Stimulate Your Fat Loss Program
My buddy Brian Kalakay and I recently the filmed of the New Home Revolution Workout at his gym, “Xtreme Results” located in Michigan.
If you want some new ideas to run boot camps classes then check out his recent program 31 Done-For-You Boot Camp Games.
Ok, in part 2 of this interview series we discussed body weight training and what is the best form of exercise for fat loss. If you missed it you can listen to the call here.
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Brian: Sure. You brought up a good point that ties in with my next question. Turbulence Training obviously is known a lot in the fat loss world for the workouts you make, the great results, and the transformation stories that the TT world brings in the fat loss world.
I’m an ectomorph. I’m a skinny guy, trying to put on muscle. I mean, I just did that February Metabolic Monsters Workout. That thing killed me. I felt so ripped after that. You could just see the definition through the chest and everything, so you have someone like me who’s not necessarily trying to lose fat, but I’m trying to stay lean and really chiseled out and get really the Men’s Health look.
My question is, when someone like me is trying to gain a little size and stay lean at the same time, should we be still incorporating body weight training, or will that take away from our muscular gains?
Craig: Well, it depends on what kind of body weight training you’re talking about. In the new Meatheads program coming out in March, which is awesome, my best friend Jay Rackham is in it and he gained five pounds of muscle a month with all the latest meathead programs, and he’s not getting any body fat, and he’s my age.
He’s not a young guy like you. He’s 37 years old. I think we’re 37. I can’t remember any more.
He is using the meathead programs with no additional training, but there is pull ups and stuff, I think even some dips in there, but otherwise, we’re not using body weight finishers or anything. Especially when you get to our age and you don’t recover as well, you’re going to get extra sore.
A lot of young guys want to throw a lot of extra stuff in there because they really get worried about this body fat gain, but I don’t think it is worth your while. I think you run the risk of overuse injury by throwing too many of the body weight finishers into a muscle-building program. You should be stimulated, not annihilated, from the muscle-building program. It shouldn’t involve more training.
You’re already getting the metabolic boost from the resistance training. You don’t need to go and burn another 100 calories in a training session from a four minute finisher or whatever. You just don’t need to do it. I would not add it to your program at this time. You are pretty lean. You just did a real tough workout.
That’s a great program in Metabolic Monsters. It does exactly what you describe. That’s what it’s there for, to get people ripped requires a little more training, a little more recovery than most Turbulence Training programs, but it’s in there just for a short use of time. I think when you go and you move over to something like a meathead program and you’ve got the newest one, you just filmed it and did a great job with it, I would just move to that.
You’re not going out and eating 10,000 calories a day. You’re just going to bump up your calorie intake a little bit and what you should do is make sure that you’re measuring things and not eyeballing things. It’s something that is really, I won’t say annoying, but it’s really unfortunate that people will eyeball things and say, “I’m gaining body fat on this muscle building program,” and they really aren’t. They just have this bias.
“I’ve been on this muscle building program for three days and I’m gaining belly fat.” No, you’re not. You’re just not. Do some measurements here and let’s look at things quantitatively.
You can take measurements, you can take photos, and see how you really change. In four weeks, you’re not going to gain so much body fat that you can’t lose it in seven to ten days anyways by going back onto Metabolic Monsters.
Go with the focus. Don’t try and mix them up because mixing them up is going to have, in the long run, fewer results in my opinion. It’s going to take away from your recovery and your muscle growth and it’s going to possibly give you some overuse injuries that you’ll have to deal with. You won’t be able to train properly. That’s where people actually end up gaining body fat, when they’re not able to train properly.
Go with the priority. Everyone listening to this call should figure out their training priority and then just have the guts to stick with it.
Brian: That’s probably the most notes I’ve taken on a call, to be honest with you. I think the thing that stuck with me the most of everything you just said is, “stimulated not annihilated.” I think that’s where a lot of people, especially in terms of muscle gain, especially at my age bracket, like you said, they’re just very high volume and they don’t leave that time for the muscles to heal and build. 
If there’s one thing I think that callers really should listen to it’s that statement right there, “stimulated not annihilated.”
Ok I think this is a good spot to end it for today.
Join us tomorrow in part 4 where I give Brian some tips for building a bigger back
Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer
P.S. Don’t for get the new “TT Meatheads” program that will be available to all TT members on March 1st <= this Friday.