Gomad with Nick Ramsey

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Gaining Weight – Six Weeks of GOMAD

I’ve always been skinny, and I’ve always been bothered about it. At various stages of my life I’ve embarked on some kind of program to gain weight, none of which has ever lasted beyond three months, and all of which failed to add any noticeable pounds to my 6ft frame. My mother always said I’d fill out when I reached 30, just like Grandad Jack! Funny now that I’m 35 she says I’ll fill out when I reach 40, just like Grandad Jack!

Six weeks ago, I decided to embark on the GOMAD program (Gallon of Milk A Day) in another attempt to break out of my lanky self. This post is intended for others like me who would like to gain some extra pounds.

At my wedding in 2005, I weighed 56kgs and was 183cm tall. Five years of home-cooked Japanese meals later and self-employment that had me sitting in front of a computer all day grew me to 63kgs. And that’s where I started GOMAD, with a goal of reaching an ambitious 80kgs.

How I’m gaining weight

I typically drink 3-4 liters of milk a day, with Weider Weight Up in it at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’ve been going to the gym twice a week, focusing mostly on compound exercises: squats, deadlifts, bench press and bent-over rows. I’ve been running a lot. I realize this burns off some calories, but it’s good for my overall fitness and I enjoy it. Besides the milk, my diet hasn’t really changed, except that I snack on peanuts and raisins a lot.

After six weeks, I’ve gained 9 kilos, but it hasn’t come easily.

Side-effects of GOMAD

At the beginning, the milk made me feel bloated and spoiled my appetite. It’s really hard to eat a proper meal when your stomach is full of milk. Of course, when you’re always full of liquid, you tend to go to the toilet a lot, too. I had diarrhea for a while there, if you can call it that. It was more like weeing out of your bum (apologies to those of you offended by my frankness… it gets worse).

The next issue was an itchy bum. It turns out that my body couldn’t digest all the extra lactose in the milk, resulting in a very uncomfortable itch that had me showering below three or four times a day with cold water. After a week of that I went to the pharmacy to find some medicine to stick in my rear – quite a challenge in a Japanese drug store. Eventually one of the shop staff came over and asked what I was looking for. I explained I had an itchy bum and she asked if it was internal or external to which I replied it was internal. She then gave me a choice of cream or pellets, and I picked the latter. I had bottom infection back in 2000 which ended in a doctor sticking a knife in my butt while I bit on a wooden stick. After that experience, sticking some anti-itch pellets in one’s rear is a walk in the park.

Another problem is spots. I’m used to spots and they’re used to me, but I’ve never had so many on my arms before, especially on the inside of the upper arms. I blame the milk for that and expect it to clear up when I finish GOMAD.

The most recent issue has been body odor. I smell of ammonia, and my wife isn’t too happy about it. This is apparently caused by the body burning excess protein because it doesn’t have anything else to burn. To combat this, I’m trying to eat more carbohydrates to balance out my diet a bit, and drink more water so the ammonia gets flushed down the loo instead of me sweating it out.

The results so far…

During the first few weeks, I gained weight rapidly (for a skinny guy anyway), though most of it was and still is around my midriff. Apparently, while women store fat in their buttocks, men store it in their bellies. I also learned that my kind of fat is visceral, which means it’s packed around my internal organs as opposed to being under the skin. Doesn’t sound too healthy, eh? More recently, I’ve noticed my weight gain slowing down with each new kilo taking longer to manifest. On the bright side, I’m definitely more muscular than before, which is a great feeling. I feel like I could crush skulls between my pecs!

Continuing on from here…

I think it would be sensible to stop the excessive milk intake after two months. That seems to be the recommended limit for anyone doing GOMAD. That gives me just two more weeks before I face a new and probably more difficult challenge: retaining the weight. Though saying that, I’m hopeful that my body will have grown used to the extra calories and demand I eat more than I would have done pre-GOMAD. If that’s the case, then 80kgs is still on the cards…

UPDATE: I stopped GOMAD after two months, weighing 74kgs naked (!) with 18% body fat. So I gained a total of 11kgs – very successful!

