I have figured out how and why it works. Penn State studies have told us that three set of 8 to 10 reps in lifting gives the maximum testosterone surge and if you apply this to sprinting it works.

Note, do not, I repete do not do 4 or more sprints. This will cause it to not work.

just in general, when / if you want to lose fat, especially those last pounds, then increasing cardio, specifically HIIT cardio would be beneficial in my opinion. Plus try to make sure to do them in a fasted state: try not to eat about 4-5 hours before your HIIT session, and then try not to eat for at least an hour afterwards.

As for your Arizona Diet Green Tea question, it's funny, cause I'm drinking Lipton's Diet Green Tea, and just researched if it had anything to do with real tea. In fact it does, but it has aspartame in it, which can have some screwed up side effects. I guess nothing can be perfect. But it's still a 100 times better than any soda.

Will increasing the lifting & decreasing the cardio help me to continue getting lean (specifically, losing the lower belly & lovehandle fat)? I'm almost wondering if I should add more to my abs routine (or just start doing planks EVERY day instead of just when I'm at the gym). The abs are fairly flat, but there just isn't much definition. I'm doing planks and v-sits. Should I do a little something to increase the ab mass?

If I increase the weightlifting to 3 days/week and am doing a split (Day 1=chest/back, Day 2=shoulders/biceps/triceps), what should I do on the 3rd day?

Also, should I eat on these days and do my fasting days (only 1-2 per week) on my resting days? And do you think Arizona Diet Green tea is ok?

Hell, you've seen the facebook vacation pics of me without my shirt at the Dead Sea. What could use improvement? I'm starting to feel like, after about year, I just haven't made nearly as much progress as I should.

Sorry, I know that was about 20 questions…ok, 5 questions, but that's still a lot. I just want to be the guy who makes it in Hollywood without needing a personal trainer

thanks a lot for your answer, it's very appreciated! In all honesty, I have not really had a concrete weight lifting routine. I was doing cardio a lot. Then about 3-4 weeks ago I started Krav Maga, which includes lots of body weight exercises, plus I started doing your 'conquer lower back pain' routine every other day. So my strength training only consisted of bodyweight exercises. So translating your advice to my situation, starting today I'll add a 3 day split weight lifting routine, and I figured it would make sense to do it the way Pavel recommended (for strength + size). On the days I'm lifting I'll do a short HIIT session afterwards or play soccer if it's available, on the other days (2-3 times a week) I can do the Krav Maga training (self defense classes, not conditioning though cause those would lead to over training real quick probably), and I'll keep doing the 'lower back strengthening' sessions at home.

As for the 'skinny fat', I don't think I gained it recently, it's rather still left there waiting to be destroyed. It's interesting though what you said with the over training and being in a big calorie deficit… last week I was working a LOT (like 14-16 hours a day), so I ate whatever, and did not exercise. Funny enough, in the last 1 – 1,5 months I lost the biggest amount of weight during this 'cheat' week (as compared to other weeks' fat losses).

Thanks again!

ps.: the thing with the links is interesting, especially because the first such post that got rejected had links only to articles on your site.

Sometimes I like to go periods of time where I increase the time lifting weights and decrease the cardio and HIIT. It is a great way to mix things up. Maybe aim for 3 days of lifting per week and increase the amount of time lifting…do a few more sets. Reduce your cardio by half. Maybe two of the days you do 15 minutes HIIT and one of those days you followup with a bit of steady state cardio. This will be a nice change for you. Jealous of your vacation photos!

Elizabeth,

Glad you found this site. The Coldplay concert was outstanding…incredible to see them play out over a 200 foot cliff above the Columbia River. Right after that, me and my girlfriend drove from the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington to Eugene Oregon…to go to "Country Fair" in Eugene (think along the lines of "Burning Man", but in the woods). Anyway…drove a lot this weekend but had a blast! You are right on track with everything you listed. It will work well for you. You can ethier train in the morning or before dinner…just make sure you go into the workout in a fasted state. This will work wonders for you.

