Fasted Cardio Eats Muscle, Plus 6 More Fat Loss Mistakes

by Christian Thibaudeau   

Here's what you need to know...

•  When most people attempt to lose fat, they use dumb diet and exercise strategies that make it impossible to preserve muscle, which makes them look worse and gain all the fat they lose right back, plus more.

•  Fasted cardio works, if you're using performance-enhancing drugs to protect your muscle. Otherwise it stinks.

•  If you decide to add cardio, use low-intensity work for 45-60 minutes or high-intensity work lasting 15 minutes or less.

•  Dropping carbs during the peri-workout period is one of the worst things you can do.

"Cardio doesn't burn fat. Muscle burns fat." – John Meadows

Whenever people decide to lose body fat, they make the same dumb mistake: They adopt strategies that make it impossible to preserve their muscle mass. They lose weight, of course, but they lose just as much lean body mass as fat mass. They simply become smaller versions of their unaesthetic selves. They occupy less space, the scale tells them they weigh less, and their doctor might even congratulate them for being closer to their "healthy weight," but in reality they aren't looking any better, which kind of misses the point.

The number one priority when attempting to lose fat should be to keep the muscle you have. Losing muscle mass should not be acceptable. Losing muscle will make it harder to look good when losing the fat, but it'll also make it harder to lose fat since muscle tissue is metabolically responsible for most of the fat you'll lose. Ten pounds of muscle burns 50 calories per day even at rest, so if you lose 10 pounds of muscle, you will burn 50 fewer calories per day, or 350 fewer calories per week. That can make a significant difference in the long run.

Then there's the issue of insulin sensitivity. If you have more muscle, your insulin sensitivity will be slanted more towards accruing muscle mass. A larger muscle has more insulin receptors, which makes the muscles more insulin sensitive. That means you'll tend to store more of what you eat in the muscles instead of as body fat. Lastly, when you have more muscle mass, you can lift more weight and train harder, which increases the amount of calories you burn during a workout.

As you can see, it's not only important to maintain muscle when dieting, it's vital! Here are the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose fat.

1. Doing Fasted Cardio

Fasted cardio, most often done first thing in the morning, has been a popular approach in the world of bodybuilding for years... and it works, if you're using performance-enhancing drugs to protect your muscle mass. But for a natural trainee, fasted cardio is a very good way to eat away muscle mass. First of all, cortisol is at its highest in the morning (the cortisol spike is what allows you to have energy when you wake-up). If you don't eat, it will stay elevated and even increase. And if you do cardio work, which also tends to jack up cortisol output, you'll end up with a sky-high cortisol level, which is one of the best ways to lose muscle. Not only that, if it gets high enough you'll actually have a hard time bringing it down during the day (especially when in a caloric deficit). You end up spending the whole day in a muscle-wasting state!

I'm not pro-cardio or anti-cardio. Some people need it to get super lean, some don't. But I do think that people introduce it too soon in a fat loss phase (more on that later). However, if you decide to use cardio to get leaner, doing it fasted is a very bad idea. The absolute best way to get the greatest caloric expenditure over the whole day from cardio is to do your cardio in what's called the post-absorptive state. That means not in a fasted state, but not while you're still digesting either. It's a state where nutrients are available in the bloodstream and fat oxidation and caloric expenditure is at its greatest.

Look, if you do your cardio in a fasted state, the overall fat oxidation over a 24-hour period is significantly lower, probably because the metabolic rate doesn't increase or stay elevated, but also because the bout of activity causes more fatigue. You instinctively end up lowering your activity level throughout the day. There's also the issue of fasted cardio being potentially catabolic to muscle mass.

However, doing cardio after you just ate isn't better either. It'll lead to less fat oxidation and more glucose oxidation, not to mention that a lot of people have a hard time going hard on energy system work when they're still digesting a meal. The best option is to perform cardio when the body has fully absorbed nutrients prior to the activity. Unfortunately, this is really hard to do with solid food. It's almost impossible to know how fast solid food is digested. It will vary from person to person and even from time of day in the same person.

That's where a supplement like Mag-10® shines. It's readily absorbed, you can drink it and go do your cardio soon after without fear of it having negative effects, and you get all the benefits of doing cardio in a post-absorptive state. I find that Mag-10 pre-cardio also boosts metabolic rate and actually helps you get leaner even faster. One serving roughly 20 minutes prior to your cardio is all you need.

To synopsize, avoid fasted cardio when you're trying to lose fat and are not using an anabolic aid. The best way to do that is with a serving of Mag-10 in your body. That will preserve your muscle mass and will have the greatest impact on your fat loss over a 24-hour period.

2. Lifting Lighter Weights for More Reps

Maintaining or even gaining strength is the absolute best way to make sure that you're not losing muscle mass. If you keep pushing big weights, it'll force the body to keep its muscle since it will see it as necessary for survival. If you reduce the amount of weight you're lifting, the body will "assume" that you don't require as much strength and that it's okay to lower your muscle mass. Why? Because muscle uses a ton of calories every day and the body will see it as expendable.

Then there is the second part of the mistake: increasing reps. Often times this is done to "cut up" a muscle. Too bad that's impossible to do. You cannot get a muscle more cut. You can only make it bigger or smaller. To get more "cut" you need to get rid of the fat while keeping the muscle large and full. Some people aren't stupid enough to think that lifting lighter weights for more reps works, but they still perform higher reps simply to burn more calories and accelerate fat loss.

In my experience that's fine, provided that you did your heavy lifting already. However, if you overdo the reps, you can indirectly decrease your muscle mass by impairing recovery. When your caloric intake is reduced, your capacity to recover from training is already handicapped, so adding the burden of increased volume can lead to regression in both performance and muscle size. The moral of the story? You should do everything in your power to at least maintain your strength when dieting down, and this will not happen if you stop lifting heavy to focus on doing more pump work.

3. Doing Moderate Intensity, Steady State Cardio

If you decide to add cardio to your fat loss regiment, you have two options and both are at opposite ends of the spectrum. You can go low-intensity (walking) or high-intensity (sprints, intervals, etc.). It's a hormonal thing. Moderate intensity/steady state cardio – the type that most people are doing when trying to lose fat – will increase cortisol levels the most. The activity is just intense enough to stimulate the release of cortisol, and also long enough to elevate it significantly.

Low-intensity cardio, however, in the form of taking a one-hour walk in the park or something, will not be intense enough to stimulate much cortisol release. In fact it might actually lower cortisol levels by having a relaxing effect. High-intensity work, on the other hand, might lead to a lot of cortisol being produced, but the duration of the activity isn't usually long enough to lead to a large elevation.

My recommendation is either to use longer, low-intensity work (a relaxing pace at which you can sustain a conversation) for 45-60 minutes, or high-intensity work lasting 15 minutes or less. That's why I love loaded carries. Three to five minutes is all you need to get an amazing fat burning effect with basically zero negative impact on muscle mass. In fact, it can help you build some muscle!

4. Cutting and Doing Everything Right From the Start

Losing fat and changing your body is an emotional issue; we want that dream body and we want it right now! That mindset leads to our fourth mistake: starting out way too abruptly. I've seen people start their diet out with less than 50 grams of carbs and fat per day for a total of roughly 1200 calories. Add to that doing 90 minutes of cardio per day (sometimes 120 minutes spread into two daily sessions), doing circuit training in the gym, and using a powerful fat burner formula.