GOMAD : gallon of milk a day

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To gain weight you must eat more calories than your body burns off with everyday activity, or more than your Basal Metabolic Rate + Activity Level.  If you are a skinny, you are probably a hardgainer and it is a huge struggle to gain weight.  For hardgainers, eating is a challenge and you may feel like throwing up every time you try to eat more.  Milk will make it a whole lot easier for you to take in every day the calories & nutrients that you need to gain weight.

You may not need a full gallon of milk a day. Even though GOMAD stands for Gallon of Milk A Day, I recommend that you don’t start out with that amount right away. Start out light and gradually increase your milk intake over time.  The reason is that drinking that much milk right away will most likely be too much of a shock to your body, and you will probably experience symptoms of bloating, cramping, and diarrhea.  Split your milk consumption into 10-16 oz servings throughout the day. Too much milk at once can make you vomit, and then you’ll have to try all over again or you may get discouraged.

Don’t get discouraged by vomiting because all hardgainers experience that occasionally until they get used to their new eating plan. Try, try, and try again until you master your eating! I was once 5’7″ 117 pounds and I am now 5’7″ 160 pounds thanks to eating every 3 hours, lifting, and sleeping.

The Benefits of GOMAD:

  • Weight Gain. For extremely skinny people like I used to be (Follow me on Twitter at ALGetsBig), 25 pounds of weight gain is common for the GOMAD program.
  • Strength Gain. The protein & fat content in whole milk helps muscle & strength gains. The weight gain also helps strength gains.
  • Easy Liquid Form. Liquid food is easier to get in than solid food and digests faster. Milk also needs zero preparation and is easy to take with you.
  • Cheap. 1 gallon whole milk contains 2400kcal, 200g carbs, 120g fat, 120g protein and lots of vitamins & minerals for a relative low price.
  • All-Natural & Safe. Some say that GOMAD works even better than steroids with beginners who want to gain weight fast.
  • Permanent Gains. GOMAD teaches you to get more calories in, the key to weight gain. You’ll never be skinny again.
  • High Protein. You need protein to build muscle & prevent muscle loss. 1 gallon of whole milk contains 120g protein. 20% whey, 80% casein.
  • Increased Testosterone. Saturated fat in whole milk increases testosterone levels, which means more muscle & strength. This is why some compare milk drinking to steroid usage, except drinking milk is obviously not dangerous like steroids are. Saturated fat IS healthy.Research it and you will see.
  • High Carbs. The carbohydrate dextrose in whole milk spikes insulin, a muscle building hormone which tells your body to move the proteins into your muscles.


Hypertrophy explained

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Pure Strength

 

Pure strength is a major reason for muscular hypertrophy, particularly myofibrillar hypertrophy. During activities requiring pure brute force the larger the functional size of the muscle the higher the potential for producing more force. This is important for those such as strongmen, power-lifters, heavyweight wrestlers, shot putters and basically anyone that needs to exert maximal force without consideration of bodyweight.

In order for muscular hypertrophy to be beneficial for the increase of absolute strength it must be approached correctly. Simply pumping out sets in the weights room is not the ideal way to go. Muscles don’t get stronger in a linear fashion as they get bigger. Muscle mass is only potential strength, the rest comes from the neurological firing patterns they demonstrate. Without getting into too much science lets look at how a muscle gets stronger…

When you train against resistance your muscles will most often increase in size, this is a given. If the muscle growth is the kind we have discussed as being conducive to strength increase the muscles will increase in strength but will also increase their potential for further strength. Other increases in strength occur because the neurons that tell that muscle to contract get more effective at doing their job. They fire off at a more synchronised rate and activate more motor units the more you train effectively. Now simply increasing a muscle’s size will increase strength to a point but without further training aimed at this neuromuscular response the muscle will only get marginally stronger. So hypertrophy for this purpose is limited in scope. Aiming to increase muscle mass under these circumstances should be planned carefully. Increase muscle size in order to increase potential strength, then aim to train the neurons firing those muscles to act more effectively and synchronously.

Training for this purpose requires a plan. To begin gaining muscle mass you will likely need to train in the 6-8 repetition range. Any higher and you risk sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, any lower and you are simply training the neuromuscular system. Once you have reached a desired size you can then lower the repetition range and start performing singles, doubles and triples. This will train the neuromuscular system to be more effective at commanding muscles to contract but will also allow maintenance of muscle mass.

