LIFT BIG TO GET LEAN BY ERIC VELAZQUEZ Walk away from the drudgery of treadmill work. This six-week weight-training programme will burn fat and build lean muscle at the same time "Before you tear out these pages and head to the gym, take heed: this programme ain't no tea party" 16 >> Number of total calories burned per minute when doing a barbell squat 51 >> Additional calories you burn at rest after weight-training
DIETARY GUIDELINES THIS PROGRAMME PUSHES YOUR ENDURANCE TO THE LIMITS. TO GET THE MOST OUT OF IT — HELL, JUST TO GET THROUGH IT — YOU NEED TO BE SAVVY ABOUT WHAT YOU PUT INTO YOUR BODY OVER THE NEXT SIX WEEKS. >> CARBS Your body will be starved for energy during this programme. Fuel it with 5–7 small meals per day, making sure to consume plenty of quality slow-burning carbohydrates throughout the day. About 30–45 minutes before you work out, take in roughly 40 grams of these slow-burning carbs. Post-gym, double that amount to approximately 80 grams of fast-burning carbs to provide energy and spike your blood insulin levels, which drives glucose and amino acids into your muscle cells, key for postworkout recovery. Good slow-burning carb choices include yams, brown rice, oatmeal, granary breads and pastas, brightly coloured fruits and veggies. Fast-carb selections include white bread, plain bagels and rice cakes. >> PROTEIN Bridging the gap between your wrecking-ball routines will be protein. Your muscles are going to take a circa 1987 Mike Tyson–style hammering four days a week, but it's that kind of punishment that provides room for gains. Go with 1–1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. In addition to your carbs, down a fast-digesting shake containing 20 grams of whey protein just before hitting the gym (more than 20 grams could have you revisiting it midway through your first circuit). Knock down around 40 grams immediately postworkout. >> FATS While some fats and healthy oils are good and — believe it or not — necessary for fat loss, be careful not to overdo it. Use olive oil for cooking and dressings, and eat nuts, avocados and fatty fish like salmon. Make sure your lunch and preworkout grub is fairly low in fat because fat digests more slowly and could make you feel sluggish and bloated in the gym. >> WATER Hydration is key to energy levels, so drink plenty of water throughout the day. A good benchmark is roughly half of your bodyweight in fluid ounces of water per day. For example, an active 200-pound man should consume roughly 100 fluid ounces. Also, sip water throughout your workouts. >> SUPPLEMENTS There's no ignoring the importance of supplements for a routine like this. Try the following: Creatine To delay muscle fatigue, take 3–5 grams of creatine both 30 minutes before and immediately after your workout. This helps you go harder and longer by providing extra fuel and drawing water into your muscles. Glutamine Glutamine combats muscle catabolism, which is essential due to the intensity of this routine. It also aids in muscle recovery and digestion, and gives your immune system a boost. Take 5–10 grams before and after workouts as well as in the morning. Caffeine To get through these routines and increase the amount of fat your muscles use for fuel, take 200–400 mg of caffeine in the morning and another dose 1–2 hours before hitting the gym. Green tea For a little extra energy boost (believe us, you'll need all you can get) and an extended fat burn, take 90 mg of EGCG or 270 mg of polyphenols 2–3 times a day, your last dose coming before you hit the gym if you work out in the evening. Arginine This compound's benefits are many, but chief among them is its ability to enhance blood flow, which ensures the increased production and delivery of growth hormone to your muscles. The increased circulation also provides a kick to your workouts and aids in recovery. Consume 3–5 grams three times a day, with one dose taken 30–60 minutes preworkout on an empty stomach. What if we told you that you could get harder and leaner with deeper striations and fuller muscle bellies than ever before with just one routine? Don't believe us? Keep reading, because our six-week Lift Big to Get Lean routine goes against conventional wisdom, traditional lifter logic and accepted gym-rat credos to produce rapid, noticeable changes in your body composition without sacrificing an ounce of lean muscle. Consider a few things you already know: first, compound (multijoint) exercises recruit more total muscle than isolation (single-joint) exercises and therefore burn more calories. Second, higher rep ranges and shorter rest periods result in a greater calorific expenditure. Both of these factors have a lasting effect on your overall body composition by raising your metabolic rate. Carefully fuse these approaches together and you get a high-rep, full-body hybrid routine consisting of major compound lifts that builds muscle and scorches a ton of calories in the process (even after you leave the gym). But before you tear out these pages and start the workout, take heed: this ain't no tea party. Those three sets of 10 you're used to? Gone. Three or four exercises for each muscle group? Not in this routine. And don't even get us started on your 2–3-minute rest periods. We've given the traditional circuit an M&F spin for those seeking to forgo the cardio on their way to a leaner build. No need for treadmill intervals or endless sessions on the stair-stepper here. This programme is all about more total volume and less total load. All you need to be concerned with are the weights — and your ability to keep down a good meal. Since this routine will have even the most veteran of lifters re-tasting their lunch at least once, we need to say it: beginners need not apply. HYBRID TECHNOLOGY "If you want to burn calories, compound exercises — those involving major muscle groups incorporating movement at more than one joint — are the way to go," says Frank Claps, a certified strength and conditioning specialist. "The larger the muscle mass involved, the greater the energy — and therefore calories — required for the exercise." Simply put, you burn more calories squatting than by doing leg extensions. Additionally, compound movements performed with free weights burn more calories per minute than those done on machines. A study conducted at Truman State University (Missouri) showed that subjects burned more than 16 calories per minute when performing a barbell squat, compared to 11 calories burned while doing the leg press. The reason for the additional calorific expenditure was attributed to the overall muscle recruitment needed when executing