Great. But how long do you think someone can sustain that? More importantly, how long do you think it will take your body to adapt? My experience is that the body will adapt to that level of deprivation and activity level in 4 to 6 weeks and fat loss will come to a screeching halt... and that is if you can make it to 4-6 weeks! You'll feel depressed, have unbearable hunger pangs and zero energy to train, and basically stop enjoying life. And then there is the muscle loss from such an excessive approach.

So what happens when fat loss stalls with this approach? What can you do to get it started again? You have nothing left to cut from your diet, and unless you can afford to devote your whole agenda to training, you can't ramp up the activity any further (you won't have the energy anyway). You will basically be doomed. You'll still lose some fat, but progress will be so slow that there is no way you'll be able to handle it long enough to reach your goal.

Avoid being excessive from the start. Use the dietary and cardio strategy to allow you to lose fat at an acceptable rate and train to maintain or increase your strength. The more conservative you are while still getting good fat loss results, the more room you'll have to play with when fat loss slows down.

5. Increasing Training Volume and Doing More Exercises

When someone wants to get ripped he naturally tends to add exercises to his program. He does that because he believes that doing so will help him "carve" the muscle by working it from as many angles as possible. Well, you cannot carve, shape, or cut a muscle. You can only make it bigger or smaller. So right off the bat adding exercises will not work for the purpose of shaping or carving a muscle.

Can you make it bigger by adding more exercises? Sure, if you're in a caloric surplus, but when in a caloric deficit your body will have a hard time just maintaining the muscle mass it already has. So adding a significant amount of muscle will be very hard to do if you're a natural lifter. Since you won't be in a physical state conducive to building new muscle tissue, adding more exercises will only make you burn more fuel. And as I mentioned, this might actually make it harder to recover from your training, which isn't something we want when trying to preserve muscle mass.

Now, some people swear that adding exercises makes their muscles larger. This is more likely due to inflammation of the muscle tissue (which will naturally tend to increase when dieting since it's harder to recover), which can make the muscles feel and even look swollen. But that won't last long and it won't take much time to start losing your capacity to get a pump, and that's the first sign that you're about to start losing muscle. The idea is to focus on the big money lifts to maintain your strength. You correct muscle imbalances and lagging body parts when you're in a caloric surplus, not when you're dieting down.

6. Getting Rid of Workout Nutrition Carbs

This is probably the most common problem. I've even been guilty of it myself! For a long time carbs were the enemy of fat loss. That was especially true during the low-carb diet craze a few years back. Nobody was as carbophobic as I was. So I do understand the impulse to suddenly stop taking in peri-workout carbs (before, during and post-workout) when dieting down.

Listen, a proper peri-workout formula like Plazma™ that contains fast acting di- and tri- peptides and functional carbs is your absolute best insurance policy when it comes to preserving (or even increasing) muscle mass when dieting down, so dropping carbs is one of the worst things you can do. If anything you should increase your peri-workout nutrient intake when dieting down. Go ahead and reduce carbs and calories for the rest of the day to get the maximum fat burning effect possible, but leave the peri-workout window alone!

Don't be afraid of peri-workout carbs (especially the highly-branched cyclodextrins in Plazma since they actually have fat burning effects) as they won't be stored as fat or reduce your rate of fat loss. In fact, they'll increase your rate of fat loss by allowing you to train harder and keep your metabolic rate higher.

7. Doing Cardio Before Going to Bed

I don't see this as frequently as many of the other mistakes, but it deserves a mention. This was popular in some bodybuilding circles when it got out that Ronnie Coleman was doing it when preparing for the Mr. Olympia. Again, not to talk bad about pro bodybuilding, but steroids change your physiology. For example, steroids/androgens and cortisol share a cellular messenger. Without giving you a physiology lecture, it means that the more androgens you have in your body, the less impact cortisol will have on you.

Doing cardio – especially moderate steady state cardio – will elevate cortisol levels, and in the natural hormonal cycle of humans, cortisol has to be at its lowest before going to bed. Having a high cortisol level when going to bed will make it much harder to go to sleep and much harder to have a restorative sleep episode. It will also turn your sleep period into a 7 to 10 hour-long catabolic episode, which isn't a good mix if you value your muscle mass. To maintain your muscle, recover faster from your training, and optimize your hormonal levels and cycles, avoid evening/night cardio.

It's Simple...

1. Keep lifting heavy on the big basic lifts.
2. Do not add extra exercises.
3. Do not try to burn more calories via weight lifting.
4. If you decide to do cardio, choose low-intensity cardio, high-intensity/short duration cardio, or loaded carries and make sure to be in a post-absorptive state. Also, avoid doing cardio at night.
5. Do not try to correct lagging muscle groups when in a caloric deficit. The best you can do is maintain your muscle or increase it slightly; you can't make drastic changes at this point.
6. Don't ditch your workout nutrition carbs. In fact, increase them!
7. Start conservatively. Do just enough to maintain a good rate of progress (a loss of 2 pounds per week, for example) so that you keep some weapons in store for when fat loss slows down.

Cardio Kills

How Running and Endurance Training Can Shorten Your Life

by Mike Sheridan   

Here's what you need to know...

•  There are benefits to regular exercise, but as far as heart health and longevity go, marathoners may be no better off than the guy on the couch.

•  Research has suggested that free radical damage from long and frequent cardio workouts is especially detrimental to cardiac and skeletal muscle.

•  The long-term effects of chronically elevated cortisol such as you see in endurance athletes have nearly as detrimental an effect as oxidative stress with respect to disease, showing associations with metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and in fact all causes of mortality.

•  Many mistakenly blame food for putting our bodies into an acidic state, yet conveniently forget that their 2-hour run that same morning results in an acidic environment with a higher likelihood of causing damage.

•  If you love running or endurance training, you might want to find a new hobby.

Getting at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise daily continues to be the standard recommendation for improving overall health and longevity. This is why it's common for most to select running, cycling, swimming, or any other form of endurance training as their predominant form of exercise. It also appears to be standard practice to set a goal of completing a marathon or triathlon in order to stay motivated. If some cardiovascular exercise is good, then more must be better, right?

Wrong. Exercise becomes damaging when it's excessive. Unfortunately, when your method for getting fit is moderate-intensity cardiovascular training or steady-state endurance exercise, that excessive line is crossed more frequently than not. Don't get me wrong, there are benefits to regular exercise and daily movement, but as far as heart health goes, marathoners may be no better than the guy on the couch, and as far as longevity goes, they may be worse off.

Gunked Up Arteries

The human body is extremely adaptable, which means diminishing returns in progress are inevitable unless a unique or more challenging stimulus is repeatedly introduced. Those selecting running, cycling, or swimming as their method for "getting fit" must continuously go farther or train harder or more frequently in order to experience any benefit from exercise. Five miles last week becomes 8 miles this week, and quickly reaches 30-40miles/week for those with aspirations of completing a marathon or triathlon. As the endurance athlete seeks more miles and higher speeds they put additional stress on their body, which results in excessive free radical production, cortisol secretion, lactate accumulation, and inflammation.

Nearly every type of workout – aerobic or anaerobic, high-intensity or low-intensity, isometric or isokinetic – produces free radicals (or reactive oxygen species), although the amount generated, and whether there's corresponding oxidative damage, depends on the workout design and delivery (mode, intensity, duration). A model developed in 1992 by M.B. Reid suggests that free radicals are generated faster during strenuous exercise than any buffering agent can handle. Above the optimal threshold, antioxidants are outnumbered and harmful oxidative stress prevails. This leads to muscle dysfunction and muscle loss, along with damage to proteins, lipids, and even DNA.

