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Guest Post: Fat Loss Basics – Michael Gray

Today I have a guest post from personal trainer, Michael Gray.  Michael has been an avid supporter of this blog for quite some time, and he reached out to me several weeks ago asking if I’d be interested in letting him write up a little sumthin sumthin for the website.  I’m always getting emails from upcoming trainers in the industry asking me how they can go about getting their name out there more and how they can get their writing published.  And, more often than not, I always say the same thing:  write (a lot), and write for free.

This is something I’m going to touch on in a bit more detail in a future blog post, so stay tuned…..

 

Suffice it to say, this may come as a shock to some reading, but the likelihood of writing for publications such as Men’s Health or T-nation.com – at least right out of the gate – is somewhere between not a shot in hell and mud wrestling with Jamie Chung.

Note:  for those wondering who the heck Jamie Chung is.  Most recently, she was in the movie Sucker Punch.  You’re welcome.

All that said, Michael and I have been exchanging emails intermittently for about a year now, and in that time we’ve grown to have a professional repoire discussing everything from fat loss to functional anatomy.  And, of course, ripping on Tracy Anderson.

So when Michael contacted me to write a post, I gave him three stipulations:

1.  It has to be under 1000 words.

2.  It can’t suck.

3.  It has to include a reference to Saved by the Bell.

Okay, that last one wasn’t true, but he pulled it off nonetheless!  What’s more, he came up with a solid post that I think you’ll all enjoy.  So, I’ll shut up now and let Michael take over.

Fat Loss Basics

When Tony and I first talked about me writing up a guest post for his blog, we decided on a post that fell under the “fat loss” umbrella.  From there, the concept was totally up to me.

When you think about it, that’s a pretty broad umbrella.  There’s nutrition, programming, exercise pairings, recovery, off days, NEPA, as well as a few other topics that one could definitely write extensively on when discussing fat loss.

Being a regular visitor to Tony’s blog, I know that you all (his readers) are much more educated than the typical gym goer.  I wrestled with what exactly to cover, hoping that I wouldn’t post something that everyone simply nodded their heads in agreement with, but rather, cover a familiar topic in a way that brought about some new insight, or at least a fresh perspective.

I don’t consider myself a fat-loss expert, or an expert in anything really (except maybe Saved By The Bell trivia……Note from Tony:  ding ding ding.  He did it!!!!!), but if I’m honest, the majority of my clientele are looking to drop body fat.  And when you write program after program geared towards people getting their lean on, you start to notice trends.  Certain exercise modalities tend to get people leaner more quickly than others.  Others leave people so wiped out from their caloric deficit that they feel worse than a cheeseburger-eatin’ Hasselhoff.

Then of course there are modalities that are counter productive, (hello endless sets of high reps), as well as those that can just be flat out miserable. (Ever tried pulling heavy singles while in a caloric deficit?  Welcome to Suckville, USA.)

I’m of the belief that too often people try to accomplish too many things at once.  They try to drop 10 pounds of fat, put on 10 pounds of muscle, and add 50 pounds to their deadlift…all in the same month.  

While they can be lauded for their efforts, they’re most likely not going to have much to show for them.

So to be brief, if you’re trying to lose body fat, everything you do should be geared towards that goal while attempting to maintain other elements of your training (muscle mass, strength, mobility, etc.)

While some coaches will say that the only difference between a fat loss program and a mass building program is the amount of calories you take in, I think that’s a little over-simplistic.  I’ve had much greater success with fat loss when I tweak the elements and structure of my clients programs from what I would program for a typical strength client.

Below are a couple of examples of exercise pairings (or quadruplings) that are representative of one of the ways I program for fat loss.

Complete A1-A4, only resting long enough to move from one exercise to the next.

A1. Conventional Deadlift  4×3

A2. Med Ball Slams  4×12

A3. Spiderman Push Ups 4×6/side


A4. Jumping Jacks  4×50

Rest 60-90 seconds

Another grouping could look like this:

A1. Push Press  4×5

A2.  Kettlebell Swings  4×15

A3.  Reverse Lunge  4×8/side

A4.  Elbow Touches 4×12/side

Rest 60-90 seconds

THE SET UP

A1. I always, always, place the most technical and compound lifts first.  For obvious reasons, these need to be performed in the freshest state possible.  Remember, the goal of this type of programming is to maintain mass and strength, not increase it.  

