I lost 30 pounds approximately in around 3 months during my recent heart health issue. That averages around 10 pounds per month of weight loss.
So if I started out fairly lean before the 30 pounds of weight loss then I must have been totally shredded after losing 30 pounds? Unfortunately that is not how things work.
Let’s get into the math a bit of what happened:
10 Pounds is equal to 35,000 calories as an energy comparison when in fat stores, normally to lose 10 pounds of fat in a month, one would need to be in a 1200 calorie deficit everyday consistently. So if was burning 3000 calories per day via my BMR (Base Metabolic Rate) and combined activity, then I would need to be eating 1800 calories per day to be in a 1200 calorie deficit.
So unless I was in such a deficit every day for those 3 months, how is it possible to lose that much weight so quickly?
I can guarantee I was not in a calorie deficit during this time, there where of course days where I ate very little but other days I ate like a horse and during this time my actively was either zero to not much above zero. Meaning I was most likely only burning around 2000 calories or just above per day. I would need to be eating 800 calories per day to be in a 1200 calorie deceit to lose so much weight!
So what the heck was going on then?
Muscle has a water consistency of around 80% while fat has a water consistency of 20%.
Out of 10 pounds of muscle, 2 pounds is cellular, while out of 10 pounds of fat, 8 pounds is cellular. As you know, water has zero calories so the energy from either muscle or fat has to come from the cellular tissue. This means fat has approximately 4 to 5 times the energy per pound compared to muscle so you should be able to gain 4 to 5 pounds of muscle while losing 1 pound of fat while maintaining a neutral calorie input.
Example of what this means:
If I weighed 180 pounds and gain 8 pounds of muscle while losing 2 pounds of fat, I would end up weighing 186 pounds without having to eat in a calorie surplus.
This is one reason why a person can be in a moderate diet (calorie deficit) and actually gain weight at the same time. This can happen when a person is dedicated to weight training at the same time and is able to put on a fair amount of muscle during the diet phase. As a person get’s leaner this does get harder to do as fat stores are not as prevalent and the bodies ability to continue to gain muscle has it’s limitations.
There are many ways to program how you weight train, some people like to hit each muscle super hard once per week usually splitting each workout focussing on one to two muscle groups per workout but hitting each muscle group really hard with multiple exercises.
Then there is the other extreme where you hit every body part each workout but only doing one quick exercise per body part, this can be a bit of a marathon for sure…
I have tried both and both do work but which one is best or perhaps is there something in the middle which will get the absolute most out of each weight training session.
Personally I believe volume at the end of the day is the most important factor. What I mean is if you add up all the sets and all the reps you did for the week and totaled the weight you lifted. Then more is better. This is also assuming you spend the same amount time in the gym each week weight training.
One other factor we need to make sure we consider is recovery time. How much do you really need? Most people would say at least 24 hours but 48 hours is a good rule of thumb especially if you trained a muscle pretty hard with multiple exercises, sets and reps. I would even go so far as to say that in some cases three days may be required for a muscle to fully recover, especially a large muscle group like your legs after a full leg training day with squats, deadlifts and accessory work. But let’s stick with 48 hours in most situations.
So if we use 48 hours as a baseline for muscle recovery then that means you could workout each body part 3 times per week based on a two day split meaning you hit half your body one day and then the other half the next day repeating daily with one day off per week.
If that seems like too much time in the gym for some people with busy schedules then you could do a two day split four days per week and train each body part two times per week. Still good!
The real question is, would it be better to do a two day split and hit each body part two to three times per week or would it be better to do what is commonly called the Bro-Split and train each body part once per week but hit it crazy hard with three to four exercises per weight training session?
There is one more factor we need to consider before going into this further and that is muscle atrophy. Muscle atrophy is when a muscle does not get stimulation and essentially starts to lose size and strength because of lack of use. But how long does it take before noticeable muscle atrophy begins? Most people will say even after a week it can start to happen but I would say two to three weeks is when it really become more noticeable. Does that mean muscle atrophy is not happening on a more micro scale during the week if you are not using a muscle for say three to four days post recovery? I believe it happening on a small micro scale but even if I am wrong and you are not training a muscle for several days post recovery then you are at a bare minimum not utilizing potential training opportunities with that muscle group. So in the example of the Bro-Split hitting a muscle on only once per week, you may be experiencing a micro amount of muscle atrophy since that muscle group is not being stimulated much for at least four to five days at a time between workout session.
Getting back to training volume which again I feel is the measuring stick for workout efficiency which at the end of the day should get you the best results. To me it is pretty obvious that training a muscle with one exercise to failure and then moving on to a new muscle will yield the most weight moved in a workout or weight training session and for the week. Using the example of three exercises per week for a muscle group, If you hit a muscle with multiple exercises in a session then you either have to pace yourself the entire time or go all out on the first exercise with each follow up exercise having less and less strength available, so moving less and less weight. If you where to split the three exercises up into three separate weigth training sessions (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), then you will have full available strength for each exercise session.
The key is to be smart about how you break down your two day split as to not overlap already worked muscles. I find it best to hit Chest, Back and Shoulders with Calves and Core on day one and then I hit Legs and Arms with Core on day two. I also make sure to only do one press exercise on upper body day. For example if I start with a chest press then I would do back between chest and shoulders followed by something like shoulder raises so as not to hit my already weekend triceps doing a shoulder press. And similarly if I started with a shoulder press I would do something like Flies for Chest. The key is to really mix up your workouts and always be doing a different exercise for each muscle group. Here is an example of what I mean… Shoulders Day One - DB Shoulder Press, Shoulders Day two - Raises with DB or Cables, Shoulders Day three - Upright Row or Machine Shoulder Press.
