The people here that respond to your blog are great.
Jeff

I think kettlebells look like they would do a great job, unfortunately I avoid them due to a pre-existing spinal injury I suffered years ago. My back feels fine right now, but there are certain movements I try and limit to insure it stays pain free.

Greg,

Thanks for the compliment. Okay…doing intervals is a way to get the same fat burning effects of the tough workout you are doing, but is less likely to cause over-training. As long as you are getting good results keep doing what you are doing. As far as gaining muscle goes…go to the search bar in the upper right hand corner of my site and type in "muscle mass". One of the articles will be called "A Sensible Way to Gain Muscle Mass". This is a good one to read.

Arya,

When you are aiming primarily for mass, but don't care about strength gains you can go to failure and beyond. If you top short of failure you will more likely gain strength and muscle. A lot of how hard you push depends upon how sore you are getting. A slight soreness is fine when going for mass…if you are toast then don't go to failure.

Sam,

I reached my lowest bodyfat percentage while eating a large Fuji apple right before bed. It helped me feel full enough to sleep while still being able to maintain a pretty large calorie deficit.

myra,

Thanks for the compliments to both me and my girlfriend. She is a big part of my life and I couldn't be more happy for her. I really hope she makes the show. I think she will freak out when she meets Heidi Klum! She is a big fan.

Doné,

You bet!

Ron,

These days I'm doing HIIT on the step-mill (the evil stair machine with actual stairs that you have to walk on). I do level 15-20 for 12-15 minutes and it is brutal. I do this 2-3 times per week. Once per week I do some sort of body weight circuit. So that is a total of 3-4 times per week. About 1/2 of the time I follow it with 20 minutes of low intensity cardio on a treadmill. I do this routine after a brief strength training routine.

Good stuff!

Rusty

Thanks Dude!!!

Much Appreciated

PATRICK…. i see both men and women in my gym walking on the treadmill for what seems to me like ages, i dont think they are aware they aren't "working" to have any real benefit. sometimes i want to say if you want to see a difference run! but its not my business to do that, unless i become a PT. It is frustrating to see it though hey!
Rusty congrats to your girlfriend. sounds like shes on her way up.

Thanks for the advice! I have read that eating fruit can inhibit fat loss. Do you think I am doing that by eating low glycemic fruit (apples, berries, and oranges) after my evening meal on the Warrior Diet?

Thanks,

Sam

P.S. Thanks to you I love body weight circuits and frequently substitute them for HIIT. If you ever give the one I posted a try tell me how it works out.

I just want to say that your posts help to really keep me motivated and inspired every day. I have been following your advice since Mid-January with great success. I am 6'3" and started out at 256+, now I am down to 229. I have another 10-12 pounds of fat to lose to hit my goal of around 6% body fat (I use the accu-measure calipers to track progress). I haven't lost much strength at all since I am sticking to your low rep / heavy weight recommendations. The empty stomach cardio and caffeine in the morning is what really seems to work. I don't do the HIIT, but I keep it high intensity the entire way through my 25 minute sessions (heart rate = 170+). I can really feel the heat radiating off my body when I am done and I enjoy the effort, but is there any advantage to doing intervals over this approach? I am looking forward to my final goal so that I can start a short maintenance phase of two weeks so my metabolism readjusts.

I know you don't focus on gaining lean muscle mass, but is there any articles you can point me towards that help with post final goal routines? I am losing this weight so that I can have a nice clean start to gaining 5-10 pounds of lean muscle mass so my proportionality is balanced. Just wanted to say that your stuff is by far the best advice out there.

Dont know if you have ever tried kettlebells, but I find these kill two birds with one stone for many of my own clients, great at developing muscle tone, while delivering a strong cardio response and noticeable EPOC after the session has finished.

Best Wishes

I never recommend going out of your way for a calorie surplus. I would recommend staying at maintenance level or just barely above that level and adding volume to the shoulder presses. It is a slow, but better approach to gaining size. If you can get strong in the 5 rep range for quite a few sets of shoulder presses, the right amount of size will follow. That Pavel method works well and is what I would recommend. Thanks for posting the info pointing to the body weight circuits. I appreciate it!

