I was looking for help from anyone. There is a popular mode of thinking that one's training goals and training should match, and that is where I am sort of stuck at. This mode of thinking has me wondering how to set up my workouts. I am currently 270 pounds and I am looking to shed 50 pounds and get myself down to the mid to low 220's and shed some unwanted bodyfat. My question to you is t what approach should I take to training.

Method 1

Use body comp training, which is super sets, tri-sets, and giant sets with longer Time Under Tension and short rest periods. I have used this method in the past, and the weights I use are so light that I feel I am not getting great results. But a ton of people like Poliquin, Mendalson and others swear by these methods.

Method 2

Just workout hard and heavy and let diet and cardio be my tools to shed weight and bodyfat.


Which approach is best???

Suprk
I am speaking from personal experience. METHOD 2 NO QUESTION. Before I continue I'll say that method 1 is good the very last part of a diet especially precontest to shed that last bit of water and fat but,the rest of the time no! My reasons for method 2, it is hard enough to maintain muscle and even harder to gain muscle while dieting so the best you can do is continue to train hard and heavy to maintain your size and strength not try to make your workout aerobic and lose even more muscle. Let diet and cardio burn the fat and the workouts build the muscle! A good high protein, moderate fat, relatively low carb, lower calorie diet, and some HIIT cardio (with plenty of BCAA's) will burn all of the fat.
Jimmy

I agree with method 2 also. The only changes I made precontest was to work each bodypart with one or two more days rest, ie, if I worked chest every 6th day NormallY, I would sometimes have to wait 'till the 8th day to work it again to MAINTAIN or IMPROVE strength. I feel if one trains lighter, one is apt to get smaller and since the below maintenance nutrition can affect recovery, I just had to take the extra days in between. I was using all the Bev supplements, especially the M.Aminos and the guy who tested my bodyfat each week believed that I lost no lean mass at all. Just my opinion though. G

IMHO the two keys for major fat loss (when looking at the training side of the equation) are the magnitude and duration of elevation of the heart rate, and calories expended. Calories expended is king and heavy lifting burns proportionately many more calories than lighter lifting - i.e. lifting a weight twice as heavy translates to MORE than twice as many calories burned!

Jeremy

Method 2 to begin with, then after four weeks Id switch to method 1, and then back again. As long as maximal effort is expended I think Method 1 will help and provide a nice change before going back to heavy.

Jason

Jason Theobald

www.geocities.com/chezburger10/JASONTHEOBALDBIO.html

Speaking from experince (used to weigh 270, 220 right now). Method 2 is the way to go, with a slight modification. Start with the diet, get the plan locked in. Then add in a little cardio. If weight loss stops you can alternate hight and low calorie days.

This will take some time as most people can only lose about 2 pounds a week. That being said, I agree with JT on alternating the training methods.

Most importantly, hook up with a Bev advisor if you haven't already. They'll be a big help.

Dwayne

I would say the combo that Jason spoke of. Now based on your weight and desire to shed body fat I assume your a endomorph or endo/meso combo. Now a endo type can put muscle on rather easy, but has a hard time shedding fat. A endo responds best to HITT type cardio 5-6 times a week and go with short rest periods and lots of sets like the example is #1. Now the fact that you also want to add lots of mass it is proven you will gain mass faster with methood #2. I would do each in cycles, but keep the cardio in when your on methood #2 as well. Keep the time around 15-20 min. 5-6 times a week. This way you can increase if you decide to go all out for a contest type fat loss program. Any more then 15-20 min now and you will be up around 60-80 mins. if you need to increse at the contest diet point and thats WAY too much. Anyway, short answer is both are correct.

Sully

PS Jason, I just recieved my new issue of NNNL and you look great, nice job!