 

Power

 

Power is defined as force times velocity. In other words power is the application of force at a rapid rate. Examples include maximum jumps, Olympic weightlifting, sprinting, throwing and contact during a game of American football. If power is your goal then you need to be cautious of muscle gain. Too much mass will limit your ability to move your own body. A gymnast needs to be extremely strong, but if he were as big as a shot putter he would be limited in his ability to move his own body dynamically.

Muscular hypertrophy for the purpose of power development should follow similar guidelines to that of pure strength, however the muscle mass needs to be controlled. For a shot putter mass can be gained indefinitely, however a sprinter might want to limit bodyweight at some point. Pure strength must be increased in order for power to increase at any noticeable rate. Once a desired level of muscle mass has been achieved the athlete then needs to focus on velocity training such as plyometrics, high velocity weight training (Olympic lifts) and other forms of specific power work.

 

Rehabilitation

 

Rehabilitation might not seem like the most likely reason for increasing muscle mass, however there is a need in this field for such a goal. Often injuries are caused by muscle imbalances, which in turn effect connective tissue and other structures. This results in pain and limited mobility. Increasing the size of a particular muscle or group of muscles will have the effect of balancing out weak and strong muscles and improving posture.

In addition to rehabilitation muscular hypertrophy can help overall to make everyday life more effective in terms of physical mobility. It helps to burn more calories, increases overall work capacity, improves posture and general mobility and many other benefits.

To conclude, muscular hypertrophy is beneficial for a variety of reasons and can be approached in several different ways. Done correctly and performance will increase rapidly, done incorrectly and performance can suffer or at best nothing will happen. Also keep in mind that in order to increase muscle mass for whatever reason there needs to be an appropriate diet that facilitates gains. Otherwise muscles have no fuel or building blocks.

What is Muscular Hyperthrophy

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Muscular hypertrophy is defined, in simple terms, as an increase in the size of a muscle. Alternatively it can be described as an increase in the cross-sectional area of muscle. So many people ‘think’ they want muscular hypertrophy. I say think because they are conditioned to strive for such a goal for various reasons. It is attractive for men to want large muscles, it shows masculinity. Women who want an increase in muscle size are usually those that feel underweight or for specific sport and strength performance goals.

 

In this article…

 

 

  • Two types of muscle hypertrophy. 

     

  • Who wants/needs muscle hypertrophy? 

     

  • Why do you want/need muscle hypertrophy and how do you attain it for that purpose?

 

 

Two Types of Muscular Hypertrophy

 

There are two types of muscular hypertrophy; sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar. Lets explore both.

 

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy

 

Sarcoplasmic muscular hypertrophy involves an increase in the sarcoplasmic volume of a muscle cell with no corresponding increase in muscular strength. A strength increase is something you normally expect with an increase in muscular hypertophy, however sarcoplasmic volume increases serve very little to no functional purpose in terms of strength development.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is a response to hard training at relatively high volumes. In order for muscles to increase in size as a result of an increase in sarcoplasmic volume, they have to be trained within a higher repetition range. This is generally in the range of 8-12 and even beyond. This causes sufficient micro-trauma for the muscle to respond.

Endurance athletes also experience a small level of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy in response to extremely high volumes of training.

Obviously this form of muscular hypertrophy is not desirable for anyone aiming to increase strength or sports performance. Bodybuilders and those wanting beach muscles are likely the only ones concerned with sarcoplasmic muscular hypertrophy. This form or muscle size increase is the main reason you see strength to weight ratio decrease as a person gets larger, even with no evidence of excess body fat. It can seem a mystery to some as to why bodybuilders and frequent gym goers seem to be huge but only moderately strong.

 

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy

 

Myofibrillar muscular hypertrophy is what most people want. This is an increase in the size of the actual contractile proteins, resulting in more available muscle for contraction applied to resistance. This form of muscle increase is commonly seen in athletes that perform dynamic sports or strength and power. Weightlifters experience myofibrillar hypertrophy as a result of their training. When a load is lifted that is beyond 75% of maximum a corresponding increase in contractile proteins occurs in order to adapt and lift a heavier load next time.

