The Perfect Timing Fat Burning Workout

May 23, 2011 1 Comment

As often is the case in life when it comes to transforming your body timing is everything. Manipulating the timing of your meals and workouts can cause dramatic changes that bring you closer to your goals. This workout is based on taking advantage of your body’s natural process to burn the most fat when your body is most inclined to burn fat as fuel in a way in which it will burn the most fat for fuel.

Now there are some counter opinions to this believe (check google) but I have done this very program for one week and dropped 4 pounds after losing 13 in the prior 5 weeks, while maintaining the same diet. ( I follow a Mediterranean diet which you can read about here) This idea has been around for a long time and was recently validated in a 2006 study but always remember the first rule of fitness is that how your body adapts to any program is largely a matter of genetics, so while this program is clearly working for me and has worked for many others there is always the possibility it might not be ideal for everyone. So if you try it and do not get the desired results you may need to either modify it or try a different program to get where you want to go.

With that said the program really is simple: do 15 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio right after doing strength training 3 to 5 days a week. Some studies used moderate paced cardio but in my experience HIIT cardio always has gotten better results and best of all you can be done a lot quicker, and lets face it cardio sucks. The strength training below uses super sets so that the strength training session can be done in just under an hour. Give your self a minute rest between sets of supersets and one to two minutes before moving to the next pair of supersets. Remember the point of this program is mainly to burn fat so you will be moving quickly which is keep your heart rate up.

The science behind this type of training is simple; when you start exercising your body is going to go to the glycogen in the muscles (stored carbohydrates) to provide energy to perform. Once this glycogen storage is depleted your body then uses stored glycogen in the liver and once that is gone it turns to fat (a process know as lipolysis) for energy to continue working. So the weight training will deplete the muscles of the glycogen (weight training is ideal for this process) and the cardio will be fuelled by fat being broken down for fuel, sounds pretty good right?

The workout program we came up with is three different sessions, and you can do 3 -5 a week (I did five and will show you which ones and why below). The workouts are as follows & all are followed by 15 minutes of HIIT cardio (I used a stationary bike)

Workout A: Chest, Back & Abs (rep count is 10 – 15 for each)

Superset sets

Incline press & dumbbell shrugs 4

Incline Fly & barbell row 4

Flat bench & lying row 3

Pullovers & 180s 3

Crunches & Mountain climbers 2 * reps to failure

Workout B: Triceps, Biceps, Abs

Supersets Sets

Skull crushers & Ez bar curls 4

Close grip bench & Hammer curls 4

Tricep ext & incline curls 4

Kick Backs & Reverse grip curls 4

Dips & 180s 3

Crunches & mountain climbers 2 * reps to failure

Workout C: Legs & Shoulders

Supersets reps

Squats & stiff leg deadlifts 4

Leg extensions & hamstring curls 4

Military press & 180s 4

Calf raises & lateral raises 4

Front raises & mountain climbers 3 (mt climbers to failure)

Bent over raises & crunches 3 (crunches to failure)

Weekly breakdown

You can do this workout three to five times a week, I am using this five day a week plan:

Monday workout A, Tuesday workout B, Wednesday Rest, Thursday workout A, Friday workout B, Saturday workout C, Sunday Rest

I set up this plan to train the areas I most want to improve twice a week and train the areas that for me need the least work once a week. You can manipulate this training however you see fit, from doing full body training three times a week to single body part training six days a week, the real key to this program working is using up all the glycogen storage you have for strength training (where you get the most benefit from it) and doing your cardio when your body is in fat burning mode (which cardio is best for). Give this workout a try for a couple weeks and let me know what you think.

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