squats — more stabilisers and supporting muscle groups are used during this exercise. "Focusing on multijoint movements like rows, squats and deadlifts burns more total calories because of the cumulative muscle use," says Jade Molina, director of Performance Training at 360 Health Club in Reseda, California. Plus, adding lean muscle to your body results in a higher metabolic rate. Translation: a muscle cell burns more calories at rest than a fat cell does, so the more muscle you have, the more total calories you'll burn before, during and after your training session. The bottom line is that free-weight, compound movements result in greater muscle gains and ultimately increased fat loss. But we don't stop there. PARADIGM SHIFT This programme, which takes you through three punishing circuits of high-rep compound movements, is a vast departure from typical schemes. Its rapid-fire, high-volume approach is designed specifically to push trained lifters beyond their comfort zone and into a fat-burning frenzy. Need a little convincing? Consider this: a study done by researchers at Colorado State University showed that weight training resulted in an elevated metabolic rate for up to 15 hours following the workout, with trainees averaging 51 extra calories burned at rest due to the oxidation of bodyfat. This was compared with a cycling group that burned 27 calories after leaving the gym. If you train four times per week, this adds up to more than 10,000 calories expended per year watching reruns of Only Fools and Horses or practising your bluffing skills in online poker games. Add to that the cardiovascular pace of the routine and the resulting rise in metabolism from the increased total muscle recruitment and you have yourself a dandy of a gut-buster — no cardio required. But you'll have to pay for it. "If you haven't trained in high rep ranges like the ones listed here, you're going to be hurting, especially if your reps are explosive in nature," warns David Sandler, director of StrengthPro, Inc. and assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University. "Once you start getting into the kind of explosive, non-stop reps that this programme suggests, it's a whole new world." The key to this routine is finding the right balance of volume and resistance. You'll naturally want to load up the bar, but in order to allow the volume and exercise selections to blend together and work to your advantage, you must choose your weights wisely by following our progressive strategy. Speed skaters, cyclists, sprinters — what do all of these athletes have in common? If you guessed gargantuan quads and bodyfat low enough to draw the envy of a Hollywood socialite, pass "Go" and collect your £200. You've stumbled upon an axiom that'll fuel you through the next six weeks: volume works. These athletes don't adhere to the typical gym schedule or routine. They practise their sport day in and day out, with each workout harder than the one that preceded it. But rather than deteriorating into waiflike dimensions, their legs respond by filling out into awe-inspiring jean-shredders. And the very nature of their routines — non-stop and punishing — strips away bodyfat faster than they can say "gold medal". It's the cumulative effect of that daily grind that has these athletes tight and vascular. For them, however, that volume is just a means to an end, something that comes with the job. For you, it's a ticket to a lean, muscled physique in less time. "High volume will always burn more calories, full stop," notes Sandler. Training in higher rep ranges with short rest periods also results in higher levels of growth hormone and an increase in blood vessels, which gets more nutrients to working muscles. DESTINATION: LEANVILLE To fully wrap your brain around the concept of lifting to get lean, consider some of its finer points: >> Exercise Selection When you study the routine, you'll notice there are no direct exercises for triceps or biceps. That's because these muscles get all the work they need from helping execute the compound moves. Each of these exercises was selected because of its overall muscle recruitment and degree of difficulty. You know how deadlifts leave you gasping for breath and limping to your next exercise? That's going to be your life for the course of this programme. To quote Billy Bob Thornton in Armageddon: "Basically, the worst parts of the Bible." >> Frequency Attack this 10-exercise circuit every other day, doing the entire circuit three times. If three circuits are too tough, try going through twice, but keep to an every-other-day schedule and work towards a three-circuit day. Remember, the cumlative effect here is going to be a big ally, so don't shoot yourself in the foot by missing workouts or sets. >> Order Alternate upper and lower bodyparts to minimise muscle-specific fatigue and keep your preworkout protein shake from ending up on the gym floor. Since you perform the exercises in quick succession, try to secure a bench and a power rack at which you can complete most of your routine instead of scrambling around the gym for your entire workout. >> Rep Speed Keep your reps explosive. Control the movement on the eccentric (negative) portion, but be certain to powerfully drive the weight on the concentric (positive) part of every rep, with little rest at the top of each. Don't watch the grass grow or contemplate the latest news; rather, stay focused and move like a piston going up and down. >> Barbells vs. Dumbbells The first workout each week will be barbell-centred. On your next trip to the gym, switch to dumbbells. The extra balance required by dumbbells helps recruit even more stabiliser muscles for an added calorie burn, and it prevents you from getting bored during the programme. >> Intensity Begin the first week with a weight that's 30% of your 10-rep max (10RM). Throughout the programme, continuously progress to a higher percentage of your 10RM for that particular lift and stay at that weight for the recommended time period (see "The 6-Week Programme" table). If you can't complete the stated reps or sets, adjust the weight accordingly. If you feel during or after the workout that you chose a weight that was too light, simply modify on each following day, keeping close track of your selected weights to ensure week-by-week progress and overload. >> Rest Periods Rest only as long as it takes to set up and get into the next exercise — this should not exceed 30 seconds. "If you take long rests in between exercises, you lower the routine's metabolic effect and burn fewer calories," explains Jim Stoppani, m&f senior science editor. M&F