Myofibrillar muscular hypertrophy is attained through high intensity, lower volume training. However this is not always the case, it is just ideal. A muscle will not increase in strength to any great amount through repetitive lifting until fatigue. It doesn’t make sense that lifting something 12 times will increase the amount you are able to lift in one-off efforts that are close to maximum strength. This is why myofibrillar hypertrophy occurs most notably as a result of training in the range of 3-7 repetitions. It’s not ideal for a bodybuilder but it will build actual functional strength you can use and not unnecessary bodyweight. The size of the muscle will increase at a slower rate because the hypertrophy involves growth of functional units of muscular tissue as opposed to simply volume.

 

Who Wants/Needs Muscular Hypertrophy?

 

There are a lot of reasons a person might want or need larger muscles. For some it is to look good on the beach, while others need a corresponding increase in strength to compliment athletic performance or for other functional purposes. I will tell you right now, I am not concerned with helping people increase muscle mass for the purpose of simply looking bigger. If you want that then eat like a pig, take steroids and inject synthol into your muscles to fill them with oil, giving them the illusion of muscular size. I believe there should always be a purpose behind muscular hypertrophy, rather than simply appearance. Appearance to me is a nice little side benefit of effective, functional fitness training.

Here we will look at muscular hypertrophy using a few examples of who needs increased muscle size and why they need it.

 

Strength and Power Athletes

 

Strength and power athletes need relatively large muscles in order to perform at their peak. More accurately, they need as much absolute strength as humanly possible. Myofibrillar hypertrophy helps increase a person’s potential to produce greater force. It is for this reason only that a strength athlete needs muscular hypertrophy. This cannot be approached haphazardly or the athlete will increase muscular size faster than they increase strength. This may result in decreased efficiency and excess bulk that exists for no purpose. I mean why would you want to be heavier but not stronger? This is no good to a shot putter, weightlifter, strongman, power lifter etc.

 

Team Sport Athletes

 

Team sports, particularly contact sports, require athletes to be strong and powerful while possessing skills across a broad range of domains. They need to be strong but they also need to go the distance. At times athletes such as rugby players may be out-muscled during a ruck, maul or tackle by larger opponents. Under these circumstances a contact sport athlete requires an increase in muscle size along with the potential strength that comes along with it.

 

High Intensity Athletes

 

I refer to high intensity athletes in a separate category because I am referring to someone that has short demands placed on them. This includes sprinters up to 400 or even 800 metres. Essentially a high intensity athlete is anyone that regularly participates in activities that involve about 75 percent or higher intensity.

The reason they may need an increase in muscle mass is to facilitate a higher work capacity. The bigger the engine (parts of it that work anyway) the more work a person is able to do within the same or shorter timeframe. Sprinters can train more effectively, power is increased, strength helps to support dynamic activity with greater force, and a host of other benefits come from marginal increases in myofibrillar hypertrophy.

 

Elderly

 

That’s right, you read correctly. Elderly people must increase their strength. Quite often an elderly person will experience muscular atrophy, which is wasting of a muscle, decreasing it in size. It is a loss of strength that puts people in nursing homes. It is poor muscular conditioning that causes falls and dependence. This poor muscle conditioning is caused by the muscle decreasing in size. This is not good because the decrease is detrimental to even the most rudimentary tasks. It decreases work capacity, which is essentially what aging really is.

Elderly people need to focus on strength and wellness in order to be functional throughout their twilight years. A marginal myofibrillar hyopertophy will help muscles increase in capacity and prolong quality of life and allow for participation in a broader range of activities. That’s not to say that old people need to become bodybuilders or weightlifters, nor could they. However any increase in muscle size with corresponding functional capacity is beneficial to people over the age of 60 (not that 60 is elderly).

Health benefits of drinking water

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The body is this complex organism with multiple systems working together to make it run effectively. There’s the digestive system, the circulatory system, and many more. What we find is that an adequate supply of water is necessary to make each system run properly. When the supply of water is insufficient or when it’s quality is substandard, this can slow down and even break down the functioning of our bodies.

