Can
you lose fat and gain muscle at the same time? Is cardio necessary if
you want to get really shredded? Can manipulating the body’s natural
growth-hormone levels through lactic-acid training be the answer we’ve
all been looking for? Read the following article by Don Alessi and
decide for yourself. Better yet, try the program and let us know how it
works for you.
It happens every damned time, doesn’t it?
Like a fat chick in front of a Häagen-Dazs, your progress comes to a
screeching halt the last two weeks of your diet. You try not to
squander hard-earned muscle mass and strength, but you gotta’ make
weight. What do you do? Add cardio? Increase exercise volume? E-mail
your ‘roid dealer? Mental stress, nutrient restriction and
aerobic exercise drive your cortisol levels sky high. If you’re not
careful, you’ll end up a 98-pound poster boy for the Mr. Punyverse
competition and be so weak in the gym that even the Body-for-Lifers
make fun of your poundages. But it doesn’t have to be that way, not if
you apply the recent info we have on how your body stores fat and give
lactic acid training a shot.
Regional Adiposity: A Local PhenomenonMen
have a unique hierarchy of fat mobilization. Basically, men shed fat
from the inside out. Studies with male Rangers after prolonged energy
deficit and exercise showed regional fat changes from greatest to least
as follows: Abdomen > Trunk > Arms > Legs That
means men lose fat first in the abdomen and the trunk, and lose fat
last in the arms and legs. This is what I mean by losing fat from the
"inside out." Anyone that’s been around the iron game has observed this
in novice bodybuilders during contest preparation. The athlete leans
out to 10% body fat using a progressively lower caloric intake and then
gets stuck. The legs, triceps, and lower abs are still thick.
The usual marathon aerobic sessions in combo with a starvation diet
sucks the gas right out of the mass. I’ve witnessed men reduce 18-inch
cannons to 15-inch peashooters in order to see a glimpse of leg
definition. There must be a better way… and there is!A better
way would be to use a local fat-loss strategy, targeting the
extremities (arms and legs) first and the torso last. But is that
possible? Yes! Training programs which release growth hormone (GH) are
thought to be most effective at doing just that. Before I get into the
program, let’s examine why this is true.
Aerobics are a Man-EaterRemember
that fat mass is the enemy, not body mass or scale weight. Body-fat
percentage is a factor of fat-free mass (water, muscle, bone, organs
and connective tissue) and fat mass. Gaining lean mass while shedding
fat mass is the fastest means to altering this percentage in your
favor. Let’s examine the two obvious training choices: aerobic
endurance training (marathon running) and anaerobic resistance training
(bodybuilding). Aerobic endurance training will increase
calories burned, increase oxygen utilization, and lower total body mass
(scale weight). However, the process isn’t substrate specific, meaning
your body will just as readily burn lean mass as it would fat mass.
Paradoxically, it appears that fat in the trunk is more readily used as
the fat source, which means that aerobic exercise doesn’t even target
the problematic fat! Over time there’s an increased catabolic
response and a lowered anabolic response in aerobic endurance training.
This is thought to be the reason for muscle-protein breakdown
(catabolism) and thus the reduction in muscular strength and power over
time. The challenge with aerobic conditioning is that it creates a
progressively catabolic environment, combusting both lean mass and fat
mass in order to fuel energy demands. (See Table 1 below.)What
about the argument that aerobic training uses more fat as its fuel
source than does weight training? This is true, but there’s more to the
story. Muscle damage induced by running and/or jogging doesn’t increase
resting metabolic rate (RMR) beyond 24 hours. Data suggests however,
that exercise with a significantly stronger eccentric component (i.e.
resistance exercise) is necessary to evoke large amounts of muscle
damage so that energy required for repair and synthesis may prolong
post-exercise RMR. The energetic cost of this remodeling
(anabolism) is enormous, possibly accounting for up to 20% or 600
calories in the average musclehead. Other studies have proposed that
there may be even greater energy utilization from the muscle damage
that weight training induces. This may account for the increased RMR
for up to 72 hours post-workout. Besides the technical stuff,
the practical side of the aerobic thing is that it’s boring, time
intensive and it wears on your joints, especially if you’re a
heavyweight. Here’s a table to help you see the differences between
weight training and aerobic endurance training: Adaptations over Time of Resistance Training
Vs. Aerobic Endurance Training Resistance Training Aerobic Endurance Training Testosterone increases Testosterone decreases Growth hormone increases Growth hormone — unchanged Cortisol decreases Cortisol increases Muscle strength increases Muscle strength decreases Muscle endurance increases Muscle endurance increases Muscle fiber size increases Muscle fiber size — unchanged Bone density increases Bone density — unchanged % bodyfat decreases % bodyfat — slight decrease Fat-free mass increases Fat-free mass —unchanged Volume of oxygen — slight increase Volume of oxygen increases Judging by this info, it’s pretty obvious which type of training is better for the bodybuilder.
Weight Training: The Anabolic Smart BombDue
to the anabolic effect, weight training preferentially retains or adds
lean mass at the expense of fat mass, even during caloric restriction.
In fact, the [url=javascript:void(0);]T-Dawg Diet[/url] (low-carb/high protein) actually adds to the anabolic effect of weight training.
We
know that weight training and supportive nutrition are better than
aerobic training for attaining that coveted single digit, body-fat
percentage, but what types of training progressions produce the biggest
bang? Before I answer, indulge me a bit.
Serum
anabolic hormones during prolonged weight training (six months)
increase in direct proportion to strength gains. These results suggest
the importance of the balance between androgenic-anabolic activity
(i.e. Testosterone and growth hormone) and the catabolic hormone
cortisol.
The best news is that there’s a direct
relationship between strength gains and Testosterone production even in
elite strength athletes. Maximum Testosterone output is generated with
multiple-joint lifts (deadlifts, power cleans, squats) performed at a
high percentage of maximum (85 to 95%) and at a high volume (6 to 12
sets). Traditional powerlifting programs are well suited for greater
Testosterone release (i.e. 8-12 sets of 2-5 reps, 3-6 minutes recovery).
The
natural progression of training implies that greater strength is
realized and increased tension time is placed on the muscle fibers.
This triggers a second anabolic cascade of events. The muscle fibers
increase in a cross-sectional area and the quantity of muscle
contractile proteins starts to build (hypertrophy). The increase in
muscle fiber hypertrophy is thought to occur by a remodeling of protein
within the cell and an increase in the size and number of muscle cells.
Exercise scientists have noted that these dramatic muscle changes
accompany growth hormone secretion (GH). And maximum GH levels are
augmented directly through blood-lactate increases.
In
order to elicit GH production, sets of 8 to12 RM — along with short
rest intervals of one minute or less — are best. Exercise selection
must also include multiple joint compound movements that emphasize the
leg muscles with a slow concentric (lifting) component. This anabolic
condition is the foundation for many of the effective training programs
such as the "10 x 10" method or German Volume Training popularized by
Charles Poliquin.
To summarize, weight training
produces a perpetual anabolic environment, increases calories burned,
and leaves time to pursue leisure activities like re-renting Pumping Iron for the tenth time.