Kevin,

If you are doing Eat Stop Eat style of Intermittent Fasting…I would reduce the calories a bit on those two fasting days for best results. If you could reduce it down to 1,000-1,200 calories on those two days you will get better results (obviously experiment and see what works best for you). Also…you may want to reduce that window of eating to around 4 hours…or at least see how this works out for you. This is what I've found to work best for me.

Norbi,

Thanks for trusting me. The stuff I recommend works extremely well, but I do like to make sure people see the science behind the madness. My blog is really picky with links. Sometimes it will post them other times it won't. I wish it behaved better. As far as your question goes…I have a good answer for you. Sometimes naturally slim guys that tend to get skinny fat if they do too much cardio or go into too great of a calorie deficit. I want you to try something and tell me how it works. Add 20 minutes to your lifting routine, reduce the rest a bit, add more sets per body part, and make sure you get 5 reps each and every set. You are also going to try to work up a light sweat during this workout. This is a way to build your muscles slightly, while still working in the lower rep range. The reduced rest periods are going to jack up your HGH. As far as HIIT and steady state goes. Stick to 10-15 minutes per workout and that is it (your lifting isn't going to be circuit style, but will burn a decent amount of calories and boost HGH). Report back to me in two weeks and let me know what your body looks like. You just sound a bit over trained to me.

jake,

I do have good tips for you. What you will simply want to do is to make sure you have a good average calorie deficit over time. If on a Saturday night, you may put down 3,000-4,000 calories with food and drinks…you are going to want to make that up with a couple of days of 1,000-1,200 calories. The reason Intermittent Fasting works so well is that it does just that. You basically pick 2 days per week where you don't eat anything until dinner…and that dinner is regular size 800-1,200 calories. You are aiming for a 24 hour fast, so eat your dinner at the same time as you last meal the previous day. Ideally you will want to limit how many calories you injest in one day, but I went through college and I know what can happen. One more tip…stick to light beer…it will be less calories and cheaper too!

Rodney,

I have found that workouts are easier on fasting days…it is kind of crazy. The ideal situation in my opinion is to do a workout in the afternoon before dinner, wait 1-2 hours and then eat your meal. You don't have to do it at this time, but if it works for your schedule this creates the "perfect storm" for fat loss.

Lillea,

I too would like to see a Natural HGH vs HGH Injections study. I guess we will have to wait for this info.

Neihana,

It does pay to avoid some of the "land mines" like bulking up or wasting time doing inneffective types of cardio, but I get where you are coming from. My hope is that people will read these tips and then put them into action. It seems like the majority of the readers and commenters are people of action. I love it!

Frank Z,

I will check out his site. Luckily this site gets a lot of traffic now, so I can pull some of the bigger names to do guest posts. I have heard the name, but can't say I remember what he advocates.

Yash,

So true…the guys with crazy amounts of muscle do tend to lose it if they eat anything resembling a normal diet. Those of us who like a natural amount of muscle have nothing to worry about. I subscribed to your RSS Feed by the way…can't wait to see how TheUniversityofFitness.com turns out. I will help you along the way. I know a thing or two about this little "blogging thing"…I think it is going to catch on

Craig,

Thanks for the compliment. You are also being humble…you know a lot about fitness and nutrition. That is obvious from visiting your site. Great site design by the way!

Donkey Lips,

That is hillarious! Did you ever see the movie "King of Kong"? Steve Weibe was a year older than me in the same fraternity. I remember playing Nintendo (Baseball Stars and Blades of Steel) in his room when I was suppose to be studying. I need to go to Oaxaca…I went to Matador last week…forgot about going to Oaxaca. It was a beautiful day at the Concert! I didn't drink too many beers…I just hated paying $9 per beer. With a tip it was $20 for me and my girlfriend to have a beer. They did taste netter than normal since it was 97 degrees during the day. Thanks for explaining your nickname…that is funny.