 

 

Let me be more specific. You may know something about how a car works. If you’re anything like me, you don’t know too much here! There is a fuel system which moves the gas from the tank up to the fuel injector where the spark plugs explode it and make the pistons and engine run. Then there is an exhaust system which removes the wastes, in this case exhaust. But a car also has an electrical system, a cooling system, a brake system, etc.

 

 

Let’s take a look at our bodies as this complex of systems which work together. We’ll look at each system and note the role of water to each system. We’ll also observe what happens when there isn’t adequate water. Systems slow down and even break down.

 

Water and the Digestive System

 

Begin with the digestive system. This is the fuel system which energizes the body. An adequate supply of water is needed to digest and absorb the vitamins and nutrients in our food. Water helps with weight control. When I’m feeling hungry but don’t need the extra calories, a good glass of water can help suppress my appetite. I personally have some fat I’d like to take off! My body burns fat best when there is enough water. If I don’t drink enough water, I can experience constipation. These are just a few of the health benefits of drinking water to the digestive system.

 

 

Common sense and a general understanding of anatomy tells us these kinds of things about water and the body. However, we tend to take them for granted. By going through these body systems briefly, you’ll begin to sense the huge importance of drinking water to our everyday health.

 

Water and the Circulatory System

Once food has been digested, the circulatory system takes over. The circulatory system is the body’s delivery system. It delivers nutrition, vitamins, oxygen, hormones and even antibodies to every part of the body. At the center of the circulatory system is the heart. A study revealed that people who drink more than 5 glasses of water a day were less likely to die from a heart attack or heart disease than those who drank fewer than 2 glasses a day. This is because with dehydration, the blood thickens and is harder for the heart to move around.

Water and the Waste Removal System

 

A third system is the waste removal system. Here we can see further health benefits of drinking water. The blood not only takes nutrition to the many cells of the body, but carries off waste which is removed to the lungs or removed by the kidneys, liver, bladder and urinary tract. The intestines remove the food that remains. An adequate supply of water is needed to flush the body of toxins. But when we don’t drink enough water…?

 

Water and the Defense System

The defense system of the body fights disease and health breakdown. Again this illustrates further health benefits of drinking water. Kidneys that don’t get enough water may grow kidney stones and with it lots of pain! Adequate drinking water reduces the risk of colds, constipation, urinary tract infections and even bladder cancer. Drinking water is a kind of strong weapon against infections and a healing tool for other illnesses.

Water and the Cooling System

 

The cooling system of the body runs on an adequate supply of water as well. I am writing this on a hot summer day in June. My perspiration is cooling my body down and helping to regulate my body heat.

 

Water and the Lubrication System

 

Water lubricates our eyes, our mouths and our noses. Things we take for granted. I had an aunt who needed to put tear drops into her eyes every couple of hours, a real pain! These are but a few elements of the sixth system, the lubrication system of the body. Water helps cushion the body organs and provide lubrication in the joints. These are further examples of health benefits of drinking water.

Build muscle with strong lifts

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he biggest muscle building mistake you can make is doing routines from muscle magazines. Most of those guys don’t train naturally, are genetically gifted and never started training that way. Doing their routines won’t make you build muscle fast.

The average person needs a different approach. One that builds muscle fast and prevents physical & mental overtraining from doing too much, too soon. Here’s how to build muscle: the definitive guide to building muscle.


1. Get Stronger. More strength is more muscle. Get into strength training. I recommend weight training because it allows you to start light and add weight endlessly. Body-weight exercises work too. Start with an empty bar. Learn proper technique. Add weight each workout to keep pushing your body out of comfort zone.


2. Use Free Weights. You can lift the heaviest weights using barbells. More weight is more stress, thus more muscle. Dumbbells are great for assistance exercises, but not for your main lifts. Stay away from machines.

  • Safe. Machines force you into fixed, unnatural movement patterns which can cause injuries. Free weights replicate natural motions.
  • Efficient. Free weights force you to control and balance the weight. This builds more muscle than machines, which balance the weight for you.
  • Functional. Strength built on machines doesn’t transfer to free weights or real life. No machine balances the weight for you in real life.
  • Versatile. You can do hundreds of exercises with just 1 barbell. Saves a lot of money and space, especially if you want to build a home gym.