Some argue that higher levels of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) from exercise are beneficial because they increase the body's internal production of antioxidants. However, science has demonstrated that there's a breakeven point where the accumulation of free radicals overburdens any antioxidant defense. Sadly, most that choose cardio as their method for staying healthy or getting fit consistently surpass this point.

The oxygen requirement during exercise is a determining factor in the number of free radicals generated. Consistent movement for greater than 45-60 seconds is predominantly aerobic, meaning oxygen is required to produce energy (ATP). Conversely, short and intermittent (or anaerobic) exercise does not use oxygen to produce energy. Not only does this suggest higher free radical production during aerobic training, but unlike the anaerobic energy system, the oxidative stress (or cell damage) takes place inside the mitochondria. Since mitochondria are the dominant producers of free radicals, skeletal muscle has one of the highest concentrations of mitochondria, and muscle represents the largest organ in the human body, this is a BIG problem.

The oxygen demands during aerobic exercise produce considerable damage within muscle cells that leads to eventual cell death. Essentially, the muscle cells are "oxidized," and once destroyed they unfortunately can't be replaced. Research from as early as 1987 has suggested that free radical damage from long and frequent cardio workouts is especially detrimental to cardiac and skeletal muscle. As Dr. James O'Keefe discusses, endurance training causes "structural cardiovascular changes" and "elevations of cardiac biomarkers" that appear to return to normal in the short term, but when taken on as a regular activity results in "patchy myocardial fibrosis... an increased susceptibility to atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction, and large-artery wall stiffening."

Dr. O'Keefe and other researchers have suggested that it's common to see extreme variations (5-fold) in atrial fibrillation when elite level endurance athletes are compared to non-runners, and other studies have found troubling medical anomalies such as:

• Impaired Cardiac Contractile Function
• Decline in Peak Systolic Tissue Velocity
• Cardio Myocyte Damage
• Myocardial Fibrosis
• Cardiac Arrhythmias
• Poor Left Ventricle Function

In April of 2014, The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association published research showing that "long-term male marathon runners may have

paradoxically increased coronary artery plaque volume." And in another study, the researchers compared a group of sedentary men to men that competed in at least one marathon annually for 25 years. Compared to the inactive group, the runners had nearly double the total plaque and calcified plaque volumes, and almost 1.5 times the non-calcified plaque volume.

Not surprisingly, the marathoners in the study from Missouri State had lower resting heart rates, BMI (Body Mass Index), and triglyceride levels than the sedentary group. The fact that "all looks good on the outside," is potentially the most frightening thing. This can be seen in the cardiovascular health of ultra-endurance athletes and cardio kings and queens who continuously put their bodies through a pounding. These guys and girls aren't just running farther than everyone else, they're running more consistently and faster.

The Cardio Dead Pool

Generally, many (including me) have idolized these individuals as we couldn't envision ourselves doing one marathon, let alone two in a row on a Saturday afternoon. However, as the evidence suggests, duration and intensity have a profound effect on free radical accumulation. Despite the natural increase in antioxidant production, the adjustment is short-lived and serious damage ensues over time. This resulting heart damage may have played a part in the early (or near) death of several famous ultra-endurance and marathon runners:

Micah True (Caballo Blanco) One of the ultra runners featured in the popular book, Born to Run, died in 2012 at 58 years old of Phidippides cardiomyopathy – an enlarged heart from chronic excessive endurance exercise.

Alberto Salazer Won three New York City Marathons and one Boston Marathon between 1980 and 1982 but had a near fatal heart attack at 49 years of age.

Jim Fixx The man credited for popularizing jogging and author of the best-selling book, The Complete Book of Running, died of a heart attack at 52.

One study, from the European Heart Journal, looked at marathon runners, triathletes, alpine cyclists, and ultra triathletes who competed in races lasting 3, 5, 8, and 11 hours respectively. Dysfunction in the right ventricle after the race was least in the marathon runners (3 hours) and highest in the ultra triathletes (11 hours). Although it's been suggested that sudden death during marathon training only occurs in 1 in 100,000 people, the majority of those fatalities are from a cardiovascular event. As Dr. O'Keefe writes:

"If we went out for a run right now and you ran hard... by 60 minutes something starts happening... the free radicals blossom, and it starts burning the heart. It starts searing and inflaming the insides of your coronary arteries."

If that weren't bad enough, excessive free radical accumulation and resulting oxidative damage increases your risk of degenerative disease and accelerates aging. Anyone with a goal of living a long and disease-free life should avoid instances that promote excess free radical production, as the damage that ensues is at the root of many chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and many more.

Telomeres Shorter Than Tom Cruise

Although the free radical theory of aging is still considered a hypothesis, it's been proven that DNA damage to mitochondria increases our disease risk. Telomeres are found at the ends of chromosomes that protect DNA and the length of these tiny caps can determine our rate of aging. One analysis of skeletal muscle from a 90-year-old man revealed that only 5% of his mitochondrial DNA was full length, while that of a 5-year-old boy was almost completely intact. Our telomeres shorten during normal cell division, but if they get too short, chromosomes get damaged, cells stop dividing, and our ability to repair tissue is inhibited.

Numerous studies have found that short telomeres are associated with older cells and an increased risk of mortality and disease, and longer telomeres are associated with younger cells and a higher resistance to disease. The exact cause of telomere shortening is still up for debate, but the leading hypothesis points to chronic stress. The researchers believe that excess exposure to stress overwhelms anti-oxidant protection, resulting in cell damage – specifically to DNA and the telomeric region. Not only does oxidative stress cause DNA damage, but it appears to disrupt the enzyme responsible for telomere elongation (telomerase), meaning any chance of future repair and growth is inhibited.

Enough Cortisol to Kill a Moose

Another harmful byproduct generated during aerobic exercise is cortisol. Similar to free radical accumulation, its concentration is determined by intensity and duration. When our bodies are under stress, cortisol helps to increase the concentration of glucose in our blood so there's readily-available energy for our muscles to utilize. Cortisol secretion is a natural response to stress and it's a good thing when released infrequently and for short periods as it helps the body deal with the threat to homeostasis. However, when we're exposed to chronic and consistently elevated cortisol for extended periods of time, we experience long-term consequences.

Unfortunately, prolonged endurance training causes the body to release an abundant amount of cortisol. Research from 1976 in The Journal of Applied Physiology showed no increase in cortisol secretion after 10 minutes (at 75% intensity), but cortisol doubled after 30 minutes. Another study, this one from 2011, analyzed the cortisol levels in 304 amateur endurance athletes and the average additional secretion above the control (in white in the graph below), was 42%!

Athletes who ran more kilometers per week, trained for more hours, or took part in more competitions over the year exhibited higher hair cortisol levels.

Intensity seems to play just as important a role, as 80% exercise intensity for 1 hour produces high cortisol levels while exercise at 40% intensity for 1 hour actually lowers it. With an activity like walking, cortisol is removed faster than it can be secreted, yet, as individuals looking to get fit, we're consistently told to train harder, run farther, and burn more calories.

Likewise, when cortisol is elevated, Testosterone is inhibited, meaning that consistently elevated cortisol lowers Testosterone. Cortisol increases steadily throughout a workout, while Testosterone levels peak at 20-30 minutes. That means the longer the exercise bout, the more unfavorable the Testosterone-to-Cortisol ratio (T:C). A better T:C ratio promotes muscle growth and tissue repair, while a higher proportion of cortisol leads to muscle and tissue loss.