Now what works for me may not work for you and some people just like to workout a certain way because that is what they are use to and at the end of the day being motivated to get into the gym consistently is really the most important factor. Of course you have to do the work when you are at the gym but if you are hitting the gym often and training hard you will see results no matter what workout program you use. You can give my methods a try and see if it works for you or not?
I haven't posted a workout video in a while so I thought I would play around with my Insta360 One R and see how well it would do in this type of workout situation, The lighting was a bit dark in the area I was doing Walking Lunges so I did get a lot of noise with it but it worked rather well on the other side of the gym where the lighting is much better. I love the ability to manually zoom and pan the 360 video after the fact to make it look like I have my own custom video person.
In this workout at Strength Camp Langley I performed a full body workout only using 4 basic exercise consisting of 4-6 sets with rep ranges around 8-15. I started off with Walking Lunges for legs getting up to a weight of 135 pounds on the Barbell, I then did various Shoulder Raises (Front, Side, Rear) and then finished off with a Dumbbell Fly press combo for Chest. This workout took me about an hour and I burned 522 calories with an average heart rate of 140 and a max of 172. Who needs cardio!
In this video I go over three main areas that I feel have the most to do with "How Our Muscles Build & Recover & How to Get the Most Out of Your Training":
Muscle Repair
Over Training
Workout Frequency
Muscle Repair The general consensus is that it takes around 24 hours to recover from a strenuous weight training activity. And this time is dependent on how hard you worked out, how use to the training your muscles are, how much rest and sleep you are getting, stress levels, sickness, are the right nutrition?
Many people think that if they are sore then their muscles are still repairing and after a hard workout or a workout you have not done in a while you can be sore for sometimes even 4-5 days afterward. All this means is you have a large amount of lactose build up in the muscle that is causing the pain since lactose is like little crystals in the muscle fibers grating against them. But it really has nothing to do with if the muscles have repaired or not and are ready to be trained again.
One point I really want to stress here is that if your muscles are not in a Recovery/Build state then they are in a state of Atrophy which means they are getting smaller and weaker. So if you train Legs on Monday once per week, they should be repaired by sometime Wednesday which means Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are days that your legs are not getting any weight training stimulation and if you are a fairly sedentary person then your legs will be in a state of Atrophy for 4 days that week!
Over Training Let's get this sorted out right here and right now. Unless you are some sort of top level athlete that trains 100%, 3-4 hours per day like a marathon runner, or a body builder or a Crossfit athlete (of course there are many others), then I guarantee you are not over training! Don't confuse an injury from an underlying imbalance or improper workout form as over training. If you have an injury or a muscle issue with your body like arthritis, muscle strain, ligament strain then you need to train smarter or in a way that does not aggravate these ongoing issues and we all have them. It does not mean you are working out too much, you are just working out the wrong way so change it.
Often times people will have mindset issues where they simply think that training 5-6 days per week is too much. Nope, not a problem your body can take it again if you workout smart. Of course you need to get proper nutrition, sleep and keep your life as stress free as you can.
Workout Frequency OK so here is how all of the above info relates to what I am trying to teach you...
One of the most common workout types that many people have been training with is what is referred to as the "Bro-Split". This workout is based on training for the most part one body part each day and hitting the gym about 5 days per week to get everything done once per week. So when you go into the gym to train a body part like chest that day, you hit it from every angle and usually end up completing 3-4 exercises for chest and probably getting around 20 sets. Yes you will be sore the next day and the next day and maybe even the next day but then guess what? Nothing for the next 4 days so what did I say was going to happen if your muscles are not building/recovering? That's right, they are Atrophying for more days then they are building that week.
Another problem with the "Bro-Split" is that it is impossible to do 3-4 exercises with 100% intensity and hitting the same workout numbers and volume for each set that you would have if you only did that one exercise for a given muscle so in other words a very inefficient way of training muscles.
I prefer two other workout models that allow a person to train a body part more times per week than just once making sure you are not in a state of atrophy at all or at least minimizing it a lot. I don't want to go into a lot of details but basically one good workout option is the "Upper Lower Split" where you focus on upper body one day and then lower body the next, if you train 6 days per week you will hit each body part 3 times per week with virtually no days of Muscle Atrophy, if you train 4 days per week you will hit each muscle part twice per week with minimal muscle atrophy days. Of course you will not do as much volume or as many exercises per muscle group each day as the "Bro-Split" but that's OK because over the course of the week, it will all add up and each exercise will have more intensity with better efficiency since the muscles are fresh.
Another option is training every body part or your full body every workout. And yes you can do this 5-6 days per week without overtraining since you are not hitting each muscle as hard as you are only doing 2-3 sets per body part per day. Recovery time if you are healthy will be around 24 hours. What I like about this type of workout is that you can do it 3 days per week, 4 days per week, 5 days per week and even 6 days per week. I suggest you take at least one day off per week to rest the mind and body from weight training as you will get more out of your training and enjoy training more by taking a day off every week.
When you do full body workouts 5-6 days per week you will literally never be in a sate of Atrophy and each time you train a body part it is fresh and ready to go 100%.
Follow me along in this video where I do an at home workout focussing on Chest, Triceps and Abs. I use a combination of exercises that incorporate free weights, smith machine, pulleys, my Total Gym and body weight.
As I do with all my workouts now-a-days, I track my heart rate using my Polar Loop paired to a Polar H7 (with smart Bluetooth) heart rate monitor so I can track my calories burned during my workouts. I show you a graph of this workout at the end of the video so you can see my total workout time, peek heart rate, average heart rate and calories burned for the workout.
I also talk a bit about a gaol I have which is to potentially compete in a mens over 40 physique fitness competition at the end of this year, I will have to see about this but without goals you are only limiting yourself!
Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 4:17PM ;)
;)