You’re not looking to set a new PR.  If you shooting for sets of 3, it’s OK to work with a weight that you could pull 4-5 reps with.  It is important to work with a weight that you can safely lift, especially as fatigue sets in during consecutive sets.


A2. I like to follow A1 with something that still has a bit of a technical compenent to it, but isn’t terribly demanding from a strength stand point and does a decent job of keeping the heart rate jacked up.  The above examples are MB slams and kettle bell swings, but you could use other things like sledge hammer swings, moderately weighted sled pushes, rack carries, etc.

A3. This goes back to a more traditional compound, strength exercise, but again, it’s technical demand is much lower than A1’s considering fatigue is starting to settle in a bit.  Things like lunges, push ups, chins, rows are great here.

A4.  Bodyweight exercises that are low on a technical standpoint are perfect for the end of your set.  Things like planks (and all their variations), jumping jacks, jump rope, and high knees finish off the sets nicely.


THE RATIONAL

Transitioning back and forth between traditional strength based exercises and ones that are a little more explosive and cardiovascular based do something pretty cool.  They provide a constant elevation of your heart rate while giving you a chance to rest your muscular system from intense demand.  This allows you to get into your next strength exercise without letting you heart rate drop.  Or in other words, burn more calories.

I am not in any way opposed to the traditional way strength coaches design fat loss session, i.e. strength work kept separate from cardio/metabolic conditioning/energy systems work.  In fact, I often program for a lot of my fat loss clients that way.  But I have found it to be incredibly beneficial to them to have at least one day of their weekly training to be set up in a fashion similar to what is above.  

There are countless combinations that you could use, and there isn’t any reason that you have to pair four exercises together.  That’s just what I used for this example.  

Whether you choose to try these on yourself or on your fat loss clients (to be honest, you should always attempt something before you have your clients do it) I hope you find them to be another tool in your bag of tricks.  

I’d love to know how they work for you, so give them a shot and let me know what you think!

For more information on Michael, be sure to check out his website:  www.michaelgrayfitness.com, or check out his Facebook page HERE.

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 4/26/2011

How I Create a Perfect Fat Loss Day – John Romaniello

When a guy like Roman talks about fat loss, people listen – and with good reason (he’s purty).  More importantly, though, what I got most from this particular post is how he breaks up his day from a productivity standpoint.  I mean, I work with a guy (Eric Cressey) who will write a book in the time it takes me to take a dump, and I’m constantly amazed at the amount of work he can get done on any given day.  This post, specifically, lite a fire underneath my ass.  Thanks John!  This was awesome.

BSP Nutrition Tip #6 – Eat Lots of Healthy Fat – Brian St. Pierre (via Diesel Crew)

Jim “Smitty” Smith and the rest of the Diesel Crew just revamped their website and it looks sweet!  Here’s a fantastic article (which is part of series) written by my boy, Brian St. Pierre, on healthy fats and why you’re an idiot if you continue to avoid them like the plague.

How to Set Goals and Achieve Them 100% of the Time – Dean Somerset

Fantastic post by Dean on what REALLY motivates us to reach our goals.  One word:  Emotionalification.  Yes, I just made that word up, but if you’re able to find the emotional background of your goals, as Dean notes, you’ll never have to worry about setting a goal that never gets achieved.

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 3/25/11

T-minus FOUR days, 17 hours, 32 minutes, and 23 seconds and I’m outta here on a much needed vacation (but who’s counting).  My girlfriend and I are heading down to her homestate of Florida next week, where I plan on doing nothing but being horizontal (get your mind out of the gutter) and soaking up vasts amounts of vitamin D.

We’re going to be in Jensen Beach as a matter of fact; which, coincidentally, is the pineapple capital of the world!

It’s going to be glorious.  I’m contemplating possibly taking the entire week off from training – I honestly can’t remember the last time I did that, but seems how Lisa’s mom got us a week’s pass to the local gym, that’s highly unlikely.  I say I’m going to take time off, but then after like two days, I go through withdrawls and have to lift something heavy off the floor.  It’s like a tick.

Anyways, Ihave the ladies showing up for the women’s group in like fifteen minutes, so I’m just going to leave you this week with a few things to keep you from doing your work:

Success Tips from Cressey Perfomance – Jason Bonn

Jason is one of the team members of Precision Nutrition, and is also currently interning at CP.  Here, Jason sheds some light on his experience at CP and does an excellent job at helping people realize that it sometimes makes more sense to focus on the “common threads” in life.

