Q: Looking in the mirror, I see that somehow I’ve gotten very fat. I go to the gym, but I guess my eating has been out of hand for too long. Is there anything I should concentrate on during my workouts to help lose the fat? I plan to do cardio after every weight workout, something you’ve suggested. I desperately want to be ripped enough to see abs!
A: First, get your diet under control. You must start eating clean—cut down the junk—and get on an anabolic-meal schedule. Your best bet will be a typical bodybuilding diet, so eat at least 25 grams of protein at six meals a day. Try to eat every two to three hours, and get some carbs too—enough to refill muscle glycogen stores, which is about 200 grams a day. If you need examples, see X-treme Lean; it contains our complete meal-by-meal diets to help you get ripped…
Now, in the gym, you should concentrate on two very important fat-to-muscle activators: MUSCLE TRAUMA and GROWTH HORMONE release. Get both of those and you’ll not only build loads of muscle, but you’ll burn off a lot of ugly
Growth hormone has been shown in countless studies to supercharge the fat-burning process, especially around the belly. It can also enhance other anabolic hormones like testosterone so you build muscle more easily. Testosterone is also notorious for blasting off belly fat…
Muscle trauma, which manifests itself as soreness, revs up your metabolism after the workout. That’s because it takes energy to repair the muscle microtears—and a lot of that extra energy comes from your bodyfat stores. You actually burn fat just sitting around or sleeping as your muscles heal and grow bigger and stronger. How great is that?!
In The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout e-book, we outline a routine that appears to morph fat into muscle. We say “appears” because you can’t really turn fat tissue into muscle—but you can pack on muscle at the same time that you burn off fat—and this program does just that…
It has you do a progressively heavier pyramid on the first exercise, which produces some muscle trauma and increases testosterone. You follow with a lighter negative-accentuated set—one-second positives and six-second negatives—which amplifies the microtrauma. And you end each bodypart routine with two quick high-rep sets of a contracted-position exercise. For example, the full-range POF lat routine is this…
Midrange: Pulldowns (pyramid), 3 x 9, 7, 4-6
Midrange: Pulldowns (NA), 1 x 7
Stretch: Dumbbell pullovers, 1 x 9
Stretch: Dumbbell pullovers (NA), 1 x 7
Contracted: Stiff-arm pulldowns, 2 x 15-20
The muscle burn you’ll experience on the NA sets, with their 50 seconds of tension time, and on the high-rep sets on the last exercise, is the key to growth hormone release. Studies show that muscle burn increases GH output exponentially, and that will SUPERCHARGE your fat-to-muscle results big time. (Can J Appl Physio. 22:244-255; 1997)
So with that type of fat-to-muscle program, you get…
1) HEAVY PYRAMID work for testosterone increases and muscle microtrauma
2) NEGATIVE-ACCENTUATED work for more microtrauma and longer tension times for growth hormone output
3) HIGH-REP SETS for muscle burn and extra GH
If you’ve been following our e-zines, you know that another way to get that muscle-burning, GH-churning effect is with a quick 4X sequence. Take a weight with which you can get 15 reps, but only do 10; rest 30 seconds, then do it again, and so on for four sets. If you get 10 reps on your last brutal set, increase the weight on that exercise at your next workout. You could use 4X on the last exercise instead of the higher-rep sets listed for a final five-minute GH blast…
If you like the workout you’re currently using and want to stick with it, simply integrate NA sets and high-rep sets and/or 4X for fat-to-muscle success. And when spring rolls around, you’ll look your muscular, ripped best!
NOTE: The Ultimate Fat-to-Muscle Workout, X-treme Lean, AND X-traordinary Abs e-books can be purchased together in our Triple-Shredded Combo HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
ANABOLIC HORMONE RESET SOLUTION
Yes, it is possible to simultaneously build muscle while losing fat…
The right form of intermittent fasting will help you gain more muscle while you burn fat…
That’s because it supercharges your anabolic environment, including testosterone and growth hormone production.
According to Dr. Michael Mosley, it results in “better metabolic adaptations, improved muscle-protein synthesis and a higher anabolic response to post-exercise feedings.” [J App Phys., Jan. 2011: 236-45]
Proper fasting will NOT have you burning muscle—just the opposite as your body fat decreases and your testosterone and growth hormone increase. [Webber, J., et al. (1994). Br J Nutr.]
Still on the fence? Our friend Shaun Hadsall used an approach similar to how The Rock does it, which is explained in the new 1-Day Hormone Reset protocol, developed specifically for the over-40 crowd (women use it too, as you’ll see). Check out his results at the link below…
–> Your anabolic hormone RESET to melt fat, build muscle, and slow aging