World Education

Do you have a goal to gain more muscle and burn more fat to get those abs to show through, but the results are not quite coming as you like? This is quite ok especially if you haven’t been at it all that long. You need to experiment and try different things until something seems to work better. If you feel like you aren’t quite getting the results you are looking for, you should change your strategy or tweak your current one.

If you think your diet is good, but the flab isn’t quite coming off of your belly at all, or not quick enough, you might want to change the focus of your workout. Typically people always focus too much on cardio to burn fat. Remember that during cardio your body does use more energy and will burn fat, but your metabolism cranks back down the very second you step off of the treadmill. If this is you, and you are still having a little bit of a hard time trimming down, I would recommend cutting down the cardio to 2 to maybe 3 times per week. I would have more weight training days than cardio. Also, and this is the most important part, when it comes to weight training, focus only on large muscle group exercises. Remember, you are trying to ramp up your resting metabolism and you want to perform weight training exercises that will benefit the large muscle groups that burn more energy. Do not stand in the mirror and do bicep curls or waste your time with calf raises or any exercise that involves a cable and pulley. For example, you might want to lift 4 days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Mondays and Thursdays, you might want to do perform chest and quad exercises. Mondays would be the bench press and the incline bench press for the chest, and the hack squat machine for the legs. Thursdays would be flat bench dumbbell presses, and then sitting presses for the shoulders. For legs, lunges with dumbbells and the leg extension machine would be great exercises. Tuesdays and Fridays you can perform exercises that target your lat muscles and shoulders. You could also mix in some crunches for abs if you like. These are all exercises that target large muscle groups. Your small muscle groups will get a workout anyhow when doing these. Unless you are a bodybuilder with hours to spare every day, don’t bother with the small isolated types of exercises such as bicep curls. Our goal here is to burn fat, increase hormonal output, and enhance the larger muscle groups so that your resting metabolism increases.

Reduce Your Cardio

On cardio days, try doing something different other than the treadmill for once. I definitely recommend doing the stairclimber. It places more stress on the quad muscles of the legs which uses more energy, and it builds better leg strength as well. And it is one heck of a workout that will definitely have you covered in sweat after a good 20 minutes.

My Prescription 

So my prescription for ab muscles is to reduce the cardio workouts to 2 or 3 days per week, and lift weights 4 days per week only focusing on large muscle group exercises. Try the best you can to eat 5 or even 6 small meals per day getting a good mix of protein and slow digesting carbohydrates from whole grain sources. Definitely buy a good whey protein powder and mix up a protein smoothie once per day. Refer to my recipes page for a good recipe on a protein smoothie.  Get your protein preferably within 30 minutes of finishing a workout, and if you can, within 10 minutes of finishing your workout. Your body is so sensitive, that it has been scientifically proven through experiments that the body utilizes protein much better immediately after a workout. After a workout, your body has a very small brief window of time for protein utilization. So if you wait 2 hours after a workout to ingest protein, it’s almost useless. You want the protein to increase muscle definition. With added definition, you will not only look better, but you will also burn more energy at rest.

Quicker Weight Training Sessions

If the weight training isn’t your favorite thing, try to keep it within 30 minutes. Use a much lighter weight than you normally would, perform 4 sets per exercise, and rest for only 30 seconds in between sets. You’ll find that you will definitely get more muscle burn and a better workout with only 30 second rests in between sets even though the weight is lighter. Don’t worry about pyramiding your weights. Keep the weight the same on each set since it is light weight anyhow. The next week, try adding 10 more pounds and then perform your 4 sets of 10 reps. See how it feels. Going with lighter weight and 30 second rests will allow your workouts to go much quicker. They will be finished within 30 minutes and you should feel exhausted with a good muscle pump. This method is good for tearing your body back down and rebuilding if you have hit a plateau in your weight lifting where you cannot get any stronger. For example, if your max bench press is 225 for only a few reps and you cannot get past it, try going all the way back down to about 150 lbs the next time you do the bench press. Do it for 4 sets, 10 reps, 30 second rests. Do this on a Monday, and then do light dumbbell presses on Friday. But only bench press once per week. The next Monday, move up to 160 lbs. Keep going up each week, increasing the amount of rest time in between sets and maybe even reduce reps. Within 10 weeks you just might break through your 225 plateau and be able to perform 10 reps with it.

Always Aim At Gaining Strength

Try and look for improvements in your strength each week. This turns it into a game for yourself. Within time you’ll notice a change in your body. The most important thing is that you do not want to go to the gym and go through the motions. A lot of people do this, and even though they might be there for 2 hours, the person that has a good plan and intensity will get a better workout in 30 minutes than the person that spent 2 hours did. And make sure your diet is always right. If it isn’t, you’ll just be throwing away your workouts. Make each workout count by eating the right things every day. Working out is no good without a diet, and a diet is no good without working out.  Make your workouts count so that you can get in the gym and then get out.  You will burn out quickly if you stay in the gym 2 hours each day.  Things don’t happen overnight.  It takes months to accomplish significant changes.

Categories: Fitness