3. Do Compound Exercises. Isolation exercises are ok once you’ve built base strength & muscle mass. But if you’re starting to build muscle, exercises that hit several muscles at the same time are better.


4. Train Your Legs. Squats work your whole body, they’re the most important exercise. You’ll look totally different once you can Squat 300lbs. That’s a free weight Squat with hips coming lower than knees.

All your muscles tense when doing Squats & Deadlifts. They work your body as 1 piece and let you lift heavy weights. Don’t lose time with Biceps Curls. When you can Squat & Deadlift heavy weights, you’ll have bigger arms.


5. Do Full Body Workouts. Don’t do those muscle magazine workouts. Body part splits with isolation exercises is fine once you’ve built a foundation. That’s once you can Squat 300lbs.

You can’t Squat that much or never did Squats? Check StrongLifts 5×5. It takes 3 workouts per week of about 1hour each and includes compound exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Barbell Rows, Overhead Press, Pull-ups, Dips, etc.


6 Get Recovery. Pro athletes workout 5-6 times per week. But they didn’t start that way. They added workouts as they got stronger & bigger. You’ll overtrain if you jump into their routines. As a beginner you need more recovery.

  • Rest. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you workout. Start with 3 full body workouts per week and focus on intensity, not gym time.
  • Sleep. Growth hormone releases when you sleep, building muscle. Aim for 8 hours sleep. Nap post workout if your lifestyle allows.
  • Drink Water. Avoids dehydration and helps muscle recovery. Drink 2 cups water with each meal, and sip water during your workout.
  • Eat. “Eat like a horse. Sleep like a baby. Grow like a weed”. Your training is useless if you don’t eat enough calories for recovery.


7. Eat Whole Foods. You’ll achieve a lower body fat, so the muscles you’ve built show better. And the vitamin & mineral content helps recovery. Stop eating food coming from a box. Eat whole foods 90% of the time. Check my StrongLifts Diet.

  • Proteins. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, …
  • Carbs. Brown rice, oats, whole grain pasta, quinoa, …
  • Veggies. Spinach, broccoli, tomato, salad, carrot, …
  • Fruits. Banana, orange, apple, pineapple, peers, …
  • Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, real butter, nuts, flax seeds, …


8. Eat More. Training is more important than diet for muscle building. But you do need to give your body the food it needs for optimal recovery. Most guys don’t eat enough, you got to eat more to build muscle.

  • Eat Breakfast. Get calories from the first hour. Read how to build the habit of eating breakfast. Try these 7 breakfast recipes.
  • Eat Post Workout. Get proteins and carbs post workout to help muscle recovery and replenish your energy stores.
  • Eat Every 3 Hours. 6 meals/day. Gives your muscles a steady intake of protein, speeds up muscle repair & recovery, boosts your metabolism.
  • Eat BW in lbs x 18kcal. Track your daily calorie intake using FitDay. You need at least your body-weight in lbs x 18kcal to maintain weight.


9. Gain Weight. You’ll never look muscular weighing 140lbs at 6″. No matter how much training you do. Check the guide on how to gain weight for skinny guys. Here’s the most important part.

  • Eat Calorie Dense Foods. 100g raw spinach is 25kcals. But 100g raw rice is 380kcals. Eat pasta, oats, olive oil, mixed nuts, etc.
  • Get Stronger. Increase your Squat to at least 300lbs. Muscle size is directly related with strength gains. You got to get stronger to build muscle.
  • Drink Whole Milk. If you don’t bother gaining some fat, drink 1 gallon whole milk daily on top of your current food intake. You can gain 25lbs in 1 month if you combine this with 3 weekly Squat sessions.


10. Get Protein. Proteins have the highest thermic effect. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight daily to build & maintain muscle. That’s 160g of daily protein if you weigh 160lbs/72kg. Eat whole proteins with each meal.

  • Red Meat. Ground round, steaks, deer, buffalo, …
  • Poultry. Chicken breast, whole chicken, turkey, duck, …
  • Fish. Tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, …
  • Eggs. Eat the yolk, it’s full of vitamins.
  • Dairy. Milk, cottage cheese, quark cheese, yogurt, whey, …

If you weigh 160lbs: 1 can of tuna at lunch, 300g quark as snack, 300g meat at dinner and 500ml milk through the day gets you 160g protein. Read also how to get your daily protein when you’re a vegeterian/vegan.