What Women Should Never do (but often do) While Trying to Get In Shape – Juliet Deane

This was/is a fantasic article that pretty much lays the smack-down on every myth, fallacy, and idiocracy that saturates the fitness industry with regards to training women.  Huge props goes out to Juliet for writing such a thorough and well written article – and, this is only PART 1

13 Tips for Anyone Who Wants to Improve Performance and Look Better Naked Part I – Training – Molly Galbraith

And, not to be outdone, Molly (who rocks a 341 lb deadlift, with movie star good looks to boot) provides all sorts of sound, practical advice that can (and should) be followed by anyone – whether you have a boy part or girl part.

That’s it for this week!  Have a great weekend everyone.

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Morning Cup of Vomiting in My Mouth: Worst Diet Advice, Ever?

Haven’t done one of these in I don’t know how long.  This one’s a doozy.

New York, New York:

Not that this is going to come as any surprise, but a plastic surgeon and an orthodontist (huh?) have recently teamed up to promote an extreme weight loss plan that involves daily injections of the pregnancy hormone hCG in conjunction with a 500-calorie per day diet.  Of course they would!

Here’s the basic logic (from the story linked above):  despite the fact that there’s absolutely no scientific research that it actually does anything, you tell people to inject themselves with this hormone (which coincidentally isn’t cheap) so that they won’t feel hungry when they’re only eating 500 calories per day.

What the shit!?!?!?!

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see the percentage of people who actually keep the weight off once they stop “treatment.”

My guess is not many.

Moreover, I’d love to be a fly on the wall as this soul-less, asshat of a doctor explains to people that following a 500-calorie per day diet, long-term, is in any way healthy.  Why not just tell them to drink battery acid and eat paint chips?  Surely they’ll lose some weight that way, too.

I really don’t know how these people sleep at night.  Hey, anything to pay off that BMW and fake tan, right?

And, I don’t care what anyone says, despite their claims to the contrary, the reason why they’ve never lost any weight (even though they’ve tried everything) is because they crush Dunkin Donuts like it’s their job and their idea of exercise is taking the elevator to the second floor.

People don’t like to be held accountable for their own actions.   It’s well established in the research that people vastly UNDER-report how much they really eat, and OVER-report how much they actually exercise.  We’re not honest with ourselves.

It’s pretty amazing how many people out there follow a “strict” and “clean” diet (supposedly) and run a marathon before breakfast everyday (supposedly); yet, low and behold, they’re still 40 lbs overweight.

Simply put, we’re just not as active as we think we are.  Sadly, for many, their ONLY form of exercise is the 3-5 hours per week they spend in the gym – and, that’s assuming that when they go to the gym, they’re actually exercising.

Think about it:  THREE hours of exercise per week.

While there are exceptions to the rule – more often than not, that’s not going to cut it (particularly when things like yoga, elliptical trainers, and pink dumbbells are the staple for most people).  We’ve all seen the infomercials selling exercise machines that promise the body of our dreams with only three, twenty-minute sessions per week.  Yeah, right.  And I’m going to drive over to Brittney Daniel’s house in my tank and take her out to T.G.I.Friday for dinner tonight.

In your dreams!

Listen, most people watch three hours of television before bed every night; so you’re kidding yourself if you think your Pilates class you take three times per week is going to do anything.  Even still, like I said, most people aren’t moving around as much as I they think in the first place.  Something’s better than nothing, but lets be real here.  What’s more, as my good friend Mark Young has noted repeatedly, if we’re talking strictly caloric deficit and it’s effect on weight loss, exercise takes a back seat to diet anyways.

Which brings us back to Dr. McDouchington.  Really?  You’re going to tell me that you have your patient’s best interests in mind by telling them to stick a syringe in their body and inject a hormone that 1) isn’t even being used for its intended purpose and 2) has no proof that it even works other than a few suspect studies?  On top of that, you’re then going to advocate they eat only 500 calories per day?

Excuse me while I go throw an ax into my face.

I’d love to hear what all of you have to say.  Do you find this just as absurd as I do?

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Time For a Little More Focus

So, yesterday marked the start of a new “plan,” in a manner of speaking.  Outside of posting the occasional video of me lifting heavy things off the floor or just my general awesomeness, I never really go into any great detail on my training or what my goals are.

