FITNESS: Ready for Summer? More Muscle, Less Fat...Week 4

Put down the dumbbells for now, because this week is cardio only.

Do five to six interval training sessions, each lasting thirty to forty-five minutes. To review interval training, see the third paragraph of Week 3. The best time of day is first thing in the morning, before eating anything, but after having eight to sixteen ounces of water. It’s okay to do the workouts at another time if you’re just not a morning person, but morning will be MOST effective.

As the fat starts to burn away from the midsection, you’ll want those abdominal muscles underneath it to
start to show through. So, after three of the cardio workouts this week, do three sets of fifteen reps of the physioball crunch with progressive resistance as explained in my Six-Pack ab primer.

On the other two or three cardio days, do three sets of fifty repetitions of the ‘Bicycle Crunch’ -- Lie on a mat and start with your hands behind your head and your hips and knees at right angles; contract your left obliques (side abs) as you bring your right shoulder and your left knee slightly closer together and then repeat on the opposite side; make sure that you keep your eyes focused on the ceiling directly above you and that the movement is controlled by contracting your obliques and not by flailing your elbows and legs; make the movement smaller and more focused than you have seen or done in the past.

Continue with the three days in which you eliminate starch and sugar, but this week do them consecutively, three days in a row. On the first day, sugar will be largely eliminated from the blood stream and your body will start releasing and burning fat more selectively. By days two and three, sugars stored in your muscle (glycogen) will also have been burned leaving your body little choice but to get energy from stored fat. But it is essential to eat proteins and vegetables (and some dairy and healthy fats are okay, too) frequently. If you are not eating frequently enough, and find that you are hungry all the time, your body may have trouble releasing the fat to be burned in the muscle cells. Don’t make that mistake and diminish the amount of fat you are capable of burning this week. For more on nutrition, don’t forget to request my two-page “Supportive Eating Guide” by sending an email to [email protected] with “Supportive Nutrition” in the subject line.

This four-week program is the good stuff, tips that have resulted in my clients losing up to eight pounds of fat in four weeks. That is very different than just losing eight pounds of weight. Your weight on the scale may not change dramatically, but the way your clothes fit will. You will have added a number of pounds of muscle and removed a number of pounds of fat. When you build and maintain your lean muscle mass and lose fat, the results are more permanent, creating a better ratio of lean to fat tissue; this results in a faster metabolism and more calories burned at rest, even while you are sleeping. The program is simple but requires adherence to every letter of it. If you are a beginner with exercise, check with your physician first to make sure you are healthy enough to embark on this sort of program.

You can do Week 4 for a couple more weeks to continue fat loss, but if you notice that you’re starting to lose muscle instead, just go back to Weeks 1 and 2 - If you want to add more muscle, you can do Weeks 1 and 2 for for two weeks each, making it a four-week muscle-building program which you will then follow with Weeks 3 and 4, which in turn may each be done for an additional week if more fat loss is desired. But do recognize that at some point the effectiveness of this program will diminish as your body becomes used to it - that would be a good time to try a new program or consult with a fitness professional.

Now, go do it. As the weather heats up in the next few weeks, and May turns to June, your body will be ready for that swimsuit you haven’t been able to wear for seasons. -- Greg Rothman, MS PT ([email protected] or Empower Fitness on Facebook)

Comments

[edward @ ecg supplier]

i was training for a good while a few weeks ago then stopped but as the good weather comes out im training again, gotta keep the body firm

[Cardio Exercise Equipment]

Too good and superb post on fitness and its related terms and concepts.