In a nutshell, cortisol burns muscle (catabolic) and Testosterone builds muscle (anabolic), and unfortunately the increases in cortisol from endurance training leads to the former. Other than muscle loss, chronically elevated cortisol leads to injuries, sickness, and inflammation in the brain, reproductive system, intestinal tract, and heart. The elevated inflammatory markers experienced after aerobic training are much higher than those tested after alternative forms of exercise. The long-term effects of chronically elevated cortisol have nearly as detrimental an effect as oxidative stress with respect to disease, showing associations with the metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, depression, and in fact all causes of mortality.

Blood so Acidic it Can Clean Grease Off an Engine Block

Lactic acid is another problem associated with endurance training. Large amounts of it are produced during exercise that's beyond a certain intensity or duration, which increases oxygen and acidity (lowers pH) inside and outside muscle cells. This accumulation of lactate depends on a balance between production by the working muscles and removal by the liver and other tissues. If exercise is continuous, lactate production persists while removal declines.

Lactic acid is of relevance to health and longevity because it lowers pH. The act of simply running for a few minutes drops our normal pH of 7.4 to 7.0. Continuing or repeating the same activity can lower it to 6.8, which is considered the lowest tolerable, survival pH. Many mistakenly blame food for putting our bodies into an acidic state, yet conveniently forget that their 2-hour run that same morning results in an acidic environment with a higher likelihood of causing damage.

To handle an acidic meal, the kidneys regulate pH by excreting more or less bicarbonate. This buffering system (to bring pH up) is hampered during exercise as it can take several hours to initiate. Unlike acidic food, which only affects the pH in urine, exercise lowers pH in extracellular fluid and blood. This lactate build-up not only adds to the stress put on our cells, but arterial pH disturbance alone has been associated with life-threatening rhythmic disturbances of the heart. As written in 2002 in The Journal of Internal Medicine:

"Although acids and bases are present in foods, the major threat to bodily fluid pH is acids formed in the metabolic processes."

Alternative Choices?

If you're looking to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's and dementia, heart disease, and diabetes, daily low-intensity movement will cut your risk in half without increasing stress (walking, in fact, reduces stress) or promoting oxidation. Just 30 minutes of walking 5 times per week has been shown to reduce death risk by 50%!

If performance is your goal, you're better off doing High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Short sprint intervals produced equal aerobic improvements (VO2 max, lactate threshold, aerobic power) and better fat loss when compared to moderate intensity jogging, and that was with 1/18th the time commitment!

If you're in search of a six-pack, your time is better spent lifting weights and eating right. When you work out to build muscle (not burn calories), you burn more energy throughout the day. Any new muscle needs energy just to exist, which means an increase in the number of calories burned, even while sedentary. Unlike resistance exercise, aerobic training does not produce significant positive changes in muscle size or strength, only producing favorable increases in endurance capacity. A strong, muscular physique is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but research suggests that strength and muscle mass are the two most important biomarkers for health and longevity.

And lastly, if you love running... I suggest finding a new hobby. I love eating chocolate and drinking wine, but that doesn't mean I'm consuming them 5 times a week for 3 hours at a time. In all seriousness, anything you love about running (endorphins, alone time, camaraderie, competition) can be experienced elsewhere, while potentially increasing your lifespan instead of knowingly shortening it.

Train Like a Man 5: The Real Paleo Exercise

by Martin Rooney – 9/17/2012

"Life is a marathon, not a sprint."

Whenever I hear that little nugget of cheese-ball inspiration, I want to throw up, because it's usually said by some sloth that never reached his goals and he's just trying to make sure you stay in no rush to reach yours.
I don't know when exactly sprinting through life and achieving one goal after the next became a bad thing, but have no fear, I'll address humanity's aversion to sprinting throughout this article.
Our solar system hurtles around the galaxy at 450,000 mph, so our time here on this rock we call Earth (which is circling the sun at 70,000 miles an hour), in comparison to eternity is less than a blink of an eye.
The way I see it, life is an all-out sprint – and we should attack it that way.
So then what's with the distance approach to cardio? I hear people say all the time that they entered a 10k or a marathon to get "in shape." Is that so? I'm tempted to have these folks stand in front of a full-length mirror and ask them what shape were they looking for exactly?
If it's extra slender, pencil-necked, and endomorphic, then I'll condone the distance work. If they say, however, that the shape they seek is lean, muscular, and mesomorphic, then they're barking up the wrong tree.
Furthermore, if I have one more distance-junkie proudly brag about the doctor visits, MRIs, or therapy they're using to recover from their jogging or ultra-marathon, I'll be forced to buy a big bat and carry it with me.
You're proud of being injured, huh? So if I smack you in the knees with the bat and produce an injury, are you still proud? Or then are you just a masochist? Maybe such drastic measures are what it takes for you to realize that pain doesn't equal productivity, and that you've been chasing the wrong dog – and way too slowly at that.

Enjoyment Versus Results

I understand that (unfortunately) many of us need something to drive us and get us moving besides the ultimate fact that training will help you live longer. And I understand that some people may simply enjoy distance jogging and/or be genetically suited for this style of training. I'm not here to argue either of those things.
The purpose of this article is to argue in favor of the benefits of sprinting. And interestingly enough, whether you like jogging or are naturally skinny or slow, you can still benefit from this all-powerful training medium.
Don't think we need this argument? Then explain why most people stop sprinting by high school. Explain why most parents tell their children to stop running and slow down.
Plain and simple, besides the Olympic 100-meter final, sprinting gets much less love than distance work. Whether it's the marketing of jogging gear, the social aspect of distance events, or the fact that "No Pain, No Gain" is imbedded into the average training psyche, you're sure to see more people walking and jogging at your local track than to see them sprinting short portions of it, resting, and repeating.
In a world slowly being taken over and dominated by brightly colored equipment tools and fancy programming, we've forgotten to use the most important piece of equipment we were given, our body. And we've definitely forgotten to use it the way it was designed – to sprint.

Why Do We Run Marathons?

In Train Like a Man Part 4, I suggested that if Baron Pierre de Coubertin loved American folklore instead of Greek tragedy, perhaps we'd have millions of people lining up to test themselves in the 100 meter instead of 26 miles.
If our hero was a steel drivin' sprinter, rather than a solitary noncombatant whose chosen pursuit literally ran him – and millions of poor souls centuries later to follow – into the ground, just perhaps the world and its view of fitness would be different.
In all the emails I've ever received, I don't think I've ever received anything from a recreational athlete telling me they're entering a 100-meter dash.
Why? Because it's not okay to suck in a sprint.
If you jog – especially if you enter a marathon – it's okay to be mediocre. By contrast, it's decidedly not okay to suck at sprinting.
Show up to an actual race and take thirty seconds to run 100 meters and you're absolutely exposed for the world to see. Suck at sprinting in the wild, and you're somebody's dinner.
Suck at the marathon, on the other hand, and they'll hand you a juice box and a medal, even if you come in last.

The Paleo Idea

Add speed and power to any movement and the body changes. Look at a sprinting athlete versus a distance athlete. Large, developed muscles are the norm on just about any athlete involved in sprinting.
So why does this happen? You could cite the activation of the larger fast twitch fibers in sprinting or how cutting weight and losing muscle improves distance performance, but what about the "why" behind how sprinters look leaner and more muscular from seemingly much less work?
I have an interesting theory using the popular Paleo concept.
No one thinks twice about applying the Paleo concept to eating, but what about its application to movement? In terms of body development, sprinting is the ultimate Paleo exercise – and perhaps many of the problems we face today as a society are because this movement is no longer used during most peoples' daily routine.
(Granted, like all Paleo arguments, this is mere speculation. Were we meat eaters or vegetarians? Were we distance runners or sprinters? Until we invent a time machine, we'll just continue to enjoy the brainstorming and debate, but it's still interesting to speculate.)

