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In Part I of this series I talked about how to take the appropriate photos to ensure a complete and objective physique assessment.  In Part II the main focus was on evaluating those photos and determining whether you should be proceeding with a fat loss or muscle gain focus.

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Today I am going to highlight in the simplest form possible what I would do with a client to bring up their lagging body parts in either a fat loss scenario (waist more than 2 inches above the ideal discussed in part II) or in a scenario where muscle gain is the priority (waist less than two inches above ideal).

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Fat Loss Programming

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Nutrition

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While my complete thoughts on fat loss are far beyond the scope of this article, I feel that the best way to create fat loss is to create a calorie deficit of 500-1000 calories per day primarily achieved with diet.  How you do this is up to you.  You can eat multiple meals per day or you can fast for a couple days per week, but this is the single most important element of body fat reduction and you MUST have a net calorie deficit over time to get lean.

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And just to be clear research has demonstrated that exercise is a very poor method for creating long term weight loss when combined with an already effective diet.  You CAN create a calorie deficit with exercise, but diet is numero uno.

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Training

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It has also been demonstrated in research that resistance exercise spares muscle while in a calorie deficit.   For this reason, this is where I feel exercise is most important when trying to lose fat.  With my clients I use diet to create a calorie deficit and exercise to spare muscle mass.

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I do use some cardiovasular exercise because of its preferential effects on visceral fat (the fat around your organs) thus reducing the waistline, but I don’t care whether you use intervals or steady state because I’m not convinced that one is vastly superior to the other at this point. 

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Truth be told, I haven’t seen that working to bring up lagging muscle groups while dieting is nearly as effective of doing it while in a calorie surplus, but I still figure it is worth some effort.  However, it is most important to remember that reducing your waist measurement is going to have the greatest effect at improving your physique at this point so this is really the primary concern.

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 The main goal for me with resistance training while in a calorie deficit, is to make sure every muscle group is hit at least once per week as some research has shown the muscle groups not trained during a calorie deficit are prone to atrophy (i.e., shrinking like a penis in a cold pool).

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Note: Don’t ask me for the reference here.  I forget it.  Sorry.

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The simple keys here are to create a moderate calorie deficit (eat less) and hit each muscle group with a minimum of 30 total repetitions per week to ensure maintenance of muscle mass. 

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Adding in a few more total repetitions (up to 60 per week) for the lagging muscle groups may offer some further improvement in appearance, but the big focus here is reducing the waist to shoulder ratio. 

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Generally I recommend no more than 3 workouts per week when dieting as I feel that recovery is not as good as when in a caloric surplus.  The main purpose of exercise is muscle maintenance at this point and the time off from the gym would probably be better spent in the kitchen.

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Muscle Growth Programming

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If you’re a little confused to see that I’m advocating muscle growth despite what I said in the first article about a limit to muscular size I totally understand.  However, remember that I didn’t say that muscle mass stops.  Advanced trainees can still build muscle, but what I am advocating is that we must accept that it will be much slower and that we should put our efforts at further development where they are most needed instead of distributing them randomly about the body with no concern for aesthetic balance.

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In short, train what is weak.  Maintain what is not.

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Nutrition

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In terms of nutrition for muscle growth and development, I feel that a small calorie surplus is needed.  Since keeping the waist measure in check is a goal, the “just eat everything and get hyooge” mentality does not apply at this stage.  I feel that a more moderate calorie surplus of 200-300 calories per day is sufficient.

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Remember that an advanced trainee probably won’t gain more than 5-6 pounds of muscle per year (if that) so if you are gaining weight faster than that and you’re not coming off of a layoff it is probably fat.  Check your waist at least every two weeks and if it has exceeded the previously discussed two inch window above your ideal you need to moderately reduce your calories until it is back where it should be.

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Training

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In terms of training, I feel that a calorie surplus allows for better training and recovery so as many as 4-5 workouts per week are possible.  I also tend to believe the notion that there are three mechanisms for muscle hypertrophy based on the most current research.  They are load, fatigue, and damage.

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Load is the result of handling weights that are greater than 65% of your one rep max.   As an advanced trainee, I tend to focus more towards 85% or greater.

