After seeing some pictures after the WMG, I am seeing too much of me, if you know what I mean. Not that I'll cut down to the next weight class, but the old singlet was a little too round in the middle. It is time to lose some of the extra weight, but how to do it and not compromise any strength and power gains that have been made over the last year? Once the training year starts back up, the first four weeks are going to be spent developing some work capacity and it should be just as good of time as any to experiment with some fat loss ideas.
For the fast version. Work capacity or general preparatory phase (GPP) training is just flat out hard ass work. The typical time range for improving GPP is two to three weeks, but for some longer periods of inactivity, the GPP can be extended. The blessing and the curse about this time of training is the weight of the bar does not look all that impressive: only 40%-65% of your max weight, but while you are lighter in resistance, you make up for it in reps and sets. The way I set up GPP workouts are 12 minute long circuit style blocks where you have prime movement lift with resistance, followed by a active recovery static abdominal bracing activity, a body weight movement lift, then end with a grip exercise. So Monday, my first block will look like: back squats x10 at 50%1RM, 25 seconds of a forward bridge (or plank), 25 seconds of up/downs, and then 25 seconds of bar hangs. Sure, it doesn't look all that bad, but let me put it in this context: During my 12 minutes the goal is 6-8 cycles, which would put me at roughly 22,000 pounds moved just on the back squat. If you include moving my body weight on the squats and up/downs then we are talking about an additional 1,440,000 pounds or around 730 tons moved in 12 minutes. To compare, during the hardest day of a "peaking" workout, most people will not even see 4,000 pounds moved. Don't forget, 730 tons is just from the first of three training blocks.
These GPP style workouts provide very little training stimulus to improve muscular strength of power development as you are just not moving enough weight or moving with enough speed so have truly significant changes. GPP workouts do provide a very significant stimulus for increasing aerobic capacity, and with some college athletes I have wired with heart rate monitors, they were ranging between 165-200 beats per minute for 45 minutes, and that is something you just cannot duplicate with any treadmill. In addition to the aerobic benefit, the increased strength to the tendons and ligaments of the body cannot be overlooked. Due to the natural way those connective tissues respond, it takes a massive amount of work to illicit any change in their elastic and plastic natures.
So that is the style of workouts I am starting off the training year with. If you think that reminds you of a typical CrossFit workout, well it should. For the most part their Workout Of the Day (WOD) are usually just a GPP style workout. And for the portion of the population who do not have any specific training goals other than to look better naked, this is just fine for them with some improvements in strength and overall fitness added in for good measure. For the other part of the population that want to compete in any team or individual sports, where very specific needs of strength, power, and conditioning need to be covered, all I'll say is they will not reach their fullest potential if all they use are GPP workouts.
But exercise is just one part of the cycle of fat loss, we have to cover the nutrition as well. Dr. Zatsiorsky discusses the Energetic Theory of Hypertrophy and talks about how the body uses its calories for one of two activities: either mechanical work or tissue repair, which means that once enough work has been done to stimulate the body, then we need extra energy to have the body repair itself. If you reverse this principle and keep in mind the body's first goal is to repair itself, and if we can provide enough energy through food for the repair process any extra mechanical work that needs to be performed has to be taken from the body's fat stores. But which is the best way of going about this?
Looking at the work of Dr. Beradri and his experiments with intermittent fasting (precisionnutrition.com) and the success Martin Rooney and his crew have had with this at Training For Warriors (trainingforwarriors.com), it looks like this is right up my alley. With any new idea, the first reaction is that of rejection and disgust, and the intermittent fasting concept has had plenty of that. The main idea that people take offense to is that the window for eating is reduced from the normal 14-16 waking hours, to 8-12 hours. Basically once you wake and have some sort of tea or coffee, then start your standard hydration schedule, but you do not get any calories until after a noon workout, which is followed by regular eating over the course of the day with selections of vegetables, legumes, and protein very comparable to Adkins, South Beach, or Paleo-style food choices. While these results have had some anecdotal evidence to support the success claims, there has not been any formal research that I know of yet. Also keep in mind the over all goal for this: off season weight loss. No competitive athlete should even think about this until after their season has ended and is in good health as determined from their primary care physician.
With two of these plans in place, success is going to be judged by a few measurable goals. First, there is going to be a pre and post event screening. This includes pictures from the frontal and sagittal plane, height, weight, body composition from skin folds, girth measurements at various points across the body, resting heart rate, blood pressure, and blood work done from my doc. In addition, there will be daily measurements of body weight, stress levels, neurological readiness, sleep patterns, and rate of perceived exertion from the workouts. Yes, it is a lot of information and data, but remember that you cannot make educated decisions without it!
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