The TFW Lock-And-Key Mechanism of Sprinting

When I address groups of people, I ask them if they think ingesting 1000 calories of junk food has the same effect on the body as ingesting 1000 calories of fruits and vegetables.
Without fail, according to the Paleo dogma, every attendee answers the same way – they believe that a calorie isn't just a calorie. So in terms of energy intake, most people agree that due to the way the human body was designed and has evolved, there are particular foods that can act as keys and unlock specific pathways to either promote health (muscle gain, fat loss, etc.), or allow detrimental effects (diabetes, cancer, heart disease) when those proper pathways aren't accessed.
Well if we can all agree on energy intake, I'm confused why people rarely discuss caloric output in the same manner? If there's an optimal input mechanism of calories to achieve optimal health, what about an optimal output mechanism?
If muscle growth, fat loss, and health are what you're after, I argue that sprinting may be the key that no one's using – because those thousand calories you're burning when you jog aren't nearly the same as when you burn them off at a sprint. Not even close.
That's because when you jog, you're not using your body the way it's designed to be used. That's what sprinting is for. I mean, why have an Achilles tendon if we're supposed to run on our heels? Why have huge glutes if we're supposed to simply jog monotonously and see how long we can last?
Is the reason we have big traps because we're supposed to act as perpetual motion machines for the better part of five hours at a time? And why the hell are our quads so big if we're just supposed to pound them with muscle-eating eccentrics from jogging? It makes no sense to me, and it shouldn't make any to you, either.

Sprinting: The Real Measure Of Fitness

Distance jogging makes your lifts go down. Your muscle mass decreases and you have to accept it. On the other hand, sprinting mandates that you get your numbers higher to complement it.
To lower your marathon time, you need to get out and log miles, cut weight (including muscle), and get ready for pain. To lower your time in the 100-meter sprint you need to get strong, pack on muscle, lose fat, and get in some explosive, technical workouts.
So if you want to run faster, you have to do a few things:

• You have to increase your relative body strength, so you have to get stronger for the amount you weigh. You can accomplish this by adding muscle or losing fat, or both.
• You have to improve your sprint technique. This will be done through technical work, which will improve coordination. Here you may recognize specific areas in which to improve strength while developing muscular endurance specific to sprinting. And this is where my next article will focus.

So, to review, sprint training involves improvements in speed, strength, diet, endurance, coordination, and flexibility. Sounds a whole lot like fitness to me. To top it off, sprinting will also help any marathon runner. Too bad the opposite isn't true.
But before you fans of distance running fire off your emails defending your chosen sport, I'm not saying that elite distance athletes aren't impressive in terms of time Ð I'm saying they're usually not impressive in terms of physique.
A guy that can run an under 5-minute mile pace for 26 miles is impressive in ability, no doubt, but he's probably not concerned with having bigger arms or legs, or is even reading T Nation for that matter.
My Train Like a Man articles are for guys concerned about building mass, getting strong, and being able to clean clocks. And if I have to scrap, I'll choose to battle the jogger over the sprinter every time.
Now that I've made a case for sprinting, Train Like a Man 6 will cover one of the muscle groups that will benefit most from this exercise.

Cardio for Strength Athletes

by Tim Henriques – 4/13/2012
Strength athletes are a studly bunch. We're consistent, disciplined, structured, and often blessed with a high tolerance for pain. We also tend to sport a bit of an ego, a result of having fellow gym rats stare at us in fear and admiration. That ego, however, can get us into trouble, like when it comes to cardio.
Strength athletes tend to embrace cardio the way a housecat does a cold shower. Some simply choose to avoid it, often resulting in a beastly strong individual that gets winded climbing one flight of stairs and whose gut more resembles a beer keg than a six-pack.
Others embrace cardio. This group studies up, and learns that "conditioning" is better for them than cardio. So they add a variety of HIIT workouts and brutal circuits and complexes.
Their conditioning workouts are often more challenging – from a fatigue point of view – than their strength workouts; a result of them applying that, "I'll make my body do what I tell it to do" attitude that's served them so well with their resistance training to their conditioning workouts.
The end result is usually an in-shape and physically fit individual that finds himself standing on the bronze medal platform instead of the gold. What are they doing wrong?
That aforementioned ego is steering them in the wrong direction. A big ego is great in the weight room – the four-plate bench press gets all the looks, not doing 225 for six sets of eight with 30 seconds rest.
But the cardio/conditioning workouts that get similar nods of respect are not ideal for the strength athlete. And it all comes to down to energy systems.

Specificity Rules

According to the principle of specificity, our body reacts specifically to the stimulus we present to it. Training brutally hard for several minutes or longer with minimal rest is likely the best way to test what the body is capable of – but it's not the best way to keep a strength athlete in shape, as it's challenging a different energy system.
Strength athletes are kings of the phosphagen energy system. The phosphagen or ATP/CP system is a short duration system, usually lasting for about six seconds at full power before petering out completely by 30 seconds.
It relies on ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) and CP (creatine phosphate) for fuel rather than oxygen. It takes 30-60 seconds for a moderate recharge of its fuel reserves, and 3-5 minutes for a near-full recharge.
The glycolysis system is a moderate duration system – it starts kicking in at around the 15-second mark, hits full-speed by 30 seconds, and then starts to fade significantly after about the one-minute point. It uses glucose as a fuel source, which can come directly from the blood and, if the activity is long enough, can be pulled from the stored glycogen in the muscles.
When operating anaerobically, the glycolysis system lasts less than two minutes and produces lactate, which is associated with an intense burning sensation in the muscles that most fitness enthusiasts are familiar with.
However, the glycolysis system can also operate aerobically, which doesn't produce as much lactate, although the power produced by way of this pathway is generally lower and lasts about five minutes.

Note: The glycolysis system is sometimes broken into two almost separate systems (fast and slow glycolysis), but further discussion of them is beyond the scope of this article.

The phosphagen system is the butt kicker in the gym. This is the system that powers massive squats and benches, powerful shot puts and slam-dunks, killer knockout punches and kicks, and lightning fast 100-meter dashes.
While these things are all badass, they're not really that hard – they don't produce the same level of total body fatigue as something powered by the glycolysis system.
The glycolysis system is the king of conditioning. This powers the 400-800 meter runs, the 500-1000 meter rows, maximal push-ups for time, and five set drop-sets on the leg press.
Too much time spent training the glycolysis system will cause the body to adapt to becoming proficient at that system, which usually causes a shift away from optimum performance with the phosphagen system.
It's no coincidence that the guy who wins the 100-meter dash in the Olympics is rarely the guy that wins the 400-meter. Likely, the most performance-affecting shift is an altering of neuromuscular coordination for that activity accompanied by a shifting of motor unit recruitment and muscle fiber make-up.
So what do we do?
Strength athletes must leave their ego at the door when it comes to conditioning. That isn't a license to get fat and out of shape, but we don't want to be that guy in the middle of both the conditioning and strength world – too weak to be a good strength athlete, and not in good enough shape to kick ass in all the conditioning challenges.
We need to listen to our brain, not our ego. We need to focus on the phosphagen system.

To do so, here are a few very simple guidelines:

• When conditioning, hard exertion should generally last 5-15 seconds – rarely more than 15 seconds, and never more than 30 seconds. When in doubt use a shorter work period.
• Each exertion period should be followed by 30-60 seconds of easy activity or passive rest; something one could easily do continuously for 30 minutes or more.
• Multiple rounds of the above work and rest periods should be performed 5-15 times (or more, if necessary).
• One should not be doubled over, nauseated, or puking during/after these workouts. Think about how you feel doing sets of three in the gym; it should feel a bit like that.

