

Day 1: Chest, Shoulder, Triceps, Abs

1. Flat Bench Press: dumbbell, barbell or machine (chest)

2. Incline Dumbbell flyes or pec deck flye machine (chest)

3. Seated Dumbbell or machine overhead press (shoulders)

4. Dumbbell side lateral raise (shoulders)

5. Tricep Pushdown (triceps)

6. Overhead tricep extension with dumbbell (triceps)

7. Crunches (abs)

8. Reverse Crunches (abs)

Day 2: Legs, Back, Biceps, calves

1. Leg Press machine (quads)

2. Leg extension machine (quads)

3. Lying Leg Curl (hamstrings)

4. Low back extension/hyperextension (lower back/hamstrings)

5. Pull-ups or lat pulldowns (lats/upper back)

6. Seated Cable Rows (lats)

7. Barbell curl (biceps)

8. Seated alternating dumbbell curl (biceps)

9. Standing Calf Machine (calves)

10. Seated Calf Machine (calves)

As you advance, you can go to 3 day or 4 day splits but a 2 day split gives wonderful results itself and you can stick to it for life.

That about sums up what I can say here. Other "concerns" like, "I don't do much weights as I don't wanna bulk up", "You need to do 500 crunches everyday to get good abs", "You need 25 reps per set to get definition", "Don't do weights if you wanna keep your flexibility", "It's all good now but once you stop the muscle will turn to fat", "How can I make time for all this from my busy schedule", etc. are either myths or excuses arising from lack of knowledge and action. You can either debate or get your ass to the gym.

To conclude, here's what I did. In the very beginning (1.5 years back) I was on a full body workout, 3 days a week. Within a couple months I grew out of it finding it too easy. I then jumped into some real heavy workouts (counterproductive overtraining). In February 2010, I came back to my senses and stuck to 2 day splits, 3 days a week. Then in June, by which time I had already improved a lot, I started doing the same routine 4 days a week. I warm-up and stretch before workouts and do a non-fatiguing set (which is not counted as workout but muscle group warm-up) for each muscle group before heavier ones. Rest interval is 45 secs. and I adhere to progressive overload. I change my workout every month or two to avoid adaptation and to employ the "muscle confusion" technique! That's about it... Now go push some weights!

Cardio

Now that you have a diet plan in order it's time to hit the gym! The mantra is simple if you create a larger calorie deficit you'll loose more weight. The thing is most people get that to some extent but the way they go about it is by eating less. What they fail to account for is that human body is a result of millions of years of evolution and it knows to slow things down in case of low calorie intakes. So, the way to go about creating a deficit should be by working out more. As counterintutive as it may seem, you'll loose fat faster if you eat more and workout more. The two are synergistic, eating frequently (5-6 time a day) boosts your metabolism and so does working out. Having clarified that let's spend a moment on what exactly is cardio:

"an activity that’s rhythmical in nature, involves large muscle groups (namely your legs or back), and, here's the kicker - can be sustained continuously for long periods of time (at least 20 - 30 minutes)"

Running, bicycling, stair climbing, rowing and elliptical exercise are some examples of cardio. Other queries which people generally have regarding cardio include:

1. Duration: For maximal fat loss you should do 30-60 minutes of cardio per session. Less than 30 minutes is too little and more than 60 minutes is edging on overtraining. If you really wanna do more than 60 minutes then the suggestion is to do double cardio (i.e. twice a day) but for most people 30-60 minutes will give good results. The thing to keep in mind is your goal, if you just want to maintain your weight (or bulk up), 20-30 minutes cardio is also sufficient.

2. Frequency: If your goal is fat loss, 4-6 days a week of cardio is required for good results. Enthusiasts can add a 7th day but sustaining it for long time periods is tough to say the least. For maintanance and bulking 3-4 days is sufficient.

3. Time: When the hell should you do your cardio? In the morning? Before weight training? After it? And so on... People can go on rambling about the findings! Most important thing though is that you should do cardio and not just debate. Doing it anytime burns calories so you get leaner everytime you finish your session. That being settled, morning fasted cardio (without eating anything) is probably very good. I say probably because there's arguments for and against the idea. I personally tried it but found it so damn difficult that I was back to my post weight training cardio in two weeks. If you can hit the gym in 5-10 minutes after you wake up, it's worth a shot otherwise hunger kicks in bad and it gets a lot tougher. Post weight training cardio is next best, your glycogen levels are low so more calories are burnt from fat.

4. Intensity: Phew!!! This one is even more controversial. The two schools are low intensity long duration cardio and high intensity short duration. After a lot of back and forth with jargon what I synthesized is if you do cardio at higher intensity you burn more calories plus your metabolism gets a better kick so that's what I adhere to. By high intensity I mean 75-85% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). A great technical variation is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) wherein you have work intervals when you push yourself to 85% or even above of your MHR followed by rest intervals to catch your breath. By the way, a simple empirical formula for MHR is (220-age). So that a 20 year old guy should aim for 150-170 heartbeats per minute. Though many cardio machines have some sort of heart rate monitor, buying your own will be a great investment. I bought mine off amazon for 33$ and they are one of the best 33$ that I spent. I now know throughout my cardio if I am slouching or being overzealous.

One concern that many people seem to express is that they would loose muscle if they do cardio. The truth is you may loose some muscle doing cardio but you are much more likely to loose muscle if you don't eat frequently or don't include protein in every meal. As long as you are eating right it's unlikely that you'll loose much muscle. Once you reach your desired fat levels you can switch to moderate cardio, this also helps avoid overtraining and adaptation.

Let me conclude with my cardio regimen. I do HIIT (1 minute work, 1 minute rest interval) cardio six days a week close to 85% MHR. On my weight training day, it's 35 minutes post workout and on dedicated cardio days it's 45 minutes. My weapons of choice are elliptical and stationary bicycle in succesion (with no break in between), I am less of a runner because of the high impact nature of the exercise (combined with dancing it gave me shin splints). This routine works for me, you can start slow and reach your own optimal point using the above guidelines and a little hit and trial.