The whole thing is over at the DJU site, but this is the basics. I have been working with a number of people on this and this program might be as good as I can do for this particular thing. I have some volunteers doing this, not many so I can answer every question ("How do you do this with one five pound dumbbell?"...Dunno!!!!), so there will be a learning curve for me:
The Basic Basics (if you don’t feel like reading all of this)
Five days a week, I am recommending this:
Get a good night’s sleep.
Wake up and drink coffee (or take a caffeine pill…not for me)
Keep fasting until you train.
Training:
1. Ab Wheel: 1 x 10
2. Vertical Press: 3 x 3
3. Vertical Pull: 3 x 3 or Six singles (adding load or staying the same)
4. Deadlift Variation: 3 x 3
5. KB Swings: Up to 75…push the Heart Rate up.
6. On the last rep, walk out the door and go for about 45 minutes without getting the heart rate over 180 minus your age. (The goal is for one-hour workouts…maybe five days a week)
Veggies and Proteins at meals; Drink Water all day as appropriate
Two “Gut Biome Breaks:” Fermented foot (I like sauerkraut) and a piece of fruit (I like apples, my daughter can’t eat them, so choose wisely). Just before a meal is fine, I like to do it between my two daily meals.
On the other two days, do some additional Original Strength work and go for a stroll, but keep doing everything else.
The devil is in the details.
Here we go:
I’ve been getting a lot of emails and podcast questions about using the Easy Strength model for fat loss. I am happy to report that people ask about fat loss now and stopped using “weight loss.”
If I cut your leg off, you lose weight. It’s not the same as fat loss.
Listen, it’s going to be some effort to lose body fat. I think gaining Lean Body Mass is the most difficult thing to do…followed closely by losing body fat.
Yes, that’s what people want. It is far better to NOT gain the fat than to try to lose it. Not long ago, Pat Flynn and I had a fun conversation about a question Covert Baily was once asked: “What would you do if you ‘woke up fat?’” I promised Pat that I would write a Pirate Map for this and…here you go:
If I woke up fat Pirate Map…for Pat Flynn’s Chronicles of Strength
Basically, we would have to look at three interlocking keys:
• Belly Biome
• Appropriate Training
• Sleep but also general recovery and joint mobility
We all know that I am going to say: “Eat protein, eat veggies, drink water” and “More protein, more veggies, more fish oil.” And, that is true. But there is more: a lot of new research is telling us that the gut biome is probably an issue for depression, some nervous disorders and, hopefully, the obesity epidemic.
As important as I think that nutrition is the key to fat loss (“fat loss happens in the kitchen”) perhaps the overuse of antibiotics, plastics in the food, odd chemicals in fast food and the aggressive behaviors food producers use to entice us to eat more beige food makes simply saying “eat less” counterproductive.
We must also learn to train on the edges of the Power Laws for fast loss. Intense short sessions followed by long walks “seems” to get the body in a state ready for fat burning. Finally, many people sleep poorly and never really recover. As we sit too much in chairs, we cement our bodies in ways that make it difficult to move AND difficult to get comfortable to sleep at night.
So…my answer to “What I would do if I woke up fat!” Here is my Pirate Map.
1. Before bed, make coffee and set the timer to wake me up to the smell of coffee. Take medications or supplements…if needed. Have one serving of Orange Flavored Sugar Free Metamucil (it is doing wonders for my blood profiles). Make the bedroom as dark and as quiet as possible.
2. Wake up and drink coffee (answer calls, emails, forums and write as needed) for a few hours. Sure, drink some water too. FAST while you work.
Three Days a week
3a. Hopefully, after about 15 hours of fasting, do some kind of short (4-15 minute workout) that has some level of full body movements and some intensity. I use barbell complexes; Pat has plenty of KB complexes. A four-minute Tabata Front Squat could be done every so often. Get the HR up, “get sweaty” and get done. Immediately, WALK for as long as you can. This is when you burn fat. I find about two miles with my ankle weights and hand weights to be just about perfect. You can also use cardio machines, but do NOT push the Heart Rate!
3b. During the other days of the week, do a fasted mobility “work out.” I use Tim Anderson’s Original Strength. Enjoy it. Breath and just let it flow.