Anthony,

Thanks for wishing my girlfriend good luck. She is making her video today to submit to Project Runway.

marcus,

Thanks for the compliment. Yeah…don't kill yourself with HIIT. Some days I go all out, but other times I go at about 80%. Today was a moderate day for me, because I felt a little tired.

pnw,

Yeah…it is good to have some sort of indicator to know if you are hitting the right level of intensity. This method works pretty well.

Nate,

It never pays to argue with those guys. The funny thing with the personal trainers in my gym is that they all could stand to lose 20-30 pounds of body fat. A couple of them can lift heavy, but I never see any of those guys doing intense intervals or circuits. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a personal trainer work up a sweat in my gym. I do see them doing hundreds of balance ball swiss-ball ab workout variations. Too bad they will never get to see those abs due to the excess body fat.

Macey,

You know…I did the same thing for a long time when I worked nights. I got ultra lean by doing this. You will be fine, but you may need to be a little tighter on that night time meal when you have those last 3-5 pounds to lose.

Greg,

I love the idea of brief lunch break workouts. I used to work in management in a salaried position. I got lunch breaks, but rarely was able to leave my store. Nothing worse than a sucky job.

Adam,

Yeah…I'm proud of my girlfriend. She has worked extremely hard to get to where she is at. One tough girl! I've been doing this HIIT type cardio since the mid-90's. It blows my mind that it has been over 15 years since studies proved that this interval circuit type training is the way to go to burn fat…and nobody in the gym is doing it. I swear…I bet only 10-20 people in my gym do any type of interval training besides myself…and 5 of those 10 people are my friends. This is the sort of stuff that drives me to write this blog. I'm glad that you and many of the other friends of this site have growing blogs as well. Keep it up buddy!

Caleb,

Right there with ya. I would add in clean diet, but that is a given.

Helder,

I never really thought too much about the resting part after the workout, until Brad wrote about it. It is a good call on his part, because if you decrease activity to compensate…you get much less benefit from the workout. Adding steady state cardio (even low intensity activity) is great to do after HIIT. This is the time you will derive the most benefit from lower levels of activity.

Kevin,

I can talk more about diet, but so many of the contributors and commentors on my site have incredibly detailed posts about what they eat…I figured they do such a good job that I haven't really bothered to write about this so much. I'll make a note about this and add this to a future post.

Patrick,

Half-assed cardio is popular because it is easy. People don't want discomfort. I think lifting heavy weights is easy as well. There is nothing that will challenge your willpower as much as interval work (HIIT, circuits, bodyweight circuits). We have many, many people to reach and teach the proper way to burn fat. So many people take the improper approach.

Yavor,

I just found out that Ladytron is coming to Seattle. I bought tickets for me and the girlfriend. Saw Franz Ferdinand last week and they put on an amazing show. Anyway…great way to get creative with burning fat. I get smoked playing tennis with one of my good friends. He is better than me, so I end up running all over the court. Basketball kind of kicks my butt as well…I'm always shocked when I see an overweight professional basketball player. You know they must eat a terrible diet, because basketball burns some serious calories. Soccer is even better…I have never seen an overweight high-level soccer player.

Ron,

You may benefit from some heavy dumbell flyes with a bit of volume to add size to your pecs. Do incline to build up the upper pecs near the collarbone. In fact, you could find an adjustable bench and do 6-8 reps of flyes at the highest incline level, then go down a notch…do 6-8 more reps…and continue going to a lower and lower angle. This will really work the upper chest hard. Aim for 6-8 sets of 6-8 reps (this is a size building rep and volume range). After this, hit the regular bench press and do 5-6 sets of 6-8 reps. Since your chest has been pre-exhausted a bit from the incline flyes, your chest will fatigue before your triceps. This will work well. The stomach will flatten out with HIIT and a clean diet. I expect royalty payments if you get a role in Fight Club 2 (if they ever decide to make a part 2).

Marc,

Craig Ballantyne has done a lot for the fitness community. One of the few "big names" in the industry that I feel is right on the mark. I really love his program and message he is sending out.

G,

This is one of my favorite pictures as well. It took me a while to find this one!

