When your goal is to improve body composition (more muscle, less fat), there are four primary factors that must be carefully manipulated within your training.
Each plays an important role in preserving, or even building, muscle while optimizing your ability to burn off excess body fat: Intensity, Frequency, Volume, Density.
Here is how each contributes to your ultimate goal…
Intensity
More specifically, the intensity of your contractions. This is not to be confused with EFFORT, or working “hard” in the gym. The more intense the contractions (using greater loads with excellent execution), the greater GLUT-4 translocation will occur within muscle cells. GLUT-4 has the ability to shuttle glucose into the muscle and store or burn it WITHOUT the need for insulin.
This means that your insulin levels will stay lower, improving your sensitivity to it, while increasing your potential to partition nutrients and replenish glycogen.
Frequency
The more often you train a muscle, the more frequently you can sensitize it to glucose and improve your insulin sensitivity. I cannot emphasize strongly enough how essential insulin sensitivity is for both muscle gain and fat loss. The more you train, the more more opportunities you have to stimulate growth (assuming you are adequately recovered).
Volume
As it relates to body composition, the greater the volume (more specifically, the higher the “quality” of volume / work – optimal execution and hard contractions), the greater the overall energy expenditure you will produce. Fat loss requires an energy deficit to occur – when the goal is to maintain, or even potentially to gain muscle at the same time, we ideally want to keep calories as high as possible while increasing output (volume) to create this deficit. The key is to gradually scale up total volume, rather than jumping to the maximum amount you can handle – this is where the principle of the, “minimal effective dose”, (or MED) comes in… just doing enough each week to stimulate additional fat loss and prevent a plateau.
Density
Doing more work in less time is one of the simplest ways to skyrocket your metabolic rate and increase EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption). Basically this just means you will continue to burn additional calories for hours after your training is over. Increasing density is great for burning off fatty acids, however, the denser the training, the less resistance you will be able to use over the course of your workout, and the lower the intensity you will be able to train at. We will use this knowledge intelligently to find the balance we’re looking for.
Putting It All Together
For the most, “bang for your buck”, each of these factors must be strategically incorporated for optimal body composition improvement. I’ve written Advanced Build & Shred (ABS) to achieve just that.
Frequency is relatively high throughout. There are sessions targeting both intensity and density, alternated appropriately to allow for adequate recovery without impeding performance. Total volume is gradually scaled up from week to week to progressively push you mentally and physically. A de-load period has been strategically placed in part way through to allow you to go on and CRUSH the last 2 weeks of this program where things will be toughest.
2x/Day Training
If you have the ability to train 2x/day a few times during this program, it is HIGHLY recommended you take advantage of the optional AM workouts in weeks 3-6. They are mainly intended to excite the central nervous system to get it and you fired up to smash the PM metabolic work. The goal of the A.M workouts is stimulation, do NOT exhaust yourself – avoid going to failure on all but the last set of each exercise. Focus more on improving the intensity of your contractions.
If you decide to pick up the meal plans for this program (recommended), you will simply remove the ‘Anytime’ meal and have an additional Post-Workout shake after the AM session if you train after breakfast.
If you train first thing in the morning (before breakfast), remove the breakfast meal and have the PWO shake after the AM session. Keep the ‘Anytime’ meal and place it appropriately during the day so you are still eating every 3-4 hours.
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Boom… time to get shredded while sculpting that physique!
Ben