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Metabolic fatigue is a result of repetitive stimulus at a lower load (as high as 25 reps per set).  This can stimulate sarcoplasmic (“non-functional”) hypertrophy to a greater extent, but it works just fine for adding size where we need it.

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Damage is the result of obtaining enough total volume from the number of sets and repetitions done to achieve  both the load and metabolic fatigue stimuli above.

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With my clients I try to aim for 30-60 total repetitions for the two most lagging muscle group two times per week including elements of each mechanism of muscle growth.  Every other muscle group gets the minimum 30-60 repetitions once per week to maintain the current size.  If one muscle is disproportionately large, it can even get less volume than this.

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Generally speaking, the upper and lower body split below has worked well for most natural trainees I’ve worked with to allow adequate recovery and repeated exposure for lagging muscle groups.

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Monday:  Upper Body

Tuesday: Lower Body

Wednesday:  Off

Thursday:  Upper Body

Friday:  Lower Body

Saturday:  Off

Sunday:  Off

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Bring it All Together

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All in all, the physique assessment strategy is pretty simple.  You need to snap some photos, evaluate your physique, summarize your results, measure your waist, prioritize your goals, and then create a plan of action.  Whether you use my methods for creating the desired result or not is irrelevant as there are certainly many paths to the same place.  I think that the real secret is to know where you’re going.

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What do you think?

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Let’s face facts for a second here.  The vast majority of people that lift weights do so for primarily aesthetic reasons.  Sure, many of us want to be stronger, faster, and healthier.  And there are certainly those who train exclusively to improve their sports performance, but in the end I’d be willing to bet that training to simply look better is the single biggest motivation for the average trainee.

So why do many strength coaches crap all over bodybuilding?  I could speculate that it has something to do with the rampant steroid use among high level competitors or the fact that some of them have more oil in their muscles than I do in my car.  Or it could be the mental image of a bunch of oiled up, tanned, men and women posing on a stage in their bathing suits.  I can’t really say for sure.

But what about people who aren’t interested in competing?  What about those who are purely interested in gaining the leanest, most muscular physique possible within their own biomechanical and physiologial framework while keeping an eye on structural balance and joint health?  Is bodybuilding training really so bad for the body that we need to crap all over their methods?

I guess the question I’m really asking is whether it is possible to create a lean and exceptionally muscular physique without sacrificing structural balance and joint health.

And in line with that question, is there room for exercises that are deemed my many coaches as unfriendly for the joints (such as the guillotine bench press) or useless (direct arm training)?

As with everything, I think it comes down to assessment.  If you’ve read my blog you’re probably aware that I am a big fan of movement based testing with such as Assess and Correct, but beyond that I feel that it is really important to use the appropriate assessments to inform your decisions for each individual goal.

For dealing with obesity I use the Edmonton Obesity Staging System, for performance I look at the demands of the sport, and when training for aesthetics I like to do a true visual assessment to direct training.  I should note here that I don’t care much for body fat testing in leaner individuals as this is less important than the physical appearance changes.  I could care less what the number says if a client’s appearance doesn’t reflect it.

Here is a sample of a simple client assessment I use for evaluating a physique in which I can comment on muscle size or relative proportion:

- Upper traps:
- Front delts:
- Lateral delts:
- Rear delts:
- Biceps:
- Tricep long head:
- Tricep lateral head:
- Forearms
- Lower chest:
- Upper chest
- Upper back width:
- Upper back thickness:
- Lower/Mid back erectors:
- Abdominals:
- Obliques:
- Quads:
- Glutes:
- Hamstrings:
- Calves:
 
Highlights:
 
Needs Work:

General Impression & Plan:

Combining this with the movement based screen I should now know what muscles need to be worked (yes, I sometimes work muscles not movements…I know…blasphemy) and which movements should be contraindicated for that person.  If arm training is warranted, I’ll do arm training because I’m not in the business of sticking to a “training arms is for wussies” paradigm because it is popular.  I’m in the business of getting results.

Would I use the guillotine bench press, sissy squats, or upright rows?  Probably not.  But this is primarily because these are not the most effective movements in the first place and I can find exercises to hit the same muscle groups with less risk.

Are joint health and building a muscular physique mutually exclusive?  I would have to say no.  Do you agree?  Feel free to share your thoughts below!

And thanks to my blog reader Rob for putting the idea for this post in my head.  I hope I answered your question.