Authors: Yuri Elkaim
DAY 4: REGULAR CAL
Eccentric Strength and Bodyweight Workouts
On your Regular-Cal Days, you can choose to do an eccentric strength, bodyweight, or bodyweight eccentrics workout, depending on your fitness level and training goals. Bodyweight might be a great place to start if you’re not used to working out. However, even for more advanced exercisers like myself, bodyweight workouts can still be challenging. Whichever type of workout you choose, be sure to start with a good warmup and even a quick run-through set in which you perform 2 or 3 reps of each exercise (with lighter weights if it’s a strength workout).
Eccentric Strength Workouts
To provide a different stimulus to your body and foster the development of muscular strength (not necessarily size) while saving you tons of workout time, try one of my
eccentric strength
workouts. I offer them in two flavors, one using bodyweight and one using weights. Whichever you choose, you will benefit from the muscle- and strength-building power of what I call explosive-slow training. For
instance,
instead of doing as many pushups as you can as quickly as you can, eccentric training focuses on pushing explosively and lowering slowly.
Eccentric training is defined as active contraction of a muscle while the muscle is lengthening. For example, in a biceps curl, the action of lowering the dumbbell back down from the lift is the eccentric (aka “negative”) phase of that exercise. Here, the biceps are in a state of contraction to control the rate of descent of the dumbbell. The eccentric phase is also what causes delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) about 48 hours after a workout. But don’t worry, that soreness won’t happen each time you train—just the first few times, until your body has adapted. For instance, completing bouts of eccentric training and then repeating the workout 1 week (or more) later will result in less DOMS after the second workout.
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Eccentric training provides a multitude of benefits to the human body, including the following:
•
Protection from injury or reinjury
•
Less weariness (feeling of extreme fatigue) from training
•
Potential to raise resting metabolic rate by about 9 percent, with the greatest magnitude in the first 2 hours
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•
Greater strength and performance improvements
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Eccentric strength workouts, where lowering weights
slowly
is the focus, improve strength and fat loss since safely lifting and slowly lowering heavy things enables us to generate more force. And here’s the best part about eccentric strength workouts: You don’t need to do them very often, nor do you need to follow the typical old-school recommendation of three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions in order to see significant strength and metabolic improvements.
An illuminating review of the research more than 15 years ago, which for some reason still hasn’t caught on with mainstream fitness gurus, revealed that for training durations of 4 to 25 weeks, there is no significant difference in the increase in strength as a result of training with single versus multiple sets.
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In
our eccentric strength workouts, you’ll benefit from both time-saving one-set workouts and arguably more effective (for strength gains) two-set protocols. Furthermore, since you’ll be putting your muscles under greater stress (in a good way) but lifting heavier weights at a slower tempo, you won’t need to work out as often as you might think. A 2007 study compared strength differences between two groups of untrained women who performed a single set (6 to 10 repetitions to muscular failure) of the leg press exercise either once or twice per week. After 8 weeks, researchers found that performing a single set of the leg press once or twice per week resulted in statistically similar strength gains in these untrained women.
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The challenge is that we tend to think that if a little is great, then more must be better. But remember, we want you to get great results without spending all your time in the gym. Even if you have a lot of time to work out, I still recommend that you train smarter, not longer.
When I was studying at the University of Toronto, I would often observe how sprinters trained. It was quite odd. I noticed that these sprinters spent half their workouts talking on the phone or chatting with friends. That couldn’t be right, could it? Weren’t they wasting their time? Yet, something they were doing worked because these men and women were true specimens—lean, muscular, and healthy looking.
From a fat-loss perspective, it certainly wouldn’t help you to work out like this, but then I realized that these sprinters were in the game of developing strength and power. Therefore, they required ample rest between explosive bouts. They would sprint 50 meters and then chill out for a few minutes. Then they’d go again. Same in the weight room—they would perform an explosive Olympic lift for 2 or 3 reps, and then take what seemed like an eternity of rest between sets. That’s kind of the idea with our eccentric strength workouts. Although you won’t have 5 to 10 minutes of rest between sets, the goal is to focus on giving 100 percent effort in each exercise. As a result, you won’t need to do three or four sets or need to work out four or five times per week.
These eccentric strength workouts will differ from the FBMC workouts in a number of ways.
1
. You will have more recovery time between exercises.
Since the goal is strength and lean muscle gains, you don’t need to be huffing and puffing or sweating up a storm. With a little more rest between exercises, you’ll have the energy necessary to perform each subsequent repetition to the best of your ability.
2. You will perform very few repetitions, 4 to 8 on average.
Once again, our goal in this program is not to build pounds of muscle but rather to develop a strong, lean body. You don’t achieve that by swinging around 5-pound dumbbells for 20 reps. One study divided untrained subjects into four groups: a low-repetition group performing 3 to 5 reps maximum (RM) with 3 minutes of rest between sets and exercises, an intermediate-repetition group performing 9 to 11 RM with 2 minutes of rest, a high-repetition group performing 20 to 28 RM with 1 minute of rest, and a nonexercising control group. Not surprisingly, the low-repetition group had the greatest strength gains. The important thing to remember is that when strength and low reps are the goal, you should be lifting a heavy enough weight that you can do only the number of reps required. If you can perform more reps, then you’re lifting too light a weight for the purpose of strength improvements.
3. You will use heavier weights (except, of course, for the bodyweight exercises).
This is your chance to make significant strength gains and increase your metabolic rate as a result, no matter your age or fitness level. A study in the
Journal of Applied Physiology
looked at whether heavier-weight strength training over 16 weeks could increase strength and metabolic rate among 50- to 65-year-old men. Of course it did! Average strength levels increased 40 percent, body fat decreased, and resting metabolic rate increased by 7.7 percent.
