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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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For those who don’t know, Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar during which practicing Muslims typically fast from dawn until sunset.  Absolutely no food or drink is consumed during this time.  This year I have a client who is observing Ramadan which means that he’ll be following this fast daily for an entire month.  And since Ramadan falls in the summer this year, the days without food and water can be longer than they would be in the shorter, darker winter months.

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I figured that since I’ve had to devise a plan to work with this client to improve his body composition during this time, I’d share the general layout with you so you can see what my thought process looks like in this instance.

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Note that most of my nutrition recommendations are rule based and I don’t typically ask clients to count calories or macronutrients very often unless it is warranted by the situation (i.e., getting extremely lean).  Since this client is a relative novice, adjustments are usually primarily based on portions and food selections to maximize fat loss and spare as much muscle as possible.  Generally speaking, it would be fair to say that I’m aiming for at 1 gram of protein per pound of target weight, but this is emphasized by food choices and portions instead of having him count grams.

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Wake 4:30 AM – Meal containing protein, starchy carbs, fruit and/or vegetable

Target = 60-65 grams of protein

Scrambled egg omlete with peppers, onions

Cottage Cheese with mixed berries

Two slices whole grain toast

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Training 6:30PM – Whole Body Workout

Day 1

Foam rolling, mobility work, activation/motor control exercises

A1: Horizontal Pull #1 (1 x 6-8 warm up, 3 x 10)

A2: Horizontal Push #1 (1 x 6-8 warm up, 3 x 10).

B1: Horizontal Pull #2 (3 x 10)

B2: Horizontal Push #2 (3 x 10)

C1: Lower Body Single Leg Quad Dominant (4 x 10)

C2: Anterior Core Progression - Plank Variation (4 x As long as possible to 1 min max).

Post workout stretching

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Day 2

Foam rolling, mobility work, activation/motor control exercises

A1: Vertical Pull #1 (1 x 6-8 warm up, 3 x 10)

A2: Vertical Push #1 (1 x 6-8 warm up, 3 x 10).

B1: Vertical Pull #2 (3 x 10)

B2: Vertical Push #2 (3 x 10)

C1: Lower Body Single Leg Hip Dominant (Single Leg) (4 x 10)

C2: Lateral/Rotational Core Progression - Side Plank or Pallof Press Variation (4 x As long as possible to 30 second max).

Post workout stretching

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Dinner 8:30 PM – Meal containing protein, starchy carbs, fruit and/or vegetable

Target = 60-65 grams of protein

Meat, rice, salad  (Actual foods subject to cultural habits.  Selections and portions are instructed.)

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Late Meal – Midnight – Protein shake & fruit/vegetable

Target = 60-65 grams of protein

Milk, protein powder, banana

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A few things worth noting….

There is no cardio/conditioning/energy systems work in these workouts because my client is not only fasting without food, but also without water during this time.  Ideally we would meet to train after his dinner, but neither of our schedules allow for this.  My primary goal with training is to spare lean mass during the fast.

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You’ll note that all leg training is unilateral as well.  This is in part because bilateral lifts were too taxing when we tried them early in the fast and also because he lacks the requisite mobility to adequately perform squatting or deadlift patterns.  Given that we’ve had a lot of time to work on hip mobility during the fast and practice the hip hinge I assume he’ll be able to kill these movements next month when the fast has ended.

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Nutritionally, I’m obviously aiming to keep protein intake to levels that will sustain lean mass and I’m not afraid to put in carbohydrates as they’ll obviously be used post-training.  On non-training days I do emphasize that he decrease, but not eliminate, the starchy carb portion at the dinner meal.

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All in all, I don’t think it is rocket science, but I figured I’d just throw it out there so you can check it out.

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What do you think?  Would you do it differently?  Leave a comment and let me know.

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As many of you may know, I believe that reading for an hour per day is paramount if you hope to become a leader in any field.  Fitness and nutrition are no different.  Here are a few things to get you started for today.

Fasting for Fat Loss?

If you’ve ever heard that going without food for a long time results in some sort of “starvation response” or “severe muscle loss” you’re going to want to check out these pics on Martin Berkhan’s blog.  Definitely not what you’d expect to see of someone who fasts for up to 16 hours per day.

Martin is a huge source of knowledge when it comes to intermittent fasting and will be part of the free audio interview series coming soon.  Spend a little time on his blog and soak up some knowledge.

Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

In this New York Times article, Dr Stuart McGill discusses the transversus abdominis and core training in general.  Also included is a short video where recommended exercises are show.  Worth a quick read.  Oh yeah, Dr McGill is also part of the audio interview series.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Enjoy the reading and have a great week!