I’ve just spent the last four weeks dedicatedly stripping excess fat.
On Monday I explained why a had to take a different approach to my cutting phase this time, compared to last autumn, and I also explained the changes that I had made to my diet. This post will explain what changed to my exercise program. The final results will be revealed tomorrow.
Changes needed to my previous exercise approach
As I explained on Monday, I couldn’t use the same exercise regime as last time.
Firstly, it’s been incredibly cold. Our garage has been below freezing at the end of each day when it has had the sun on it all day. Nothing was going to get me in there in a fasted state before daylight in the morning. Not even the latest research telling me that fasted was the way to go.
Secondly, January is usually my most stressful month at work. Doing fasted intervals five days a week last autumn stressed my body significantly. This time I needed to find a way to stress my body as little as possible (beyond the usual stresses of cutting) and also maintain plenty of relaxation time to minimise the cortisol risks.
The exercise – an amended approach to cutting
I wanted to keep a few things from my last cutting phase:
- high intensity intervals – there is no doubt in my mind that these work;
- weighted cardio – again, I believe I maintained significant muscle mass last autumn by doing my cardio with weights that required my muscles to work;
- heavy weights sessions – I’m still working towards the goal of qualifying for powerlifting and I didn’t want to risk taking a month out of this and losing strength on my lifts.
Carry on lifting heavy weights while cutting
The solutions
My solutions were simple.
- Keep doing my heavy lifting workouts four times a week, though with a reduced size pre-workout snack.
- Do a half hour weighted cardio workout on the remaining three days a week.
Heavy lifts
My “Powerlifting Progress” series has shown that, despite being on a cutting diet for four weeks my lifts have either maintained where they were at the start of the cycle or continued to improve, though perhaps at a slower rate. This has given me the confidence to believe that I’ve not lost any significant muscle mass.
One of my favourite indicators for this is my pull ups. I’ve had some massive gains during January, but as this is a bodyweight exercise I have to also consider that as I’ve got lighter, the exercise should get easier. Gaining 2-3 repetitions each week while losing 1-1.5kg most weeks in my body weight seems to suggest that at worst I have maintained my strength. It certainly doesn’t indicate that I’ve lost any strength.
Weighted cardio sessions
The attraction for me of doing a weighted cardio session on my three free evenings each week was that it meant I didn’t have to get up earlier, I could avoid going into the gym in a cold half-famished state, and I could actually do slightly more cardio than the 10-15 minutes I previously had available in the morning would allow.
It also meant that I went to bed each evening having done some sort of physical exercise that evening, providing me with something to take my mind off work and getting the oxygen flowing round my body. I suspect this is the reason that I haven’t suffered from dietary insomnia as significantly as I did last autumn.
The goal of the sessions was to take a high intensity interval approach, spread the exercises across my whole body, get my heart pumping, and get plenty of variety so that I didn’t lose interest. I also needed to ensure that I didn’t tire my muscles to the extent that it would impact on my heavy lift workouts.
Building a weighted cardio session
To make this happen, we created a program of paired exercises using light weights and high reps that would work me but not take me to failure. Four pairs of exercises were put together, two with arms and abs, two with legs and glutes.
Working on a minute, I did a high number of reps with a light weight on each exercise, taking about 30-40 seconds to complete the reps, then at the start of the next minute I would do the same with the other exercise in the pair. I would repeat this pair for 5 sets and then move onto the next pair.
Pairs of exercises (and in fact the whole program) were carefully worked out so that all the gear could be set up beforehand and I could move smoothly from one exercise to the next without taking more than the 20-30 second rest period available within the minute. In addition, I did everything as explosively and swiftly as possible, so I got some good dynamic effort work at the same time.
The weighted cardio workout
All sets done on 1 minute, except for pair one which was done on 30 seconds. Total time for workout: 35 minutes.
- Pair one: press ups from knees (8-10 reps); bent over rows (7-10 reps)
- Pair two: reverse lunges (8 reps each leg); step ups (8 reps each leg)
- Pair three: dragon flags (6-8 reps); dumbbell snatches (8 reps each arm)
- Pair four: rear-elevated leg split squats (6 reps each leg); single leg deadlift (6 reps each leg)
A side-note on work capacity
Before Christmas I wrote about my need to increase my work capacity. I’ve been addressing this for several months now and this latest cutting phase has convinced me that it really has been working. Never before would I have been able to handle four weeks without any rest days from my workouts.
Overall I was happy with the workout program. I sometimes didn’t do my cardio session on Friday, or I did a slightly reduced one, but otherwise I found this was a program I could stick to without too much trouble.
Tomorrow, in a final instalment, I will reveal the progress that I made through the month using this diet and exercise regime.
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