Health and fitness can be viewed in three aspects: the mental, the
physical, and the chemical. For any physical fitness program
to be completely successful, especially one geared toward
fat loss, it must be complemented by good nutrition (i.e., the
chemical),
and it must be something that you can get excited about and
want to keep doing (i.e., the mental), because no program will
work without consistency no matter how good it is.We’re going to discuss not only why the workout concepts and techniques described in this book can improve your physical appearance and functional ability but also why they are more exciting than many traditional methods (such as cardio and bodybuilding training) and therefore may be just what you need to stay mentally engaged and look forward to every workout. Put simply, you’re about to discover why the Strength Training for Fat Loss training concepts and workouts are safe, super effective, and designed to be enjoyable enough to keep you coming back for more!
Muscle Gains Through Strength Training
Now that you understand why you need
muscle to effectively burn fat, the questions then become “How do I gain
muscle?” and
“How do I keep (building) muscle while losing body fat?”
It’s no secret that the most effective method for gaining muscle
is strength training. However, even fitness professionals
seem to misunderstand the set and rep schemes that have been shown
in the research to work best for increasing muscle
(hypertrophy). You’ll often hear people around the gym spouting off
advice
like, “Do low reps to bulk up and higher reps to get lean
and toned.” Unfortunately, that common advice is false. Here’s why.
First, being “cut” as men often say and “toned” as women often say just means that you are lean which comes from fat loss.
Second, most of the men seem to be comfortable with training to gain at least some muscle mass, but many women unfortunately think they'll get “bulky.” This is just plain silly, since women have significantly
less testosterone than men. So allow me to speak specifically to women for a moment.
When you talk about “toning,” “enhancing,”
or “shaping” certain areas of your body, what you're really talking
about is muscle.
Put simply, muscle creates the shape of your body, and
therefore more muscle equals more muscle tone. You can't build a
perkier,
rounder, or sexier anything without building muscle.
And, ladies: To build that muscle, you need
to stimulate muscle tissue, and tiny dumbbells just aren’t the tools for
the job.
Instead, women often benefit from the type of heavier
lifting that they're more accustomed to seeing men do. Not to mention
that, as I also stated earlier: Muscle is a metabolically
active tissue, meaning it burns fat. Put simply, more muscle means
a faster metabolism!
Third, your muscles don’t become leaner by
doing any kind of rep scheme, because muscles only have one way to
develop: They
either get bigger and stronger (hypertrophy) from
strength training, or they get smaller and weaker (atrophy) from a lack
of activity. Or, they stay the same. In other words, your
muscles form the shape of your body, and being lean (having low
body fat) simply allows you to better show off that
shape.
Developing Your Muscle Base: The Foundation of Success
Building muscle is like building a
house: They both begin with laying the foundation. For the metabolic
strength training
concepts and workouts in this book to be maximally
effective and as safe as possible, you must first possess a strength
training
base. Developing a training base is the foundation
that you build on, and the better your foundation, the more you can
build
on it. You wouldn’t put on your shoes before you put
on your socks. So follow the correct process—don’t just skip ahead to
the stuff that looks the most fun—and you’ll get the
best results possible. Spending 3 to 5 weeks developing a strength
training
base has several benefits:
- Strengthens your muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, bones, and so on.
- Helps you become familiar with performing basic strength exercises using optimal form to prevent training-related injury.
- Improves your body awareness and the
ability of your brain to better utilize your muscles. This is known as
increasing neuromuscular
coordination.
- Increases your metabolic engine by adding muscle. (Remember, muscle is metabolically active tissue, and more muscle means
you burn more energy both while you train and while you sleep.
Now that you understand why you need
muscle to effectively burn fat, the questions then become “How do I gain
muscle?” and
“How do I keep (building) muscle while losing body fat?”
It’s no secret that the most effective method for gaining muscle
is strength training. However, even fitness professionals
seem to misunderstand the set and rep schemes that have been shown
in the research to work best for increasing muscle
(hypertrophy). You’ll often hear people around the gym spouting off
advice
like, “Do low reps to bulk up and higher reps to get lean
and toned.” Unfortunately, that common advice is false. Here’s why.
First, being “cut” as men often say and “toned” as women often say just means that you are lean which comes from fat loss.
Second, most of the men seem to be comfortable with training to gain at least some muscle mass, but many women unfortunately think they'll get “bulky.” This is just plain silly, since women have significantly
less testosterone than men. So allow me to speak specifically to women for a moment.
When you talk about “toning,” “enhancing,”
or “shaping” certain areas of your body, what you're really talking
about is muscle.
Put simply, muscle creates the shape of your body, and
therefore more muscle equals more muscle tone. You can't build a
perkier,
rounder, or sexier anything without building muscle.
And, ladies: To build that muscle, you need
to stimulate muscle tissue, and tiny dumbbells just aren’t the tools for
the job.
Instead, women often benefit from the type of heavier
lifting that they're more accustomed to seeing men do. Not to mention
that, as I also stated earlier: Muscle is a metabolically
active tissue, meaning it burns fat. Put simply, more muscle means
a faster metabolism!
Third, your muscles don’t become leaner by
doing any kind of rep scheme, because muscles only have one way to
develop: They
either get bigger and stronger (hypertrophy) from
strength training, or they get smaller and weaker (atrophy) from a lack
of activity. Or, they stay the same. In other words, your
muscles form the shape of your body, and being lean (having low
body fat) simply allows you to better show off that
shape.
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