To sum up, the rules go like this:

• Work hard for ≈5-15 seconds, shorter is often better
• Perform easy rest (active or passive) for ≈30-60 seconds
• Repeat 5-15+ times
• Avoid feeling like you're going to die

Real World Example

Prowler. At my gym we have a challenge that's 10 trips (about 35 yards) with the Prowler loaded to 90 lbs, performed for time. The guy who holds the current record is one hell of a hard worker and won't quit, but he can't squat 315 for a single. This is not the challenge strength athletes should be working on.
We have another Prowler challenge that's a max weight pull for 10 meters using a harness. Guess who has that gym record? One of my powerlifting teammates.
Instead of a long and grueling event, it's better to do a Prowler push of 5-20 yards (with longer distance use less weight) with 30-60 seconds rest, multiple times.

Other examples:

Ski Erg. Ski very hard for 10 seconds, then easy (just enough to keep the machine on) for 20 seconds. Repeat for 3 -10 minutes. The 20-second rest is shorter than standard recommendation, but 45-50 seconds of rest is too long for this drill. Note this is the inverse of the Tabata protocol, which can work well for strength athletes in some situations.
Jump rope. Jump for 15 seconds, rest for 30-45 seconds, depending on fitness and skill. Try to jump faster than normal since it's such a short duration. Do for 5-15 minutes total.
Track. A spin on the classic "sprint the straights, walk the curves." Sprint half of the straight, walk the rest, sprint half of the curve, walk the rest, etc., which works out to about 50-meter sprints or four sprints for the quarter mile. Do this for one-half to 1.5 miles.
Jacob's ladder. Climb fast for 15 seconds (30-50 feet), rest for about 30 seconds, and repeat.
Complexes. You can still use barbell complexes, but only perform 1-3 reps per movement. This makes the complex much shorter and you can use a lot more weight. You can also perform more complexes if you desire (rest about a minute after each).
Five-meter sprints. I've always liked these and they can be performed inside an aerobic studio if necessary. Sprint for five meters (should take about 3-4 steps), stop, turn around, walk back to the starting position, and repeat. Repeating 10-30 times works well. Warm-up if you're not used to sprinting, and it's okay to go less than 100% while acclimating to this activity.
Heavy bag. Boxing kicks ass but boxers have to be capable of going three minutes, strength athletes don't. To go for time, hit the heavy bag for 10-15 seconds. I prefer to count punches – 15-20 good punches and then rest. This ratio also works well with a sledgehammer and a tire.
Car push/pull. We've all seen strongmen struggle with a truck or freight train on ESPN for a full minute so we assume that's best for us, but it's not. Pull hard for 10-15 seconds, rest a bit and catch your breath, and repeat. Use a distance it might take you one minute to cover with the car and then break that distance into four sets.
Rowing machine. The rowing machine has a default program of rowing 500-meters with one-minute rest and then repeating. That's a strength athlete's nightmare. Instead, row 50 meters hard, then 100 meters very easy, and repeat that for about 2000 meters total.
Circuits. You can use circuits, but follow two rules: keep each station short (10-15 seconds) and rest about 30-60 seconds between stations. I do a car push/heavy bag/15-yard hill sprint next to my house, which makes for a great circuit. Get creative.
Of course this list is just meant to get you started. Apply the basic principles outlined here and you'll be fine.

Choosing Your Rest

How you rest is up to you and the activity you're performing. Some activities lend themselves to easy active rest like the Ski Erg, the rowing machine, or any piece of cardio equipment.
Generally, active rest should be no more challenging than a brisk walk. You need to be able to recover during the rest period, otherwise it's too hard. At times the best rest will be simply standing still. If you're pushing the Prowler for 15 yards hard with 30 seconds of rest, it makes no sense to do anything but just stand there and recover.

Other Cardio

Steady state cardio. Walking is still a good choice for maintaining or increasing VO2 max and just making you feel healthier. I've long been a fan of walking and it causes little to no motor unit and muscle fiber transition. Most strength athletes can't jog regularly without it affecting their 1RM's.
You can still perform some grueling glycolysis-based conditioning events if you want to, but they should be done rarely (once a month sounds about right) and simply as a test to see where you are mentally and physically. Don't try to master that "test" by practicing it too regularly – you might ace the test but fail the class!

Putting it all Together

Perform this strength-training friendly conditioning 1-4 times per week, depending on your goals and time available. Those with weight loss or lofty conditioning goals should be on the higher end of the scale. Perform it after your regular strength-training workout or as a separate workout – it would likely have a negative affect on your training if performed before the main workout.
Keep the conditioning workout under 30 minutes total (15 minutes works well) including the rest time, and again, don't feel like you're going to die during the workout. That sensation is the glycolysis system pushing your ego to the limit.
Put the allure of being "pretty good" at everything aside and focus on your specific goals – becoming a stud in the gym, and someone that can lift heavy-ass weight repeatedly with short rest for a long period of time. Your physique, PRs, and your ego will thank you for it!

A New Take on 5 Things

by Lee Boyce – 3/06/2012
Every successful career has hiccups along the way. Making mistakes and learning from them are the bricks and mortar of a long and productive career.
I'll be the first to admit that I've stolen points from the best of 'em to advance my own training knowledge. In doing so, there were principles and exercises that I readily accepted as gospel and would defend from the tallest tree.
This is how it is. Disagree? Well, you're just misinformed.
But times change. New research is performed, new information becomes available, and it only makes sense that methodologies would evolve. That is, unless you'd rather stay "right" than admit you were wrong.

1. My Revised Take on Cardio

My one-track mind nearly eliminated the possibility of using conventional "cardio" for fat loss. I sided with the many coaches who argued that slow-go cardio was a potential muscle-waster, not to mention woefully inefficient at burning calories.
Though there is some science to support this position, I realize now that there's a big fat exception to this:whether to perform steady state cardio depends on the size and musculature of the individual.
Steady state cardio – especially the fasted version – can be a great tool for intermediate and advanced trainees that carry a significant amount of muscle mass.
People generally support interval training as it will have a greater affect on the metabolism, primarily because it promotes two things:

• Oxygen debt
• Utilization of fast-twitch muscle fibers

But if you're carrying a lot of muscle, chances are you've lifted, pushed, and pulled a lot of heavy things to get there. That means your fast twitch fibers have been thoroughly exercised – since they're the strongest fibers available – so it won't be the end of the world if you add in a bit of steady state cardio during fat loss phases.
Bodybuilders are perfect examples. While some high-intensity cardio has made it's way into their fat loss programs, isolation splits combined with a good, clean diet, and fasted and/or post workout cardio still dominate the scene. This improves thermogenesis – heat production within the body – that helps burn fat.
While anaerobic training is what makes athletes like sprinters and running backs get so lean and muscular, most of us are just regular exercise enthusiasts, not pro athletes, meaning we can't expect to train – or look – like Adrian Peterson.
But we can lift weights and train our strength and anaerobic capacity. Once we're big and strong, as long as we don't go overboard, we can use steady state cardio to achieve some solid fat loss.

