I've been promising to put together a training routine for people that want to maximize their time in the gym. (Add muscle and burn fat ) A program that is geared toward sleevers. So here it is. It's gender neutral so it can followed by both men and women. And ladies you won't look like a body builder if you lift weights. You won't "bulk" up and look like a man. Weight training is just as good for you as it is for us guys.
I also want to say that I think it's sad that this is one of the most infrequented forums on this site. This should be one of the most popular forums given what brought us all here in the first place... but I don't want to get on a diatribe so I will leave that comment at that.
Part one I will discuss incorporating HIIT training into your training. A nutshell on what it is, why you should do it, and how to do it. I've taken a few snipets from some good training articles I've read regarding in and put it all into a very basic "How to".
So here's PART ONE: Weight Training and Cardio for beginners
Research shows that High intensity interval training has these positive benefits over traditional cardio:
•Increased resting metabolic rate for upwards of 24 hours after exercise.
•Improved insulin sensitivity in the muscles.
•Higher levels of fat oxidation in the muscles.
•Significant spikes in growth hormone levels (which aid in fat loss) and catecholamine levels (chemicals your body produces to directly induce fat mobilization).
•Post-exercise appetite suppression.
The bottom line is that high-intensity interval training burns more fat in less time than steady-state cardio. But I want to add that just because it’s done in less time doesn’t mean that it’s easier. It just means you’re fitting more workout into less time. It is still going to kick you’re a$$ at the end of the day.
NOW, I want to also say that traditional cardio and muscle growth don’t go together very well. While I recommend that you always include some kind of cardio in your routine regardless of what your goals from working out are, there are right and wrong ways to do it.
For instance, considerable research shows that combing both strength and endurance training (concurrent training) can hinder your strength and muscle gains when compared to just strength training alone. This is why I recommend that people split their cardio and strength training into two separate workouts if they have time. This is tough to do of course as we all have jobs, kids, spouses and just general life responsabilities.. but at the same time too we’re only talking about 2 or 3 additional 20 minute workouts per week. And I also always recommend that if you do weights and cardio in one workout that you do WEIGHT TRAINING first. Weights first, Cardio Second. No exceptions!
So the longer your cardio sessions are, the more they impair strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth). So, the shorter your cardio sessions are, the more muscle you can preserve while in an extreme caloric deficit like we are from the sleeve. So this is what all of us are after. We need more muscle to increase our resting metabolic rates so we can burn more calories throughout the course of a normal day during our sedentary periods.
High-intensity interval training is a great training approach because it does shorten cardio sessions (which has a less negative impact on muscle growth/retention while still deriving significant benefits from the weight training exercise). The example I always use is look at the body of an Olympic sprinter and then look at the body of an Olympic long distance runner. The sprinter is muscular and looks like he/she is chiseled from stone while the long distance runner is skinny and looks untoned with almost no definition anywhere… something I call skinny fat.
So at this point you’re probably saying.. get on with it Rex! Just tell me the workout already!
The popular HIIT consensus from most researchers overwhelmingly agree that cycling (recumbent cycling to be specific) is the best way to incorporate HIIT training into your cardio routine.
Cycling is much more beneficial to muscle maintenance and growth over running/walking. This is because cycling involves the use of more of the same muscles used in hypertrophic movements (squats, for example) than running or walking does. It more closely imitates the motions that result in hypertrophic growth, and thus doesn’t impair hypertrophy nearly as much. Therefore, I recommend cycling for your high-intensity interval training (the next-best choice would be sprinting, as this too involves many of the same muscles), and I recommend keeping your sessions relatively short (around 20-25 minutes)
In terms of an exact protocol, here’s what you can do.
1.You start your workout with 2-3 minutes of low-intensity warmup on the lowest resistance.
2.You then bump the resistance up to 4-5, and pedal as fast as possible for 30 seconds.
3.You then reduce the resistance to its slowest setting and pedal at a moderate pace for 60 seconds. If you’re new to HIIT, you may need to extend this rest period to 90-120 seconds.
4.You repeat this cycle of all-out and recovery intervals for 20-25 minutes.
5.You do a 2-3 minute cool-down at a low intensity and you’re done.
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When I get a little more time today I'll lay out a basic 5X5 Weight lifting routine for beginners tThat you can incorporate if you want. I covered the Cardio part first even though it should always be done following weights.. Again. WEIGHTS FIRST.. cardio second.
I have a running training log here in another thread where I record my daily workouts if you are really bored and want to see what I'm doing each week.
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