Believe it or not, it’s not just always about having a steel plate for a chest 24/7.

As it stands now, I spent the past few weeks following Lean Hybrid Muscle, and while it kicked the living piss out of me (a good thing), I’ve decided I need a little more focus and something specific to train for.  To that end, I’ve decided that I’m going to do something similar to what I did roughly two years ago when I did Project Tony Gets Sexified.

To review, back in January of 2009, I put myself through a short, planned out, six-week phase where I was going to get as lean as possible and then, like an idiot, not take pictures.  In hindsight, it was a horrible time to do an experiment like that.  I mean, who gets shredded right smack dab in the middle of winter, anyways?

Anyways, I had a few stipulations:

1.     I couldn’t get too sexy.  It would have been unfair to all the other guys out there.

2.     I didn’t want my bodyweight to drop below a certain threshold – 195 lbs to be exact (starting weight was around 205 lbs at the time).

3.     And, maybe most important of all, I wanted to maintain my strength levels.  Simply put, I didn’t want to end up looking like an emaciated Abercrombie model that couldn’t punch his way through a wet paper towel.

That was about it, really.

Looking back – while there was definitely some structure (my good friend, Jen Heath, wrote my nutrition plan) – there was no real end-goal other than to diet for six weeks, hate life, think about carbs all…..the…..time, and say that I did it.

In the end, I was happy with the results and I looked pretty damn good if I do say so myself.  Well, as good as you can expect in mid-February with no tan.

So, here’s the dealski.  I’m going to give it another go, but not until mid-May/early-June.  I’m saying this NOW because by writing it here on my blog, I’m hoping that the sense of accountability will actually force me to go through with it – because unlike two years ago, there IS an end-goal this time around.

The game plan is as follows:

  • Take the next three weeks and clean things up a bit.  My girlfriend and I booked a flight down to Florida at the end of the month for a week, and I can’t, in good conscience, be walking around on a beach in the shape I’m in right now.  In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing more than dialing in my nutrition for a week or two, and maybe throwing in some quick, ten-minute finishers at the end of my training sessions.  Although, on an a side, I trained with EC yesterday and it was a doozy, so I may not have to worry about it.

A1.  Front Squats vs. Chains (3 per side) 2×3, 2×6
A2.  Stretch/activate something (which we didn’t do, LOL)

B1. DB Reverse Lunge 3×8/leg
B2.  Half Kneeling Cable Anti-Rotation Press 3×8/side

C1.  SUMO Thick Bar Deadlifts 3×10*
C2.  Slideboard Bodysaw 3×8

D1.  1-Legged Hip Thrusters – off bench 3×8/leg

D2.  Rotator Cuff Shiznit

  • Once we’re back from Florida, I’m going to spend the next 6-8 weeks getting after it.  Eric is currently doing a 5-6 day per week split (two upper body days, two lower body days, one “specialty day**,” and one carry/strongman day), and I’m just going to follow suit….I think.  Personally, I want to take this time and really “bring up” (yes, I just used a bodybuilding term.  And yes, a little piece of my soul just died) my lower body, so I may just toy around with a Smolov squat cycle, depending on how sadistic I feel.

  • By the time mid-May/early-June hits, it’s go time!  There’s no need to go into the details now (truthfully, I don’t even know what they are yet), but suffice it to say, I’m thinking I’m going to do it right this time.  Which is to say, I’m going to diet down, do an actual water manipulation/deplete/carb up the final week, and possibly hire a professional photographer to come to the facility and take pictures.   If you play your cards right, I may even show them to you.  You’ll have to beg, though……;o)

And no, I’m NOT stepping on a stage – so save your breath.

  • Then, after all of that, I’m going to make a run at that 600 lb deadlift I’ve been talking about for a while now.  Time to put up or shut up.

So, um, yeah, that’s it.  This should make for an interesting next few months in terms of my training.  Having some focus – a plan – will undoubtedly light a fire under my ass.  What about you?  What’s your game plan?  If anything, I hope this post got you in the mindset that having some kind of plan is kind of important.

* I pulled heavy last Friday, working up to 495 lbs for 4×3, and this was absolute torture.  Anything over five reps is cardio to me, and I can’t remember the last time I did ten reps on deadlifts.  Jesus, that sucked.

** Translation:  arm day.  ROTFLMAO.   No but seriously, though, I’m on it.