2. The GHR – A Little-Known Knee Killer?

Don't worry, I'm not about to completely outlaw such a great exercise. But here's what I've found.
I've had several clients complain of knee discomfort during or after a workout that involved a variation of the glute-ham raise (GHR), most often the eccentric GHR.
At first, I didn't think that this exercise was the culprit, but a couple of sit-downs with a practitioner-buddy of mine had me thinking it might be something to use on a case-by-case basis.
Some say the GHR is a "closed chain" movement since the feet don't move anywhere during the movement, but here's the catch. Just like a seated leg extension, a GHR makes only one set of muscles act on the knee joint during the movement (hamstrings). There isn't a co-contraction of muscles on both sides of the joint.
This can produce the same amount of shear from the opposing side, and therefore pull on the corresponding ligaments that attach to the tibia away from the femur.
With an actual GHR machine, it's normally not that bad. But when we go into variations like the makeshift eccentric GHR, the shear is intensified since the entire weight of the body is resting on the tibia, inaddition to the hamstrings' contraction pulling it even further. That means a lot of stress on your PCL.
Still, some are more resilient to shearing forces than others. We all know guys who've been doing leg extensions and other open-chain movements for years with zero joint problems, while others get shooting pains if they so much as look at a leg extension machine.
The moral of the story? If you're using the eccentric GHR in your training, be cautious of its effects. Hopefully you don't fall into the contraindicated group.

3. "Functional Training" Revisited

The more I looked into it, the more variety I found in trainers' definition of the term "functional."
Sure, we have the basic exercises that have carryover into typical day-to-day situations like squatting, deadlifting, and standing pressing. But do we avoid biceps curls, hamstring curls, or bench presses because they seemingly don't carry over to our daily grind?
Fact is, functional training can take on whatever description we want it to. A hamstring curl action has very little "real life" application, but one of the functions of the hamstrings is to flex the knee, and hamstring curls recreate this movement.
I advocate the big bang movements as much as the next guy. If our muscles aren't performing their prime actions the way they should, then the number one exercise choices should always be those that enhance those prime actions.
However, I'll humbly add that most T Nation readers seek strength and hypertrophy. What if we want bigger arms, and we've already spent the last three months overhead pulling, farmers' walking, and close-grip pressing our way to oblivion?
Do we continue to avoid biceps curls because they're "isolation" movements despite the stimulation for the biceps they provide? Do we still steadfastly avoid skull crushers or pressdowns, even though our horseshoes better resemble shoelaces?
Focus on the must-do's first, keeping your muscular and skeletal health in check, but sometimes building up your body means training like a bodybuilder. In certain cases, that means isolating right down to the muscle.

4. Stretching and Foam Rolling

For a long time I used this stuff as an "answer." Today I use it as a "prescription." In almost all cases, muscles become tight because of a deficient muscle somewhere else. Usually the tight muscle is taking on the role of a muscle that isn't pulling its own weight. A perfect example would be a pair of tight hamstrings picking up the slack for a set of inactive glutes.
A good rule of thumb is that when a muscle appears deficient, the answer isn't always to give that muscle more attention. Considering this, we should be able to look at our weak links to see which smaller muscles aren't doing everything they should to contribute to a functional body.
Flexibility and ROM increases will come immediately through restoring your antagonistic balance. This can be as simple as activating dormant muscles that for a while have been compensated for by the big dogs.
The true "answer," in my book, is mobility. One of my favorite books is Assess and Correct by Eric Cressey. It has hundreds of drills that make small muscles fire up to create or restore range of motion.
I'm not saying that stretching and foam rolling to respectively lengthen and improve tissue quality is a waste of time. I still use them, and you should, too.
My advice is to turn it into a tactical approach. Instead of prescribing stretching and rolling to any ailment under the sun, start thinking in three ways: improve tissue quality first, activate muscles second, reduce inhibitions third.
Use foam rolling for myofascial release, dynamic warm ups to add range of motion and activate dormant muscles, and then static stretching to muscles that are "blocking" proper movement patterns, such as tight hip flexors affecting pelvic position during a back squat or Romanian deadlift.

5. A Quiet Tweak to Training Volume

This might be stating the obvious, but not all programs are for everyone.
Training volume should be tailored to each athlete, and failing to recognize this is what keeps some athletes from seeing continued progress.
I first experienced this as a collegiate track and field athlete. We sprint athletes would have our workouts set by the coach, though we'd train alongside the athletes from other disciplines (the jump athletes, etc). This was done for simple time management reasons, as it was the easiest way to train a bunch of athletes at the same time.
But each athlete isn't going to respond to the same training volume the same way – especially when our "base" workouts, usually Mondays, would often look something like this:

• Dynamic warm-ups/flexibility work
• Drills
• Plyometric/ballistic training – Static jumps, stairs, uphill jumps, med ball work
• Base training workout – 300m + (2)200m + (2)150m @ 85% of max effort
• Core training circuit or weight training circuit

Needless to say, that's a tough workout and would leave me destroyed. I'd be so sore that it would sometimes affect the practice on Tuesday.
This example is intended to show that quality is everything where training for performance is concerned. Big, tough, and heavy workouts have their place, but if you want to get stronger, bigger, or both, you haveto know when your body is working at its physiological peak, and when it's starting to go down hill.
Once that line is crossed, it's a good idea to cut your workout short, or heavily modify its contents.
I'm sure my track coach had the best of intentions, but not everyone's going to have the same threshold and work capacity. Some levels of DOMS don't need to be reached, and certainly not repeatedly.
Since you're not training with a team and can control your workout, don't be afraid to modify your programming. It may not take longwinded workouts to make your muscles big and strong.

Don't Worry, I Haven't Turned Into a Pansy

The smarter I get as a trainer, the more I'm reminded that there are many methodologies, techniques, and strategies for doing things, and many ways to achieve a desired result.
However, true wisdom comes from recognizing that what might work supremely well for person A could be a disaster for person B. In reality, it's not the exercises that are contraindicated, but the people who do them. Stay aware of that and play your game, not someone else's.
With age comes perspective and more importantly, wisdom. A lot might change in the next five years, but I can't see that principle going anywhere.

12 Reasons You’re Not Losing Fat | How to Build Muscle, Gain Strength & Become a Better Athlete

1) You’re Eating Too Many Carbs

This should be pretty obvious to most people by now, but there are still the old die-hards out there who swear that everyone should be consuming two grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight every day while maintaining a low fat intake. Load up on whole grains and fruit while cutting down on healthy, essential sources of fat like grass fed beef they’ll tell you.

Anyone experienced in physique transformation knows this is nonsense.Most people have a terrible tolerance for carbs, shitty insulin sensitivity and simply don’t do enough physically demanding work to warrant too many carbs. If you want to get lean cutting carbs is usually one of the first and most important steps you need to take. That doesn’t mean you can’t have any but you need to make smart choices and they need to be taken in at the right times and cycled properly.

2) You’re Eating Carbs at the Wrong Time

If you’re above 20% body-fat pretty much any time is the wrong time. In that case I would only recommend vegetables and possibly some post workout potatoes or a once per week refeed. When you get down to 15% you can increase the amount of carbs in the post workout meal or the weekly refeed. Everyone else should limit carb consumption to post workout and night time, as per The Renegade Diet rules. During the day you want to be alert and focused, which is one reason why you don’t want to load up on starchy carbs during this time. Save for them for the night time when you want to optimize serotonin production and rest, relax and repair.