Persist. Get stronger, track progress and persist until you’ve built the muscles you want. You’ll see the biggest change in physique after following this method for 2 months. For a free muscle building guide, get StrongLifts 5×5 FREE eBook.

Fat loss with HIIT

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HIIT is a training idea in which low to moderate intensity intervals are alternated with high intensity intervals.

HIIT can be applied to running or to exercises such as squatting. HIIT is considered to be much more effective than normal cardio because the intensity is higher and you are able to increase both your aerobic and anaerobic endurance while burning more fat than ever before.

“In research, HIIT has been shown to burn adipose tissue more effectively than low-intensity exercise – up to 50% more efficiently.” It has also been shown to speed up your metabolism which helps you burn more calories throughout the day.

HIIT improves both energy systems for endurance:

 Anaerobic Energy System

Anaerobic literally means “Without oxygen.” The anaerobic energy system is what provides energy in all out efforts of up to 1 minute. For the first ~10-15 seconds, the phosphate pool is used up and after that, glycolysis and lactic acid are involved in the effort.

During 10-15 second bursts, there is a very small amount of lactic acid produced and rest periods of 30 seconds to a minute will provide complete recovery of the Adenosine Triphosphate-Creatine Phosphate (ATP-CP) system. During efforts of more than 10-15 seconds, a large amount of lactic acid is produced and such efforts are extremely taxing on both the athlete’s muscles and their Central Nervous System (CNS).

 Aerobic Energy System

Aerobic literally means “with oxygen.” This energy system is utilized during prolonged exercise over a period of at least 3-4 minutes. As long as there is enough oxygen to provide energy, the fatigue that you experience will remain at a low level.

This is the reason why many track and field athletes train at higher altitudes where there is less oxygen. By training at high altitudes, they can increase the number of red blood cells which will help them to perform for a longer period of time with little to no fatigue throughout.

HIIT can be used with a few different goals in mind – to lose as much fat as possible while cutting or bulking, or to improve aerobic and anaerobic endurance as much as possible. Diet will mostly determine how these goals are achieved by manipulatingcalories and macronutrient ratios.

HIIT during a Cutting Phase:

 

  • 500 Calories under maintenance daily
  • High Protein (40% of total calories)
  • Low Carbs (20% of total calories)
  • High Fat (40% of total calories)

 

It has been proven in studies that during a low carbohydrate and high fat diet, the oxidation of fat is increased during exercise, especially cardio such as HIIT (more fat is burned). Additionally, fat is a much more highly concentrated source of energy than carbohydrates.

“A review by Hultman (1995) found that during a diet where carbs are restricted and a lot of fat is consumed, up to 70% of the energy requirement (even during high intensity activities) comes from the oxidation of fat (where during a high carbs diet, such activities would derive 80-90% of the energy from glycogen).” (Thibaudeau)

Sample: 2000 Calories Daily

 

  • 200 Grams of Protein
  • 100 Grams of Carbs
  • 90 Grams of Fat

Morning Cardio

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Most bodybuilders, fitness enthusiasts, and personal trainers, will tell you that the best time to do cardio is early in the morning, on an empty stomach. For some reason, which most of them don’t know the answer to, they will tell you this is the perfect time to facilitate fat burning.

I am here to say they are off base in this approach to losing body fat, and I will tell you why. As bodybuilders, most of us endeavor to eat 5-6 meals a day, spaced out over three hour intervals. This helps to keep blood sugar levels stable, keeps us in an anabolic state by maintaining a positive nitrogen balance, aids in better digestion and assimilation, and also helps to keep the waistline smaller, as most of the meals should not be big meals, per se’!

After sleeping all night for 6-8 hours, or whatever amount is required for you personally, the body, upon arising in the morning, is in a very catabolic state. This means a state of negative nitrogen balance, something no bodybuilder wants.

To perform cardio at this time, on an empty stomach, creates a further state of catabolism, thus resulting in muscle breakdown, and muscle tissue loss. The exact opposite of what bodybuilding is all about! It’s true that blood sugar levels are low in the morning, but so are amino acids, the building blocks of protein.

