1)What do you do to increase fat loss?
First off you should not be doing any isolation exercises when it comes to bicep curls, tricep push downs, leg extensions, or hamstring curls. Some may disagree with me, but I look at everything from a common sense point of view. Unless you are a competitor or some one sitting at 20% body fat wanting to decrease from there, then this is unnecessary. We want to stick with dynamic movements such as push ups, squats, lunges, bench press, lat pull down, and rows to name a few. The reason for this is we are worried about calorie expenditure. If we use multiple muscle groups in a movement we are going to burn more calories, than if we do an isolated movement on a smaller muscle (ie.bicep curls).
2)Is there a difference in lifting between muscle gain and weight loss?
YES! One of the main things I stress here is time! If you are aiming for weight loss, you want to try and keep your heart rate slightly higher. Rest times between each set should be no more than 45sec and preferably 30sec. In addition, you want your repetitions to be higher so we create that lean muscle mass and exhaust the muscle.
3) Am I supposed to do cardio before or after workouts?
I say after, except on leg days! The reason for this is when you arrive at the gym your muscles already have a stored amount of glycogen (energy used to make the muscle work) and are ready to lift. Now if you go and do 45 minutes of cardio you burn all of that glycogen and barely enter into a fat burning zone. Then after cardio you choose to lift weights, right? Well what is your muscle supposed to use if you burned it all up during cardio? Exactly, there is nothing left to use. If you reverse the process you will use your fuel for lifting weights and then when you do your cardio you will be in the prime fat burning zone!
I hope this sheds some light and helps you reach your goals a little faster!!!
Why is leg day different?
ReplyDeleteThank you for asking! The reason is because when you are primarily focused on the leg muscles (ie.quads, hamstrings, and calves), you are breaking down the muscle in order for it to repair stronger and leaner over the next couple days. If you do cardio immediatley following leg day, you pose a risk of going catabolic which is muscle breakdown. It almost cancels out your leg workout. What I usually do is twenty minutes of interval cardio before my workout, eat a banana, then hit legs! Hope this helps!
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