Lactic Acid Interval Training
With
this new understanding and application of GH/lactic acid training, you
can soon experience a dramatically lowered body-fat level. But in some
cases this still won’t be enough; you’ll need to supplement your
lactic-acid weight training with lactic-acid interval training.
If you’re in a ballistic sport such as martial arts or boxing, then
sparring each afternoon can be considered your interval workout. If
not, a rowing ergometer or a simple jump rope will work.
How
do you successfully use all this jargon for massive fat loss and
explosive muscle gains? The following is a sample progression that
forces GH to flood the muscle cells via the stimulation of blood
lactate. By the way, I employed this same progression to cut 60 fat
pounds off an aspiring Olympic athlete in just under twenty weeks.
This
training has been nicknamed "death circuit" and "projectile speed
training" by those who’ve survived it. This is because blood lactate
levels rise to 20 mmol/l. You may want a partner to manually force you
through all the prescribed sets — or help you clean up!

WEEK ONE
(Day 1 and 2 are to be repeated twice per week)

Day 1 A1)* Chin-ups, supinated (palms facing you)
Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rep Speed: 3 seconds up (pull yourself up over a period of 3 seconds), 1 second down
Rest Interval: 0 seconds (after one set, move directly to the next exercise below) A2) Squat
Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rep Speed: 3 seconds up, 1 second down
Rest Interval: 0 seconds A3) Push-up
Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rep Speed: 3 seconds up, 1 second down
Rest Interval: 0 seconds A4) Deadlifts
Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Rep Speed: 3 seconds up, 1 second down
Rest Interval: 120 seconds

*
The A1-A4 designations mean you do one set of each exercise with no
rest in between. After the last exercise, in this case deadlifts,
you’ll rest for the prescribed amount of time and then repeat the whole
circuit two more times. After that, you’ll probably puke, and then you
can move to the "B" exercises.

B1) Hanging leg raises
Sets: 2
Reps: 10
Rep Speed: Hold 3 seconds at the top
Rest Interval: 0 seconds B2) Decline reverse crunch
Sets: 2
Reps: 10
Rep Speed: 3 seconds down, one second up
Rest Interval: 60 seconds