Tyler’s Workout Log – The PHAT Experiment – Day 1 of 28 – Hypertrophy Legs

For the last three weeks, I’ve been refining my own version of Layne Norton‘s PHAT (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training) lifting methodology.  Essentially, it has you doing two days of heavy (around 5 rep) lifting and then three days of hypertrophy (around 10-15 rep) lifting per week.

My only tweaks were to make it slightly more applicable to real-life movements and put a stronger emphasis on single-legged movements.  Also, I’m not a fan of 15-20 rep sets, so I try not to go over 14.  I’ll do a later write-up explaining this in more detail.

The results from the last three weeks?  0.38lbs of muscle gain and 1.78lbs of fat loss.  At least that’s what the 7-site body fat caliper protocol says.

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 24 – Heavy Lower Body

Well, despite the regression on the cleans, I’d have to say this was a good session.  Everything else went up.

Also, I think the regression on the cleans was largely due to my back still being sore.  Oh well.  Life goes on.

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 23 – Hypertrophy Upper Body Push

This was the most volume I’ve used for pushing for a very long time.  As a result, my pushing musculature fatigued a lot as the workout progressed… which was the point.  🙂

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 21 – Hypertrophy Upper-Body Pulling

Well, 25 sets of ten reps later, I can feel the soreness coming tomorrow.  At the same time, it felt good to get out some of my frustration at recently losing muscle mass.

The decision to do this was largely based on a recent article in one of the journals that we receive from the National Strength and Conditioning Association.  My NSCA certified friends may have read it.   Basically, a couple Exercise Science PhDs from Taiwan wrote about how to create muscle growth.  While sharing everything they said in its entirety is beyond the scope of this blog, they proposed a new theory on how muscle grows.

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 18 – Heavy Lower Body

A good day.  I added a couple extra exercises to what I did last week.  Also, I hit each goal I set for each exercise.  That’s always nice.  🙂

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 17 – Upper Body Hypertrophy

This felt really good!  I’m glad to finally be pursuing some muscle growth again.

How to Lose Fat Permanently – Part 1

Photo Credit
She can squat 240 and deadlift 330. Does she look bulky?

A while ago, I wrote Can You Be Skinny AND Fat?.  The article shows why weight loss without exercise only makes you fatter in the long-term.  It’s a difficult reality to come to grips with, but it is absolutely true.

Since it’s rather idiotic to point at something that’s wrong but never propose a solution, this is the beginning of the solution.  This article shows the better way.  It shows what can happen with intelligent fat loss.  Because, if you think about it, that’s what everyone wants.

We typically admire physiques that have at least some level of muscle.  We just don’t like the fat.  A figure model’s glutes don’t come from only calorie restriction.  They come from building up her glute muscles and then eating to lose the fat on top of the muscle.  That’s what the curve is.  Without the strong muscle underneath, there is no shapely curve.  There would only be a flat line between her lower back and legs.

Is This Exercise for Women?

Photo Credit

At Fitness Institute, we were taught in our first class that women should exercise just like men.  There’s not much of a gender difference.  A muscle is a muscle.  Since men and women both have to do the same things in real life (walk, push stuff, pull stuff, etc.), they should exercise the same way.

The only reason there’s any question about this is because ignorant marketing companies have pushed stupid products where women are advised to be terrified of lifting any weight over 3lbs.  Apparently, if you pick up that 5lb dumbbell, you will morph into the Hulk.  No woman wants to become a ripped monster with a green skin tone.  There aren’t any matching L’Oreal shades.

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 15 – Hypertrophy Legs

A nice day of progression.  However, I did sweat through my whole shirt.  Lol.  It just looked like it went from a lighter olive color to a darker olive color.  Gross?  Yes.  Somewhat awesome?  I like to think so.

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 12 – Heavy Legs

Well, this was a weird one.  I’m not really sure what the causal factors are, but I regressed on my two-legged exercises and progressed on my single-legged ones.  Whatever.

Tyler’s Workout Log – Day 7 – Runnin’ and Jumpin’

This was another conditioning day for me.  I like to do some multi-directional plyometrics and then finish it off with interval runs/walks.

For today, I went outside and drew an agility ladder (ten lines with 18″ in between each other) on the parking lot with some sidewalk chalk.  It’s ghetto, but it gets the job done.  🙂

How NOT to “Blast Your Butt Fat!”

The issue isn't that a large butt is bad. The issue is that a fat, shapeless butt is bad. Build the butt muscle with strength exercise and burn the fat on top of it.

Unfortunately, there are volumes of health and fitness misinformation.  I want to share one that I read today.  Sadly, it’s by a medical doctor who doesn’t understand that he’s not an Exercise Physiologist.  As a result, he probably has no idea that the butt workout he’s sharing on his website is absolutely idiotic if you understand anything about exercise science.  Why?

1.  He says to do it if you hate your large butt.  Exercising a muscle creates growth stimulus.  So, exercising your butt will result in a bigger butt.  If you really want your butt to be small, you should do everything you can to avoid using it (which I’m not recommending at all).

Can You Be Skinny and Fat?

I chose the title because I’ve heard people called “skinny fat” before.  When someone is called “skinny fat”, it means they don’t have any muscle tone even though they weigh less than most people on the scale.  Frankly, I’ve thought that the concept was pretty abrasive, and I haven’t used it to describe anyone.  But at the same time, it fairly accurately describes a lot of people who don’t weigh very much but still don’t look very healthy.

The cause of being “skinny fat” is focusing on total weight loss.  Because of this, people will restrict their food as much as they can to lose total weight.  The problem is that when they do this, they lose both muscle and fat.  This doesn’t sound horrible until you think more about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three main factors:

1.  A pound of muscle burns 35 to 50 calories per day (even at rest).

2.  Weight loss from restricting calories without exercising can result in up to half of that weight loss being muscle loss.

3.  Once you stop restricting your calories, your body is extremely likely to go back to its original weight.

What does that look like in real life?  Let’s take an example of a statistically average American woman who decides to lose weight by cutting a lot of calories without exercising.

BOSU Responsibly

This is something I try to remain respectful of largely due to the extreme popularity of BOSU balls.  For whatever reason, it seems like most personal trainers have a love affair with this workout tool.  Today, I watched a trainer have his sixty year old clients jump from one BOSU ball to another that was about four feet away.  Seems like a good way to permanently injure someone to me.  My framework of thought makes me want to avoid them because they don’t train normal human movement.

BOSU balls are designed to be used for increasing joint stability, proprioception, and largely core stability.  So, that is their purpose.  No more and no less.  The problem comes when people start using them excessively or in dangerous manners.