Fast, Lift, Run, Eat

 

     Before we get things started here, I haven’t been able to write quite as much as I want to on the blog.  I have been busy, as with a great many of you, in all likelihood, with various holiday functions and I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a book I have been working on for almost two years—and should have had finished by now—on Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Dokkodo.”  However, I will try to post at least one more essay/article—possibly two—to round out 2024.

     With that little aside out of the way, let’s get down to business. I had a question from a reader who wanted to know if I knew of any training program that was capable of both building muscle and burning bodyfat at the same time.  If you’re unaware, it’s widely considered damn-near impossible to achieve that feat.  Even guys on anabolics have a problem with doing such a thing, although the introduction of steroids, and other performance-enhancing drugs, into your system would definitely aid in such an attempt.

     I have written before about the one time that I was capable of doing this myself.  When I was in my early 20s, my workout partner Dusty and I (may his memory be eternal) managed to build some muscle and lose some bodyfat at the same time by following the “anabolic diet.”  If you want to know more about that particular diet—and how we managed such a feat—then read this essay.  But that wasn’t the response I gave to this particular questioner.  Although I did mention the anabolic diet to him, his question was about a training program and not just a dietary regimen.  What follows is the program and the dietary regimen I recommended (because, as I explained to him, they go hand in hand), though here I will also give various alterations and will go into much more detail than my response to him.

     First things first, diet is as important as training—in fact, even more so—when it comes to any attempt to achieve a reduction of bodyfat while simultaneously generating hypertrophy.  So you do have to pay close attention to diet, but diet is also important if you were simply after a fat-burning program or after a muscle-building program, so the program is obviously important as well.

     There have been attempts, at various times, to create programs that will build muscle and burn bodyfat at the same time.  I remember reading a very distinctive article by Don Ross in an early ‘90s issue of IronMan magazine, for instance.  I tried to find that article so that I could relate more of the information that was in it for you here, but, alas, to no avail could I find it in my box after box of magazines stuffed away in my attic.  (One day, I’m probably going to walk up there, only to find all of my old mags eaten by squirrels, or ‘coons, or ‘possums—I’ve had all of those critters in my attic at one time or another in various houses that I’ve lived in here in the deep south of Alabama.)  I’m not sure if any of those programs were incredibly successful, but I’m willing to give it a try here and see what we can come up with.

     Second things second, I do think it's best to attempt to either use a muscle-building program or a fat-loss workout program and not to attempt both.  But I also think that there are guys and gals out there who have been able to achieve this remarkable endeavor, so by no means would I want you to give up on trying it if it’s something that you really want to attempt.  It is worth a try, and experimentation is always a good thing in my book.

     With those words out of the way, here’s the program that I envision as being capable of producing hypertrophy and fat loss at the same time.

     The very first thing I want you to do is fast for at least 16 hours.  You will then train in a fasted state before eating.  (You may have already figured out the general gist of what I’m going for here based on, you know, the title of this article.)

     Choose a fasting and eating schedule that works well for you.  If you like to train first thing in the morning, then you will need to be capable of eating immediately afterward, and over the next few hours after that, and then you will need to stop eating for the rest of the day.  If you like to train in the evening, make sure that you’re capable of fasting during the day until you start your training.  I think that either way can work just fine.  I personally like to fast all day and then train in the evening.  I do enjoy working out in the morning, but I find that once I start eating early in the day, I have a tendency to eat longer in the day than I need to.  But, by all means, use whatever works for you so long as you know that you can stick with it.

     Once you start training, you are going to combine lifting with short runs/sprints.  I think there are two ways to go about doing this, depending on whether you want to use a split program or a full-body one.  Either will work well.  Pick the one that works best for your body type/fitness level and one that you enjoy.  The enjoying of it is the most important part, as you aren’t likely to stick with a program you don’t enjoy.

     If you choose to use a split program, then select 4 to 5 exercises.  Train the heaviest on your first 2 movements, using multiple sets of multiple reps—though they can be as low as 5-rep sets if you want to train that heavy.  Train these 2 movements without adding any runs/sprints in between sets.

     Once you finish with your first 2 movements, then on the next 2 (or 3) exercises you will train with a few less sets but for more repetitions.  In between each set, you will do a short run/sprint.  If you choose to run, then go for runs of 100 to 200 feet.  If you choose sprints—hill sprints are even better, and they are what I would prefer that you do, but you don’t have to—then choose 50 to 100 feet.