If you must do cardio in the morning… no big deal, just make sure to have a protein drink, or a light protein meal, 45-60 minutes before the aerobic session. Your first priority in the morning, after fasting all night during sleep, should be to feed the body protein and carbs, thus restoring the body to an anabolic state once again. You always want to remain in this anabolic state, if possible, that’s why we eat every three hours or so.

In my opinion, the best time to do cardio is after you workout with the iron. Performing your cardio workout after training with the weights, is the most ideal time to burn fat. The reasoning behind this thinking is that during your weight training workout you are using glucose, and stored glycogen, as fuel for energy.

Run uphill to burn fat

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ou may not know it, but every treadmill comes factory equipped with a “faster results” button. Push it and you’ll burn more fat, build stronger legs, and boost your fitness level to an all-time high—without adding a second to your treadmill workout. There’s just one problem: This magical interface is labeled “incline” on the control panel. And that means hardly anyone touches it.

It’s easy to understand why: Running on an incline is harder, even though your pace is slower than on a flat surface. But that extra effort is the driving force of a more efficient workout. Researchers at the University of Georgia found that uphill running activates 9 percent more muscle each stride compared with exercising at the same relative intensity on level ground.

nd if you’re not dialing up the incline, you’re practically running downhill: English scientists determined that a 1 percent treadmill elevation is needed just to replicate the energy requirements of running on an outdoor track.

Of course, that hill up the road can accomplish the same thing. Feel free to attack it—just follow our advice. Hills deliver an exhilarating workout and great results for racers, from a PR in your weekend 5-K to Meb Keflezighi’s silver medal in the Athens Olympic Marathon, which came after he added extra hill work to his training.

Either way, moving your workout to higher ground yields greater dividends from the same time investment. Because you can control the degree of incline, treadmills provide an added benefit beyond protection from the elements. “Exercising on a machine allows you to structure hill work that is very specific to your goals and level of fitness,” says Rick Morris, author of Treadmill Training for Runners.

Ramp up your treadmill workout and tap the full potential of your treadmill with our guide to indoor hill training—it’s as easy as pushing a button.

Choose the workout that best fits your goals, or rotate workouts. Varying your approach each session is a great way to reap the benefits of each type of training while banishing boredom. Before each workout, warm up for 5 to 10 minutes by walking or jogging at an easy pace.

Strength workout

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The best workouts are built on basic compound exercises: squats, deadlifts, bench and shoulder presses, chinups, rows. As your own trainer, your job is to fit these exercises into a balanced program. Below are the exercise categories I draw from to do just that, along with the number of times I use a category in a week. But to make it easy, my Ultimate Strength Workout shows you exactly how to put it all together. Add in a great warmup and some core work, and you’ll have a template you can use to build the body you want.

SQUAT (1 or 2 times a week)
Includes barbell back and front squats and all the dumbbell variations.

DEADLIFT (1 or 2 times a week)
Includes traditional barbell deadlifts (arms outside legs), sumo-style (wide stance, arms inside legs) and straight-leg lifts, and more variations than most of us could do in a lifetime.

SINGLE LEG (2 or 3 times a week)
Includes lunges; stepups; single-leg squats; and deadlifts with body weight, a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells.

HORIZONTAL PULL (2 or 3 times a week)
“Horizontal” refers to the direction of movement if you were standing up. So if you’re doing a seated cable row or a bent-over dumbbell row, it’s still considered a horizontal pull. This category also includes face pulls and inverted rows.

HORIZONTAL PUSH (2 times a week)
Examples of these exercises include the classic pushup; the bench press with barbell or dumbbells; dips; and all their variations.

VERTICAL PULL (1 or 2 times a week)
Includes chinups, pullups, and lat pulldowns.

VERTICAL PUSH (0 or 1 time a week)
Includes all the variations of the shoulder press.

2. What should I do first?

The first exercise in each workout should be the one that requires the most effort. If your goal is overall strength, begin one workout with a squat and another with a deadlift, and separate them as much as possible. So if you do squats on Monday, do deadlifts on Friday. On Wednesday, you could start with an upper-body exercise. If your main goal is upper-body size, do the reverse and start your Monday and Friday workouts with upper-body exercises.