Here is a workout program that worked great for me. I was looking to lose fat and found an article by Christian Thibaudeau. It was a few years ago but I saved it because it worked so well. I plan on doing it again to get in shape for the summer. When I tried this program before, I burned off fat like never before. It was very effective for me. (I skipped the sprints - I didn't have time to fit it in - and I still got great results) Give it a shot and see what happens. The article is too long to post but here is the workout program:
Day 1: Chest and Back
Day 2: Quads and Hamstrings
These workouts should look like this:
A1. Main chest exercise (DB press, incline DB press, wide grip bench press, etc.)
4-6 reps
No rest
A2. Chest secondary exercise (DB flies, cross-over, etc.)
6-8 reps
Take 2 minutes of rest, then move on to...
B1. Main back exercise (weighted chins or pull-ups, chest-supported row, 1-arm row, etc.)
4-6 reps
No rest
B2. Secondary back exercise
6-8 reps
Take 2 minutes of rest then get back to A1. Perform each superset 5-6 times.
The same logic (main + secondary exercise superset) applies for the quads and hams.
Lactate-inducing lifting
The objective of a lactate-inducing session is to stimulate growth hormone release (as well as burn a lot of calories for fuel) via a whole-body lactate production. The more the number of muscles are involved in the process, the more effective the session will be. So in that regard we should respect these guidelines:
1. Work the whole body
2. Minimize rest-intervals (or maximize the work-to-rest ratio)
3. Use sets lasting 50-70 seconds (12-20 reps)
4. Alternate exercises for muscle groups that are far away from each other and "unrelated"
The approach I recommend is a derivative of Bob Gajda's Peripheral Heart Action training (PHA), which is an early form of circuit training that Gajda used to win the 1966 Mr. America bodybuilding title. You'll perform two or three different circuits of 5 exercises per day, each circuit being performed three times. There's no rest between the exercises within the same circuit and you can rest for 1-2 minutes once all three sets of a circuit have been completed.
CIRCUIT A (12-15 reps per set)
A1. Horizontal pushing exercise
A2. Quads-dominant exercise
A3. Horizontal pulling exercise
A4. Hamstrings-dominant exercise
A5. Abdominal exercise
No rest between exercises within the circuit (or as little as possible). Perform the circuit three times.
CIRCUIT B (15-20 reps per set)
B1. Vertical pushing exercise
B2. Quads-dominant exercise
B3. Vertical pulling exercise
B4. Hamstrings-dominant exercise
B5. Abdominal exercise
No rest between exercises within the circuit (or as little as possible). Perform the circuit three times.
CIRCUIT C — OPTIONAL (15-20 reps per set)
C1. Biceps exercise
C2. Calves exercise
C3. Triceps exercise
C4. Abdominal exercise
C5. Shoulder isolation exercise
No rest between exercises within the circuit (or as little as possible). Perform the circuit three times.
The lactate-inducing sessions are performed twice a week; they should not be performed before a heavy lifting session to avoid a decrease in performance. Limit strength is something that cannot be trained efficiently in a fatigued state. So far a weekly schedule would look like this:
Day 1: Heavy lifting chest/back
Day 2: Lactate-inducing workout 1
Day 3: OFF
Day 4: Heavy lifting quads/hams
Day 5: OFF
Day 6: Lactate-inducing workout 2
Day 7: OFF
Aerobic work
Yes, steady-state aerobic work is overrated, but it can still contribute to the fat loss process, especially in view of the hypermetabolic aspect of caloric expenditure. That having been said, doing too much steady-state cardio is indeed a sure-fire way to lose muscle mass (especially in the lower body) so we don't want to turn into gerbils by running on the wheel 4-5 times per week.
Aerobic work by itself is pretty ineffective, but doing it for a relatively short period of time (20-30 minutes) at the end of the lactate-inducing sessions can enhance the efficacy of that day: the LIS drastically increases fatty-acids mobilization because of the increase in growth hormone.
Adding a short steady-state aerobic session at that point will help you use up more of these released fatty acids. This approach will make each 20-30 minutes session as effective as aerobic workouts 2-3 times as long, without the risk of leading to muscle loss.
We can now update our weekly schedule to:
Day 1: Heavy lifting chest/back
Day 2: Lactate-inducing workout 1 + 20-30 minutes of steady-state aerobic work
Day 3: OFF
Day 4: Heavy lifting quads/hams
Day 5: OFF
Day 6: Lactate-inducing workout 2 + 20-30 minutes of steady-state aerobic work
Day 7: OFF
Anaerobic alactic energy systems work
Think "sprint". Alactic means "without an accumulation of lactate". As we saw earlier, lactate is maximized by intense efforts lasting 50-70 seconds. However, there's still a good amount of lactate being produced in those lasting 30-40 seconds.
So when training in the alactic energy system, you should shoot for energy system work lasting 20 seconds or (preferably) less. I personally like 30 and 60m sprints for that purpose, in other words "speed work". Speed/alactic work is much like strength work in that it's all but impossible to efficiently train that capacity in a fatigued state. It's also pretty metabolically and neurally draining. So for that reason you can't perform the alactic session...
a) The day before a strength workout (as it will drain your CNS too much to maximise strength)
b) The day after a strength workout (for the same reason)
c) The day after a lactate-inducing workout (because of residual fatigue)
So the only solution is to perform the alactic session on the same day as another workout. Since we are already doing steady-state cardio on the lactate-inducing days, we can only put the alactic work on the same day as a strength workout.
Yes, there will be some CNS drainage taking place, but it's still the best solution to fit our needs. The only real option is to use one alactic session per week and to do it on the same day as the upper body strength work.
I personally prefer to do the strength session in the AM (because Testosterone levels are at their highest) and the alactic session between 4 and 6PM (because naural activation is at its highest). However, I understand that this schedule isn't always ideal because of work. You can remedy this situation by starting your training week on Sunday (so day 1 becomes a Sunday) or on whatever day is the easiest to schedule for you. So now the complete weekly schedule becomes:
Day 1: Heavy lifting chest/back + alactic work
Day 2: Lactate-inducing workout 1 + 20-30 minutes of steady-state aerobic work
Day 3: OFF
Day 4: Heavy lifting quads/hams
Day 5: OFF
Day 6: Lactate-inducing workout 2 + 20-30 minutes of steady-state aerobic work
Day 7: OFF
Now, for the alactic session I do suggest sprinting. However sprint cycling can also be an option.
If you select sprints as an option I suggest keeping the total distance for the session at around 300-400m at the maximum. For example you could perform:
4 x 30m (120m total) + 3 x 60m (180m total) = 300m
or...
6 x 30m (180m total) + 2 x 60m (120m total) = 300m
or ...
5 x 60m = 300m
or...
1 x 30m, 1 x 60m, 2 x 100m = 290m
etc.
The rest intervals should be pretty similar to that used during a limit strength session. For example, in this program you have around 5 minutes between sets of the same main exercise.
For example, after your chest superset you have 2 minutes of rest before you hit the back. Then the chest continues to rest for the 1 minute or so of the back set. Then you have another 2 minutes of rest before getting back to the chest. So for our sprints, 3-5 minutes of rest should be used. The key is to be totally rested before hitting the next sprint.