     Let’s say that you are going to use a 3-way split, where you train chest and back on one day, shoulders and arms on the 2nd, and legs on the 3rd.  Your chest and back workout might look like this:

Bench presses: 10 sets of 5 reps

     Alternated w/

Wide-grip chins: 10 sets of 5 reps

Incline dumbbell bench presses: 3 sets of 10 reps alternated w/ hill sprints between each set

Barbell rows: 3 sets of 10 reps alternated w/ hill sprints between each set

Push-ups supersetted with dumbbell pullovers: 1 set of each movement followed immediately by 1 set of hill sprints (making this essentially a tri-set)

     For a “cool-down,” end with an easy mile walk.

     You would set up something similar on your shoulders and arms day, and on your leg training day.  At first, you might want to go easy on the runs/sprints when training legs, simply because the amount of lower body work might be too much.  In fact, you could just forego the running on leg day until you make sure you’ve adapted well.

     This is not a program made for high-frequency training, so don’t attempt to train too much during a week.  If you followed the above training split, then a good schedule might be something such as this:

Saturday: chest and back

Sunday: shoulders and arms

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: legs

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: chest and back

Friday: OFF

     On Saturday, you would begin the next training week with shoulders and arms, meaning that every week one of the days just gets a single day of training during the week and the other two get 2 days of lifting.

     If you choose to follow a full-body program, then set it up in a similar manner.  Pick 4 to 5 exercises.  For the first 2 movements, don’t add any runs/sprints in between, and then do add them for the last 2 or 3 exercises.  This is the better option for beginners, or even advanced lifters who aren’t accustomed to this much running.  And this is definitely the option to start with if you were doing little to no cardio before beginning the regimen.  This option might look something such as this:

All sets here do NOT include warm-ups

Barbell squats: 3 sets of 5 reps

Power cleans: 3 sets of 5 reps

Bench presses: 2 sets of 8 reps alternated w/ hill sprints between sets

Barbell overhead presses: 2 sets of 8 reps alternated w/ hill sprints between sets

Barbell curls: 2 sets of 8 reps alternated w/ hill sprints between sets

     Add in a set or two of ab work and maybe a loaded carry or two.  If you do this additional work, don’t do any runs or sprints between these sets.

     No matter what kind of program you select, do not do the runs/sprints immediately after your weighted sets (with the exception of the superset of push ups and pullovers in the first program).  You want to rest at least a minute before and after each set of sprints.  The exact amount of rest will depend on the individual.  I advise waiting until just before your oxygen debt has completely recovered.

     Once you’re finished with the training, it’s time to eat!  The key to actually being able to build muscle on this program—as opposed to it simply being a good fat-loss regimen—is ensuring that you’re eating plenty of muscle-building calories.  I have a feeling that for most people this won’t be a problem.  This kind of training can really stimulate your appetite.  But this in no way means that you should eat any “junk” food.  Make sure you’re getting a diet with plenty of protein and plenty of either fat or carbohydrates, but not both.

     Let’s say that you choose to train in the morning at 7AM.  Your workout shouldn’t last longer than 45 minutes to an hour—depending on how long you rest on your heavy sets that aren’t interspersed with runs.  Eat one meal around 8, another around 10 to 10:30, and then eat a 3rd, and final, meal sometime between 12 and 1PM.

     If you were to follow a high-protein, high-fat, low-carb methodology, your meals may look like this:

8AM: large steak with 3 or 4 eggs

10:30AM: two large cheeseburgers wrapped in lettuce (no bun)

1PM: large chicken caesar salad

     Those three meals would provide roughly 1,850 to 2,000 calories and 130 to 150 grams of protein, depending, quite obviously, on just how big large is.  You could also settle for a high-protein, relatively high-carb, low-fat option but the only problem with that, as far as I can see, would be getting in enough calories to ensure muscle growth will occur.

     At the end of things, I’m not claiming that this program is definitively capable of the lofty goal of both fat loss and muscle gain.  But I think it very well could succeed.  If you want to see whether or not it’s possible for you, all you have to do is try.

     As always, if there are any questions or comments about it, then please leave them in the comments section below or shoot me an email.  Until next time, have some good holiday lifting!