3) You’re Eating Too Much Fat

Some people cut carbs and assume that they’re good to go and there’s nothing else to worry about. Unfortunately, the low/no carb diet isn’t as much fun as Dr. Atkins made it out to be. You can’t just eat pounds of bacon and mayonnaise with reckless abandon and think that you’ll magically end up ripped. Fat contains calories; nine per gram to be exact. At the end of the day total calories still matter, and if you’re eating more than you burn you’re never going to get ripped. Please don’t mistake this as my advocating a low fat diet. That’s just as bad, if not worse, than eating too much fat. A bare minimum of 20% of your calories should come from healthy fats like pastured egg yolks, wild caught salmon, grass fed beef and coconut oil to ensure optimal health. Just be careful about going overboard with it and thinking that low carbs automatically leads to single digit body-fat. You still need to keep a handle on things like total calories.

4)You’re Not Eating Enough Protein

In my experience it’s usually only females who are guilty of this but guys can make this mistake on occasion as well. The average female who can’t lose body-fat usually eats a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with an egg. One… single… egg.

Then she’ll have a sandwich for lunch with four ounces of lean turkey. For dinner it will be a salad with low fat dressing and four ounces of chicken or fish. Although, in all honesty they may skip the protein all together and just have a salad for either lunch or dinner. Let’s assume she weighs 135 pounds. Most experts would agree that she would need to consume at least 100 grams of protein per day, if not a gram per pound, which would equal 135 grams. Each ounce of protein is around 4.5 grams of protein. So in this example she had 36 grams combined with lunch and dinner plus the six grams from the egg. So that’s a total of 42 grams, which falls just a wee bit shy of where she needs to be.

Females often freak out when you tell them to eat more than six ounces of protein at a sitting but when you break down the numbers for them and reveal just how many calories they’re eating it should make more sense. If they had eight ounces of protein three times per day it would 108 grams of protein. That’s only 432 total calories. Add in the fat and it’s still not that much.

People who eat a sufficient amount of protein usually end up having an easier time getting ripped than those who don’t. Make sure you’re getting enough.

5) You’re Drinking Too Many Protein Shakes

There are two problems associated with drinking shakes when you’re trying to get ripped. First of all, whey protein can raise insulin levels, as I have been telling people since the mid 90’s. If you’re trying to get lean you don’t want insulin to be flowing like the Nile all day. You want a nice insulin surge post workout but the rest of the day you want it under control. That’s why The Renegade Diet limits the intake of whey protein to very small amounts during most of the day and only allows a larger amount post workout or at night.

The second problem with drinking too many shakes is that they are so easy to digest that you don’t really burn any calories when you eat them. When you chew down some salmon and broccoli your body works harder to digest that food and you burn more calories during the digestion process. When you drink something that is so easily digested, like a protein shake, your body does almost no work in the process.

So, when getting ripped is your main goal, limit your shake intake and chew as many calories as you can.

6) Your Liver is Over Stressed

This is usually the last thing people think of when embarking on a fat loss diet but it can sometimes be the most important. Everything that goes into or on your body has to be processed by the liver. That means all food, alcohol, suntan lotion, environmental pollutants, etc. If you are constantly exposing yourself to this kind of stuff and overstressing the liver fat loss will be much more difficult to come by. Cut out booze, stop eating grain-fed, chemical laden meat and incorporate some regular periods of intermittent fasting to give the liver a break and you will find your rate of fat loss is noticeably faster.

7) You’re Eating Nuts

I love nuts. I mean, who doesn’t? Give me a bag of pistachios or cashews and I won’t look up till the whole thing’s gone. The problem is nuts have a ton of calories. When you’re dieting for fat loss the rules are usually the opposite of those followed by skinny hardgainers trying to gain size. Those guys want the most calorically dense foods possible. Fat loss dieters do not. You’re better off filling up on nutritionally dense foods that don’t pack a lot of calories, like green vegetables. If you’re dieting you need to limit your nut consumption to about ten almonds per serving. No too many people can eat ten almonds. Most people eat ten handfuls. If you are strictly tracking and calculating everything all day and you want to load up on nuts at certain times I suppose you could but I wouldn’t recommend it. Nuts can be very problematic for a lot of people, especially those with digestive or auto immune issues. As Paleo Solution author Robb Wolf has noted, nuts should be used the same way you use condiments- sparingly.

I should also add, and this is strictly my opinion, meaning it has NOT been proven and posted on Pubmed… nut butters seem to be easier for most people to digest than actual whole nuts. Just something to consider.

8) You’re Eating Fruit

“What?! You’re telling people not to eat fruit!? Everyone knows that it’s impossible to get fat from eating too much fruit!”

Yeah, yeah I know, that’s why physique competitors eat so much fruit and why all fat loss experts who specialize in getting people shredded recommend such high quantities of it. In our hunter gatherer days fruit was nothing like what you see in the supermarket today. Berries were small, dark and bitter; not the huge sugar sacks most people consume these days. Don’t get me wrong, fruit is healthy and can be eaten by lean individuals in limited amounts but any type of excessive fructose (a sugar found in fruit) consumption will lead to fat gain. Fructose can only be processed by the liver and once liver glycogen stores are full the excess gets converted to triglycerides and stored as body-fat. If you want to get ripped cut fruit completely for a while or limit it to one to two small servings per day. Just be sure to really up the vegetable consumption so you can keep your vital nutrient uptake where it needs to be.

9) You’re Not Training Heavy

When you want to lose body-fat the first inclination is often to crank up the reps and cut the rest periods. I actually have no problem with fairly low rest periods. But not if you’re used to resting three minutes between sets and all of the sudden cut them down to thirty seconds because you decided it was time to get shredded you’ll be in trouble. That never works. All that happens is your weights start plummeting on every exercise and you get weaker and smaller. High reps have the same effect.

When dieting, the primary role of strength training is to maintain muscle mass. That is the single most important thing. Don’t use it as your primary “fat burning” activity… UNLESS you are seriously overweight. If you need to lose more than fifty pounds or so that would probably be fine (although please don’t ever do any of the bullshit you see on those fat camp TV shows). Females can actually get something out of metcon workouts in the right situation as well. The caveat, however, is that that they need to be strong and actually have some muscle mass. If you take a weak female with no muscle and give her a silly metcon circuit she won’t usually get much out of it because she’s too weak to produce enough force. Females should get strong first before they attempt that type of training.

If you’re a guy and are trying to lose 10-20 pounds of body-fat without losing all your muscle mass in the process you should use strength training as a way to maintain size and strength; nothing more, nothing less. So the same principles that helped you get big and strong apply when dieting. Keep the reps low and the resistance high.

10) You’re Overdoing Cardio

Traditional forms of cardio are largely useless for fat loss. But useless is even okay, it’s when it starts to be counterproductive that we have a real problem. Excessive amounts of cardio lead to an overproduction of cortisol which leads to more abdominal fat and numerous health problems. If you want to do cardio that won’t actually hurt you and could do you some good, go for a long walk. No self respecting man should ever be spotted on an elliptical machine.

Sled work builds muscle, burns fat and is irreplaceable

11) You’re Not Running Sprints or Doing Sled Work

Dieting is the most important thing for fat loss. After that you should be doing some form of strength training to maintain your muscle mass. When you have those to things dialed in you’ll want to add in some type of sprinting or sled work. There is nothing more effective for fat loss. See all wide receivers, defensive backs, sprinters, soccer players, etc. for proof. Two or three 20-40 minute sprint or sled sessions per week will be enough for most people.

Don’t have a sled? 

12) You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

When you’re short on sleep your insulin sensitivity decreases and your cortisol goes up. Both things lead to less than optimal fat loss. You also miss out on the critically important Growth Hormone boost that comes each night during deep sleep. If you want to lose more fat you have to get more sleep. Most people will ignore this and some of you are probably reading this at 2am. Unfortunately this just might be the most important thing on the whole list. More sleep improves EVERYTHING. Make it a priority.

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