Doné,

I hope my girlfriend makes the show because she is fun and quirky in a good way. People would really root for her. As far as doing the Steady State after HIIT…that is completely optional and only if you have extra time. I go weeks without adding the steady state afterward, if my schedule is too busy. It is just icing on the cake. The idea that your heart rate needs to go below 100 before running again is false. I get my heart rate up to 180+ on the tough part of my interval and it probably doesn't go below 150 for the walking part. I would feel like a slacker if I allowed it to go down to 100…in fact I am not sure I would be able to get it that low. If you are limited in time, just do 20 minutes HIIT without the steady state part. It works well.

Pitt,

Funny you should mention that, because I am looking into these. My buddy Mike O'Donnell over at Lifespotlight likes to use resistance bands while travelling. I should have him do a guest post. I honestly haven't used them, but like you…I'm not a big fan of handstand pushups.

Arya,

I have done the crazy 8 bodyweight circuit, so I know how brutal this one must be. You are probably breathing like mad after 50 high knees…good stuff!

Yash,

You sound worn down and not eating enough. You definitely need to eat more. It is cool to get lean, but it shouldn't require this degree of torture. With your level of activity, consider eating again a few hours after breakfast.

Viknesh,

Awesome…I think martial arts is a great form of exercise. Diet is key as well…add in the bodyweight circuits and you will get in great shape.

Sam,

I have no doubt that you will get extremely lean following that plan…especially since you have been that well-conditioned in the past. I wouldn't change a thing. Sounds like the exact thing you need to do to reach your goal. Consider being a little bit flexible in your approach to IF. I like Brad's Eat Stop Eat version, which is just doing this twice per week (or 3 times max).

Good comments everyone!

Rusty

Your website has been a big inspiration. I am a former college soccer player who has got caught up in the supplement industries framing of the perfect diet and thus have become bulkier than I would like. I am currently 5'10" and 179 pounds and would like to get back down to my soccer playing weight of 155-160 pounds in the next two months and then hold that for a couple months in order to let the skin tighten around the muscle and achieve that lean and hard look you emphasize. I am currently doing 20 minutes of interval training 4-5 times a week striving for the HGH flush you talk about. I then follow this with weights, lifting heavy and trying to use the fatty acids that I released during HIIT. I do intermittent fasting for 16-20 hours and then eat in the remaining window, the way that Ori recommends in the WD, starting with veggies, protein, and fat, and then finishing the meal off with carbs which is usually low glycemic fruit since I try to eat primal most of the time. If you could please comment on what I am doing and give me any advice I would appreciate the help.

Keep up the fantastic work!

-Sam

Also, in response more specifically to the article, I'd rather overshoot the intensity of a workout [ammuing it won't result in injury] because it's a good motivator to see how far you can push yourself. Though it may be hard that day post-workout and you'll be tired, the next time you hit the gym or wherever you work out, you'll want to keep it intense. I think getting used to higher intensity is the reason I'm disappointed that I'm not getting the same energy in my workouts now.
-Yash

- Arya

P.S. not sure if I can post a link on here, but you can type "jump squats" in google or youtube to see how they are performed. I have a link on my website as well.

i know this may not be the best post to comment on but i've read somewhere that you plan on traveling a fair bit so i was wondering if you've ever considered resistant bands (i hope this is the correct terminology). from one of your earlier post you mentioned strength traning or keeping in shape with bodyweight circuit and such which i really enjoyed doing, however, there are certain exercises such as ones for your biceps and shoulders that cant be done easily while traveling. (i'm too chicken to do a handstand shoulder press by the way. seems quite dangerous)

so back to the point i was wondering about your take on resistant bands

thanks, very best Pitt

Mandy
Simply Lose Weight

Congrats for your Girlfriend and good luck with Runway!
That video is cool hehe

Im a bit confused… ive been following the fat burning protocol thingy.. where you do HIIT and Low intense Cardio… which is great i suppose – but it does take a long time… And after HIIT i do get the HGH flush which is great and feels good!
Ive started to decrease my "resting" periods to increase the intensity… but according to "people" your heart rate is suppose to drop in that resting period the below 100, before running again, otherwise you wont get the full affect of HIIT and fat burning. But my heart rate doesn't drop below that – even if i walk for 1 and half min. Do i really have to worry about that?

And also – are you saying that if i can do HIIT for a long period (at the moment its 15 mins) and not bother with low intense cardio afterwards – ill get a better result? Or should i just stick to what im going now?

Thanks man – you're FAB!!!!

xx