Eating
the same damn food day-in and day-out isn't a lifestyle that most
people can maintain. Instead, it promotes eventual cheating on your
diet. Not to mention increasing your risk of developing food allergies.

Mix up your food choices before you wind up like this guy. Having
six pack abs for two weeks is cool, but having them for two decades
makes you a stud. A greater variety in your diet makes it less likely
that you'll get sick of what you're eating. Thus, leading to greater
dietary compliance, and to long-term maintenance of a killer physique.

Parameters for Weight Training
Strength: Four to six reps with two minute rest periods.
Hypertrophy: Eight to twelve reps with 60 second rest periods.
Metabolic work: Twelve to fifteen (plus) reps with less than 60 second rest periods. If your goal is strength, do three to four sets in the strength zone, with maybe one set of hypertrophy or metabolic work. If your goal is hypertrophy, do three to four sets of hypertrophy work and one of the others in each workout. You can train your core in about two sets of each.

Loading and Progressions: Weight Training Try
to increase your loads each week. There's no need to "train to failure"
but doing a set of six reps with a weight that you can hit twelve with
won't do much. Choose a weight that takes you into that "close to
failure" zone.

Progressions Most people progress in their weight training using a single variable — load lifted.


There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but eventually you'll reach
a ceiling. You simply can't add any more weight to an exercise.
Everybody gets stuck at some point. There are a few other methods of progression that can, and should be, rotated on a regular basis.


There are various ways to do this. In a typical training program we
have exercise order, exercise selection, sets, reps, tempo, rest
period, and load. Most trainees experiment with two to three of these
at the most.

Sample Full-Body Workout
A1) Squats: 3 sets of 6 reps with 90 seconds rest using 200 pounds.
A2) Dumbbell bench press: 3 sets of 6 reps with 90 seconds rest using 50 pounds.
Total Volume: 3,600 pounds squatted + 1,800 pounds pressed = 5,400 pounds total. Assuming each set takes a minute, the workout is done in 15 minutes. Obviously
we can progress the loading each week. Or we could add an additional
rep each workout. Or maybe an additional set. Perhaps we cut the rest
period, and with the additional time, we can add extra exercises or
back-off sets.

Method One: Adding Reps
A1) Squats: 3 sets of 7 reps with 90 seconds rest using 200 pounds.
A2) Dumbbell bench press: 3 sets of 7 reps with 90 seconds rest using 50 pounds. Total Volume: 4,200 pounds squatted + 2,100 pounds pressed = 6,300 pounds total.

Method Two: Adding Sets
A1) Squats: 4 sets of 6 reps with 90 seconds rest using 200 pounds.
A2) Dumbbell bench press: 4 sets of 6 reps with 90 seconds rest using 50 pounds. Total Volume: 4,800 pounds squatted + 2,400 pounds pressed = 7,200 pounds total.

Method Three: Reducing the Rest Period
A1) Squats: 3 sets of 6 reps with 75 seconds rest using 200 pounds.
A2) Dumbbell bench press: 3 sets of 6 reps with 75 seconds rest using 50 pounds. Total Volume: 3,600 pounds squatted + 1,800 pounds pressed = 5,400 pounds total. Assuming each set takes a minute, the workout is done in 13.5 minutes.

Putting Them to Use
Week one: Perform the workout as described.
Week two: Increase the reps on each set by one.
Week three: Maintain the reps and increase the sets.
Week four: Reduce the rest period by 15 seconds. This
will take us from a starting volume of 5,400 pounds in 15 minutes, to a
total volume of 8,400 pounds in 18 minutes. The training density is
increased, but we're doing two extra sets. That's 55% more work in only
three more minutes, or over a hundred pounds additional work per minute
spent training.
Now there's a hundred pounds I'd like to pick up. This
is a huge increase in total work done without having to add any extra
weight to the bar. So even if you're in a situation where your home gym
doesn't have any extra weight, you can still make great progress. You
haven't even changed exercise order, exercise selection, rep tempo, or
load. Yet you're still managing to progress.

So hopefully
you can see the benefits to implementing different methods of
progression rather than just increasing the load all of the time. The
key to progression is overload and there are various ways of doing that. Just make sure you're progressing.

Loading and Progressions: Nutrition At
the most basic level, you need to be in a caloric deficient to lose fat
and a caloric surplus to gain muscle. The extent of these deficits or
surpluses is very individual but there are some general guidelines. If
you're looking to pack some beef onto your frame, then increase your
caloric intake every two weeks by 300 to 500 calories. It's important
to consider your body type. Are you a skinny bastard? If so, then
you're going to want to stick to the higher side of that calorie range.
If you're a little soft in the belly, then you'll want to stick to the
lower end. And if you're on the heavy side, then you're actually better off losing the belly before
you start your quest to be the next Jay Cutler. This is because your
insulin sensitivity will be better when your gut is gone, allowing for
you to put on more muscle and less fat. On
the fat loss side of things, it's best if you don't reduce your
calories too fast. Instead use exercise to create the bulk of your
caloric deficit. This will help keep your metabolism up as long as
possible while you're dieting. Initially you want to shoot
for a 500 calorie deficit. Once you've maxed out the amount of exercise
you can do and your fat loss has reached a plateau, start reducing your
calories. First cut the starchy carbs, then total carbs, then all
macronutrients equally.

Energy System Work Again,
three times per week seems to cause the fastest adaptations. Other than
using cardio or other activities as plain old "calorie burners,"
additional work doesn't seem to result in a faster adaptation.
Competitive endurance athletes may need more training sessions, but for
the average fitness enthusiast looking to increase their fitness and
look better, three times is pretty solid. As
far as progression goes, just try to cover more distance or burn more
calories in the same time frame. A lot of trainees just switch off when
it comes to cardio work. Think of the people you see reading a magazine
when they should be busting their ass. You have to progressively
challenge yourself! Sequence this either directly after your weight training sessions or in a separate session altogether.

The Fantastic Four of Supplements Creatine:
You don't need any sexy, designer creatine formulations. Micronized
creatine may not be pH buffered, modified with ester groups, or bound
to arginine alpha ketoglutarate. But damnit, it works! Fish Oil: Flameout
prevents inflammation, boosts your fat burning machinery, and keeps you
the healthiest meat head in your gym. Take it. Every day. Workout Nutrition:
Dr. John Berardi taught us all about post-workout nutrition in his
"Solving the Post-Workout Puzzle" series. You can read part one here and then wash it down with part two. David Barr put Surge to the test in The Naked Truth, an article about post-workout drinks. Protein Powder:
A common complaint from clients is that they have trouble getting
enough protein in during the day. This is where protein powder comes
in. A quality protein powder like Metabolic Drive
will give you a blend of fast and slow absorbing proteins that are easy
on your gut. Protein powder should be used daily to augment your
protein needs.

The Wrap Up The
principles that we've outlined in this article definitely won't be
considered sexy, and you're probably thinking, "This shit is simple."
But guess what? I bet you're not applying all of these basic
principles. Look at your training program. Look at your nutrition plan.
Are you consistently applying all of the things we've outlined? If not,
stop complaining and make it happen.

About the Authors
Alwyn
Cosgrove is one of the country's most popular fitness coaches, writers,
and speakers on the lecture circuit. For more of Alwyn's material,
check out his site.
Mike
Roussell is a sports nutritionist and doctoral candidate in Nutritional
Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. For more information about
Mike check him out on the 'net. Be sure to drop by here to get his free 30 Physique Transformation eCourse and the free Naked Nutrition Newsletter.


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