Progress Report! (with photos)

Tnuac said:
How much good did the mountainbiking do?

15-20 miles, 2-3 times per week. All I have time for with my crazy schedule. BTW, when I am really heavy into riding season, I really back off my heavy quad work, but I keep up the posterior chain work. I get plenty of quad work during that time, but I don't get a lot of flexibility training on a ride, so I do spend a little more time doing light loaded lunges and crossover lunges to keep my hip flexors from becoming too tight.
 
Jp-
Excellent work, its great to see a trainer doing what he loves to do!

My copy of The New Rules of Lifting is already pre-ordered.

As far as your routine, I take it that you used a lower repetition range with higher intensities to stimulate the muscle fibers? Something like 3-5 x 5 Reps? Thats how I read your statement: "If you want to get the MOST fat burning effect out of you exercise, you have to challenge enough total fibers (recruit) with something HEAVY to get the metabolism hormones a kick."

Let me know if I am on the right track!

Excellent job anyway!

-Andrew
 
Andrew Smith said:
Jp-
Excellent work, its great to see a trainer doing what he loves to do!

My copy of The New Rules of Lifting is already pre-ordered.

As far as your routine, I take it that you used a lower repetition range with higher intensities to stimulate the muscle fibers? Something like 3-5 x 5 Reps? Thats how I read your statement: "If you want to get the MOST fat burning effect out of you exercise, you have to challenge enough total fibers (recruit) with something HEAVY to get the metabolism hormones a kick."

Let me know if I am on the right track!

Excellent job anyway!

-Andrew


Andrew, you are right on. Amazing how great heavy deads are for fat loss. I used a few variations on a theme though. I did mostly auto-regulatory routines, full body, circuit style. Then I experimented with Chad Waterbury's 10X3 methods with some success as well. I think that the autoreg is the way to go though for total training efficiency. Since I needed to recover within two days to be in supercompensation I used a 6% fatigue parameter. If I wanted to be in SC by friday I would use a 10% fatigue, and do a bike ride or two in between, but giving my CNS a full 4 days to recover and jack iteself back up.
 
JP-

Do you own Dietrich Buchenholz's book? The Best Sports Training Book, I think that is what the title is? I've read some auto-regulatory training, but perhaps there is some new information floating around?

I agree deadlifts are fabulous!

-Andrew
 
I've read his stuff, but not his book. He has great stuff on autoreg. I was introduced to it by strength coach, Bill Hartman, then went on from there. Remember that name though. Hartman is the best kept secret in the fitness industry in my not-so-humble opinion. One day the cat will get out of the bag, but until then he is still not-yet famous so still very accessible.
 
Jp-
I have heard Bill Hartman's name come up before. I don't know if this is the same one (I am assuming he is) that Tony Reynold's speaks of in his Interview with Alwyn Cosgrove here:

Outside of that interview, I know I have heard his name, but I cannot place it.

AREG is a very interesting concept, I haven't personally experimented with it, so I am not quite sold on it.

Kelly Bagget has some excellent summaries of DB's work on his site as well.

Thanks for you time!

Andrew
 
I've read Bagget's stuff on AREG as well. Good stuff. He does make it a little more readable. AREG trains you based on your current neural efficiency at training day. You literally only put out exactly what you have, nothing more, nothing less.

The flaw with a standard routine is that it doesn't account for shifting neural efficiencies. If a routine calls for 4 sets of lat pull, what if you hit your first form drop off at 3 sets? Then you are overtraining. What if you only do 4 sets and you could have done 8 sets? You undertrained.

With this system, you determine your max on a given lift in a given rep range, then reduce your weight by 6-10% (depending on when you want to be in supercompensation), and perform as many sets as you can in that rep scheme until you hit your first form drop-off, then that exericse is done. This is also how you can control your volume in such a way that you can train a muscle three times a week and not overload your CNS. It is a beautiful system, and the results you will get are incredible. Not only that, because you are spreading the volume across the week, at no time do you feel just zapped (a big sign that you're overtraining).
 
jp-
Very cool stuff, perhaps I'll go back through my saved DB and Kelly B articles and posts and give it another look!

Thanks again,

Andrew
 
wow JP thats awesome. great work you've done, the dedication shows. haha noticed the tattoo too. hard work sure does pay off, very inspiring. :)
 
jpfitness said:
I've read Bagget's stuff on AREG as well. Good stuff. He does make it a little more readable. AREG trains you based on your current neural efficiency at training day. You literally only put out exactly what you have, nothing more, nothing less.

The flaw with a standard routine is that it doesn't account for shifting neural efficiencies. If a routine calls for 4 sets of lat pull, what if you hit your first form drop off at 3 sets? Then you are overtraining. What if you only do 4 sets and you could have done 8 sets? You undertrained.

With this system, you determine your max on a given lift in a given rep range, then reduce your weight by 6-10% (depending on when you want to be in supercompensation), and perform as many sets as you can in that rep scheme until you hit your first form drop-off, then that exericse is done. This is also how you can control your volume in such a way that you can train a muscle three times a week and not overload your CNS. It is a beautiful system, and the results you will get are incredible. Not only that, because you are spreading the volume across the week, at no time do you feel just zapped (a big sign that you're overtraining).

JP-
Did Bill Hartman help you set up your AREG program or did you put it together yourself? DB's work is extremely difficult to read (I bought the Sports Book) and I was wondering if Bill was or could interpret the information better or if this question should go on your forum?
I understand the drop off theory, but there is some information that is still unclear, not sure if you can help or if I should ask Bill or DB himself.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Andrew
 
Are you sure that your body fat was 24% in the first pictures? I know you are but man, if that 24%, Mine must be like 80% right now...uhg...

Good job though!
 
Gmac,
Yes, I am fortunate for my genetics inthat my fat distribution is pretty even. You did look at my pudgy face pics too, right? I don't seem to concentrate on any particular problem area, like love-handles, but I just get plump and smooth all over. It is also tricky because I have been lifting my entire adult life, so I have a pretty solid foundation, which also makes fat easier to hide.

Andrew,
I did actually get help learning the concept from Bill directly... I hired him to be a guest presenter at one of my fitness summits that I host in my fitness center every spring, and that was the central theme of his presentation. Unfortunately I did not record that session.

Last year I had Chad Waterbury, John Berardi, and Lou Schuler (who actually comes to all of them) come out, and I did manage to tape it, but I've yet to edit it and put it on DVD. When I do that is one presentation you don't want to miss.

As brilliant as all those guys are though, I have to say that Bill is undoubtedly the most incredible source of knowledge I have ever encountered in this industry. He is quite humble and will never acknowledge this, but I consider him to be a genius in this field. He's FORGOTTEN more than I will ever know about training, and I am pretty confident about my training knowledge.

He may come back to my summit this year as a second. I am having the summit on the weekend of April 7th, and my main presenter is going to be Alwyn Cosgrove, along with Lou Schuler (authors of , which just came out this week, and is the best book I have read about weight training EVER!). Should be another blowout. I haven't set up a reservation page yet, but stay alert for it because I can only have 50 attendees to maintain the quality of the seminar.
 
I should have something up on my site this month. Register there. I will let everyone there (and probably here) know about it well in advance.
 
Great job, JP, well done!

Thanks JP just placed my order for the book "The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle". Your recommendation is appreciated.
 
How did you find out your body fat percentage. Did you get an official testing or with a online calculator? And if it was by calculator, could you tell me the website?
 
Back
Top