Mindbodygoal,

The 24 hour fasts are way easier than they sound. It is tough the first few times, but I love the way they make me feel these days.

tim,

It is funny that 3 people had a similar question on this post. I will give you the same advice I gave Norbi…"Add 20 minutes to your lifting routine, reduce the rest a bit, add more sets per body part, and make sure you get 5 reps each and every set. You are also going to try to work up a light sweat during this workout. This is a way to build your muscles slightly, while still working in the lower rep range. The reduced rest periods are going to jack up your HGH. As far as HIIT and steady state goes. Stick to 10-15 minutes per workout and that is it (your lifting isn't going to be circuit style, but will burn a decent amount of calories and boost HGH)." So this will fill out your muscles a bit, while still keeping the body fat low. I wouldn't go out of your way to eat extra calories and bulk up…simply stick to the same diet (maybe a little less strict at times). In 6-12 weeks you should notice a big difference. If you don't add body fat easily you can also drop the HIIT just down to 1 day per week during this time.

Markia,

Thanks a bunch. I looked at you site and just sent you an e-mail.

Liam,

The fasts are just 1-2 times per week until dinner. Actually quite easy and you feel steady energy all day…a good approach to eating especially for people who tent to eat out with friends and family from time to time.

Jason G,

Those are great topics. I wrote them down for future posts. If I don't know the answer I will seek out the person who does. Thanks for the ideas.

Hassan,

I don't think there is anything you can do to grow taller. I'm convinced that this is almost 100% genetic. I'm tall and some people say things like "you must have eaten your vegetables growing up"…and things along those lines. The truth is that I ate very poorly and hit 6'3" by 7th grade. Being tall is nice at times and sucks at times…in a lot of ways it is overrated…I wish I was about 3-4" shorter a lot of the times.

Great comments!

Rusty

Anyway to simplify the topic: human growth hormone appears to be a hunger hormone. By fasting for 48 hours, like the extreme example above, we create an intense hunger and/or growth hormone response (the larger the hunger the larger the HGH response). More Intense workouts create more intense hunger (the bodies need for immediate compensation) and by delaying food consumption after the workout we can benefit from the human growth hormone because we will stay hungry. As soon as the body is exposed to food and especially insulin (very effective energy source) the hormone is shut off. Why? Because we are no longer hungry. The questions I would like to see answered:

Is HGH more important than utilizing the body’s insulin and protein sensitivity after the workout even for a person who is looking to bulk up?

Would we benefit from not eating(staying hungry) even longer than an hour after a workout?

What is the optimal eating cycle (not including 24 hour fasts) for providing adequate protein consumption and HGH release? I was thinking of eating a large breakfast and large dinner with no lunch in between as a way to stay lean year round.

Rusty I wouldn’t expect you to answer these questions in the near future, but these questions could make interesting topics. Needless to say it is my feeling that modern society is getting to much food and as a result they are giving up the benefits of this wonderful hormone. I also am wondering if HGH is also responsible for those calorie restricted apes life span being so much longer than the normal apes. If so we might want to fast regularly to increase our longevity.

Based on this information I would conclude that the warrior diet is probably the most effective diet at releasing human growth hormone.

I think a big factor in the muscle breakdown scares/constant muscle feeding dogma that floats around is that it applies mainly to bodybuilder types who are carrying around excess lean muscle, which is way more than any physiologically normal human needs for our evolved purposes. The body, being the crazy smart machine it is, picks up on the fact that there's so much more muscle than it's been evolutionarily trained to use and tries to use some of it as food. Basically, the advice that applies to serious bodybuilders somehow permeated the fitness literature and is being applied to normal people, when it doesn't apply, just like body part splits and 2 am protein shakes.

On the flip side of this HGH research, i think sprints can be really valuable for building muscle too, as opposed to burning fat. What do you think? I'm almost fully recovered from that injury and I need to put on a few pounds [through strength training, of course] and I'm thinking intense 20-30 sec sprints with much longer breaks in between will emphasize the hGH secretion without concentrating too much on the fat loss, since muscle building actually requires a caloric surplus and I don't want to burn much besides what's required for that hGH boost from the sprints. Basically, my theory is that concentrating less about that metabolic fat burning window and sprinting with a lot of recovery time in between will maximize that short burst intensity and ramp up HGH secretion. My take on those "diminishing returns" you talked about is that they may be in part to lower intensity on consequent sprints, so I'm trying to take that out of the equation. I'll let you know how it goes.

PS – Thanks for your tips and help on starting a site. I bought my domain some time ago and I'm tying the ends together and I'm hoping to get it running very soon!

Yash