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You don’t get these results by lifting light weights. And if you’re using only the weight of your body, the “explosive-slow” tempo will ensure that each rep is a suitable challenge for you.
4. You will use an “explosive-slow” tempo.
An example is a 1-second explosive push or pull, no pause at the top of the movement, and a 5- to 6-second slow return to the starting position. Moving resistance in an explosive, yet controlled, manner recruits more muscle fibers, which means you’ll burn more calories and develop greater
strength.
One study proved this very point by revealing that subjects who did the lifting (concentric) phase of biceps curls faster over an 8-week period showed greater strength improvements than those doing slower-speed lifts.
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Even if the weight (or your body) doesn’t move quickly, your intention should be to push or pull it quickly, then return slowly to the starting position.
Another Reason Traditional Cardio Sucks
Just when you thought I was done talking about the downside of cardio, I’m back for more.
We just looked at the benefits of lifting (and lowering) heavier weights and moving that weight explosively in the concentric portion and slowly in the eccentric portion. Another reason for doing this is that you train different muscle fibers in the process.
Most people think steady-state exercise is good because it gets a lot of muscles involved. But the reality is that long, slow exercise activates only one of the four types of muscle fibers we have. Doing more of it simply works that one type of muscle fiber over and over. Sadly, that single type of muscle fiber is the least effective at triggering the hormonal reaction required to most efficiently burn body fat while preserving lean tissue. That’s why cross-country and long-distance athletes look like they’ve spent most of their lives on
Survivor
, while sprinters (who tap into the other three types of muscle fiber) are strong and lean.
To dig a bit deeper, it’s helpful to understand how our muscles function.
•
We have different types of muscle fibers that do different things; for instance, slow-twitch fibers for long, slow activity and fast-twitch fibers for short-duration, explosive activity.
•
The more force a fiber generates, the less endurance it has.
•
We cannot work more forceful fibers without also working less forceful fibers.
•
The more forceful a fiber, the more metabolic benefit (fat-burning benefit) we get from exercising it.
Your
Four Muscle Fiber Types
Look at your biceps for a moment. The muscle you see is composed of tons of muscle fibers. Each human has four main muscle fiber types and each performs a unique role.
| Produce little force/Greater endurance | |
| Slow-twitch fibers | Type I |
| Type IIA | |
| Fast-twitch fibers | Type IIX |
| Type IIB | |
| Produce more force/Lower endurance |
Type I muscle fibers allow us to do low-force work for a long period of time, like go for a 30-minute jog. At the opposite end of the spectrum, our type IIB muscle fibers allow us to do high-force work for a short period of time (say, jumping, lifting a heavy weight, or sprinting for 10 seconds). But here’s the coolest part and just another reason why the All-Day Fat-Burning Diet’s approach to exercise turns your body into a fitter, more athletic, fat-burning machine: When you perform a quick sprint or lift a heavy weight, you don’t just work your type IIB fibers—you actually work the entire spectrum of muscle fibers!
Just as your body’s energy requirements change when going from a slow jog to a sprint, a similar phenomenon occurs with your muscle fibers. For example, say you’re about to do a set of pullups. Oh, dear! They’re so tough, aren’t they? But they’re so good for you, too. As you attempt to pull yourself up toward the bar, your back, biceps, and shoulder muscles first try to generate enough force with their weakest type I fibers. When they don’t generate enough force, the “cavalry”—your IIA fibers—is called in to help. However, let’s say you’re still struggling to pull yourself up. Now the stronger IIX fibers are brought in. They certainly help and get you closer to the bar, but you still need a little bit of a boost. And so your most powerful IIB fibers step in to help you over the top.
Thanks to the cumulative activation of all of your muscle fibers
(
known as orderly recruitment), heavier, challenging exercise actually enables you to work the most muscle possible. That’s the secret to turning your body into a stronger, leaner, fat-burning machine. Oh, and it actually improves your health as well.
A study out of Boston revealed that doing exercise that recruited more type IIB fibers also improved insulin sensitivity and caused reductions in blood glucose, insulin, and leptin levels and that these effects occurred despite a reduction in physical activity.
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Are you convinced yet that exercising in a way that recruits faster-twitch muscle fibers (such as short sprints and heavier lifts) is the ultimate way to burn fat and feed muscle? Remember, long, slow cardio (such as going for a 5K jog) requires little force and therefore works relatively little muscle. Of course, it’s better than no exercise at all. The reality is that most exercise is good for you. But I’m obsessed with efficiency, and thus with which exercise is better, safer, and quicker at burning fat and making us stronger.
After all, I don’t see much point to getting weaker, do you? But that’s exactly what countless women are doing all over the world by spending most of their time doing aerobics classes and lifting 5-pound weights for 25 reps. This old-school mentality of “lift light to avoid bulking up” is complete nonsense. It wastes your time and makes you weaker. You might as well spend a week in outer space. If you’re a woman who’s been programmed to fear heavy lifting, then the following section will put that fear to rest for good. Lifting heavy works because it requires a lot of force and therefore works a lot of muscle, including our metabolically beneficial type IIB muscle fibers. Slowly lowering heavy weights (even your bodyweight) allows you to generate even more force, which increases your strength and requires less training volume.
The result is that you burn more fat, develop and maintain lean muscle, reduce your risk of injuries, and save a ton of time. What else could you do with your time if you only had to spend 90 minutes a week working out? Imagine having the strength and fitness level to play more in your daily life, whether that means outlasting your active kids or pursuing your own daily adventures. If you’re a little older, just
imagine
the improvement in your quality of life as you’re able to get off that comfy sofa more easily, climb stairs and carry groceries effortlessly, and get more stuff done around your house. The possibilities are endless, and it all starts with having a foundation of strength, not weakness.