4. Eat 2-3 meals a day loaded with veggies…and whatever else. One thing: BEFORE each meal, eat a few forkfuls of sauerkraut…or other fermented food. Not much is needed.
5. 1-2 times a day, eat a single piece of fruit (I choose apples) and perhaps some veggies, sauerkraut, and, if necessary, some fish. (I will often have a can of sardines if I somehow get “famished!”)
6. Take some time daily to meditate, read and self-reflect (writing in a journal can be gold). I also use the apps, One Moment Meditation, and Brain.FM to guide me here.
And, that’s it. I honestly think there is magic in fasting, Metamucil, sauerkraut, the apples and the intense workout followed by the walk. The OS work and “time to myself” not only deal with stressors but set you up for a better night’s sleep.
Every so often, I might increase my fast by doing the Fast Mimicking Diet or perhaps simply fasting from dinner to dinner. That’s a “might.” Would I would NOT do is…more. Let the body rebuild its biome, let the fat burning process happen appropriately and take care of sleep and stress. Don’t add MORE stress!
That’s what I would do. (End program for Pat)
That’s not bad. More clarity would be nice. These are the complexes I used for this in barbell work:
Complex A
Row
Clean
Front squat
Military press
Back squat
Good mornings
Complex C (It’s called “C,” from the work I have done in the past. This program doesn’t have all the others…including “B.”)
Hang snatch
Overhead squat
Back squat
Good mornings
Row
Deadlift
Barking Knees Complex
Snatch Grip RDL
Snatch Grip High Pull
Hang Power Snatch
Good Morning
Rows
(A fuller examination of complexes is at the bottom.)
But here is the problem:
I love complexes. After about three weeks of doing them daily, I HATE complexes. It got me thinking a bit.
Thinking. That’s a good thing.
Could it be possible to make the lifting even easier than complexes?
Getting strong easier? Hmmm. Like Easy Strength?
I started wondering about something Rusty Moore talks about a lot. His ideal muscle building workout for fat loss is, basically, Easy Strength. He feels that the ES style of training leads to a kind of muscle tone that looks good with lower body fat numbers. He takes the concepts of Easy Strength and applies them to “looking good!”
By using the concept of “irradiation,” loosely based on Sir Charles Scott Sherrington’s Laws, the idea is simply that one can add more load to the bar and stimulate more muscle fibers by consciously willing the rest of the body to kick in and help out.
Moore summed the basics brilliantly with his post on One Arm Presses:
Mastering the One Arm Press Requires Mastering Irradiation
https://visualimpactfitne ss.com/the-one-arm-military- press/
The second workout I did with one arm military presses, I was struggling a bit to get 60 pounds moving.
Then I decided to use irradiation in my favor.
I first make a fist with the arm I wasn’t using, let that tension increase across my body and when it hit the side I was lifting with I tightened my grip on the dumbbell and easily lifted it overhead.
Now I simultaneously do this while also tightening my abs. I haven’t tried flexing the legs yet, but I am guessing that will help me reach the next level.
This is where I am heading now.
End quote.
Moore developed this into a brilliant program called Visual Impact Frequency Training. He offers an amazing program here:
http://dj84123.visimpact.hop.clickbank.net/?id=frequency
(I am on an affiliate link here, but I bought it for myself. I am NOT recommending it for the income I will get on the affiliate; it’s a great program. It goes in a different direction than ES, but it might be worth your time.)
Yes, Easy Strength builds strength. But many people noticed that after a few workouts they felt better and “looked” better. Robb Wolf has a wonderful phrase, hormonal cascade, to explain that magic that happens when you train appropriately and good things happen to your body.
I think a program that stresses strength will also encourage your body to turn around.
“How” does it work? Well, I am working on this. At the end of this whole discussion, you will find information concerning studies about combining Resistance Training (RT) with other work. It’s science! I like Rusty Moore’s idea that when you lift, do intense work, you free up fatty acids and the walk after the lifting deals with the free fatty acids. He sums it as:
Intense exercise releases free fatty acids, strategic cardio burns free fatty acids.
That might be worth memorizing.
Daniel John
Just handing down what I was handed down...
Make a Difference.
Live. Love. Laugh.
Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude)
Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk.
Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth.
Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights.
Reread great books. Say thank you |
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